A common thing that I have noticed among female dog owners is that they don't train when their dog is in season. We made that mistake last year. Emma came into season just when the field trial season began here last year. Being a new trainer we had no idea what to do other than keep her away from other dogs until it was over. By doing so, we lost precious training time and practically started from scratch when it was over.
This year I was fortunate that she came into season in the middle of summer when no one trains except for the hard core. We still worked at a minimum of three days a week and this is where being able to read your dog comes into play yet again. On days that she really didn't feel like herself, we just ran. On other days when she was more like herself, we worked birds. I'm not saying that she was able to be trained like usual but she was able to stay conditioned so that when it was over we didn't have to start all over again.
In any competition you are going to find people that object to everything that is not traditional but you will also find those people that understand that in order to achieve the best you have to train during the good, top performance times as well as the not so good times. Those are the people that you want to surround yourself with because they will help you accomplish everything that you set out to do and be behind you 100% cheering you on.
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