Going for the Blue (13 page)
Back to testicles for a moment (a line we don’t get to use very often). The story is often told of an otherwise beautiful
Boxer specimen, I think it was, with only one descended testicle. The owner talked a veterinarian into inserting an artificial
one made of rubber to make things seem right. By the rules of the show ring that is a no-no, big time. Physical faults should
not be altered for show purposes. They got away with it for a time, but then the second testicle descended, as can happen.
The next time out, the judge shot his hand to the target, then turned to the handler with a puzzled look.
“Three?”
T
he dog “show” second in popularity only to the standard conformation show is the obedience trial. The AKC either licenses
or sanctions the trial, and it can be appended to a conformation show or staged as a separate event unto itself. (A member
trial is an event staged by a club that is an AKC member; a licensed trial is staged by a club that generally is not an AKC
member; and a sanctioned trial is an informal event where titles are not earned. It is a kind of tailgate picnic with dogs.
And a fine time is had by all.) The AKC licenses or sanctions twenty-two hundred or more such contests a year.
In the obedience trials, handler and animal are judged together as a team, with one member highly responsive to the other.
Breed standards play no role and the events are not breed specific. Anybody can compete against anybody. Even spayed and neutered
dogs can participate without prejudice. It is a case of performance, not beauty, although many participants have earned conformation
championships in their careers as well. Beauty and brains are by no means mutually exclusive. It is simply a matter of what
ranks highest in the owner’s and perhaps the dog’s “opinion,” if it does come down to a choice between the two. Much of what
the dog accomplishes is strictly a function of the time, effort, and training on the part of the owner or handler.
Think of obedience as a very challenging second show career, a valued backup should a planned show dog’s career not work out
in conformation. An outsize feature, a late-developing undershot or overshot jaw—these things don’t matter when the subject
is exclusively brains and performance. If a dog can’t make it in the world of conformation for one reason or another, it can
still go on to be recognized as the best obedience dog in town. That is no small accomplishment. By no means are obedience
trials for would-bes or any other second-stringers. Obedience titles are hard earned, highly respected, and sources of great
pride for the owners. They can add mightily to the value of a dog and its offspring. They are also great fun for man and beast
and are wonderful bond tighteners. They make any dog much, much easier to live with. Obedience fosters a kind of man-dog brotherhood
and profoundly affects the way dog and partner get along together.
There are three levels in obedience judging. Each has a set routine of exercises for the judge to score, and they become progressively
more complex as the team advances.
Winning at the Novice level can earn your dog the title CD for Companion Dog. Next is Open, with the title CDX, for Companion
Dog Excellent. The highest level is Utility, UD, for Utility Dog. Relatively few dogs in the general population, even show
dogs, come near any one of these higher titles in their deportment unless they have been meticulously trained to the task.
The world would be a much better place if that weren’t so! (That would be true of kids, too.)
The six exercises in Novice, the first level, are what any well-brought-up companion dog should know and do as a matter of
course. No canine rocket science required here, just the ability and the desire to work closely with a human partner and accept
graciously the praise that comes with success.
The six Novice exercises are:
1. heel on a leash,
2. stand for examination (where the handler poses his dog off-lead for a brief examination by the judge—the form of the pose
is the handler’s option),
3. heel free (off-lead),
4. recall (where the dog remains where and as his handler left him until recalled),
5. long sit (one minute), and
6. long down (three minutes).
These commands are typically obeyed with enthusiasm and the same inherent sense of showmanship exhibited by any good show
dog and companion. The obedience ring is not the place for laid-back, lackadaisical dogs. It is a place for pizzazz and excitement.
It is a crowd pleaser for the people who understand what they are looking at. Wonderfully intelligent dogs trying so hard
to please their human partners have a beauty all their own. In a very real way it is what sharing your life with a dog is
all about. We have been at it for at least 150 to 200 centuries. We should be good at it. So should the dogs, and they generally
are.
