The Interesting Ways Dogs Non-Qualify at Trials
Things don't always go as planned in obedience trial, field trial, and agility competitions. Now that I have a few Non-Qualifying scores (NQs) under my belt in Obedience Trials, I've been hearing some interesting stories of the different ways dogs might NQ. Sharing these stories is fun for newbies and old hands alike. These stories are also encouraging to those of us who have more ordinary NQs - "at least THAT didn't happen to us!".
If you have a contribution, please submit it here! The stories will eventually get moved to the main NQ page, but in the meantime they can be read here. By submitting your story, you are giving me permission to edit a bit, if necessary, for clarity and typos, and eventually re-upload it to use it on the NQ page. I will credit the story by whatever name you use here, real name, 'net handle, whatever you use. Your email address will not appear on the NQ page and is not required here. It is my discretion to decide if a story is inappropriate to put on the main NQ page.
If you have no idea what we are talking about, please look at Discovering Competitive Obedience. You may want to try it, don't let us scare you off, the rewards are well worth it!
| Name: | Giuseppe Mazzarella |
| E-mail address: | giumazz@tele2.it |
| Comments: | hello, first a "Happy New Year" than,
I'm Giuseppe from Rome, Italy. I'm very concerned because soon I have to move from Rome to Brasil and I must take my little dog with me. I found difficulties to travel by airplane because he weights 10 kg and he should travel load in the trunk, this is impossible! He is very scary because he has been mistreated a lot and I fear that he might die of heart disease.Absolutely I can not leave him in Rome.I'm strongly looking for a airline that lets Pippo (this is his name) travel nex to me in the cabin. Do you please have any suggestion to give me or you please know any airline without restriction to carry pets in the cabin? his weight is just 10kg There would be most grateful. Kind regards to all friends Giuseppe Mazzarella e-mail: giumazz@tele2.it |
| Name: | Peter Schuman |
| E-mail address: | peterschuman@comcast.net |
| Comments: | A friend had a smooth Dachshund who was a gift from family members who knew she liked Dachsies, but who knew _nothing_ about proper conformation. Mollie was the only Dachshund I have ever seen who actually LOOKED like a hot dog on legs (if you saw the early brochures for 3M's self-sticking gauze bandages, you saw Mollie, thought she wasn't really THAT long).
Mollie was a dog of steadfast (scratch that: obstinate) opinions. She found once in the Utility ring that trying a creative variation on the directed jumping (taking the jump, then back over the other jump and then over the first one again) got people to LAUGH. She ate up the laughter. The offshoot was a contest of wills and endurance. Her owner finally won when Mollie got her final Utility leg after something over 30 shows (and she was never shown again -- I forget just why). I agreed with her owner that there is a special satisfaction in training a dog that was bred to a great deal of its own thinking and decision-making. Contrast this to the owner of a very successful training school, who once commented that she never wanted to train a hound, because she wanted a dog that had nothing between its ears other than what she put there. |
| Name: | Emmy Hage |
| E-mail address: | hageme@earthlink.net |
| Comments: | This was at our State Fair a few years ago. It was in Open, I think. The dog had a qualifing score going into the long sit out of sight. The kids left the ring and the building. The dog started to get up. The stewart and judge started to step towards the dog and the dog sat back down. After a little bit, the dog started to get up again. Again the judge and stewart started to step towards the dog. Again the dog sat back down. This happened another time or two, with more murth from the crowd. When the kids returned, of course the dog was in a perfect sit in the exact same place. The handler took it in stride when she was told what had happened. I guess it wasn't the first time he was a major clown. |
| Name: | Chris Lowe |
| E-mail address: | ckbj@westnet.com.au |
| Comments: | Great stories, reminds me of a 'situation' we had here in Western Australia a few years ago. 'Mary' was a little lady who was on the wrong side of sixty, and probably didn't weigh much more, anyway she trialled her Harlquin Great Dane "Hedi" in novice trying for her CD, now nobody even the harshes of judges could fault "Hedi" on her heel work (both on and off lead) and her turns, sits, and stands were to die for. She submited to the stand for examination, with aplom, in fact "Hedi" was one smart dog her only draw back was the Recall, now for those who don't know or do it differently here in Australia there are three parts to the recall, each a seperate excercise but all a part of the whole. first comes the sit stay (no problems for "Hedi", then 'Mary' would walk away the required distance turn and face her dog. The Second part is the recall, where the dog comes in at a smart pace and sits smartly in front of the handler (Hmmmm) the third part is the finish where the dog moves smartly around the handler to the sit position at the heel. Ok this is where "Hedi" would ALWAYS slip up, her thinking was (I have to end up alongside mum anyway why bother with the bit in the middle?) we all got to know :hedi: and her antics, anyway we were all watching on day, the rest of the exercises were a breeze, then came the "dredded" recall, "hedi" came in like a rocket and we all thought (she will swerve and go out of the ring, or knock 'Mary flat) what she actually did was when she was about two foot away from "mum" she litterly dropped her bum on the ground and skidded all the way in. The crowd erupted thinking "Hedi" had finally learnt the "middle" bit BUT no sooner had she stopped than she raised herself up put two front paws on mum's shoulders, and started to lick her face, all with the expression on her face"DID I DO GOOD MUM HUH DID I" of course we all had to take about a ten minute break after that to gather our wits and continue on with the trial.
