I know I should ignore and/or delete this comment that was made on the last trial results post. Biting comments made under the veil of anonymity don't have much merit, after all.
But I can't. Ignorance irritates me, which is why I feel the need to respond.
It is a well known fact that course times in NADAC are less lenient than in other organizations -- We'll use CPE and AKC as an example, for in those venues almost any dog should be able to achieve Standard Course Time. One of the reasons that NADAC does not fault refusals is because it has been stated that the SCT is an obstacle in and of itself. For many dogs, a refusal or two will put them over course time. Luke has always been a great example of this with his Weavers runs.
Apparently I missed the memo that any dog who runs at less than 7 yps is assumed to have a Q rate of at least 80%. Funny, I seem to see a lot of teams out there moving at speeds less than "noticeably fast" who still struggle to Q consistently. Isn't that what keeps us coming back to this game?
Our dogs are living beings with minds of their own. Just because one is not moving at a blinding speed does not mean they are not capable of making mistakes. OR that the handler is not capable of making mistakes.
I have never claimed to have World Team aspirations with Secret. I am well aware of where she is at in her training. She has been a "precise" dog from day one and has been coming out with more speed at each trial. We are on a completely different journey than a team who has speed out of the gate and struggles for precision.
When you get a puppy from rescue and have no idea of their parentage, it's generally a crap shoot. Secret's litter did not turn out to be high-drive performance superstars (Secret's brother is very much like her despite their different upbringings). They are thinkers. They also ended up freakishly tall and very much unlike the compact little speeding bullets that are so popular in agility today.
Secret is not yet two years old and I am excessively proud of how far she has come in this time. This is a dog who had zero interest in toys, no motivation to run, and not a whole lot of desire to interact with me. Anyone who has followed this blog for any length of time knows what we have gone through.
So thanks, Anonymous, for your incredibly insightful comment. And for reminding me to not allow anonymous posting in my comments section. Good day!
That was an incredible unnecessary unkind comment to make. Obviously you've never run a slow steady dog so you have no concept of the challenges that go along with it. I've also seen several dogs that are in the high 98% RI index that have very high Q rates, so speed isn't always the deciding factor. I think handling and timing come into play with fast dogs and become the obstacles.
ReplyDeleteSecret is by no means pokey (6 YPS is great for tunnelers and the highest I've ever seen is 8 YPS which is rare!!!). My Freya Dog is much slower and we have a far lower accuracy percentage(5 YPS is fast for us and it took us a year to get 42 Qs because I'm still learning to be a better handler).
Slow dogs can F*#& up just as much as any other dog. A fast dog will indeed crash and burn quickly but for a slow dog accurate time, weaves, and contact behavior become the obstacles as Karissa pointed out.
I certainly hope you treat your own dogs kinder than you do your fellow humans!
What a b*tchy comment. Thanks for nothing "anonymous". Way to rain on someone's parade. Why don't you go steal candy from a baby while you're at it? I hate joy stealers...I'll bet "anonymous" is the type of person that immediately points outs the faults in your run as soon as you leave the ring...under the guise of "just trying to be helpful". Parade stompers...who need 'em. Heaven forbid we feel proud in our dogs accomplishments.
ReplyDeleteAh and just to emphasize the point, my dear darling dog was 4 for 8 this weekend and our highest YPS was 4.98. So yes slow dogs can be just as bad Qwise :)
ReplyDeleteUmmm... Secret looks pretty fast to me! Anyway, Secrets's an agility rock star no matter what some random jerk says. You're doing such an awesome job training her.
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