NASS commentary - Page 5

Sorry, forgot to include Yash. He was also very fast to the helper, full grips, no barking, but otherwise good intensity guarding after the outs.

SS

My take: the show was nice. I was rather disappointed in the bite work. I am not sure why it was not as good as previous years. I do feel alot of top breeders in this country are breeding in mass but not considering these dogs are not only beautiful but should be working dogs too. It seems that not only the Americans, but the Germans as well are not breeding to the dogs/bitches that can work. Please do not think SIDE GAIT is the only thing that matters.  It just seems to be how many litters can I have and how much can I make. Of course this is not true of all breeders, so please do not think I have any one in mind. But  I do Ithink this is why people who want to work their dogs are going to the working lines..... We also seem to have a lack of helpers that can take dogs from point a to point z.

Danny and his group did a very nice job in getting this whole show organized considering the mess the WDA has been in the past months. Kudos to you all.

Pat

My take on the females-

I didn't see them all, but I thought it was a very sad day overall for females as far as I have way too many listings with FTE (Did Not Engage) next to them in my catalog. About 30% failed. Still, I thought the Best females were as good or better than the best males, and most of us agree a good working female is a lot rarer than her male counterpart, and a lot more valuable in the breeding kennel. The 6 point nerve rating is my own, made up considering these are Showline dogs. I would be tougher if these were working females and this was a national-level trial... but I would have a longer, more in depth test to use for evaluation in a trial.

There WERE some very high notes! The first high note was the sable female who came out first (demo?)... WOW! That bitch sure woke the 1st half helper up! I was laughing out loud at the look on his face as he adjusted to keep her from nailing him under the sleeve, having arrived at his body at super-sonic speed. What an awesome bitch!!! :)))) I didn't get her name.

IMO: Three "Girls from Wilhendorf" really stood out this year. Faberge, Paris, and Rhapsody Wilhendorf all showed full hard grips, good speed, and excelent guarding. I gave Paris a 6 out of 6 for her nerves. Interesting: both Paris and Faberge are out of Whitney Agrigento. Its great to see such nice working females coming out of the top US kennel.

VA2 Vegas Mittlewest turned in an impressive performance: Fast, animated, clear in the head.

VA3 Wim Bullinger was another exciting bitch to watch. Wim comes from 6 generations of Tracy Bullinger's breeding! She's been wowing us since the very first USA Sieger show (Menlo Park) with gorgeous dogs who bite like BSP winners and work with the best of them.

VA7 Emmy of My Body Guard- (where did they come up with that kennel name?) Came fast, hit HARD, full, calm grips. Very nice bitch, clear in the head. 6 out of 6 for nerves.

V4 Ushigardens Hanni did a great job. I gave her a 6 out of 6 for her strong nerves too. All this at only 2 years old. Look for this girl in future!

V5 Emily Mittlewest- Bounced off the sleeve after a poor presentation but recovered immediately to come back and bite with a full, firm grip, clean out. Nice to see she wasn't penalized.

V9 Nova Kuckucksland- also a very nice working bitch, not quite 4 years old. but what else would we expect  from a dog co-owned by Steve Miller?

VA4 Feli vom Dreieichenbuckel- Very fast, hit HARD, helper helicoptered her, even with a slightly shallow grip. Outed clean, guarded convincingly.  Gave her 5.5 out of 6 for nerves.

There were a couple of Insufficient ratings that I thought might be explained by poor training, and one very sad one from a dog who had been in the trailer that rolled on the way to the show. My heart goes out to her owner, but at least she didn't lose her dog in the accident. I believe one of the males came off on the first stick hit fro the same reason: hematomas invisible to the eye but casing the dog pain by the time it got to the field. Thank the Lord no dogs were killed in the wreck.

JMO

SS

The focus of this thread, so far, has been commentary about individual dogs.  Let's shift gears a bit and talk about field layout, distances required, secure, protected waiting area for competitors and tattoo check areas.   

As in 2006, the Purina Farms venue was seriously lacking in appropriate, secure space for Sieger Show protection work.  The required heeling distance was very short, as was the long bite distance.  Sun position must also be taken into consideration when laying out the field, so that dogs are not blinded by the light.  Of special concern was the lack of secure, formal waiting area for the dogs.  For some dogs, the distraction of people practicing warm-up bites 6 feet away became problematic.  Likewise, the tattoo check area was not secure.  The press of spectators 2-3 feet away from the entry and heeling points brought unnecessary external pressures as well.  Personally, I prefer catalogue order (or a pre-determined time-frame order) to the performance test, rather than the free-for-all line up endorsed last weekend.   

For people who were not there, the protection work itself is only a part of the Sieger Show experience.  The contextual environment surrounding those two grips can play a significant role in any dog's performance.  There is virtually no way to prepare for such chaotic surroundings.

