2005 NASS - Page 2

Thank you Trusuprise, that was very nice of you.

Hello Jantie, Please Chill Out! Dog shows are only dog shows in the grand scheme of things. Keystone-Buckeye Hundesport will be providing, in the next few days, full critiques and placements of all dogs at the 2005 NASS recently held in Pittsburgh, PA. If you have an urgent need for doggie gratification, I suggest that you take your own dogs out for lengthy tracking sessions. Nothing like a cool, early fall morning, alone with your dog, to clear one's head. Come back to the internet after spending several hours alone with your dog. I guarantee that your perspective will be different! Gayle Kirkwood 2005 NASS Show Chair President Keystone-Buckeye Hundesport.

Well Said Gayle!!!! But if that does not work put on a show be real nice to the Judges and Helpers and your average dog can make a VA also. I guess this helped you get so relaxed Gayle. Normal dogs with not so normal places!! The show was great but boy were some kennels well taken care of. Then again this is the normal for these shows. Thank you Mittelwest for the nice work with providing people with results. And Gayle hiting people as you ran around the ring was less then becoming of a women of you stnading.

Thank you for answering my question Gayle, cant wait to see the official results and critiques. This was my first sv show, I saw what I have seen at horse shows and other type dog shows, politics will always be present, bad sportsmanship and sour loosers are all too be expected in any competition as it draws them!! The question is, do you do like the girl i saw take her dog from the ring during the 12-18 month female courage test behind the tent and re enter the ring afterwards when her dog was no longer in her arms quivering in fright? or do your honest best and ignore those who cheat the system so that what rewards you get you know were honest and you can hold your head up? Did the judge see this and ignore? I doubt it very seriously !! Do i think this dog should be placed lower? no i think it should have failed!! what good are the tests if they are not enforced? The bitework on some dogs, to me were questionable personaly. Blitzen and I were trying to watch and figure exactly what the penalties are for each test as none of the dogs were actually excused from the ring on these obedience and courage aspects. I learned most from the show that if I am interested in a dog to go see it preform in person as the ratings and titles leave too much leeway in the rings for my tastes. I am old school if a dog mouths after outed it is weak in obedience, training, or nerves. If a dog runs from the ring in fright from a starter pistol i do not want anything to do with it or its lines. The high SG number it recieved will atract many future intrests to those who did not wittness its cowardice. I am sorry if this sounds awful, I have been thinking on these things I saw for days before speaking of them. I am proud of my dog, we acomplished by the skin of our teeth the goal we wanted, and I enjoyed myself. We met some really fantastic folks. Over all an excellent experience that I learned a great deal from. There were some gorgeous dogs there, especially the working bitches!

Dear GSDNEWBIE, Look for the worst and you will find it. Look for the best and you will also find it. The choice is yours. 1) There is no courage test for 12-18 month old dogs. I have no idea what you are talking about. 2) When you have successfully trained your own dog to SchH 1 or higher and you still have complaints about a dog not being totally clean in the "out" in a Sieger Show setting, then I am happy to entertain your comments. Until that time, you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Go home, get a dog, and train. I look forward to seeing you at the USCA Sieger Show in April 2006 in Connecticut with your dog. 3) No dogs failed the gun-sureness test at the recent NASS. 4) I'm glad that you met good people, those who will encourage you in the sport. 5) By way of suggestion - talk less, listen more, and train more. Your doggie future will be more successful and rewarding. I am happy to advise - but privately, not in this public forum. Gayle Kirkwood

My wife and I new to the world of shepherds, this being the first Sieger show we were even interested in knowing what was happening. That being said, we were quite shocked to discover when we searched online over the weekend that there were no official results being updated in “real time.” This was not some chump-change regional show – but the NASS! For such a lofty show it seems to me that more effort should be made to communicate information to the interested masses! Here it is Wednesday and there is still nothing but “un-official” results listed at a commercial site belonging to one of the participants. Very amateurish in my opinion – I expected more. I guess what is worse is the attacking after the fact here of someone who has come online simply with a different perspective. Jante had a valid point and instead of it being taken as a way to make things better in the future he was berated as if he were the one lacking. The simple fact is that the attitude shown here is a BIG reason Americans the world over are often held in very low regard. A mediocre effort was made, every sits around and high-fives each other as if a new record for performance was set, than castigates anyone daring to suggest otherwise. I’m less than impressed. -Calvin