The Open schedule adds extra elements: (1) drop on recall, (2) retrieve on flat, (3) retrieve over high jump, and (4) broad
jump. The Utility requirements add still others: (1) signal exercise, (2) two scent discrimination tests, (3) directed retrieve,
(4) directed jumping, and (5) group examination.
A dog earns his obedience title when he scores 170 points out of an ideal 200 in that “leg” and gets more than 50 percent
of the points for each exercise. Although the exercises are different in each of the three legs, the numbers—170 out of 200
and 50 percent—remain the same. A dog can go on for his Obedience Trial Championship only after receiving his UD, Utility
Dog, title. For his championship, a dog must earn 100 points that include a first place in Utility with at least three dogs
in competition and a first place in Open with at least six dogs in the competition and a further first place in either of
these competitions. The three firsts must be under three different judges. A championship in obedience is an enormous accomplishment.
And the necessary skills remain with the dog for as long as it lives. Obedience champions are generally the best of all canine
citizens. You can tell. There is a spring in their step. Their handler’s step, too.
A Parenthetic Word about Ownership
An increasingly large number of people strenuously object to the use of the words
owner
and
ownership
when speaking of dogs because of the arrogant mind-set that is behind them. Undeniably there is a bit of bra burning in that,
but there is also some logic and certainly some morality. “People don’t
own
animals, certainly not companion animals,” these people argue. “People and animals own each other in a very real sense; it
should be a reciprocal affair, a partnership in every sense of the word.” This semantic exercise wouldn’t be all that important,
perhaps, if people didn’t act like they were owners and if so many people didn’t overlook their responsibilities and do things
that are out-and-out cruel, careless, and, ah, well, stupid. If people didn’t have the superior attitude that often seems
to go with being an owner and thought of themselves rather as partners in the relationships they help foster, things might
go a lot better for the dogs we have in our families. It certainly happens that way with husbands and wives, parents and kids.
There is more than political correctness to this issue; it’s a lot about love and respect and giving as good as you get. Personally,
I go along with it. I think of my dogs (and cats, and horses and other hoofed critters, and one supersweet cockatoo) as friends
rather than property. I hate the idea of having dominion over other lives. I didn’t ask for it and I am not proud of it. Yet,
as it turns out, it is an essential part of having these animals in my life and of my being a part of theirs.
There is a certain panache about a successful obedience dog, a distinctive way it relates to its owner and the world around
it. It seems to understand the world better than most dogs and enjoy itself in special ways. People typically react to these
accomplished companions with more respect. They are special dogs and obviously they have had a lot of quality time with their
owners. That is a given. Many people prefer obedience competition to conformation and make a championship in that part of
showing a dog their primary goal. The dogs seem to love it, perhaps because it is all about them and what they can do.
Four categories of field trials are sanctioned by the AKC: Hounds, pairs (braces) or packs in pursuit of hare and the cottontail
rabbit (started as a formal competition in 1890); Pointing (since 1874); Retrieving (instituted as a field trial in 1931);
English Springer Spaniel, for the old Spaniel game of flushing (since 1924). Cocker Spaniels and English Cocker Spaniels are
no longer used in this part of the game. They have been assigned other duties: full-time love, the giving and getting thereof.
Their position in the Sporting Group today is simply a matter of tradition, of which the dog-show world has a great many.
I, for one, would be unrelentingly opposed to the Hound events where live rabbits and hare are used, if the target or quarry
animals were harmed. The AKC has assured me that they are never touched, and Dr. Steven Zawistowski, senior vice president
of The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the “A,” and a big Beagle man, has participated as judge,
breeder, exhibitor, and steward, and in other capacities, in more than a thousand of these trials and has never seen a rabbit
harmed. Based on the AKC denial that harm is done and Dr. Zawistowski’s testimony corroborating that, I accept things as I
have been assured they are. No test, trial, or show in any category could justify harming other animals.
