Apprentice Judging Complete

July 19th, 2006

So it’s finished.

This past weekend I finished my UKC apprentice judging with John Fowler and Janice Scherzer, after starting with Jerry Shields two weeks earlier. My deepest thanks to all three of them for doing their best to be supportive and trying their darnedest to make sure I don’t repeat their mistakes. I got three slightly different views and approaches and the whole process was very educational.

Apprenticing was fun in an odd way. First of all, you are in the ring with the officiating judge, which is a view a trial that most of us are not so familiar with. But as an apprentice, not only are you supposed to be watching everything that goes on, you also have to be sure to stay out of the way and make sure you don’t stress an already nervous dog and/or handler. So it can be a bit intense at first.

In fact, the first trial was the hardest. Not that Jerry was hard to work with (far from it) but all of the mental processing I had to do as I learned what to watch for was tough. The second trial was easier, and the third was the easiest of all. Not that it was exactly easy, mind you, but at least it started to seem managable.

I was also pleased that my scores were in the same ballpark as all three judges. I had been thinking I would end up either being way to easy or way to hard.

Anyway, I have to wait until the paperwork clears the UKC home office, something that may not be fast, and then I should be good to go.