First, thanks to the organizers of Huron River...I know the tremendous amount of effort that goes into these shows and I am very grateful for the dedicated club members who do this for us. Thank you!!!

I do have some feedback that I hope will be helpful. I'm not saying this to complain, but to explain why obedience entries and working dogs are harder to come by. I entered a dog in Obedience and Rally and she was also entered in the Open Bitch class at the specialty. When I arrived Friday morning, I set up my crates by the specialty ring then set off to find the obedience ring, only to find it was a ten minute walk away. There was a mix up with catalogues which had me running back and forth between the two rings and I missed taking a friend's dog in the ring that I promised I would because it took me almost an hour to get my armband number. The judge was running late and I had no way of knowing when my bitch would be in the obedience ring and it is very difficult to pinpoint when your dog will be in the ring when the ring is so far away and it takes twenty minutes just to check where they are in the judging. SO, I ate my obedience entry on Friday.

Saturday, I was looking forward to doing Rally with her. She was supposed to be the first in her class at 10:15, the same time the specialty was to start. Because I had no puppies, this would have worked perfectly. I went to check on the ring at 9:30 and the judge was already an hour behind. So once more, I wasn't sure when she would be going in the Rally ring. I took a couple of 20 minute walks to check, but the open classes were starting and time was getting too tight to be able to afford the extra time to check. SO, I had to eat my Rally entry.

Otherwise, the event was well run and a great deal of fun, but I thought I would point out that the one thing I'll remember is missing half the specialty to check on the OB and Rally rings and wasting $50.

I think it is important to keep our labs working and for the few of us that do both venues, it would be tremendously appreciated if organizers of every specialty could make it a little easier on us. It would help the dwindling obedience entries and help to maintain the workability of our breed.

Thanks for letting me express this and thanks for an otherwise awesome weekend (even if I didn't win anything in the raffle)

I wasn't at Huron River but I have to say I have given up trying to do obedience and conformation at specialties for this very reason.
I hope organisers of all our specialties, not just Huron River, are listening and try to do something to make this easier.

As a former member and frequent exhibitor at Winnebago LRC specialty, I'll point out that at that specialty the obedience rings are only 40-50 feet away. You can stand in the breed ring and see what is happening in obedience!

Did you tell the obedience stewards that you had a conflict?

At LRCP Bare Bones usually Obedience and Rally start at least 1 to 1 1/2 hours after conformation, plus you can see both the rally and obedience rings from the conformation rings.

The conformation ring for the LRCP supported entry at Middleburg (the day following Bare Bones) is located on the same side of the show site as the obedience and rally rings and is approximately 5 minutes or less from the conformation rings. You can see the performance rings from the Lab ring as well.

So check us out! We have quite a few members that try to "do it all" at our specialties. Of course you can always have a scheduling conflict so speak to the ring stewards about going first or last if the judge will allow it.

It is not too late to send your entry in for Bare Bones. Happy Showing!

Thanks Peggy,
At Winnebago we also have an agility trial, an obedience run through, an eye clinic, hospitality, and a fun match the day before our specialty. Everything is in very close proximity...

Thanks guys...I really didn't want to complain, I just wanted to share my point of view in case a change could be made next year.
HUGE thanks go to all show committees for any time and effort they give to these wonderful specialties

I, too, was at Huron River. It was an impossible distance to be able to keep an eye on the rings. They ran each of the Specialty obedience trials basically together starting with the Min. Schn, then the Cockers then Labs. It was stated in the judging schedule that we were to be in at 8 a.m. with the group exercises together. I know Disapointed did try to go back and forth between the rings. To be honest I am not sure this judge would have waited. I was having to run back and forth as well for the presentation. So, it was a challenging distance.

Having shown also at Winnebago, that is a wonderful trial to show at. Though it can be hot, everything is visable and the judges are willing to wait cause everything is so close.

I am sure for Huron River to have the indoor obedience this is the set up they had to have. I don't often show in both on the same day for this reason. It is tough. It is a lovely venue for an obedience trial. I don't think I would try to show in both though at this Specialty. Northern Ohio Lab Specialty has a similar set up for breed in relation to obedience.