For most clubs in the states to host a show or trial, they normally have a financial loss in doing so. After paying for the judges and helpers to fly to you, paying for their room and board, prices of trophies, and other expenses. I would think it wrong to ask the hosting club to make sure that someone was sitting there with a laptop keeping "real time" results. After the stress of getting ready for the show, most people just want to enjoy it as much as possible. Maybe instead of complaining, you should thank the few people that did take the time out of their days at the show and miss some of it just to keep people informed. Also, not trying to be rude, but being new to the GSD and the shows, you obviously held too much expectations of what the show would be like. Especially if the only complaint is that there were no "official" results online.

Perfect example of the attitude that will keep things mediocre. Again, this was no mere show or trial - but the NASS! If you’re going to call a show the North American Sieger show than you should expect to held to a higher standard than the local regional. Obviously people from around the world were as interested in the results as people from within the US. More should be done to promote such interest - if indeed the promoters had any interest in making the show all that it could be. I assume that was their goal, right? *IF* there were not enough money or resources to do a respectable job than maybe that should be addressed rather than busting peoples chops for reasonable suggestions. I guess the question is, should the NASS be considered a world class event, or not? It seems that anyone interested in seeing things get better are to be berated by those satisfied with the norm. Frankly, I'm wondering how there was enough money to put up an "official" NASS website for registrations, directions, hotels etc - but the results have to be posted at show supporters/participants private, commercial websites. For an event already steeped in controversy it looks low rate to me. An alternative would to be to place the results at a generic NASS URL and post a message "results provided by supporting member XXXX" and a link to the website of the contributor. If you want the dog world to remain a mostly closed, “good-ol-boy” club the way things are currently being done will see to that – if you want to garner interest (and the $$$$s) of those from outside try thinking upscale a bit. But what do I know? Obviously the acceptable way to do things outside the dog world are unreasonable... -Calvin

So, let me get this straight, if a dog bolts from the ring when the starter pistol is fired, it is not considered a failure of the gun sureness test? That dog is eligible to return to the ring? Would that be true in all classes or only the 12 to 18?

it was quite plain i was refering to the 12-18 month gunshot test of which, yes there was. As far as go home and get a dog, thank you but I have one is why i wanted to know when the critiques were coming out and I am very pleased with how how she did. As far as when I have trained a dog? yes, thank you again, I already have. I said This is my first SV show not my first experience and was my first experience with SHOWLINE gsds. I am sorry you felt offended, was not my intention. I did not say a female failed? said maybe she should have if the judge had been able to see what had happened. I was asking what it takes to fail from the ring? This is no reflection upon you or your show in any way just the person who handled the dog and the dog so unless it was yours, I do not understand your attitude. I brought up the subject that I did to find out: 1. what are the guidelines and the accepetables are they even written down? 2. what are the penalties for these dogs? Is there a standard rules to follow and point deuctions? are they deducted places since they obviously are not put from the ring? There were some excellent dogs there who did fantastic bitework, very correct in build, obedience, courage and color that were placed behind dogs of lesser qualities in these other ways. What I want to know is just how much do these tests weigh in the show? As I said there were fantastic dogs, I am learning about the showring and learned alot there. The show was excellent and I understand it takes tons of work! I was not critisizing this at all? I just was asking are there printed guidlines and deductions to go by or is it all a judges descretion at a moments notice on these things? Please dont feel you have to respond it was not written to you or about your preformance on the show as I have already told you it was a great show when you asked me at the show on Sunday morning when I thanked you for your time and efforts and shook your hand congradulating you on your wins. Don't know about everyone else, but saticfactory as in the dog bit, kind of let go well maybe for a second when the handler stood still just isnt my idea of an out. I started out schutzhund first not show so I found your comments to go train a dog then ask rather funny. Don't let the NEWBIE name fool you so much it only refers to showing. I was not by far the only one to notice or remark on the dog that jumped into the handlers arms over her shoulders then drag her from the ring from a gunshot across the ring no where near her then brought back to the ring minutes later like nothing happened when it was over. I found it quite apaling if you really want to know.