For a lot of people, understandably, these trials are not what companion dogs are all about. Obedience is much more to the
point. Conformation is a given. Pride of ownership suffuses all, that and the joy of competition. Both human and canine participants
can find what they want in dog shows. Not everyone wants the same things, but there is plenty of sport and hubris there for
everyone.
There is such a lineup of performance competitions (field trials, herding contests, lure coursing trials) that there are actually
thirty-nine titles a dog can earn besides Ch. for Champion. Unless you have a special interest before you decide to show dogs,
you probably won’t be looking for OA (Open Agility), MH (Master Hunter), NAFC (National Amateur Field Champion), or JE (Junior
Earthdog). You can show dogs for the rest of your life and never even know that such an alphabet soup exists. To the people
who do pursue other doggy interests besides conformance, these other competitions are all-important and very exciting. The
dogs are always special, and the pride and the joy of the owners are boundless.
Among the special areas (breeds) of interest in the Hound category are the Basset Hounds. In field trials Bassets are judged
for searching ability, pursuing ability, accuracy in trailing, proper use of voice (proclaiming all finds and denoting progress
without being noisy, silly, or overly talkative), endurance, adaptability, patience, determination, independence, cooperation,
competitive spirit, and intelligence. Faulty performances are listed as quitting, backtracking, ghost trailing (chasing a
trail that doesn’t exist), pottering, babbling, swinging, skirting, leaving checks, running mute, tightness of mouth, racing,
running hit or miss, lack of independence, and bounding off. That is a long list of dos and don’ts and it explains why people
with Basset Hounds think of them as very special dogs. In fact it is difficult to argue any other view. Bassets are special,
very. If nothing else, our Bassets make us laugh. It can be difficult to think of them as serious trail dogs, but that is
what they are. They take themselves seriously and expect you to, too.
The lures used in Basset Hound field trials are rabbit and hare. Again, the AKC and experienced participants swear the animals
are never harmed and I have no information to the contrary. Insofar as it is true, these contests are wonderful sporting events.
The trials are run in appropriate countryside: fields, meadows, marshes, woodlands. The same dogs can be in conformation shows
as well, and there are beautiful examples of western European hunting dogs to be seen.
Basset
, in French, means low to the ground. Obviously, they are. And they have the most glorious voices. They’re special.
Dachshunds and twenty Terrier breeds are eligible to participate in Earthdog tests. Dogs that are spayed or neutered may join
in the fun, as can the Jack Russell Terrier, which has just become a recognized breed.
Most people don’t realize that couch potatoes like Westies and Dachshunds and Miniature Schnauzers (aka lap dogs) can participate
in the rough-and-tumble world of field trials, including Earthdog tests. Well, they can. There is something for almost everybody
in the amazing world of dogs in competition.
The quarry in these trials are rats in cages. Here, again, the quarry are not harmed, although it probably is not what the
rats would most like to do on a brisk Saturday morning. (We are not generally nice to rats on Saturday morning or any other
day of the week. They have had very bad press.) One supposes that they are not volunteers in these contests but are shanghaied
with relatively little formality. There are AKC regulations that require the caged critters to be fed and watered. The dogs,
too, of course, are fed and watered. It is optional only in the case of handlers and judges. They can take care of themselves.
The dens where the competitors go to ground are, in the case of Junior Earthdog testing, at the end of thirty-foot tunnels
with three ninety-degree turns. The dog, released ten feet from the tunnel entrance, has thirty seconds to reach the quarry.
It can receive no instructions during the hunt or it is disqualified. The energy expended in the game is boundless and includes
a lot of barking. These are noisy, exciting little hunters.
Senior Earthdogs have to tackle tunnels with a blind (false) den and a false exit. They, too, race against the clock. The
attitude the Earthdogs exhibit is positively volcanic: quarrelsome and fairly bursting with energy and enthusiasm. They take
it all very seriously. Digging furiously after vermin is what they were bred to do.