Flamincomet Posted July 3, 2013 Report Share Posted July 3, 2013 I'd really like to start trialing Link this year, but life has gotten in the way of being able to make it out to my instructor's who are an hour and a half away. I lost my car in my divorce, and while my boyfriend was teaching me to drive stick in his car, we got into an accident and have only recently gotten the car back. I'm making good progress learning though and hope to be able to start going to regular lessons soon. I've tried to get a ride share together, but it always falls through when I somehow find someone in my area who is interested. I'm worried about long periods of not training. Link was in boarding and training for 5-6 months, he is 3 and a half now. He was doing well, needed some work on driving, but from what I saw had nice outruns and was listening well. My instructor didn't seem to think a break from training would be detrimental, but it's been a lot longer that I think either of us were anticipating. Am I too worried about this? I don't want to commit to this until I know I can make it to regular lessons, but I also don't want to mess up all the training my dog has had... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juliepoudrier Posted July 3, 2013 Report Share Posted July 3, 2013 Long breaks will not hurt. He may backslide a little, but once back in regular training, you may find that he actually progresses faster than he did when he was younger. And 3 1/2 isn't exactly old. J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flamincomet Posted July 3, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2013 Thanks Julie. Yeah 3 1/2 is barely mature for Link lol. I heard that a lot of dogs don't start doing well in trials until they are around 5, but I wasn't sure if those dogs were in trials for several years before they started succeeding, or if it's more to do with 5 generally being a great age for most border collies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juliepoudrier Posted July 5, 2013 Report Share Posted July 5, 2013 I think the old saying is that a dog isn't mature until it has as many years as it has legs (or legs and a tail), so 4-5 is about when you'd expect the dog to be maturing. I think you'll be fine. J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeltaBluez Tess Posted July 7, 2013 Report Share Posted July 7, 2013 My dogs were out of training for close to a year due to my heart surgery and part of that time, we would go to a trial with NO practice, do pretty well and certainly after that year was over we had very limited training for close to six months but they sure didn't forget anything....only thing I notice was the condition (or lack of).......once they have a good foundation, it comes back rather quickly.... My Rainey was very slow to mature and started to run at 3.5 yrs old....it was a standing joke in the family because her mom, Tess was running in trials at 11/12 months. Julie is right...you will be fine.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flamincomet Posted July 7, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 7, 2013 Thanks for the responses, I feel a bit better about this now. Hopefully you'll be seeing us at trials soon though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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