Joined
·
1,066 Posts
This one seems like a major gray area so I was just wondering what people thought about it. I've seen it at a number of events so it's not specific to anyone or any event. A handler takes a dog out of the box and removes a bark collar. He airs the dog, puts the lead on, and walks to the blind. The dog gets on line and is a little vocal but the judges on that particular day let it go. My question is if the bark collar is being used more as a courtesy by the handler to other dogs and handlers to help keep the dog quiet, as a training aid to help reduce the vocal nature of the dog right before running to hopefully not get DQ'd or both? If it's the second one, wouldn't that seem to indicate that the bark collar is in essence being used to train/correct the dog for being vocal right up until he goes to the holding blind? I don't know if or how this has ever been handled at an event so I'm just wondering.