As a past HRLRC obedience chair (but not for 2007), I'd like to respond to this post. There has been talk of eliminating obedience entirely at our specialty due to the declining entries. There is a small core group of us who are adamant about keeping obedience at our specialty. Fortunately, at this point, I don’t foresee us eliminating obedience any time soon.

The reason the obedience rings are quite a distance from the conformation rings is due to the fact that is the only building available to us for obedience. Many exhibitors have told us they would prefer to show indoors for obedience. We have in the past offered obedience outdoors (when we were at another site that didn’t have an available option for an indoor obedience ring). While some will point out that there was a building next door to the Lab conformation rings, the club would have had to have rented the WHOLE building at a price that was astronomical so it was not a feasible option. So, it leaves us with a difficult decision as to whether we move obedience outdoors next to the conformation rings or leave it some distance away but have it indoors. I can relate to the long hike between the two rings as I have had to literally jog back and forth many times over the last several years both for the HRLRC specialty and at all breed shows. It is quite a hike.

Disappointed, I am sorry to hear of your conflicts between the two rings. We try our very best to accommodate those who are competing in both conformation and obedience. If there is a potential conflict, please be sure to mention it both to the obedience stewards and a show committee member/ring steward at the conformation rings as soon as you realize there’s a potential for conflict. If there’s any way any of us can be of assistance in facilitating an exhibitor competing in both their rings, we will certainly do our best to make it work. It is tough to try and calculate exactly when one needs to be in each ring. Our judges are usually very understanding of the fact that there may be conflicts and try to work with the exhibitors. Unfortunately, as Yellow Boys Mom stated, this year’s obedience judge didn’t appear very willing to wait on exhibitors which is rather unfortunate. However, sometimes the conformation judge is also willing to let an entry come into their ring late (depending on where they are in judging the class) if there are extenuating circumstances.

Finding the perfect show site is a daunting task. There are some specialty clubs (like Winnebago) who really have landed on a gold mine and found a near perfect site to hold a specialty that also offers performance events. HRLRC has considered other site options but at this point has not located a more suitable site that is affordable and available when we would need it.

In our area, there are few owners and their Labradors competing in both obedience and conformation, especially at the same show. This holds true for the specialty as well as at all breed shows. So, we don’t seem to have a lot of “pull.” Please realize I can relate to your concerns as I have shown in obedience and breed at this particular site at past all breed shows and at our specialty. I can attest to the fact that it is nerve wracking trying to juggle competing in both. Invariably it seems as though the schedule has one needing to be in two places at the same time. I will make a point to bring it to our show secretary’s attention about exhibitors who are entered in both conformation and obedience such that the potential for conflict is minimized. For the record, Saturday’s show schedule was handled by MB-F. HRLRC supported the entry but wasn’t responsible for taking the entries or scheduling the classes.

Our club welcomes constructive criticism. If you have anything further you’d like to discuss, please feel free to email me and I would be happy to take your feedback to the rest of our club membership. Thank you for being a part of our 2007 specialty. We hope you will once again join us in 2008.

Would it be possible to rent a golf cart or two to help exhibitors get from one side of the venue to the other? Perhaps they could show their obed./rally entry confirmation as a 'ticket to ride'?

I would have very willingly shuttled exhibitors and their Labs from ring to ring on a golf cart. We have rented golf carts in past years. We were supposed to have one this year but for some reason it never materialized. So unfortunately that wasn't an option this year.

We were also entered in both obedience and Open Yellow bitches, we missed our open yellow class, as we were in the ring.

whoops, should have read 'In the obedience ring'

I did mention to the stewards that there would be a conflict, but as the specialties (Schnauzer and cocker spaniels) were all judged together, those dogs would have had conflicts if we waited it out.