Gayle

The protection field layout could maybe have been better. I do agree it would be less confusing if competitors were called to do protection  either in catalog order or by sign up at check in, sign-up sheet posted or handed out prior to the start. Waiting around for one's turn,  not really knowing when that might be,  would have annoyed me, my dog possibly becoming less fresh/lower in drive with every postponement as someone cut in ront of me. Having to flip back and forth in the catalog and strain to see the numbers on handlers was a PIA for spectators as well as competitors. I would have hung back to perform  last myself, not possible having a truck load of dogs to handle of course...

Personally, I would prefer the tattoo was checked AFTER my dogs' performances: one less stress beforehand.  By then it doesn't matter if the area is crowded or not... its OVER. 

I disagree about being unable to prepare for some of the environmental challenges inherent in the charged atmosphere of S/S protection tests and the ring itself, not that any of the above should bother my dogs enough that I could use it as an excuse for a poor performance...  I've always tried to prepare my dogs for chaotic scenes, as do most of my friends who compete in high level events. The stress of handling the dog, particularly a weaker dog, is enough as it is. I get as nervous s anyone, even after all these years, (as you persoanlly pointed out to my step-son in Pittsburgh two years ago... ) Whatever can be done to lighter that pressure is surely welcome, if not always offered.

Still, I think the venue was excellent. Most of us have been to much worse. Sure, the potties could have been serviced more often, the field could have been a bit larger and oriented the other direction, At least we didn't have to trek a long way to and from the parking areas, or board a BUS, like in Ohio in '99!  I saw no favoritism, either. The helper work was consistent, good or bad. THAT is a blessing in itself IMO.

SS

"""There WERE some very high notes! The first high note was the sable female who came out first (demo?)... WOW! That bitch sure woke the 1st half helper up! I was laughing out loud at the look on his face as he adjusted to keep her from nailing him under the sleeve, having arrived at his body at super-sonic speed. What an awesome bitch!!! :)))) I didn't get her name.""""

LOL, yup she was the warm up female/demo dog.. She be mine... Daddy's little girl never fails to please the croud!!

She be mine... Daddy's little girl never fails to please the croud!!

But the handler needs some serious help!

You should have seen the looks I got when I yelled YE-AH-H-H and laughed out loud when Daddy's little girl hit like a ton of bricks.

Name please?

Definately a bitch to remember.

SS

Shelley, if you go to Dennis' website she's under females...Jenna.  She's a very sweet dog too besides being a rocket.

I would agree with Gayle's assessment of the protection field layout. This year was better than 2006, which was really very poor.

The biggest problem as I see it is allowing spectators with a few feet of the dogs. I do not agree with the person who wrote this should not make any difference to the dog. How can it not make any difference to a dog who has never seen it, experienced it or trained for it. I have been a helper for more than a dozen years and I can tell you that it is the rare dog who is unaffected by a strange helper or a strange field, let alone hundreds of people nearby. That is why there is practice with the helpers before the events at the SchH Nationals with all of these fantastic working lines dogs. If these things did not affect even such great dogs, there would be no need for practice before performance events.

I happen to have a dog who is not affected by strange helpers, he will bite anyone. However, he is affected by large groups of people 5 feet from him. He still bites, and usually quite good, but his focus is not the same immediately beforehand. We have a small club of 8-10 people. There is no way on God's green earth that I can prepare my dog for doing bite work within a few feet of over 100 people. In all the times I trialed my dog, he has only come out of a blind once---and where was that--it was his first trial which happened to be at a Regional where there were 200 people within 5 feet from him doing his bark and hold. He had never seen that. During the reviere, he had to run right at them before turning into the blind. Now that is poor layout. Last year at the NASS, he did not out on the attack on handler. People were very close to him and I am not sure with all of the noise he even heard me until I was allowed to approach for the 3rd call, by which time he was pushing the helper all over the field..Last year, wWe were required to do the courage test, even after not outting on the attack. We did it immediately afterward on Steve Beal and my dog outed perfectly on the first command. Why, it should have been harder since I was farther away . The reason was, in my opinion, that the crowd was a lot farther away from him during the courage test than the attack on handler. Yes, there are dogs which are not affected by crowds of people, just like my dog is not affected by strange helpers, but if you are going to allow practice with the helpers, why not also design a field where the people are so close and the dog can concentrate on the job at hand?

In Germany at the Sieger Show, the bite work is done in a stadium. Yes, there are 20,000 people watching, but they are in the stands several hundred feet away from the dog. For all intents and purposes, the dog is out on the field alone except for his handler, the judge and a tv crew which is usually well out of the way.

The best WDA Sieger Show I have experienced from the point of view of layout and the people problem was at Mike West's Club in Princeville. It was held in a high school football stadium. The dogs did their work on the field far away from the mass of spectators.

Ray Silvertrust