Clean Run - September 2012 - 5

Editorializing…
Nobody Clapped
By Jan Manning

After two days of good but non-qualifying runs, I was primed to make our last day of the trial a success. I’d done some soul-searching the night before, first tearing myself down for being the weak link in our team (of course), and then beating myself up for beating myself up. I knew the negativity would perpetuate in a downward spiral unless I made an attitude adjustment. So, the morning of our final day, my American Staffordshire Terrier teammate and I chanted some pawsitive affirmations together until I, at least, was convinced that “It’s like us to Q.” (Thank you, Lanny Bassham!) Our Standard course that morning went well, despite a couple close calls. I was pretty sure we’d done nothing to make the judge’s hand come up. “Yeah!” I squealed, grabbing her leash from the holder and expecting to hear some applause from the onlookers. Silence. “Oh no,” I thought, even though I tried to fake a “Good girl, Lizzie, great job!” as I slipped the leash onto her neck and trotted out of the ring. Nobody had clapped. That must have meant we didn’t qualify. We’d really messed up somewhere. Dang. The judge must have called a refusal somewhere. Disheartened, I walked over to our tent and crated Lizzie so I could go watch the professional on-site video and find out where we’d gone wrong. The run looked good. Fine, in fact. No faults whatsoever. The judge never raised his hand. Confused, I walked to the secretary’s table to see the scores on her computer monitor. Lizzie Q’d, scored 100, 2nd place, 9 seconds under the course time. Whew! Then I got to thinking about the silence that had greeted me at the finish line. It had meant nothing, and only indicated that the onlookers had been talking amongst themselves or were otherwise not paying attention to the run. It hurt just a little—enough to take the polish off our first Q of the weekend—especially when I heard them yelling and applauding a better known team that had just NQ’d.

We all have favorites for whom we like to cheer, whether the run is clean or less than perfect. It’s human nature to clap and yell loudest for the people we know, and the teams who have overcome great obstacles to achieve their success in the ring. But aren’t we all included in that latter group? Don’t get me wrong; I’m fortunate to trial with wonderful people, and I get to know them all better at each trial I attend. For the most part, they are all friendly, supportive, helpful, and encouraging. But we all have a tendency to get so wrapped up in our own outside-the-ring activities—warming up, analyzing the last run with friends, and visiting about last night’s dinner—that we tend to space out some of the lower profile runs. That’s when the team in the ring crosses the finish line and hears that deflating silence... because everyone was too busy to clap. If I’m standing ringside and chatting with someone while watching a run, I still automatically applaud every competitor as she comes across the finish line, whether I know the person, whether she had a good run, and whether I even care one way or another how she did. As the rodeo announcers say when a cowboy gets bucked off a saddle bronc, “Put your hands together, folks, and let him hear your applause, ‘cuz that’s all he’s taking home today.” When I’m bar setting, I applaud every run. No one’s ever told me it’s bad etiquette to do so, and I figure the competitor deserves to hear applause coming from all directions. If you’ve ever completed a run and been greeted with silence, you know how it feels. You also know how pumped you become when you hear the cheers and clapping from onlookers. Let’s pay more attention to every run, and greet all competitors like they’re champions when they come across the line. It just may keep them coming back to the next trial.

Jan Manning

Jan Manning began competing in agility in 1997, first with Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs and more recently with an American Staffordshire Terrier and a Labrador Retriever. She lives in northwestern Montana and can be reached through her website at www.huckleberryhoundsagility.com. September 12 | Clean Run 5

http://www.huckleberryhoundsagility.com

Clean Run - September 2012

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