Do you know sport people?

I do think it's odd how many people are into horse sports but not dogs. The last trial we went to there was a horse show going on at the other arena. Several horse people came over to watch our show and they were astounded because they'd never even heard of agility or knew that anything like that existed.

I also forgot, but my aunt used to be involved in obedience and agility with her rottweiler and obedience, earthdog, and terrier racing with their JRT (the 16 year old one from the other thread). She did quite a bit of JRTCA stuff when her dog was young. Now she's just in quarter horse showing but we still talk agility some. We have very different training styles though so we mostly don't talk that or it'll end up in awkwardness.

My uncle (her husband) is a rancher so he's worked dogs on cows and he and my dad used to train bird dogs. He still hunts and has worked plotts and things like that recently. Nobody has pointers anymore. I also don't talk training styles with him, lol. They are very... Cesar Milan-esque. We had a big debate about Cesar a few years ago then it was kind of mutually decided just to not go there again.

My great uncle also breeds (or bred, I'm not sure he does anymore) working border collies. As he put it the 'non fancy' kinds. They weren't registered and had a lot of heeler in them, I think. But they worked that ranch.

The only person I know, that I haven't met through dogs or dog sports, would be my friend's mom. She is a serious obedience competitor - owned the #1 Obedience Golden Retriever in Canada a few years go. There's a room in her house that has massive HIT ribbons all around the ceiling, as well as a ton of magazine covers and plaques on the walls!

I've run into the occasional person who does agility, but she's the only person I know quite well though. Although, our neighbour and new hay supplier's daughter does agility and flyball with her 2 Aussies. I haven't met her yet, but I'm hoping she'll be a good connection

No, not really. I can't say I can think of one person I've met outside of training and trials that seriously train their dogs for sport. Actually, I worked with a girl years ago that had a few shelties she showed confo and agility with, but that was in a boarding kennel too. My boss is starting to show interest in various activities, she's hoping to have her female Collie puppy shown, and would like to do agility and/or tracking. I have known people that have done basic ob classes, or a basic agility class, but I think it's more work than people realize to prepare a dog to being trial ready .

Nope, well I not that I know of anyway. The closest I've come was meeting my friends dog's puppy class teacher, she did rally-O with her corgi.

No one. The closest I've gotten is one of the pharmacists took his golden to an obedience class. We talk dogs a lot but I easily amaze him with Chaz knowledge :rofl1:

DOGS CAN EAT RAW MEAT? WHAT?

To be fair, I'M not involved in dog sports. I'm trying to get started but I would be another 'just for fun' person. I don't think there is a large group of dog sporting people here. It's starting to grow, though!

Because I didn't really get into dog prior to getting into dog sports, I'm not really sure I can separate the two. Now, of course, 80% of my social circle is dog sport people. I guess a few people I knew through horses before did agility or obedience, but they weren't close friends.

I know some Schutzhund peeps and a few agility peeps.
And I know a lot of people that work with dogs everyday either pet dog training/behaviour mod or training working dogs in various avenues.
I've only met most of these people in the last year or two and it is SO NICE having real life people that get it.

My one real life dog friend here is probably Watson's breeder, but she does mostly just conformation showing.

I am meeting some people when we hang out with the basenji club and when we go coursing, but I do not know anyone really well yet.

So most of what I would consider my dog friends are online.

Err. No. I know a lot of people who have dogs and love them, but dog crazy people who do sports and other activities, nope.
Whenever I think I've met someone I can be obsessed around (I got hopeful when I was meeting other volunteers at the shelter) I've been sadly mistaken. It sucks.
I need some Chazzers to move out to the boonies in AZ with me.

Before I got into dogs, there was a couple on my street who had a mini Aussie that did a bit of rally and had a neat bag of tricks and I used to think that they were the coolest! Now, looking back, I don't think they ever competed, and they only had ~20 tricks and they're significantly less impressive (they're still a lovely couple though). It's funny how your point of view can change as you improve, yourself.

I'd say a vast number of my friends are people I've met through my performance/demo group, so just about everyone is into dog stuff. Very few people are local, and most are 30mins - 2hrs away by car.

I'm trying!

I hardly have any real life friends that have dogs, let alone even know what agility or dog sports are.

The only person I've ever known outside of a show/class/forum in the "dog world" is one of my high school science teachers, who breeds and runs her Pharaoh Hounds in agility. Most of my friends in real life don't even have dogs, and those that do love them but aren't dog geeks.

I've actually found it a little annoying talking to my friends about dogs, because they are so full of misinformation that I just end up nodding and smiling (and trying not to roll my eyes) throughout the entire conversation. So I generally just avoid the topic of dogs altogether with them. I have one close friend who knows about my dog nerdiness, but only because he's my ride just about everywhere. We don't talk about dogs though - he's a cat person

Some of my school friends did dog or horse 4h, and I know a lot of people who hunt with dogs. One bear hunts with Plotts! But most hunters I know use the dog as a tool. The dog gets sent out for training, kenneled outside during the year, and deployed during hunting season.

This. Well, nothing on this earth can make me shut up about dogs completely. BUT yes, it's awkward and I avoid it.
Like at Christmas my cousin brought over her gorgeous Great Pyr/Anatolian mix and we ended up talking a lot about dogs. Then she brought up she wanted to let Molly (her dog) have "just one litter" before being spayed. And that was the end of my enjoyment of our conversation.

Nope. I have some acquaintances that I see at trials/classes a good amount, but I don't think I compete enough to really talk that much with them about things other than what's going on at that trial/class that day. I'm hoping one day I will find a close-by dog sport nerd to befriend, though, because I would love to have someone to train/walk with regularly.

I think the reason I'm on the forums so much is because I never can talk about dogs with friends in person! I actually had a good friend tell me a while back that she was surprised I liked dogs because I "look like hated animals" She assured me that she didn't mean it "in a bad way", but I'm not sure how one hates animals in a good way? Or even looks like an animal hater?

And yeah, generally I don't get into arguments/disagreements with people about dog things, but when it's something like breeding, I usually sneak in some a disapproving opinion or a fact that will deter them. Like "oh wow, that'd be so cute! Except my friend's dog recently died when she had puppies, and it was really, really sad." Which isn't exactly true, but it gets the message across

I seriously find it fascinating that the vast majority of people do nothing with their dogs. I don't get it. You got a dog to spend no time with it? I don't mean they neglect it and are never home (though I notice that a lot too) but when you suggest an activity ("why don't you try agility/flyball/hiking") they say "oh, I don't have time for that". I didn't say marry the sport... I said try a class or hike once a week.

And then there are the times at work when I say something like "puppy vaccines are important to protect her when she meets other dogs/socialization is really important for puppies/yes, it is possible your puppy could have picked up fleas at the clinic but he could have picked them up at the park/pet store/friend's house/on a walk" and they say "Oh no, I never take Fluffy anywhere other than the vet". Always really proud. And I'm thinking "wow, I wouldn't advertise that".