Category: Performance Events ¤
  Author: Susan Goss ¤
   Title: Seeing the Beauty in Obedience ¤

I want to share some thoughts about why obedience is seen as serious.
First, I will say that I have a competitive obedience dog--not a golden or
border collie either. My Elkhound and I usually look a little out of place
in OB/UB, until we work, that is. When I first started this with her, I
knew that if she did not work out of fun and play, she would not work at
all(I have trained Elkhounds before). However, I never equated fun with
uncontrolled behavior or lack of precision. A horse trainer (Steinkraus, I
think, but I might be wrong about this) said that the proof of our training
is whether the horse becomes more beautiful as a result of it.This insight
has informed everything I strive to do with this dog. She becomes more
beautiful, not cuter or sillier or funnier, but more beautiful.Does this
mean we are not having fun?Maybe, it depends on what you mean by fun, but
we have joy. And the dog absolutely glows when she is really "on". It is
serious. This dog knows that her choices matter.If they don't matter to me
as her trainer, if an approximation is as good as the real thing, why
should she care about getting it just right?
	Obedience is a sport of details, as are all other sports at a competitive
level. My job was to make the details fun. That part was relatively easy.
What was difficult, and what is so often misunderstood by observers, is the
intense focus and concentration demanded of the dog's HANDLER. The dog is
so sensitive to me, that if my timing, pace, posture body language, facial
expression etc are off, the dog will be off. This is typical of many good
dogs.And that is why this really is a team sport, like pairs skating. I am
being serious when I show my dog, but this doesn't mean I'm dour,
depressed, mean or anything like that. I'm just trying to not fall over my
own feet--not because I'll be embarrassed, but because it will screw up my
dog.