Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Sportsmanship and lack thereof

Over the years I have witnessed and also been the subject of some amazingly bad sportsmanship at dogshows. Now that doesn't make me special because so has most anyone else who has been around for awhile. I was discussing this with a Whippet breeder recently and we were exchanging war stories. Here are some of my favorite dogshow "bad actors" that I witnessed.
The person at the sidelines yelling out loud when BOB is chosen , "Oh MY GOD, I can't believe he picked that POS."
The person who walks up to the steward's table picks up a stack of armbands, puts them on realizes one isn't hers walks over to the stewards table, says I think I have one that isn't mine, looks in the catalogue sees who it belongs to and tears it in half and throws it away.
The handler that walks in the building with his open dog sees who is at ringside then takes the dog outside and puts it up in the van breaking the major. WTF?
Now the crazies have infested the performance sports too. Maybe they have always been there but I managed to avoid them until fairly recently. Here for your reading enjoyment, little behaviors I like to call Psychos Afield
The owner that shrieks when two dogs honestly just collide at the end of a course ( no growling or looking) oh my God, Spammy just got attacked, they need to disqualify that dog, I'm sure the judges want to do something about it. Continues this shrieking while approaching the dog scaring both of the dogs. The lure operator is like Lady it was an honest collision that's all.
Owner's friend who stands watching the incident screaming SON OF A BITCH SON OF A BITCH ATTACKED SPAMMY. Aren't the judges going to do anything? Of course the judges under the tent are going "what is wrong with those women?" because they continue to stand around next to the start line fluffing Spammy's hair examining his cuticles loudly complaining about the dog that attacked him in hopes of what changing the judge's mind? I just shook my head in disgust and walked off.
Later on same day Rhodesian people parked next to the pair o'whackados come and ask me if my dog got DQ'd. I'm like no why? They are like oh those ladies were telling us all about how your dog attacked their dog. Great, just charming. Then Pharoah Hound people parked on the other side of them come and ask me the same thing. Wonderful, remind me that no good deed goes unpunished. It wasn't that long ago that I volunteered another of my dogs for one of these whackados to certify one of her dogs with when no one else would.
One of my friends in another part of the country was at a trial once where two dogs run in on the lure both are very keen, and grab a bag and start playing tug and twist etc with it. Well the other dog's owner runs out in her shorts gets tangled in the line because she is too dumb to grab her own dog and step out and then starts shrieking at my friend that her dog is vicious (he is still worrying the lure) and she needs to muzzle him if she is going to run him because she has line burns on her legs. So blame your own ignorance on someone else's dog. Now this same person spreads rumors that this dog is vicious. Oh yes, he is VERY vicious to plastic.
Another fun field trial example is people with opens asking people to run their field Ch's in open at AKC trials to make a major. Fine but once those FC's run prelims and are ahead of some or all of the opens then someone runs up to one of the people whose FC got a high score and screams at them what a bad sport they are for not pulling their dogs so the opens can "get their majors". Excuse me? I guess they were good sports as long as they were entering crappy running FC's in open but don't enter a competitive one there when asked to help make a major. Honestly, the nerve of some people is pretty amazing to me. If that had happened to me with all that screaming and drama we'd of had a bench committee, there is no call for such rude behavior and poor sportsmanship. It makes a mockery of the sport.

1 comment:

Rosehillwindhounds said...

One can always hope such people will screw up at an AKC trial where the decisions of the committee will have immediate and far reaching results. Having a fit on the field at any event only makes the fit thrower look like a childish ass, and accomplishes nothing at all. And some folks out there are known for it, causing a collective groan when they show up on the field.


Vger and Tory Running Wilder