Hoping to be there Saturday.

 Quote:

Hoping to be there Saturday.

Hi Old Earth Bob. Hubby Gary and I will be ring side somewhere during the protection tests (assuming technology cooperates, and it's not pouring which it's not supposed to be). Gary and I will both be wearing deep purple shirts with white "Joliet Schutzhund" logos on them on Saturday (weather permitting!).

Between events, we won't be hard to find. We travel with a fifth wheel type camper pulled by a Ford Pickup with our company logo all over it. The truck is maroon colored with white lettering for DTW, Discount Technology Workforce, http://www.goDTW.com, etc. We should be in the "upper" parking area uphill from the show rings. Haven't been to the show site yet - that's just the description from the way I have it. Hope to meet you!!

Beth

For anyone interested in some puppy results, the 10 ten finishers for baby pups and 6 - 9 females are up at http://www.Mittelwest.com. So far, no technical problems so interested parties can just keep checking back throughout the day. We are able to get this info posted very shortly following the end of each class.

I'm REALLY hoping we get at least this good of a connection tomorrow for Protection Results at http://www.hartmannhaus.com. LOVE the working class action!!

Anyway, just wanted to update those who are interested.

Beth
http://www.JolietSchutzhund.com

The results have been going up all morning. They are a little more than 1/2 finished.

Results can be found at http://www.hartmannhaus.com.

It was great to meet Old Earth Dog Bob at the protection field this morning. I think we agreed that the performances on average were rather underwhelming. That makes me sad as a German Show Line enthusiast.

I think it's sad that this test is basically a "pass fail" where the standards don't seem to be held real high, and it seems many people train for "just enough to get by." That makes it hard to tell the truly good dogs (who might be awesome with vigorous training) from the dogs who might be genetically weak.

I hope these standards of performance change one day to preserve the beauty of both the dogs AND the work.

There were a few stand out performances. Where a particular aspect of the performance was particularly good, or an entire routine was particularly good (in the opinion of the web site owner) those are noted in bold at http://www.hartmannhaus.com.

Back to the showring....

Beth
http://www.JolietSchutzhund.com

It was nice meeting you today Beth.
I do have to agree about the lower standards. I've seen two of those 4 helpers work and both are excellent, national level helpers, yet their work today was very low intensity in order to get many of the dogs to engage.
It was really hard to watch dogs that held SchH III titles that weren't up to par in bite work with most of the BH dogs at our club.
Breeders, judges, each, have to take responsibility to turn the situation around.
Breeders need to breed for the standard, not the fad of the decade. Roach back Euro dogs and over angulated American dogs.
Judges that keep putting up incorrect tempermnts and structure because that's all they have in front of them.
Unfortunately, there were way to many people there that were rooting and applauding poor performances. Do they not know any better?
In defence of the dogs, we have a very nice, show line dog in our club, so I guess it can be done.
Didn't mean to rant but this was the first time I really had a good look at the, unfortunately, ever growing split in a great breed.

the first time at a SS is a shocker for sure, for those who care about the temperament in the work. It was a real shocker, downer, and sick-feeling for me the first time, and the second time too! I don't think I will ever watch the SS "bitework" in my lifetime and feel good about what I'm watching. Basically it is disgusting, and disheartening. ps those people stand up and cheer because the dog has passed to go on to the next phase - it's a big deal for them - the dog has to heel (even though it gets three tries to do so successfully), bite, and out. Doesn't sound hard, but apparently it is a hard test for most of these dogs. So when they pass, there is lots of cheering going on. A shame, and pitiful.

molly

Bob, I agree with everything you say. You are right - there are many people involved in this particular conformation realm that really don't know any better. That's where Gary and I started, so I can confirm the truth of that!! There was a time when we assumed that a SchH3 was a SchH3 amd so forth. I am SO glad that we ended up at the Canadian Nationals in 2004 where the National SchH3 competition goes on at the same time as the Sieger Show. That was an eye opener, and changed our direction forever.

All I can do as a "little person" in this world is to encourage people to go WATCH a trial, any trial, especially a Regional or National level competition to understand what these titles really involve. We just try to have a postive impact on one person at a time.

Lots of the loud cheers you heard for not so impressive performances were coming from the larger breeder "groups" where they are just supporting their "team" for a pass.

Anyway, I’m not giving up! Just more determined than ever to do this right. More later….Beth