In Response to This Exhibitor,

As an obedience competitor myself, I have pushed really hard to keep obedience alive at our specialty. Our club shares judges and stewards with two other clubs in an effort to keep obedience entries at all three clubs. Obedience is very important and given that our club has always had a very low entry, it is becoming more difficult to convince clubs to keep obedience classes at a specialty. Thankfully this year our obedience entry has gone up in comparison to previous years.

I understand your frustration with having to walk to the other end of the venue for obedience. We share our obedience judge and stewards with two other breeds holding their specialties on the same date. The HRLRC (and other clubs) feel that its important to have obedience indoors, which unfortunately means the rings are at the other end of the show location and away from where we had the labrador conformation rings. The only option we have to correct the distance between the rings is to offer obedience outdoors. I'm not sure this is how obedience competitors would want to compete at our specialty? Is it important to have obedience indoors?

I did hear about your ring conflict. I happened to be at the obedience rings during the time in which your obedience class was due to begin and we did call and hold up the class in hopes that you would be back momentarily from the conformation ring. Additionally, I personally walked back to the conformation area in hopes of finding you to see if there was anything we could do to get you to the obedience class. Perhaps we crossed each other in passing.

In regards to the Rally classes on Saturday. The Rally trial was held my the Monroe Kennel Club, not the HRLRC so we have no say-so about their schedule. The HRLRC sweepstakes on Saturday started at 8AM and the judge was on-time and did finish prior to the scheduled time for the next judge scheduled for ring #13.

I'm very sorry that you had experienced conflicts. Each show has a large entry and we always expect someone to have a conflict. We try to do what we can to minimize those conflicts, such as starting obedience earlier than the other rings. However we can't always avoid every conflicts.

I want to thank you for your feedback. I have copied your comments and will work with our club to try to incorporate some changes to make things run more smooth in 2008. I really do hope that you will support our club in future years and especially with your obedience entries.

Michelle VeuCasovic
Show Chair, HRLRC

This was my first year at this Specialty. I was very impressed with the obedience facility. Thank you for keeping obedience. I was sorry to see the low numbers, especially since some of the others have such nice numbers! I do hope to be able to make it back up sometime again to show. I know many did have ring conflicts and choices were made. It is difficult to accomidate all. I must admit, I was hoping that the Labs would have had the 8 a.m. slot for the obedience rather than the Min. Schn and Cockers but that is how it goes sometime.

Thank you all at Huron River Lab Club for putting on a wonderful show.

This was my debut in obedience, and I didn't personally mind the walk...but I wasn't competing in the show ring either. I was simply a spectator for the remainder of the specialty once I was done getting NQ'd in the the Novice ring .

I am greatful to Huron River for sticking with Obedience and kind of hope they add Rally to next year's line up. IT was a good time...thank you!

It is getting harder and harder for us show chairmen to argue the point of keeping obedience at these events. We do try and keep it alive as best as we can.

Absolutely understood. Again, it wasn't mentioned to complain, more to identify a problem that I'm sure you were aware of anyway. I for one don't mind outdoor trials as they are at least in sight...out of sight, out of mind. It's a shame there are so many nice working labs and nobody is there to witness it.
Thanks again for all your hard work and thanks for making the huge effort to offer obedience when many clubs have dropped it

"I for one don't mind outdoor trials as they are at least in sight...out of sight, out of mind. It's a shame there are so many nice working labs and nobody is there to witness it."

Absolutely agreed. I actually prefer outdoor trials.

My fave specialty is the LOC, the obedience rings are right next to the conformation rings, in plain sight.

I have never competed there though LOL, my girl is always in season! ;)

I also would be certain to enter obedience at HRLRC if the rings were outside. My dogs do better as we train outdoors.

I'm the whimp! I always worry about my dogs jumping if the grass is wet so I don't usually enter outdoor trials. Whimpy, whimpy, whimpy!!!! That's me!

Thank you for the LOC thumbs up Melissa. We moved obedience to Friday at an indoor venue this year, away from the show site at the Holiday Inn. Feedback was terrific. Rally O was held in tandem with the conformation classes.
We will be using the same format for 2008.
Cheers
Dawn
LOC Specialty Chair ( back for 2008)