RETIREMENT

I have been contemplating retiring Marley from agility for the past several months. She's a gamer. Doesn't do well in practice but usually does pretty good in trials. We may have our bobbles but Marley always has fun.

I hate that I am even considering retiring her at age 4. She's running in Masters in USDAA and Excellent in AKC. She has her CD and RA and RN in AKC. Plus her CGC.

The reason I'm even at this point is that we have encountered the most aggressive, out of control dogs I have ever seen in the past few months. At one trial, a dog was lunging and snapping at every dog it passed. The handler drug the dog still snapping onto the course and preceeded to run the dog.. IN PAIRS, no less. I could not believe the judge didn't excuse it. The handler acted like nothing was out of the ordinary.

Marley is a super sensitive dog. She completely shuts down when she's around barking and lunging dogs. I deliberately crate her off in a corner at trials where it's quieter. I take her out frequently and let her explore without other dogs around. If someone crates their barking dog near me and doesn't cover the crate, I will do it for them. How in the world people can sit and let their dog bark constantly is beyond me! I may let my dogs have lots of freedom in the house but I DO NOT ALLOW BARKING. My dog should bark to alert me if something is amiss, not just bark for the hell of it.

My dog shouldn't have to suffer because other people have out of control dogs. People have made some very derogatory remarks about Marley over the past years. I have decided I will return the favor. So if you have an out of control dog, I will point it out to you.

All that being said, I haven't decided to retire Marley officially, but I am seriously considering it.