Succumbed to Christmas/New Year

[Kerry Webster]

It appears that our male participants on this site may have succumbed to the indulgencies of Christmas and New Year celebrations, as the input from that gender has been close to zero over the past few postings.

Hey girls out there, maybe this once again is proof of stamina, resisting the urge to indulge, exhaustion, or just plain interest in contributing to the site out of trialing season.

Whatever the reason, the men are conspicuous by their absence.

I know it is the "silly season" but this might be a good time to ask questions about trialing in 2004; how successful was it overall; are numbers increasing; are people dropping out of the sport, and if so, why. Is it becoming too roboticised to compete for the general enthusiast, and again, if so, why, and how can this be overcome.

Any comments ???

So many questions; I believe communication between competitors is the only way we will keep this wonderful sport going, and keep a fair balance of competitiveness between all.

Kerry

[Joe Law]

Kerry, you should be happy now that there are signs that the males might be stirring from their Christmas/New Year hibernation. The year 2004, it seems to me, was an intensive year of review with considerable effort and energy being expended by individuals and committees in genuine attempts to improve our sport. We can only hope that their efforts will be rewarded. The "robot" slur on our sport has been around for a while now, but do you think it is really true and fair criticism? Obviously, there is much more to our sport than control, however, control is and needs to be an important part of what we do. Control probably constitutes the major challenge when it comes to training dogs at the advanced level. Am I hearing you correctly when I think you are suggesting that there should be more opportunity for people to remain in the sport, even though they do not aspire to compete at the top levels? If so, I tend to agree with you. The current discussion on the new in-line rule is probably a good example of what you are hinting at.

[Kerry Webster]

Hi Joe,

Glad to see the men have surfaced from the depths and are joining in.

Re "robot" in the field: I don't necessarily agree with what people perceive as robotic responses from dogs in competition. A quick response from a dog to a whistle or voice or visual command does not depict robotic features, just damn good training, in my eyes, and, having had this slur aimed at my dog (once, that I heard), I don't know whether it is said out of admiration, envy, or nastiness. Still, the subject keeps coming up as to our robot dogs !

Retrieving has changed dramaticly over the years, even since I started in 1996 I have seen dramatic changes to runs, dogs, handling and training. Still, as you say, there are many people who do not aspire to be National Champions, or even achieve their RT Ch. title, and these people enjoy nothing more than running their dogs under simulated hunting conditions.

In a state where hunting is banned, this is the only legal way here of allowing a dog to experience a hunting/retrieve situation and explore the natural instinct of the gun dog. For those states still having hunting access, count your blessings. You probably do know just how lucky you and your dogs are, but I am telling you once again.

As you know Joe, Western Australia is almost a country apart from the Eastern areas of Australia. Our retrieving trials here begin at Easter and finish mid September. We are banned from hunting.
So, for at least six months of the year we mostly sit around, do bits of training, keeping an eye out for Tigers, Dugites, Gwardas etc, and wait for the next season of trials. With the vast mileage between East and West, and the expense, very few make it over there for competition except for Nationals. If the sport dies out here in W.A., it is a heck of a drive to compete in Victoria, NSW etc, so keeping dog owners interested and enthusiastic is paramount to keeping retrieving alive here.

I think so far, we are pretty successful, and newcomers to the sport appear each season. Unfortunately, some succumb to nerves, or failure, whilst others who seem to aspire to greater things, give up too quickly. Patience in training does appear to be a problem, and I have heard a few newcomers being disheartened after watching an All Age trial, instead of challenged to achieve.

I would still be interested to hear how other competitors have found 2004 trialing to be in their State, and if a problem does exist with keeping people in the sport, or not.

Kerry