Judge Gets In The Way!

I've heard complaints from other competitors that the judge sometimes gets in the way, distracts the dog, etc., but never noticed having that experience until the Lake Charles trial.  Here are 2 video snippets comparing the judge's movements in 2 different runs, same course.  The first run is me and Maxie, who left the table and took the chute behind me instead of the jump in front of me.  When you have a dog like Maxie, with a chute fettish, a dog walk fettish, and a tunnel fettish, it's important to block those entrances wherever possible. My intention was to block the chute but the judge was in that space.  Wanting to keep a respactable distance away from her, I was forced to go way forward.  Maxie saw his chance, and took the chute behind me (another good reason to never train the Blind Cross).  Since he also has a "greet a friendly stranger" fettish, he could have been attracted to visiting the judge as well.  Notice how she even stepped towards the chute, pulling Maxie towards it even more.  This cost us a Q in a run with no other faults.

When The Judge Gets In The Way (10 seconds)

Compare that to here.

When The Judge Stays Out Of The Way (8 seconds)

The judge staying out of the way made a big difference with this dog's performance.  In addition, my having to think about the judge's position during my run diverted my focus.

Be that as it may, distraction is one of those things each competitor has to learn to deal with as well as training their dogs to avoid distractions. Next time, I'll just have to run into/over/thru the judge.  Ignore the judge. Ignore the divits. Ignore the throbbing knee.  Ignore, ignore, ignore.  Focus, focus, focus. Stay present in the moment.

Upwards and onward!

Programming note: here's the original video I uploaded to YouTube (same as above), before I learned I could upload them directly into the blog from my computer. It worked fine for a week, then began posting a message that it was a private video. That won't do. I am leaving it here to test and see if I can change the setting from my YouTube account.