This is a response for all triallers following previous comments posted in relation to the ACT championship
There is no doubt the Australian retrieving fraternity is in a sad state at the moment. A number of club events around the country including state championships in NSW, SA and ACT (most probably TAS as well) have less entries than previous years and could not have run events without the support of interstate competitors. The ANKC and state rules and regulations are open to interpretation in a number of areas and overzealous interpretation of these rules and regulations would likely to have led to the cancellation of numerous events. For example many club secretaries have been forced to accept late entries, incorrect entry forms and solicit entries just to get some trials “off the ground”. Thankfully common sense has prevailed and trials around the country have been able to get off the ground that may have been otherwise cancelled. This has occurred without any public outcry or inane comments.
As triallers who love the sport we can’t afford a divide our membership by becoming overzealous with personal interpretations and need to be more accepting of trialling fraternities in order for our sport to survive and hopefully flourish.
Retrieving trialling is a unique and very small minority sport under pressure to survive into future years, we as competitors, secretaries, committee members, judges, stewards etc are the incumbent caretakers, we do not own the sport but have a duty of care to look after the long term survival of the sport for future generations of people and dogs alike.
Perhaps it’s time to look at the positive not negatives and offer support where needed.
Trialling in the ACT has taken place for at least the last 40 years. It has survived both good and bad times as other states. Many of us would like all trials to continue, survive and grow into the future.
The ACT State Championship was able to go ahead with the minimum required competitors. This was very well planned trial with great consideration given to all the runs. Every avenue of both gundog and handler work was thoroughly challenged and fairly tested. There was clear guidance of what the judge required and expected, over the course of the two days a small group of people witnessed some very difficult and demanding runs which produced some outstanding dog work.
The trial was conducted with the good intention of why our sport exist in the form it does. Good dog work, trainability, team work, camaraderie and the social aspect for all those involved. When we entered the sport and this trial we did not think we would be open to the public scrutiny of individual interpretation of the ANKC rules, what we were doing was complying with our interpretation of the ANKC Rules for the good and the benefit of the sport and did so in good faith.
Thanks to the hard work of in particular the trial manager and the judge this event was not only a success but also provided our sport with some excellent public exposure. The local paper ran a full page colour spread on the front page about retrieving trials and the local ABC Country Radio attended and interviewed many of the competitors and will be airing a piece on the event this week.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-14/dog-retrieval-championships/5811222What is the intent of this reply??
It is to reassure the trialling community that this retrieving trial was conducted with the correct intentions at all levels for the good and benefit of our sport. In our opinion the appropriate ANKC and Dogs ACT rules and regulation were adhered to.
We also hope this statement helps people to think in the future about the positives of our sport not just sit back and look for ways to be negative.
Good luck and good trialling in the future
Greg Playdon
Karl Britton
Kevin Andrews
Trevor Stow
Gareth Tawton