by TheRedQueen » August 23rd, 2011, 10:50 pm
We traveled to St. John's, Michigan this past weekend to attend our second DSO...and boy did we have fun! The DSO is a protection dog trial, that they have opened up to non-protection dogs...for obedience only. We go to this trial, because of the physical and mental challenges for humans as well as the canines. The field is about 2 acres, fenced in...with multiple obstacles around the edges, and with donkeys, goats and horses in the fields adjacent...lots of distractions.
We arrived at the site on Friday, to see a HUGE obstacle, covered with a tarp, in the middle of the trial field. This made me VERY happy...I was hoping for a physical challenge this year. We didn't get to see what it was until Saturday morning. When uncovered, I just stared in amazement. It was a tall platform...only accessible by a tall ramp (like one side of an agility A-frame)...with a long black tunnel slide on the other side. I was anxious to see what we'd have to do with this!
The theme for this year's DSO was "Descent into Hell". Hell turned out to be about BSL (Breed Specific Legislation).
To start with, in beginners level (on-leash)...we had to walk into the field and meet a woman with a coat for our dogs. PETA has taken over, and we have to "disguise" our dogs...and pretend that they're golden retrievers. We are aso handed a "license" for our golden retriever. So we put the coat on the dogs (I had to wrap it twice and use a ponytail holder to make it small enough to fit The Wiener)...and we had to heel down the fence line to a chain link pen. We had to stop, get the dog to sit while we opened the pen door. We had to put the dog inside the pen and have them hold a sit-stay while we closed the door (harder than I figured). Then two decoys come out of their tent and harass you about your golden retriever. They take your"license" and say that the real ones won't burn...they set your paper aflame, and since it's flash paper, it flames up and floats away. The dog has to hold a sit stay this entire time. They start arguing that the dog is or isn't a golden retriever. A NRA member with a gun comes up to help you...they tell you to get your dog out of the pen, take the disguise off and heel quickly to the ramp on the obstacle. You and your dog have to climb up the ramp and get to the top of the obstacle. Another decoy is a the top, with a rifle...defending you and helping you. We then have to take the dog and go down the slide. (The Wiener just leaped into the tunnel and went down by himself...looking back at me the entire time..."are you coming too?") At the bottom of the slide, we had to get the dog to sit, and then we had to heel to meet the judges for a meet n' greet. After that, we were done with the obedience only portion (protection dogs went on to bitework scenarios).
The intermediate level had the same basic things, but it was off-leash, and the decoys moved around more and were more aggresive (one stared into the pen at the dogs while they did the sit-stay.
"I don't have any idea if my dogs respect me or not, but they're greedy and I have their stuff." -- Patty Ruzzo
"Dogs don't want to control people. They want to control their own lives." --John Bradshaw