Does WDA still exist and putting on trials/shows? - Page 6

People like to make it out like the sport is that competitive...it isn't. I know for a fact that the people commenting on the competition never even sniffed the highest levels and are just repeating what they've read online somewhere by another disgruntled person that couldn't compete. Like I said, go to a club and actually train, you'll see there is barely any competition. There are MAYBE two people there that have regional level potential and if you're lucky...a national level person. It takes even more luck to be in a club with people that will actually be competitive on a national level and push for world teams. Out of the 5 dogs this country sent to the world championship this year, ONE, the eventual world champion, had a competitive performance and score. So if you think that IPO is that competitive, you haven't actually been out there and trained with the majority of the people. One day at club a week won't make you competitive or even have a shot at winning anything but your club trial. Will you run into some people that are ultra competitive? Sure. But let them have their trophy and you go and get your title. Why does that matter? Oh...I know why it matters. Even those complaining about competition want the trophy, but they lack the skills and knowledge necessary to get those trophies, so they go on the internet and complain about how hard the competition is and that's why they left the sport.

Why not train for the real thing? 99.99% of us are never going to be K9 handlers. No way to prove our dogs. The training is fruitless. We train to achieve a title, to try to adhere to the system the founder developed. The sport gives us an objective evaluation of our training and of our dog. It's easy to claim you train for the "real thing." That way you never have to prove your dog to anyone. You just walk around claiming that they're PPD or that they can track someone down, but the dog never actually has to prove it.

It's like some people I know who train in herding and claim their dogs can work. All you see are pictures of their dogs running around the handler and like 3 sheep. Never get to see a picture of the dog actually tending the flock, or working a big group of sheep. Never have to even enter a trial anymore because the internet provides those people all the recognition they need. People ooooo and ahhhh when they see a dog in a picture with sheep and think that it's actually performing a task. Person doing the training and the marketing gets what they need and don't ever actually have to prove that what what they're claiming is correct.

That doesn't stop Clubs / TDs SELLING the idea of
competition success, though, does it ?, which is what
I thought Hexe was getting at. That does change the
atmosphere away, somewhat, from a simple 'nice things
to do that stretch our dogs and indicate their abilities'
attitude, to the 'maybe I can win something significant,
and the actual dog becomes disposable, I can always
get another' syndrome, even if those ambitions are not
realised.

Yep I sure touched a nerve didn't I? is the very attitude I'm talking about. If I don't agree that IPO is the only way to test a dog. I'm put down and the attempt is to try to make a person look lazy. When in reality it is the opposite. Why go to the effort to train for real? Why not? The effort is the same the results are very different. Why train your dog to really protect instead of just hitting a sleeve? How about that your dog could actually provide protection for you and your home? What makes you think IPO is the only way to proof a dog? You ridicule herding. For the very same reasons I'm talking about with IPO. Is that hypocritical? And a lot of those people who do herding practice with a lot more then 3. Maybe IPO is so important to some and they defend it as if someone was attacking them personally because they are to lazy to put forth the effort to train for real with out the pinch or e-collar? Interesting>

Sorry…it just gets old reading assumptions from people who aren’t actively involved in a club or in the sport. It’s clear that most of them are just things they’ve maybe read once from someone’s experience or just something they’ve connected in their own mind. These types of things rarely happen at a club level. Clubs are very much not competitive. Like I said, you’d be lucky to find 2 people in a club that even have aspirations to compete on a REGIONAL level, which includes the TD and helper. You’ll be even luckier to find one person at that club that will actually compete for a podium spot or be capable of a national qualifying performance/score at the regional and more than likely you’ll never have a person at the club that is capable of V or even SG scores at a national level.

Contrary to popular belief, most people at an IPO club will not get rid of their pet when it isn’t capable of the work. If they do fall in love with the sport and decide they want to be more competitive, they’ll get another one…but those people are few and far in between. Most of them also realize THEY don’t have the skills, ability, or resources to compete with even the higher level trainers in their own club. If they don’t realize that, maybe it pushes them to work harder, but I believe most people at a club realize the amount of time and work that some of the more successful people put into their dogs and they just won’t be able to dedicate that time to it. Those people are more than happy, and should be very proud, when they finally achieve their IPO title at whatever level it is.

I’m also not defending IPO as much as the other guy claims. I really don’t care. I’m just stating that many of the assumptions and claims made about IPO training are incorrect and are being made by people that are clearly not involved anymore. My point is proven by the fact that the person who is arguing that point is claiming I’m the one getting emotional, I’m the one making personal attacks, and I’m the one doing all the bad things…a very popular method used online of “he who cries wolf first is the victim and wins the emotional support of the rest of the group.” I’m not calling anyone lazy, what I’m saying is that when you chose to do venues without a real test…you never have to prove your claims. “My dog bites for real.” Never has to be proven because most people will never be put in a situation where their dog has to defend them. “My dog tracks for real.” Few people are K9 officers and so most dogs will never actually perform a track for a person “in the real world.” But you can keep saying your dog is capable, will do it, and never actually prove it. Just pictures and short video clips of highly regimented training situations to keep up the appearance that your dog is something special.

You did see where I said my dogs are titled didn't you?

All of this discussion about training and what IPO training is or is not is very interesting but belongs somewhere else. What I want to know and what the title of this thread is, is this: IS THE WDA DEAD OR WHAT?

The last I heard a couple of months ago is that the court case is not over, but their chance of winning is not as good as Jeb Bush's of becoming president.

We are nearly 3 months into 2016, no news from them, no effort to collect dues, and no ability, so their secretary says to send requests to the SV for judges...

It sounds like they are dead, and then someone here posted that Mr Yee was trying to do a deal with USCA wherein WDA members and clubs could join USCA and he could be on the exec board or something like that.

Anyway, is there any update on the WDA or what used to be the WDA?

Yes, for all practical purposes, the WDA is dead.

Technically not "dead" just incorporated into their original parent organization...the GSDCA. They don't have their own board anymore and you should have all the same rights with the SV as you did before just that it's through GSDCA and not WDA.

I'd imagine you should be paying dues to the GSDCA now...

There was a letter from Mr Yee about members retaining their certifications if they joined USCA. USCA has not discussed this with their membership and I have no idea what kind of discussions might be happening between the USCA executive board and Mr Yee in regards to that. I'd imagine this would have to go to the membership and as of today I haven't seen anything.

"Maybe IPO is so important to some and they defend it as if someone was attacking them personally because they are to lazy to put forth the effort to train for real with out the pinch or e-collar?"

 

You're making the incorrect assumption that prong and e-collars are only effective tools when used for compulsion.  Is using a box end wrench better when a ratchet would make the job easier?

The only people pretending are the IPO groupies who pretend that IPO tracking is real tracking ( it is obedience ) and that IPO protection is real protection ( it too is obedience ). The IPO and schutzhund groupies in the USA have destroyed their own sport through cheating, politics, and stupidity. The USCA has led the way with their institutional cheating at events to gain an advantage over others. The SV IPO program is likewise in a 10 - 20 year decline from which they will not recover. That is why the self serving SV leadership has shown great interest in dock diving and other dog sports in order to safeguard their own "phoney baloney" jobs. The idea that IPO scores matter and that the "best" dogs for breeding compete in IPO is what turned the SV and IPO into such a corrupt and deceitful mess of politics, bribery, and cheating.