Judging from the pictures the man should have been excused. No excuse for this idiocy. I have been catching dogs since I was 14 and have NEVER caught a dog like this. The man is a jerk, and was doing it on purpose, probably ego.
I find it hard to believe someone has been catching dogs since they were 14 and has never jammed one dog. Humans are prone to making the occasional mistake. Dr's have malpractice insurance but decoys only have critics. If this guy is catching dogs at this level, odds are someone in charge thought he was capable and odds are he was. I am not defending poor helper work, just making the simple argument that in dog sports as with all facets of life there are intangibles ie. sprinkler heads, depressions, holes, rocks, dogs that juke left and come right. Now have at me.
>>Ik thing jou must look for helpers like this for great competitions.
****Well the dog, no matter how great he may be...will NEVER reach the level of 'great competitions' if the helpers are poor on a local or regional level...It is a big problem.
B
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"Desire is the key to motivation, but it's the determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek."
I completely agree with Bjorn that decoy work, even at important trials, sometimes is a shame. Ok, everybody can make mistakes and we shouldn?t always criticize, but every trial decoy should be able to perform correct and dog-friendly work. This goes for all disciplines. It is really sad that so many good dogs literally are destroyed physically by bad decoy work.
Techniques are different in every sport:
In IPO and KNPV there is a spinning movement of the decoy to decrease the impact of the entry and this is necessary because of the distance of the attacks. The decoy should never block the dog on the entry!! Saying that the dogs should get harder is completely stupid, because this hasn?t got to anything do with the dog?s character.
In FR and MR the problem also exists, but is not as pronounced because of the esquives. Dogs are trained to the technique of the esquives and this slightly slows down their entry speed. Distance of the attacks isn?t as long either.
Also in BR the distance of the attacks isn?t as long as IPO or KNPV, but as there is no spinning movement (dogs have to go frontal) the dog has to absorb the full blow of the impact. That?s why it is very important that the decoy is ?light? on his feet and absorbs some of the impact with a backward movement upon the impact. Unfortunately not all decoys do this. Some really are static ?concrete? blocks who make the dogs smash themselves up against ?a wall?.
Judges don?t react here either. After the trial they do have to fill in a report about the decoy work but the real ?work? never is judged, only the fact whether the rules were respected or not and this is a shame. In my opinion it should be possible to sanction a decoy for blocking a dog.
Well Chuck, I don't have the ego these people obviously posses. I will and have done everything possible to avoid jamming a dog. So far so good. I am getting old, so if I screw up this weekend, I will let you know. I do Mondio, and occasionally we get a french ring dog that really comes in hard expecting the esquive, or escape. We don't do this in Mondio. I have been really lucky not to jam some of these dogs. But again, I would rather hurt myself rather than jam the dog. This I have a lot of experience with. Hurting myself that is. ? ? The decoy in the photos has NO excuse.
Also in BR the distance of the attacks isn?t as long as IPO or KNPV,
How long is the IPO and KNPV attacks? The courage test in the Sch trials I've been looks shorter than the face attack in FR/MR. How long is it supposed to be?
I agree that if it can be proven that these catches were made on purpose sanctions should be made against these helpers, and also if a particular decoy has made a habit unsafe catches. Safety of the dog should be first and foremost in the helpers mind in all sports.
Hi Kadi...The judge confirmed this during our last trial and showed us the judge's rulebook...Said for the ScH I's 30 meters....2 and 3's he said went about 50 meters....The dogs for the I's took off between blinds 3 & 4...and the 2's and 3's take off position was between blinds 1 and 2...So if you can visualize a Sch field...that might make it easier to understand...
KNPV--80 meters
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"Desire is the key to motivation, but it's the determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek."
The long attack in IPO,VPG,Sch.h. is about 30 meters but that is during exams. At world championships and country championships the judge send you as a participent to the end off the foodball pitch so a full 110 meters (football pitch is normally 110 meters long and 55 meters width) face attack. Because the judges think it is spectaculer. But there it goes wrong how does the judge know how the decoy can handle this. He only saw the decoy's work one dog to see how the helper works. But normaly the helper knows this dog from seeing or worked with this dog. But now he gets dogs he doesn't know and there is where the problem is because in Holland most helpers is the left side there favorite side but at a higher level there are fast dogs that allso come on the right side or dogs that come in the middle off the body and then you can see iff the decoy is technicall or not. This you can't see when politics is involved. At the FCI world championship in Baunatal in 2002 the judge that was the judge at the defense he shortend the face attack up till 30 passes because he saw the helpers and he did this because for the safety for the dogs. And that is a good thing. As you all know there are some Malinois bloodlines and German Shepperd bloodlines that hit very very hard. And while he shortend the distance the dogs couldn't come in at full speed.
I think my biggest issue with Sch/IPO would be the use of the hard sleeves.? Although a dog can be jammed, teeth broken, etc in any of the sports, I think the hard sleeve adds an extra element of risk that a suit doesn't.? ?If the bite surface gives, ie a suit, then when the dog hits it even if the decoy doesn't catch right the mouth doesn't take the impact that it recieves if the dog hits a hard sleeve without absorption.
This is evident in an accident that happened to one of my dogs during a protection competition on the long bite.? Unfortunately I don't have it on video tape, so I can't watch frame by frame exactly how it happened.? But we know two things, she shattered a portion of her jaw, and she tore an entire canine out, root and all.? Based on information from the people standing near the helper (they heard the "crack" noise as she hit and the "rip" noise as she was swung) what I believe happened is the impact shattered part of the jaw, and then the swing motion and her attempt to hang on is what ripped the canine out, because the bone wasn't supporting it anymore.
I think this same catch on a suit wouldn't have resulted in the same amount of damge, due to the impact being on a softer surface, with more "give".? And yes, IMO this injury, which ended my dogs career, was directly the result of a bad catch on the part of the helper.? ?
What ou refer to malndobe is that in IPO/VPG in Germany i know a few helpers how work with soft arms . They arms that they use is the Gappay soft 110 or The Frabo number 7 or the ebinger 103 these arms are a bit softer than a hard arm and the dog good set a good grip. Maybe this is just an idea that the boards from different countries say that on national champioships and World championships the decoy's must use the sleeves and no other sleeve that is harder or softer. In training I use different kind off sleeves haard and soft. But back too the topic. What is the sulution for this problem? I think there should be in every country a decoy weekend 4 times a year where the decoy is filmed and later he could see what he has done wrong or good. Why 4 times a year than you can see iff the decoy has proven him self or he thought this is all B.S. Iff he gets badder than the judge or the board could take his certifced away. Because 9 out off the 10 times from jamming the dogs get the most injuries and not the helper.
i think they are just for comfort of decoy and no benefit whatsoever to dogs. Bite bar this whedge there and all mumbo jumbo... i mean if dog can't bite that kind of sleeve full mouth than it is really crap dog. On suit you can tell if dog is happy with only fabric and no meat or if he wats to get to man.
On the topic of harcd sleeves and safety of dogs;
i could jamm dog on entry just as easily in suit as with sleeve when doing ipo style face attack (forearm). It is really in technique and not in matter of sleeve/suit. That dog's jaw migt not be wrecked if he did not hit a wall.
Again, i have notihing against IPO, but i look at say frabo9 and say wtf? for what?
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