Random question for people, and this is something I've been thinking about since we were at a place (on Saturday) where there simply was not any room to warm up your dog before going into the ring.
I tried to warm up Jacks, but it seemed to just make both of us stressed because we'd have a clear space and start moving around and smack weaving around other people trying to jump into the same space with their dogs. *frustrating*
There was even one dog that snarled at Jacks when we were walking past them, which couldn't have helped matters for him and it made me even more anxious about keeping a mythical bubble around us.
What I was vaguely thinking about if I run into a situation like that again is keeping him in one place and in "down time" right up to the moment we are about ready to go into the ring, and just doing watches for the 30 seconds it takes for the other person to leave the ring and the judge to come over and call my number.
This is not what I would do in fun matches (which are never that armpit to armpit crowded), so I have no idea if it would help. But it seemed like trying to warm him up was really not working.
What would you do in a similar situation? o_o
*** I should say he did fine in the ring. It was so stressful OUTSIDE the ring, that the ring itself felt wonderfully wide open and menacing-dog-free. I checked our scores this morning too, and other than my big 10 point mistake in direction (I circled right instead of left), we apparently got two points off for I don't know what. I reminder-tugged his leash when I got into the ring before I removed it, maybe the judge caught that?
