Posted by Butch Cappel
on October 1, 2009, 6:30 am
Message modified by board administrator October 1, 2009, 6:47 pm
When the sun creeped over the Colonial K9 facility the Sat. morning after the Friday night seminars, there was not a dog person in sight! Seems there was a little get together late Friday night and things were moving a little slow, but move they did.
As the field gathered for the competition it was clear the interest was on Luger, the Wolf Dog. Recently a lot of interest on the great www has been stirred up about the Wolf Dog and if it was safe to be training a Wolf hybrid to do bite work. After a 22 hour drive, first time in a building, strange place, strange everything, would his [i Wolf come out?
Or would he show that good training, and a bond, is the true answer to all the worries?
With one of the most diverse breed groups participating I have ever seen the Training division winners were
1st. Roy, Mal, Maynard Pease, handler
2cd Champ, Dobe, Jeremy Connathy, handler
3rd Luger, WOLF DOG!Patsy Waldrop, handler
4th Giovano, CC, Shawn Yetter, Handler
And all of these top finishers also achieved a certifiable score, which says even more about the training of each dog than the actual placement.
The fun in Pro Sports is seeing the breeds that are not Sport defined jump out and show that they are still the best family protectors you might find.
It is also nice to see the real divide between "sport dog" and "PP dog". No where was this difference more clear than at the Virginia trial.
K9PS usually gets a few top sport dogs at most of our trials, Once. There is a clear divide between Sport and PP, and this seems to be why most top sport dogs only show up once. We had a SchH 2 Pit, named Torque in this trial. His owner made it very clear that his dog was SchH 2 It WAS the dog to beat, after all it WAS a SchH 2 and then the Civil Agitation began.
There is nothing more basic, more fundamental for a PP dog than Civil Agitation, it is the truest measure of a dogs understanding of the street and an alert command.
So Okie and Torque, SchH2, lined up and the agitator nodded, "Passaf!" Okie commanded, Torque charged out to the end of his leash jerking the handler forward one step. Straining at the leash, teeth bared and gleaming, Torque was a ferocious sight to see. Then the agitator produced a little yellow tennis ball.
As the ball bounced in front of the dog his face went from a snarl to a smile. His tail began to wag and he seemed to invite the threatening agitator to come out and play. As the ball bounced past the dogs head he lunged for the ball, forgetting he even had a handler.
As the dog bounded after the ball, the agitator waltzed in and THUMPED the handler, sending Okie to the K9PS morgue which means a 0 on the score sheet. The rest of his performance was a little better and he was disappointed (to put it politely) but when it was all over as Jay Wilson said, "The handler might be dead, but his dog is still a SchH 2!"
When time came for Dream Team kennels to hand out the gold that day we did have some new and old faces on the K9PS landscape.
Fourth place; was the Luger, Wolf dogs, less known but very, very tuff kennel mate SCOUT, GSD, handler Patsy Waldrop.
Third place; an old face in the scheme. A handler that saw his first K9PS at the start of the millennium, and an old dog that may have been there with him, but. Grey muzzle, a few teeth missing and a few sort of rounded off, Maynard Pease showed us that to this day "You don't mess around with Roy!" His nine year old Mal and number three at this very challenging event.
But new faces are nice to see and at this event it would be the ladies that had the swagger when it was all over. Yep the top two were ladies, handled by Ladies! When Teresa Mathern looked down at her little lady Abba, GSD and said "Watch em" these two ladies could walk through a biker convention in a bikini made of hundred dollar bills and Teresa's cash would all be there, when they got to the other side.
Second place; Abba GSD, handler Teresa Mathern.
The non-typical breeds are greatly underrated in most dog sports disciplines. We get that. But this is not just a "sport" it is a certification for a real life street dog. When your on the street there is a certain calm you can see in the most confident ones. You know the ones. The ones that can handle all you throw at them and hardly start a pant? In the south some call it "Bulldog attitude" and the dog that was calm, cool, and collected this day was in the K9PS winners circle for the first time.
The Champ; Marvel, American Bulldog & Sandra Gurlarly, handler. (pardon any bad spelling please)
So that was how our weekend went, and as busy as it was it is now time to get ready for IT.
That's right the K9PS World Championship right around the corner, Nov. 7. We have some good dogs coming. We have one of the most unique trophies ever. To make it clear that this is the Real Deal in Protection the top five finishers wll go home with engraved 'Barbarian Swords' as their first trophies, then we have al the other stuff AND the CASH! Wonder if we'll be hearing any one singing "Carry me back to ol' Virginny"
World class Seminars begin Friday Nov.6
Competition Saturday Nov.7
Recovery Sunday Nov.8
BE THERE BABY!!!!!
More than a trial, a competition, K9 PRO SPORTS is a Certification
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