Handler Error

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290 – June, 2021

By Chris Robinson

There are at least hundreds if not thousands of different ways that dogs can turn a seemingly successful run in any dog sport into a total train wreck. Over the years, both as a competitor and a judge, I have often been awed by their creativity when it came to ways to mess things up to the point where it would result in not qualifying.

One time one of my Chesapeakes in open obedience took the jump, picked up the dumbbell and sailed back over the jump with room to spare. A perfectly completed exercise, right? Not so fast! Instead of returning to me, he made a 90 degree left turn, trotted over to the judge and with a perfect front, the only one he ever did all the way from novice through utility, and presented the dumbbell to the judge. When she didn’t acknowledge his gift, he repeatedly nudged her hand until she finally relented and took it. To general hilarity from the gallery and a judge fighting a losing battle to avoid rewarding the dog for his faux pas by laughing, we exited the ring green-ribbonless for that day.

A Sheltie owner told me that his dog was so in love with jumping that one time in utility, during the directed jumping exercise, she took the high jump, made a circle, jumped the bar jump, made another circle, hopped over the high, circled again, jumped the bar and was headed for the high once more when he finally yelled, “Sadie, here, heel!” and was able to bring her “jumping mania” to a halt.

Click here to read the complete article
290 – June, 2021

Short URL: http://caninechronicle.com/?p=203201

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