Oh man was the NA fun, even though my dog was a pickle dilly <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> . He had his head up his butt. Other than that it was a blast. Saturday night they had a band and it got crazy (right Cindy <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> ). I have never laughed or danced so hard in my life. It was great. I think from now on we should just all get together and have a ball throwing contest with our dogs and then party the rest of the time, because that is the real reason people come to these things <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> Western KY put on a super trial with SUPER SUPER tracking, excellent stadiums and the helpers were great. It was nice to see so many HOT dogs out there. The winner was a Malinois that was HOT trained. Nice dog and a pleasure to watch. I think the guys name is Gordon and dog is Gino. Nice guy and humble as well. It was such a smoothly run event. I must say though that the cross track layers were the bomb <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> . Now back to the same routine....

Karmen, can you tell me if this rumor is true - heard that Lance Collins was withholding points in the blind search if your dog failed to actually LOOK into each blind? Was this the case?

Originally posted by Lee Baragona - Sch3FH2:
Karmen, can you tell me if this rumor is true - heard that Lance Collins was withholding points in the blind search if your dog failed to actually LOOK into each blind? Was this the case? I'm not Karmen, but yes he was taking points for that. Bill Kulla's dog did a really nice performance, one of the few V's (96) and Lance took 2 points from his blind search because the dog didn't look inside each one. :rolleyes:

Tracy Betenbaugh had said his dog did a very good, direct, fast blind search but was awarded ZERO points cuz the dog didn't look in them directly. And this is in the rules WHERE exactly???? :rolleyes: <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> This stuff drives me nuts. Maybe we need to start having judges fill out a "personal preferences" list prior to hiring them, so at least we know where they stand on their own personal rules.

Debbie and Esco lost points for the same thing..

Yep Lee He sure did take points for not looking in the blind AND not having more obedience to you on the "here" command before sending the dog to the next blind. My dog looked in half the blinds and still only received a rating of good on the search. He only gave out a couple of excellent blind searches and for the life of me I can not see the difference in their dog's searches verses the others who clearly deserved excellent for the search... my dog included....Before you even stepped on the field you were already at a 98

And this is in the rules WHERE exactly????

It states in the rules that the dog must do a blind search not a blind run around. This means that the dog must go to each blind and search in it. The judge also took off points for the dog not coming back to the handler when the handler called here between the blinds. Most judges do not hold to the rules as exact as this one did. However, this IS the N.Americans and not a club trial.

Dogs have peripheral vision....They don't have to actually stop to look in to see if the helper is in there or not...they have noses as well. When I am calling my dog he actually looks at me for direction and acknowledges me til I send him to the next blind. The rules are subject to interpretation instead of being more specific...(specific would be..Dog should search blind with looking into each one convincingly)...guess that is why they call it judging....

I don't care how they score anything, I just wish it was consistant. However your dog preforms from event to event the score should be the same.

Ok at a club trial if the dog gets a passing score because a good was "flexiable" fine, I have no problem with that. But a V score, a V exercise should be the same under all Judges in all trials. There is no consistancy.

That is the frustrating thing for a competitor.

Originally posted by Steve C:
Most judges do not hold to the rules as exact as this one did. However, this IS the N.Americans and not a club trial. But when IDENTICAL performances have been full points for....oh, about 20 yrs! at the freakin world championships, who is Lance Collins to decide to impose his personal opinion on this event?