went back over to Ellensburg yesterday at o-dark-thirty to judge 4H dog agility for Kittitas County. I had been watching the weather forecast with a bit of trepidation. As the day drew closer, the forecast showed warmer and warmer temps (threats of 90 degrees...) but when I arrived at 8:00 the wind was blowing so hard the chief course builder informed me there was no way we could use the 'chute the way I placed it unless we physically had someone standing there HOLDING it in place! He wanted me to flip the direction so that essentially the course would be run the reverse of the way I designed it, which really didn't set well with me for a variety of reasons. I observed the wind during the first class (no 'chute in use at this level) and ultimately decided to swap the 'chute finish for the startline. In actuality, this created a windsock out of the 'chute, and probably helped a few dogs. Fine by me. My goal was to send as many of these kids to state fair next month as possible. Over all, I was very pleased with the quality of both the handling and the dogs themselves. I could see definite improvement since judging their qualifier last month. Overall, I think the wind helped keep the temps down, and it was actually a very pleasant day weather-wise.
My day actually started about a week after the qualifier, when I e-mailed my proposed course maps to the chief course builder. He never responded to give his opinion on the courses, so I figured we were good to go. But no.....he waited until wednesday to write to tell me he actually objected to three of the courses. He felt one was "too hard" for the one lone entrant (who coincidentally happened to be his daughter); one was "too easy" and one was "lacking interest" (I don't know if he had an agenda for either of these). I wrote back and told him I would tweak the "lacks interest" course, but the "too easy" course was built following 4H criteria and had one aspect I knew would give the kids enough of a challenge (which, when it came right down to it, *DID* create the exact challenge I felt it would), and I didn't feel it necessary to alter it further. As for the "too hard" course, I also refused to alter that course, telling him I felt his daughter was fully capable of handling the course and since the dog would do what the daughter told her to do, she would be fine. Nothing in the guidelines disallows me from assisting her during the walk thru. We discussed ways of dealing with several sequences that involved handling techniques she had never been taught, but she is a quick study and rapidly progressed to a point of confidence before she ran. I actually designed two excellent courses for her-both standard and jumpers. She ACED the standard course. The JWW course was quite tight, and had quite a few trickier sequences than the standard course. As she was walking it she commented "there aren't very many obstacles on this course, but you managed to make it complex!" In the end, she had a near-perfect run with one run out. I somehow managed to miss a wrong course, however, in 4H a wrong course is only a 5-point penalty so she still would have received a very good score of 90 in addition to her grand champion so I don't feel too guilty about missing it. A person's gotta blink every once in a while.
I had issues with "dad" because 1. He is ":type A" and is also a perfectionist. I can deal with that, but what I can't stand is a perfectionist who also feels everyone around him must also be perfect. He called me on more than one occasion where he felt I missed a missed contact. Excuse me, but um.....can I see your resume that shows your experience running a dog in agility? I'm sorry, but if I have a close call, I will err on the side of the kid. There was also an occurence at the novice level where everything was going way too fast, and I *thought* ultimately, that the dog completed all six of the weaves in the right order. He disagreed with me. I don't feel that he has the right to back seat drive where the judge is concerned. At one point he actually made a snarky remark to me about "missing SEVERAL other calls today..." wow.....reality check.....whose side are you on? I finally got it when he informed me one of my OTHER practices was not a good one, and would skew the "high point" trophy stats. Ah...I see....and is your DAUGHTER in line for this award? What I have done in the past, and what I did both theree and at the qualifier is this: If a dog incurs a run out or refusal on an obstacle, then incurs a wrong course en route to correcting the run out or refusal, I only count the wrong course. Right or wrong, this is how I do it. It is not covered in the 4H rules. I think he needs to get onto the committee if he wants to fix all that's wrong with the current agility 4H scheme.
Another irritation to the day was one parent who stood within earshot of me and spoke loudly enough to other parents complaining about this that and the other thing I was doing to annoy her. I know full well that this was intentional, and it took all my power to pretend I was unable to hear her when I wanted to go face-to-face with her. Apparently she had issues with me with regard to the table count. I chose to follow the AKC rule in effect that says as long as all four paws are on the table (the dog does not need to sit or down) the count goes. SHE felt that I needed to be consistent with their training and specify a sit or a down. Well, I was consistent.....it wasn't like I penalized anyone by requiring THEIR dog did a sit or a down.
WhatEVER.....
Later, this same parent wanted to know when lunch break was. Originally we were going to break between the standard and the jumpers runs. I pointed out that I didn't have any lunch, and it was pointless of me to take a lunch break if my lunch wasn't here yet. She wanted to take lunch NOW, regardless of my plans. I announced to the entire group "go ahead and take your lunch break now, and I will take mine when my lunch arrives." Seriously. It wasn't a BIG DEAL. We build the X JWW course (for one dog) and ran it while my lunch was being ordered. I ate my lunch while they built the next course, then probably sat around another 10 minutes while THEY tried to organize the kids (all of whom had already eaten THEIR lunch)....but it just annoyed me that this woman seemed to believe that *I8 was singlehandedly slowing down the day because *I* needed to take a lunch break. Well, hell.....next time I'll just eat my sandwich while I'm judging! That should be a popular decision amongst the dogs!
Why is it, that SOMEONE always feels it is their duty to be a bitch at any given event? I just wish I could convey that message to THIS particular bitch!
A high point.....the 4H'r running excellent thanked me and told me I was "very supportive"...yeah, I know...I'm quite the cheerleader...lol...
Next saturday I'm off to our local Pierce County fair to judge 1st-year obedience (my personal favorite)...then sunday I entered Markee in his very first Rally trial.... Stay tuned!
Parents need to be tied up and left in the bathrooms!
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