It’s been a terribly busy week. I’ve been leading our last camp of the year during the day. Every other hour has been busy with a variety of tasks, as I review TDAA courses, design my own courses for an upcoming USDAA judging assignment, and find a spare hour or four for private lessons and evening classes. On Friday as I wave g’bye to my campers I run jump into my Suburban to head for Nashville, TN where I’ll show my girl Hazard in a TDAA trial down that way. It’ll be a long grueling 7 or 8 hour drive and I hope not to arrive too friggin exhausted.
The folks at camp are from the Cincinnati area. And for the most part they are regular students of mine. I’ve seen some of them grow from fumbling beginners to fairly sharp handlers and dog trainers. And this is one of my great joys in what I do.
This is the set of the floor today. There are a lot of good sequences and exercises that can be drawn from this set. Above I’ve drawn a simple practice sequence for handling the discrimination (when two obstacles are placed in close proximity). In my own teaching this is an opportunity to teach and perfect movements that begin with a counter-rotation. As always, I endeavor to teach my students what is “perfect timing.”
TDAA Update
I can barely stand to look at the members list on Yahoo, much less the more undisciplined Teacup list. Shrill bad manners, badmouthing, name-calling, and unethical conduct are damaging to the TDAA. It will be a lot of work putting us back together again.
As list moderator I should be lopping off a few pointy little heads. Most of our members are just agility enthusiasts who are happy to have a venue that showcases their little dogs. They don’t really want to see “how sausage is made” if you follow my drift.
It’s a conflict of interest right now for me to impose extreme censorship on the real rabble rousers. It is better that our members see who they are and what they are.
It’s late now, past midnight. And I have to get up at about 5:30 in the a.m. I couldn’t sleep and most of this nonsense was worrying at me. I worry about the world. And I really worry about the TDAA.
I reckon if I win the special election with my accumulation of proxy ballots (roughly equivalent to the number of members who voted in our last election)… then I’ll for sure end the conflict at least in terms of quibbling and badmouthing on public discussion lists on the internet. Certainly the BOD and the judging corps will be purged of the worst of them. And then, frankly, we’ll start over again and concentrate on the needs of the agility enthusiast who is simply happy to have a venue that showcases their little dogs.
Isn’t it funny how politics and the illusion of power will bring out the worst qualities in people? It’ll settle down when there’s no “power” to vie for.
Questions comments & impassioned speeches to Bud Houston: BudHouston@hughes.net. Check out my latest publication the Jokers Notebook ~ Dog Agility Distance Training ~ Issue #0 ~ August 2010 available on the Country Dream Web Store: http://countrydream.wordpress.com/web-store/ . Readers of my web log get a discount: Enter “special00” in the box for the discount code. And that will take $5.00 off the price of the order.
Bud Houston's Blog 
November 18, 2010 at 7:53 am
Thanks Bud – I will be so happy when things get back to just talking about TDAA courses and strategies to run them…
November 18, 2010 at 9:09 am
I am with you; I am hardly reading the yahoo lists thee days. 3 or 4 people chasing their tails in circles. I who is making the post and then delete. All the exerts on the lists are exhausting. They are damaging TDAA; yesterday on of the California enthusiasts wrote to the TDAACA list that she was putting allplans to develp TDAA on hold until she saw what “happens” after the ballot. Very sad. Talk about filing civil suits over a game we play with our dogs makes me ill. These people need to find somthing useful to do with their lives.
I hope you have a safe trip Bud, drive carefully and keep your sense of humor intact. Hope Hazard and you have some fun runs!
November 18, 2010 at 9:37 am
Hey Michelle,
I know, it’s pretty awful. What I find interesting is that in a “member-run” organization some of our judges don’t seem to feel they are bound by any code of ethics. I can frankly guarantee about 5 judges lose their sanctioning/credentials with the TDAA no matter what the result of the special election ballot. Let them go join a backwater DTC somewhere where they can practice stupid politics. But get them away from doing more damage to the TDAA.
Bud
November 19, 2010 at 4:03 pm
As I wrote to Deb, Michelle, Marsha —
“I’m not going to be responding to any of it myself, even though some of the letters refer to Bud and “his wife,” or (his wife) and I’ve never been one to be comfortable in quotes or parentheses. Like too-tight-jeans, quotes and parentheses are a bit binding on me. LOL
Most members and exhibitors don’t want to see the ugliness, or know that it exists, anymore than they want to know how sausage or hotdogs are made. I saw one very telling message on the list … “My dog needs 3 more standard legs for his TACH — am I going to get to finish his TACH in TDAA?” That’s really what people want of an organization, isn’t it?
We’re doing a good job of being calm and measured in our responses. The business of TDAA is continuing, despite best efforts to block it. None of the departed board members have YET to step up and explain their role in the scoring of the Petit Prix.
Trials continue, work continues, and we’ll see the end of this very soon. In the meantime, have a Thanksgiving full of peace, hope, and thanks for our families and the dogs we love (those with us, and those who have departed). Marsha Houston