I always try to remind myself "It's their problem, not mine."

People like this used to really get to me. But now, a very close friend of mine comes off as super boisterous, strong-headed, arrogant, "I am who I am if you don't like it deal with it" attitude. It's all a front. I found that out when we started fighting all the time. Turned out that I treated him as roughly as he presented himself, thinking he could take it. But in actuality it hurt his feelings and I had no idea. Ever since getting to know him and realizing this, it has become clear to me that their (these snooty, outwardly mean people) actions only reflect (or mask, I suppose) their insecurities. Now their actions don't get to me at all. The meaner they are, the more I pity them.

Now there are the other type of snooty people out there... the ones who are so above you that they don't ever acknowledge your presence, turning a cold shoulder to you, or talking to someone who is right next to you and acting as if you aren't even there and such. These people make me feel very uncomfortable and I still haven't figured out how to deal with it

I don't understand rivalries and super competitive people. I'm naturally not very competitive at all. To me it isn't about titling, it's about setting goals for myself and my dog and learning. I do it because it makes my dog happy and it makes our relationship better.

Luckily, I found a great club and train with a lot of really nice, welcoming, down-to-earth people.

I generally stick with the Rally people, who tend to be a helpful, happy bunch. They are not anal about their perfect sits, but they will give you the time of day if you ask, and they will laugh with you rather than at you.

The Obedience people are a bit different. This is serious crap with them, and they have no time for idiots who don't know the time of day. They seem to have zero tolerance for anyone who bothers with Rally.

After it's all said and done, we have plenty of material to laugh and bitch about to each other after the show.

But you can trip them up. Like, show one dog in Rally and the other dog in Obedience. Once I was doing this in my town, where we had two shows at the same location, one after the other. The rally is done lickety split, and the obedience drags along.

I showed Heidi in Rally and took first, and then I went out and got Babsy. So I came in and Babs is sitting nicely by me in the obedience section, and this obedience person sits down and says, "God the Rally dogs are just awful today!, they can't keep them in the ring."

I said, "My dog did very nice in Rally today."

She said, "That's because you are training for obedience."

I just said, "No, that girl is only trained in Rally, this is a different dog."

I guess I just look on it with humor. They are the ones that are unhappy. We are all having a good time. The snootty, snotty ones are really to be pitied.

I've seen people being more supportive within the obedience world(they train together and support each other) I am able to go to some of the workshops they hold and even though they all have different training styles and methods, they will constructively critique each other. I don't compete in competitive AKC stuff, and they welcome me and my dog every time we go to train with them.

With IPO, I've seen some catty behavior and the snubbing of the ones who really need some help. One guy I trained with had physical difficulty and only one or two of the group was willing to help him, even though he never asked, he needed their positive support and a compliment now and then.
Photo's or video would be taken of all the other teams, but when he'd come out to train, they ignored his sessions.

I personnally need to be in a club or group that is supportive of one another, and won't waste my time ever again with a group that is negative.
I train privately once a week with a competitive ob trainer, and I want her to be hard on me. She knows how to balance the criticism though!

Stings when it's your dog and you know he's all that but he's got an ILP and a snippy bitch on the sideline says quite loudly 'He's too black, he's a mutt' Maybe lady but he beat your dogs scores now didn't he, even with a shook up handler.

I was younger then. Like Zeeva said, they're everywhere. With age supposedly comes wisdom. Or the ability to ask the right questions without letting other people know you're seeing if that person annoys them too.

I have trained AKC OB for a long time, but really don't do much about titling....my favorite AKC trainer is a rally judge, one of the first, and we did a class called Agilskills that was a forerunner to rally...and the group was super supportive of each other both in training and at shows and matches. The snootiest, coldest AKC OB people I have come upon are the ASL people...I went to a few specialty shows that offered OB and at the first one I did, the only nice person was the judge...who hit me for German about turns like crazy - but liked my dog and congratulated me for winning and insisted I get a photo done...my first leg on Kyra, at a Specialty and a first place....My judge/trainer friend (collie/BC now) has always accommodated my program, from puppy classes to the open two hour competition class...

The ASL people have not been collegial, even going so far as to tell someone with one of my dogs that she got her dog (CD, Rally Ex, and a bunch of agility titles) from the "wrong breeder" and trying to sell her an exteme ASL dog for agility.

Lee

I had gone to a few AKC trials (had my own opinions, but try to give people the benefit of the doubt when they are stressed from trialing), but my only real lengthy one on one experience with AKC people for a ong time were the ladies who went out and took lessons with my SchH TD and had for years. She has these Tuesday night mini-OB marathon sessions where everyone has 20 minute privates. It's a combo of people from the club and her AKC clients. We always have a blast and they are so nice. But wow, we hosted a seminar once that attracted a lot of AKC people. I have never, in my life, collectively met a bigger group of divas! The nasty comments were just filling the building. I sincerely hope that they are not the "norm" in AKC OB, although from what I hear and what I've seen I'm not so sure. People definitely seem very supportive if you are in their "group"...but if you're not....yikes!

But I guess I've seen it in SchH too, just not as extreme. I think any big club will have conflicts in personalities and people who go together like oil and water. Just like a work-place. You can't have 20 people in a group and have everyone love each other and not be biatchy at some point and not have certain little cliques within it. Club to club of course is even worse.

