A Dog Can Be in Drive and Not an Asshole

Here's my unpopular opinion for the day. Dogs in drive don't have to be assholes. Full stop.

A very good excitable boy who also has nice manners

They can be excited and barking and in drive. They do not need to be jerks. They don't need to pull you over. They don't need to muzzle punch or redirect on people around them. They can be in control and in drive. Excitable and hyperactive do not mean buttheads. A couple examples. I often box or slip dogs for LGRA and by often I mean at most of our 10 weekends of racing this year. And my warning is, don't hand me your dog if you're not okay with me expecting some manners out of them. No, I'm not going to correct them. But absolutely, I'm going to wait until they are not frantic before we proceed. They are not dragging me to the line. I don’t mind carrying them to the line if that helps calm them. I’m happy to do whatever helps keep everyone safe, but flailing is not safe. They are not muzzle punching me or redirecting on me. If I have a dog that redirects on me guess what? I'm asking their owner to muzzle them from the beginning next time. There is this big belief in some dogs sport communities - the more hyped up a dog is, the better they perform. Let me tell you, there was a weekend about a month ago at LGRA where I ended up boxing, probably four or five dogs in her four or five different breeds. In every single case that day, one of their owners, told me that the dog I boxed ran better than normal – that they blew away competition that was normally close.

Yes, a dog in drive is going to push harder, but a dog that is frantic is going to waste energy, and potentially lose focus. I don't allow dogs that I'm boxing to work them some up so much that they're frantic. And that's not capping drive. I'm not going to correct them. But I am expecting them to have some fucking manners.