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Date Posted: 10:09:49 05/09/09 Sat
Author: Norman Epstein
Subject: Re: Jenny, but I think you got me wrong
In reply to: jenny 's message, "Apologies, but I think you got me wrong" on 08:25:52 05/09/09 Sat

Jenny I of course agree that the results of a trial or competition is not necessarily the best or only measurement to gauge a dogs worth, but no one said it was. Certainly I didn’t. I also agree with your contention that there are many dogs out there “doing exactly what it says on the tin and they never see the light of day on a message board or in a competition”, but how many dogs did that handler go through until he found that dog that is doing exactly what it says on the tin. Understand a test is just that, and its purpose is to identify dogs that *may* be able to do the work for which they are being tested. Think of these advanced tests and competitions as undergraduate work that help identifies a dog’s strengths and weaknesses and during that process culling dogs that can’t from dogs that possibly can, or as Tony said in his video, “just seeing what tools the dog has” and then seeing them do that work under actual pressure. Then the dogs that have shown they have those tools are then retrained for their final job. Can all of those tested dogs do the actual work that they are being tested for? Of course not but they have a significantly better chance of success than a dog that is untested and that is the whole point of testing and competition. A test shows for example that the dog can accept advanced training and the dog has the necessary work ethic to keep working in the face of hardships. It separates the dogs that are stable and clear headed from those that are not. That said, no one that knows anything about working dogs ever evaluates a dog just on the results of a test but if you are trying to find dogs to breed to it is much better than taking the word of a breeder who says that my dog can it is just that I don’t have time to train him.

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