I guess I've been pretty lucky but I haven't felt negativity from the people I'm training with and can't really remember specific instances from others at trials (and I've trialed quite a bit, not just in SchH). My Schutzhund club is all very nice and supportive, sometimes more supportive of my dog than I am. However my main passion was always gymnastics, so maybe I weigh the level competitiveness and snottiness against that and it cannot compare, lol! My coaches were militant but as a gymnast I learned and performed better with plenty of -R, if you will. I tend to not take criticism personally and get emotional and I often don't process compliments well. At my job my boss is very aware of this. He knows I'm more motivated by him asking me to do something or fix something than just tell me I'm doing a nice job.

There is negativity at all levels.

The one thing that I like is what happened prior to Nationals. We received a call from someone in Calif, 1st time handler and 1st time going to the Nationals. By himself, no support. He had called around, asking for a place to track (he said he did not want to get shot in TN :-) ) and no other club in the area had responded.

We told him to call when he got in the area. Dave K and Mark N had called prior to work dogs, as well. When he drove up, there was no hesitation with Gabor, Dave K and Mark N in working with him and getting him stable to compete. No changes to training, just support from 3 very high level guys that love doing this sport. When he tried to pay for a full day and all 3 phases - he was told no. It was a sport and to do the best at the Nationals.

Gabor also made sure that he had a helper for practice on the field (he was working during that time) and people made sure that his parents were brought close to the field when he was competing.

Actually I felt more neagativiety from the Schutzhund people here, not all of them and this is one club of many so don't want to generalize. Then again I have always been an AKC person. My foray into SchH was very short, less than 9 months.

By and large when I trial in AKC obedience I sit with a few very sweet GSD people who like me, are out to enjoy thier dogs. If we have acrroked sits we really don't care and never comment on it. We just chat and visit.

I have seen both sides of it in schutzhund....the helpful caring ones and the dismissive ones...I will say that even as a spectator at this years Nationals, alot of people (Sue included! and Lisle and Jim -USCA Presidents) went out of their way to check that I was OK and offer assistance. People I did not know well or personally were warm and offered help as I gimped around. It was the first time I had gone anywhere since my car accident, and I was/am still pretty impaired.

As far as IPO clubs....alot of newbies do not get warm fuzzy support at first....it is an environment where so many new people come and go, that many established people in a club will not start to warm up until they see a commitment. Too many newbies come in, take up tons of time for weeks to months and then just disappear because it is too much work. But I will say that they are not usually mean, nasty and back stabbing to newbies, just non social....

The AKC environment is different. Most of the OB trials are not so bad, but again, the ASL people are, at the very least, not welcoming to any one with European dogs.

Lee

Amen to that Charlotte!!

And you gotta love how they twist it around to always make themselves look perfect!! But in the end.. actions do speak louder than words!!

Vinnie~ just focus on what's important to you.. and you don't let all the other stuff get in the way..

I am generally a very shy person and I can take comments too personally, especially about my dogs. Many times no one would ever know either. I much prefer interacting with people online as I have always more comfortable writing than speaking (shut up Jamie! ) On the other paw, I am a tad competitive. When playing volley ball in high school I was not always the most consistent digger but if I got in a groove serving... One game I had a particular horrid time anywhere on the back line- nothing was going right. I heard some snide comments as I rotated across the front line from the other team (and even some from my own team). I stuffed a couple of their best hitters and proceeded to crush a couple of my own hits. JUST before rotating to serve one of their players made a bit of snide remark... at that point I shut everything out, took position as far back as I possibly could in the gym and totally unloaded on them scoring I believe it was 11 straight points (not aces, they made contact a few times). One serve actually left a welt on the players arm and the next (and game ending serve) scattered their entire team hitting the bare floor in the dead center of their court. Essentially all of the little comments from their team (not to mention more than a few from my own teammates) fueled the fire and I channeled it all into those serves. Two girls from the opposing team apologized after for their comments.

In the dog training world so far we have competed only in herding and dock jumping. Both venues have been INCREDIBLY supportive with a clueless handler and dogs oozing talent, drive and nerve. I have two dogs that I would LOVE to go much further in herding and also in SCH, however, I am a little hesitant because I know, especially in SCH, there are some people that might not have our best interests in mind and I am not sure *I* am knowledgeable to figure it out for my dogs best interests. I also know my lack of self confidence will ooze all over the place. While I consider myself VERY competitive I differ from most people because I truly only want me and my dogs to have fun and be the best that WE can be I am not out to be the best in the trial, club, or region; it's just not me. I just want to do the best that WE can and have fun. I happen to have two furry balls of talent snoozing away in the living room right now... but limited time and access to training with a hefty lack of confidence in myself on knowing HOW/where to get the best training we can.... leaves two potentially awesome dogs snoozing in my living room.

Vicious cycle. My dogs have sound nerves and confidence, their handler- not so much. But we all have a healthy dose of competitiveness.

The Sch. club I train with is pretty good. They are not going to tell you you are wonderful. If they like you, they will hand you plenty of crap along with some support. In that regard, they are great. I don't mind that they say we're a perfect example of a great dog with a crappy handler. I know I can mess up a good dog. I also know that my methods are just fine however much they disagree with them. They know I feel that way. There is also a great mix of people in the club. Best advise I got out there was: Figure out who to listen to and who to ignore. Has worked pretty good.