A bit disappointed

[Penelope]

Harriet took her gold KC good citizen award last night.
She has been doing brilliantly - but on the night, she "broke her stay" and had one other misdemeanour so she failed.
Now I am not being sour grapes, but
Usually the club get an outside examiner in.... if she is told your dog normally does everything properly but on the night has a little hiccup, she lets you have a second go. However, they didn't use an outside examiner - the wife of the guy who owns the club did the test last night....
Harriet broke her stay because she was in the down position, stayed for 1 minute (or is it 2 minutes for gold??) and then handlers left the room and were out of the dogs' sight for 30 seconds. When I was out of sight, she sat up to scratch an itch, then laid down again before I came back in so that constituted a fail.
On the "stop the dog" when I commanded STOP she carried on for 3 or 4 paces - so that was deemed a fail.
However, she was running full tilt at me when I shouted STOP so surely it would almost be impossible to stop dead on a slippery hall floor?

I don't think I am being a bad loser (am I?) but I am a bit disappointed as she was doing so brilliantly.
I don't feel like paying another £40 for another course of lessons - very tempted to try a different training class and see if we can do something a bit different now.

Any advice pretty please? If you think I am being a bad loser then please say so cos I don't mind!

PS Harriet doesn't know she "failed" - she thinks she did great!!!!

[Fluffy]

And i also think harriet did great:047:well done sugarface:059:i think too much is expected sometimes,and anyone can see when an itch stops you from being military,and anyone surely can tell whether or not they should fail on silly points...bleurgh..just like driving instructors!!! xx

[Tanya]

I'm not surprise you feel disappointed, it sounds like you had a mean judge!

Do you have to re-do a whole course? (sorry I don't know anything about these KC awards) Can you not just re-sit the test. Sounds like Harriet did pretty damn well to me, and have to agree with you about an instant stop on a slippery floor....tell the judge to take her shoes of, run in her socks in the hall and then stop instantly when you say :045:

[Penelope]

I think I feel miffed cos we have trained 5 dogs with this training club and sent loads of people to them cos we believe in their methods.... however, just recently they seem to be a lot less professional and more interested in getting the money than helping the dogs. I went up to the instructor before a class one evening to ask a bit of advice, and she said "I have done one consultation tonight, I am not giving any more!" - but I pay the same as everyone else.
I have been feeling a bit negative about them for a while.
Would have to pay another £40 for the lessons before doing the test again, so I think I am going to visit another couple of local clubs over the next week or two and see what I think and then make my decision.
I do have lots of friends there (and so does Harriet) but I am sure we could make new friends at another club if we both like it!

[lisalh]

They sound like all they are interested in is the money so if there are other classes available locally it wouldnt hurt to check them out. Well doen Harriet (and you) for doing so well and sorry they were so mean with their marking