I had kind of a strange experience at an obedience trial today. Grant and I
were entered in Novice obedience at an AKC show. We NQed at the recall when
he anticipated it. We goofed, I'm perfectly fine with our NQ. We deserved
it.

The weirdness started when the placements were announce and the ribbons were
handed out. The judge announced first place, and gave the dog and handler
their ribbon. For second place, he announced 25, my number! I knew I had
NQed, it sure as heck wasn't me. It turns out he was confused, and it was
number 15 instead of me. He awarded third, then called fourth place. He
called the number of the dog and handler that he had already awarded first
to. Again, another mix up! The kid who got first was SUPPOSED to be fouth,
and somebody else was first.

My friend and I wanted to find out what we lost points on, so the judge went
over our scores with us. He first told me that I lost 13 points in onlead
heeling. Now, Grant's heeling was nothing to brag about, but 13 points
seemed pretty harsh. Then he told me that we NQed in the offlead heel. I was
shocked! Again, his heel free wasn't anything training videos are made of,
but it sure wasn't worthy of an NQ, especially in Novice A. Then he got to
my recall, where he said I NQed because my dog ran away. Grant didn't run
away, he just anticipated the recall. We also got no points off of the stand
for exam, which we didn't deserve! Grant has a serious wiggling problem
(that IS getting better!)

There was another dog entered that did fairly poorly in the onlead heel, did
some zoomies during the heel free, and also tried to run out of the entrance
of the ring. He was captured by some quick thinking teenage stewards. That
is the only dog that ran away.

I seriously question that he was giving me my scores. Perhaps he was a very
harsh judge, but with the confusion with the placements, and the weird
comment about my dog running away, it really left me wondering. It's not
like the handler & dog that did try to run away were easy to confuse with
us. It was a middle aged man and a longhaired GSD. I am a twentysomething
woman with an AmStaf.

I was left wondering about the competence of this judge. Perhaps he was just
REALLY harsh, but it seemed like the scores I was given didn't belong to me.
Two people told me that I should complain. I've never done that before, and
wanted a few more opinions of what other people thought before I do
anything. I certainly won't enter under this judge again!

Aimee Nicole Schantz
Brando the APBT
Grant the AmStaf
Harry the Malinois
http://www.odnarb.com