"Hedi" and "Mary" finally got their CD, but it took them a long long time. Cheers |
| Name: | LM |
| Comments: | The fun now continues in Utility!! We got our all time record low score today, a whopping 48 pts. And 20 of those had to be a pencil slip from the judge trying to stifle a laugh when she should have NQ'd us.
Beautiful day, perfect weather. We only barely blew two exercises the day before. Leilah at least didn't any pay attention to the horses corraled real near the ring. But she decided to be extra distracted today anyway and we were NQing just about everything. I thought she was tired, but nooooo... Steward later tells me about it since apparently I couldn't hear any problem (too much Rolling Stones?). Leilah was very distracted, but not alerting, so I didn't pick up on it visually. Seems that about 20' behind the ring, down a small hill, on the other side property's fence, there be OSTRICHES!!!! I guess they came up to that end of their field while we were in the ring and were making some kind of funky noise. The steward and Leilah apparently could hear them, but not me. Her hearing isn't what it used to be, and maybe she couldn't pinpoint them and that's why she didn't actually alert? I dunno. Oh dang, I forgot to proof around ostriches!! My mistake, hehehe. But hey, at least she didn't pee on her articles like another dog did. That dog, being a otherwise spectacular working utility dog, had to have really surpised his owner. If it's not one thing, it's another!! |
| Name: | Dorothy |
| E-mail address: | dotjuschmidt@aol.com |
| Comments: | In a Utility class in the 70's a woman sent her dog on the go out and said sit. He didn't sit, but instead the dog took a dump at the go out spot. As the owner looked in disbelief, the judge said,"Now there is an obedient dog. The owner said sit, and he thought she said ----. Everybody just howled. |
| Name: | Geeske |
| E-mail address: | geeske@cs.ucsb.edu |
| Homepage URL: | http://www.geeske.org |
| Comments: | Having an intact male in the obedience ring is always intersting. We were at a specialty show, hoping for our first Open leg. Yoshka had done every excersise in a previous trial, just not all of them in the same trial. When we left the ring, a GSD women who has put several CDX and UDs on her own dogs, came over and said: That was the best perfomance of any giant breed dog I have ever seen - I looked at her a little confused and asked: You did not see the heeling, did you?! She did not, and the following had happened: Yoshka was VERY tuned in when we entered the ring, despite the cute girls in the hall and all the male competition (confirmation was only a few feet away). I thought, GREAT. He got more and more attentive to me, came closer and closer and finally I realized to where this was leading. He tried to grab my leg with his front leg and was about to release his disires for those cute girls by starting to hump me.... A firm "No" and "Off" put him into his place but earned us a NQ. He NEVER humpes me... well, he finished the rest of the exercises with a total of only 3 points substracted - we still do not have an Open leg ;-) |
| Name: | Leilah's Mom |
| Homepage URL: | http://www.wonderpuppy.net |
| Comments: | Welcome! I hope to make it easier for anyone who wants to submit a story, and less likely they'll get lost in my email. I think it will be cool that others can read submissions here even if I don't get to putting them on the main NQ page very quickly.
Enjoy! |
[ Submit Your NQ Story | Back to The Interesting Ways Dogs Non-Qualify at Trials ]