Cross-Venue judging - a small commentary

I had a phone discussion today with someone and chose to post this publicly.

Several months ago, I was told by someone who judges a certain retriever venue, that another judge had earned a reputation for "throwing crazy tests". The basis behind this appeared to be the fact that this judge in question used to run venues A and B with former dogs, but now chooses to run venue C with current dogs.

While I do think that this sort of thing could be possible, I want to point out that this judge in question probably has an even more well-rounded set of experiences to draw from. Folks who have trained, run and handled dogs in multiple venues are probably, in general, more capable of dialing up or down the scale to suit their test setup to match the standard and rules for the venue they are judging on that day than those who only reside in one particular venue.

My suggestion: Don't automatically believe someone's criticism of another's judging style and experience as fact, unless you've witnessed and experienced it yourself.

Ironically, and I know this for a fact, the judge being criticized by the person making the comments has never run a dog, and never attended a test judged by this judge in question.


Chris

Good post (as normal), Chris.

Excellent post Chris. Thank you for keeping us grounded

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Originally Posted by Chris Atkinson

Ironically, and I know this for a fact, the judge being criticized by the person making the comments has never run a dog, and never attended a test judged by this judge in question.


Chris

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I'm thinking that you are trying to say that the person doing the criticizing has never ran a dog & has never attended a test by the judge being criticized. Am I incorrect?

Funny thing - you had a conversation the other day with someone who was famous for doing that around here :).

People talk, it happens a lot. More training, less talking.

I though you were duck hunting?

All judges suck. Some just do it better than others....

/Paul

the person that said that should judge himself. if every one could take a turn in the chair they might find out it's not too easy.

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Originally Posted by pat addis

the person that said that should judge himself. if every one could take a turn in the chair they might find out it's not too easy.

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It's easy to judge dogs, it's difficult to please people.

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Originally Posted by Marvin S

I'm thinking that you are trying to say that the person doing the criticizing has never ran a dog & has never attended a test by the judge being criticized. Am I incorrect?

Funny thing - you had a conversation the other day with someone who was famous for doing that around here :).

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Hi Marvin,

I wrote the above in a hurry so I could get out of the office and head to a friend's farm on a Friday.

What I meant to say was this. People should not automatically accept others' criticisms of judges, or for that matter clubs or venues, as fact unless they experience it on their own. I personally spent my first 13 years in dog games accepting criticisms of other venues and others who ran those venus as fact. I fell into the trap of believing that if those I emulated did not like certain people, styles, events, or clubs, then I should not like them either. I had many great years of dog game enjoyment at that time. But I was stuck in a world of vanilla ice cream only.

Once I got out of my element and moved across state lines and had dogs pass and got pups, I decided to check out the other side. Guess what: I liked it. There were other flavors of ice cream that were fun. I enjoyed it.

Marvin, as I type my reply, I see your signature line.

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Everyone's friend is no one's friend

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. Maybe if you and I sat down and talked a bit, I'd get what you mean by that. I can say that a corollary to that, however could be that one should not assume that just because a friend of mine is not friends with someone else, doesn't mean that I can't be friends with that someone else.

Along the lines of judging, which was the true intent of my message, there's a judge who has run lots of venues over the years...and judged lots too. Someone involved in one of the venues that guy doesn't run much anymore, has been expressing opinions about that judges style. The fact is that the person expressing those opinions has never run in an event judged by the judge in question. That person has run plenty of events run by others. That person has also never observed or attended an event judged by the judge in question.

I was motivated to make the post after a phone discussion with someone. That particular person had heard criticisms of certain and commentaries and wanted to discuss it My suggestion was that he/she certainly make note of the information provided, but not accept it as fact. Keep an open mind until he/she spends some time checking out the people/places/things to draw their own conclusion.

Chris