2018 May June

Finally, Finals!
Top 15 Finalists in Ducks. Left to right: Tom Morarre and Ki; Ann Chernoff Allan with Torri and Couloir; Art Landry and Iggy; Betty Williams and
Jake; Tricia Alexander and Rook; Judy Deshazo and Mauzer; Barb Moe and Denim; Linda Barhite and Chip; Marla Gaby and Katie Mae; Dawna
Simms and Z; Melinda White and Jammer; Kay Pieper and Tio; Salvatore Manna and Yogi. Photo: XP Photography
My point here is that proper training and experience for both
the dog and the handler is crucial to a good performance. And
I will suggest that it is not the quality of the dogs that may be
lacking so much as it is the degree of training and experience that
some handler/dog teams have when they show up at Finals that
leads to the impression that the quality of our Aussies is not what
it should be. Furthermore, I wonder if the perception that the dogs
and handlers are not as good these days as they were in the past
may be inaccurate. In fact, I think the training, at least for arena
courses, today is probably superior to what it was in the 20th century.
Perhaps the main difference between many of the dogs competing
in Finals in the past few years and those competing in, say, the first
two decades that Finals were held is that most of those early dogs
worked on ranches and had to have lots of grit. From what I have
seen in old videos, the dogs from that era were tough and also a
little rough when doing arena courses. Many times, in the videos,
they do not listen to the handlers at all. Sometimes they get the job
done and sometimes they don’t. I myself have worked with one
particular dog that folks told me worked like the old-time Aussies
and more often than not he had his own ideas about what needed to
be done and how to accomplish that. This approach did not prove
to be an effective way to get high scores most of the time in arena
trials. But in a real working situation, he got the job done.
Maybe the dogs have changed, and maybe the program has evolved
from a small group of ranchers who wanted to get together to show
what their working dogs could do, to a large number of dog owners
who want to compete in the ASCA stockdog program and show what
their dogs can do. Unfortunately, many of these handlers never get
the opportunity to train or perform in any situation other than the
trial arena. I feel that the biggest difference in what we see today
vs. the old days is that many of today’s competitors never have an
82 AUSSIE TIMES May-June 2018
opportunity to work their dogs on a ranch in order to develop the
toughness and stock instincts in their dogs.
Compounding this deficit in exposure to real world situations
is the short supply and lack of availability of fresh stock to use
in our program. It is getting harder and in some cases almost
impossible to get fresh stock for trials. Consequently clubs end up
using stock that does not give the dogs a true test. Then when these
dogs get to Finals and face fresh
stock that has not been on a course
before, they don’t have the training,
experience and skill required to
move uncooperative stock through
the course. At least that is how it
appears. But I can’t help but think
that this may not, in many cases, be
due to deterioration in the quality
and ability of our dogs so much
as it is simply a matter insufficient
training and lack of exposure to
stock that are not dog broke.
I was most pleased to hear from
Elsie Rhodes who provided her
perspective of the 2017 Finals and
the quality of the dog handler teams
for inclusion in this issue of Finally
Finals. It is clear that she does not
find the quality of the competitors
lacking. Thanks, Elsie, for sharing
your thoughts and observations on
last year’s Finals.
*****