Most Embarassing moments...... - Page 4

Once a couple came to see a litter of two month old puppies. The wife had a quite long full skirt on, the puppies all had ¿good temperaments¿ you can imagine the rest!! Amazingly they did buy one!!

Oh dear... I have so many embarrassing moments... I was a thoroughbred jockey for 9 yrs. Normally making weight was no problem, but a friend of mine had won a stakes race the night before and had taken us all out for a sumptuous meal, with a delicious Turtle Pie dessert that I liked so much I ate the whole thing. Next morning I stepped on the scale and, to my horror, was 5 lbs. over the weight I was to ride at that afternoon. Still an apprentice at the time I was expected to make 105 lbs. (with tack) Noting my horror, a "kindly" older rider (with a wicked sense of humor) offered me a diuretic, promising me that it would shave at least 3-4 lbs. off before my post time. He pulled out a bottle with a syringe and squirted some bad-tasting yellow stuff in my coffee and offered to loan me his "light" saddle: basically a pancake with very short stirrup leathers. I wasn't used to riding with my heels up my butt, but decided it was better than having my overweight on the tote board. Come post time nothing had happened with the diuretic. I was still overweight and scared to death that no one would ride "the girl" ever again because she couldn't make weight. Sensing my anxiety (and probably in on the joke) the starter decided to load my mount last, giving me only about 2 seconds to grab a handful of mane before he "flushed" us. My horse stumbled badly right out of the gate, nearly dropping me but not quite. You know the rest. :-O I never touched Lasix again.

During bathtime for some reason my neutered male gets "horny" and always tries to "get it on" with my spayed female. This is the only time he does this...must be something with running water??? Anyway when my daughter was old enough to notice (2-3yrs. old) she said "look Roman wants a piggy back ride! He's so silly" How lovely it is when she shares this with others, I either get a laugh or a dirty look.

Great stuff you guys. I am thinking of writing a column in the WDA newsletter on this topic. Anybody mind if I contact you personally fro permission to publish, with credit to the author, of course. It might make newbies feel better about potential embarrassment to know that we ALL have had at least as horrible an experience as any they could possibly dream up, let alone endure in their first event. Hell, I could probably take the first year of columns from my own "Trial Disaster Files." LOL (more on them later, gotta run now) Always mindful of the mantra: "Nurture Your Novices... THEY are the future of our sport!" SS

Shelly Strohl-Glad you enjoyed this post. I am getting a kick out of it myself. And I think it's a great idea to write a column about it. Being a newbie myself it helps knowing I can laugh at myself now and everyone's got a story to tell. Guess this comes with the territory?? lol

SHort version we had just moved into our new home and I met our next door neighabor. I had a male GSD and she had a female GSD who apparently was coming inti heat. While talking I looked down and my male was enjoying himself licking her boxer in a certain spot. I was embarrassed and said before thinking "now thats one way to meet your new neighbor"..lol\ Could have crawled into a hole after I said it...

This is one for "Trial Disaster Files" It was my first Sch1 attempt with my dog Alero. I was so nervous I had become physically ill. I was shaking in my boots & my dog kept looking at me like- WHAT is wrong mom? We were 1st up for tracking. During the 1st leg Alero kept looking back at me to make sure I was all right, as he knew something MUST be wrong. You have heard the saying- "What you are feeling travels down the leash" Well its true- even a 30 foot one! Right after the 1st corner my fully mature male GSD Squats to pee. I "phooey" him and get back to tracking. He didn’t take but 10 steps and stopped with the Hershey squirts-the walking squirts at that. We finished the track but failed with a 58. So now I think OK, we have already failed, lets go have some fun without any pressures. I guess I forgot to tell the dog. Again we were 1st up in OB- we had a series of "My dog has never done that before" moments so I was sure we had failed OB too. Then came the long down. This was an exercise my dog was rock solid on. It would give me plenty of time to stand there looking and feeling like an idiot, thinking of all that had gone wrong that that day. As I was facing the crowd of spectators, all of a sudden everyone’s hand went to their mouth, heads were shaking, & people were pointing. I look over my shoulder to see my dog creeping up on me. I gave him a stern plaaaaatzzz & turned back to facing the crowd. 30 seconds later the crowd breaks out in laughter, now people are turning away shaking there heads. I look back to see Alero taking ANOTHER dump! I just threw my arms in the air, fell to the ground and let the tears & laughter flow. Even the judge could not help but laugh in hysterics. Needless to say we failed that phase too! It was a few years before people quit taking bets on whether or not my dog would s**t on the field that day or not. But trust me, no one has forgotten- I still get reminded from time to time. JoAnn

Great story jletcher! There's nothing like failing tracking, ruining the rest of the day early, unless its failing obedience too. Been there, done that. Thanks for sharing. BTW: 20 yes. later I still throw up between every phase sometimes from nerves. I've always wondered why club hosting trials serve things like chili, sloppy joes, greasy burgers, etc. for trial-day lunch. I usually bring my own lunch: nice, quiet, well-behaved mashed potatos, ice cream when possible. My philosophy: May as well eat something I won't mind too much if I throw it up later. ;) SS

I am new to obedience competition and my most embarrassing moment happened at one of my first shows with my 4 year old female that is higly treat driven. I made a mistake early on in my training by over utilizing treats and I swear she would do back flips for a hot dog. We were first up in Novice A after the Judge had stopped to have lunch. We were outside the ring and I knew I was in trouble when Libby spotted him chowing down a hotdog in the ring. Once we started she quickly realized I had nothing good and when we started the off leash heel portion she bolted to the judge and started poking him to see if he had stashed any of his hot dog in his pockets. I had to pull her away from him because she was certain he had something good hidden. I was soooo embarrassed. C

Two moments stand out for me. The first was with my previous Shepherd, Tasha. She was terrible about coming when called when off-leash, especially if she was playing with another dog. One day, I decided to do what the training books recommended. I got a light sash cord, and hooked it to her collar, then set her loose to run in the park with my room-mate's dog. So, she takes off like a rocket, going flat out. I'm holding the end of this 40 ft. line, blithely thinking I'm going to stop 65 lbs. of dog when the line runs out. Yeah, right. What an idiot I was... When she hit the end of the rope, I did a complete forward somersault. I spent the next week or so with a bandaid on nearly every finger. You can still see a scar on my left ring finger, where I lost a big chunk of skin. Next time I tried this, I dropped the end of the line over a fence post... Second incicident involved Ranger. I took him to the dog park so he could play with my friend's daughter's new dog. This park was actually a school yard, just a wide open field. Ranger couldn't find any vertical objects to lift his leg to, so he peed on people's legs instead! He got 3 people before I managed to grab him and pull him away. I got some of it myself the last time, as I yanked him back. We then made a very lengthy circuit of the schoolyard fence, until I was sure he'd sufficiently emptied his bladder. When we came back to the rest of the group, I noticed people avoiding us for some reason... ;-)