Laurie, This is an excellent post! I think it would be so valuable to get some tips from judges on how they would handle situations like this. When faced with these kind of behaviors suddenly and in the middle of the ring, a judge must feel enormous pressure trying to figure out what to do, and figure it out fast. Thinking about how to handle things before they happen, or even realizing that things actually can and do happen, makes it so much easier to decide what to do when you are faced with it. For new judges, for judges that have had this happen in their ring and not known what to do, or for judges who may be faced with this in the future, some suggestions on what others would do might be a tremendous help. Thanks Laurie. From: "Laurie Pruett" <pruett@xxxxxxxxx> Subject: What ever happened to good sportsmanship??? I attended 3 specialties this weekend and, at each one, I witnessed poor sportmanship by 3 different well-known handlers. No wonder the entries in our sport continue to dwindle: Show #1: handler whose very nice animal is not in contention in the class refuses to move his animal with the rest of the class, telling the judge when asked that his animal doesn't need any more practice. Show #2: handler whose animal loses in close competition in winners to another animal removes the leash from his animal and stuffs a toy in the dog's mouth and shows her that way during competition for reserve. Show #3: handler whose dog was beaten in the class tells the judge that the other dog hasn't beaten him all weekend - giving the judge info that he shouldn't have and disadvantaging the class winner in WD competition. We all prefer to win and often, sometimes rightly and sometimes wrongly, think we should win, but a sense of "entitlement" should not translate into rude and disrespectful behavior towards a judge in the ring. It leaves a sour taste in the mouths of both spectators and exhibitors. At least it did me and many others who witnessed these incidents this weekend. BTW - there were no negative consequences for any of these handlers. IMO - there should have been. Those of you who are judges - how do you handle incidents like this is your ring? Laurie Pruett Pat Sel CH Gus ROM; 3x Sel CH Trouble ROM; CH Maddy; CH Tia; CH Ben; CH Tarzan; BOF Piper _www.gsdstyle.com_ (http://www.gsdstyle.com/) and check out photos at _www.snowheronstudios.com_ (http://www.snowheronstudios.com/) **************New MapQuest Local shows what's happening at your destination. Dining, Movies, Events, News & more. Try it out! (http://local.mapquest.com/?ncid=emlcntnew00000001) ============================================================================ POST is Copyrighted 2008. All material remains the property of the original author and of GSD Communication, Inc. NO REPRODUCTIONS or FORWARDS of any kind are permitted without prior permission of the original author AND of the Showgsd-l Management. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ALL PERSONS ARE ON NOTICE THAT THE FORWARDING, REPRODUCTION OR USE IN ANY MANNER OF ANY MATERIAL WHICH APPEARS ON SHOWGSD-L WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF ALL PARTIES TO THE POST AND THE LIST MANAGEMENT IS EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN, AND IS A VIOLATION OF LAW. VIOLATORS OF THIS PROHIBITION WILL BE PROSECUTED. For assistance, please contact the List Management at admin@xxxxxxxxxxxx VISIT OUR WEBSITE - http://showgsd.org NATIONAL BLOG - http://gsdnational.blogspot.com/ ============================================================================