Tense moments for dogs

Press, 12 November 1985, Page 40

Tense moments for dogs

The stars of the ring entertainment at the Canterbury show on Friday are likely to be three highly trained, skilful sheep dogs. Each dog and its'master will have to battle against the distraction of the show crowd while attempting to control three nervous sheep in the final of the sheep dog trial competition. The three dogs to contest the final will be known after tomorrow’s competition. Sixty-five dogs and their handlers have entered the contest and the top three dogs will qualify for

Friday’s event. Most of Canterbury’s leading dog trial combinations, including some who have appeared in televised dog trial programmes, will be at the show. Tomorrow’s trials will start at 7.30 a.m. and will be held in the Addington Raceway carpark off Wrights Road. Friday’s final, which is a separate competition for the three leading combinations, will start at 1.20 p.m. Working in the main ring at the Canterbury show poses great problems for handler and dog. Because of the crowd noise and echoes

from the grandstands, dogs can become confused so most handlers use a whistle to issue commands instead of relying solely on their voice. From his position close to the ground, a dog can have difficulty locating sheep at the other end of the ring because they can blend in with the advertising hoardings in the background. During a run-out (the first stage of the trial), a dog might therefore be running “blind” as he does not know the exact position of the sheep. This gives rise to a

greater fear among handlers that the dog might “cross head” — that is, cross between the handler and the sheep instead of circling behind the sheep to complete the run-out. A cross head results in the loss of half the points allocated for the run-out After completing the runout, a dog and its handler will have to shepherd the sheep through several obstacles and into a pen within 12 minutes. The sheep must be kept firmly under control and points will be deducted for

mistakes. The obstacles will include hurdles, a bridge and a Maltese cross.