DOG CARTING - A Competitor's Viewpoint

In order to compete in Dog Carting, a competitor would need a dog, a cart and a harness. Oh, and of course, an excellent instructor. It is crucial that every person who wishes to take part in carting knows and understands the rules.

At a competition, the expected course of events would go more or less las follows:

The judge would arrive at the venue of the show, ready with marking sheets and will have drawn up a course that suits the terrain of the show grounds. The judge and steward would lay out the course, including all of the prescribed equipment such as immovable obstacle, narrow area, back-up and so on. Once the course has been laid out to the judge's satisfaction, taking into consideration the largest cart/dog combination in both the mini and standard calsses, the steward will call competitors to ringside. A draw for order of competition will be carried out and recorded by hte judge. The judge will then take the competitors around the course, describing each section and exercise exactly the way the competitors should carry them out. All questions are to be asked at this time. No more questions once the first competitor has entered the ring ready to compete.

BASIC EXERCISES AS WE REMEMBER.....

Handler (that is me) puts cart in demarcated area. Looks desperately around for harness. Fellow competitor helpfully offers to lend his... I have a BERNESE Mountain dog, Your Border Collie's bra is not even going to go around his kneecap. But thank you. Oh... Found the harness. In the cart where it should be. Bad sign! Ok, Get dog standing. Put harness in cart. Get dog up from his sit. Tell Steward I am ready. Oops... Get dog standing.. Collect harness from cart, put it on dog. Oh, dear, his chest has slipped a bit! Let the straps out to accomodate stretching girth. Okay, everything fits (snugly). Call Judge to inspect. Very stern judge bends down to check (tight) girth strap. Opportunity for Berner kisses not missed out on. Judge abandons check. Stands up and instructs steward to commence. Start with slow pace. Not a good idea. Berners are not good at slow pace. So, run the slow, gallop the normal and sprint the fast. But we get there. Sort of. Back up. Berners love going backwards. At fast pace. So, the length of the dog and the cart and half the course later, the grinning canine is very proud of his achievement. Okay, that will do. Off to the manoevering.

MANOEVERING AS WE WOULD BELIEVE IT SHOULD BE DONE..

Set off to the manoevering course with berner a la cart. Now for the good stuff. Novice competitors will have a course steward to give them directions. They also do the exercises on lead.Senior handlers must remember everything for themselves and their dogs do the course off lead. We are at the off lead stage.

Off we go. My heart thundering in my ears. Big Boy'z tail flailing like a banner in a hurricane. Tongue hanging out, grinning. The first few paces before we get to the loading zone feel like an eternity. I stop. Look down. Happiness smiles back at me. Miracle. He is exactly where he is supposed to be. I load ten kilo's of plastic bottles filled with the appropriate amounts of water into the cart. They fit securely in the load box, so I don't have to tie them down. Lucky, because Happy Harry needs to move! Judge checks the load, keeping clear of the Berner-Kissing lips. For a mment, The Boy looked as if he would insist on a kiss, but he quickly recovered. Off we go. The load is not a problem for my boy. He loves pulling and the heavier the weight, the more he likes it. The happier a Berner is, the faster he goes. We need to go real slow to cut down the sloshing of the water. And to successfully get aroung the broad curve. Broad curve being something of a euphamism. In truth, it is very narrow and has many curves! Touch any of the barriers and watch those points fly! My pardner being the sure-footed Mountain Dog that he is, picked his way through the demarcation with no assistance from me. I was too busy keeping up with him. Out of the curve. I breathlessly asked him to stop. Not enough air to call it a command. He was happy to oblige. I left him in that position, ready for the recall through the "bridge" or as the rules call it, the narrow area. This "bridge" was demarcated by two upright trellises set parallel to each other, approximately 1 meter apart and about two and half meters long. Not too bad. If you have a sedate, polite doggy that trots carefully through the area, straight to the handler and presents neatly to the front. I was almost scared to call! Closing my eyes, I whispered barely audibly "Kodi, come....". The crunch as the shaft minced its way into my left knee signified his arrival. He was so proud of himself. The bridge was intact. He was waving with his very gay tail, amusing the crowd no end. Grinning happily. But, to get back to the important issue. The bridge was intact. I could barely move, but he was there, in front of me. Unhurt. I returned, limping, to his working side. We moved on. The gate loomed ahead of me, but even worse.. The distraction. The judge had chosen to position a soft toy "honey bee " right next to the gate. The toy was vibrating. Nightmare! I approached the gate and quickly opened it, calling a very excited Boy to follow me. In my dreams. He had spotted the good stuff. He looked with total desperation at the jelly-like delicacy. The only thing that surprised me was that he hesitated. Long enough for me to choke out a "leave it. Please. Oh, please...." And I carried on walking backward with him following me. His head turned as he walked. Facing the offending bee. How he got through the gate is a scientific improbability as he ended up facing backwards, but he got through. No bee in his possession. I managed to persuade him to follow me into the back-up. Now for the biggest test of the lot. His neck was completely and naturally wrung. He had not taken his gaze off his heart's desire. I had to leave him in the back-up. Return the load to its original base. Close the gate. Return to my dog. And he was supposed to wait for me. This was going to happen???? Yup, it did. His concentration was gone with the wind, but he did not move. Probably pinched a nerve in his neck craning it to the unstable angle he had assumed. Whatever the reason I am sure it had nothing to do with any level of obedience. On my return I managed to persuade him to get his face looking in more or less the same direction as his body. Then the back-out. Not quite as enthusiatic as the first one in the basic exercises, but he whacked the gate with true Berner-power as he generously added a few feet to the distance after I asked him to stop. He did not even flinch. I have mentioned he was no longer concentrating on anything but "honey bee"? Probably a ploy to get to the other side. To the bee! Forward. Into the figure eight. Luckily he saw the new, very interesting figure eight stanchions. Surging forward, he headed straight for the left upright. The first turn was to be around the right marker. Oh..... And he was going at speed. Obviously. "Kodi, go right..." He has the keenest hearing. Launched himself with ghusto and zest through the left stanchion, around the right and then returned to race through the resultant debris, to carry out a perfect left circle. Around nothing in particular. With me wandering insecurely beside him. As we headed toward the finsh post, I looked down at my Boy and my heart swelled with pride. He did good. And he also thought so. I could tell by the way his tail was flailing over his back and the broad, very satisfied grin on his beautiful face. Yessiree... He surely enjoyed his adventure. And, secretly, so did I.