I shared these thoughts on a few posts yesterday after this video seemed to pop up on every agility sight. It just stuck in my craw for some reason. Couple people thought I should add them here although we all seem pretty much in agreement.
JMHOs
Well they've certainly got their message out. It's getting shared everywhere, which I'm sure was their hope. But like all advertising cloaked as a Public Service Announcement (PSA), let's look beyond the hype. Remember a few years ago, we apparently had one eyed dogs coming from trials all over the place after clipping jump cups? When as a concerned Trial Chairperson, I tried to find out more, it was always a friend of a friend who had a friend who knew….. I’m sure there may have been a few over the years, but I heard way more stories about other agility ailments; backs, wrists, toes, etc. Ironically the 4 tunnel injuries (all minor) I have witnessed have been dogs piling into the edge of a tunnel opening when seemingly distracted, usually by the handler. (Perhaps I’m missing my big ticket by not patenting a protective foam doughnut for tunnel ends??) Why are people more accepting of these types of injuries? I think it’s because it would involve personal change. How we train, how we handle. It’s easy to tell someone like a trial host they need to do this or that, but it’s a whole other matter when we have to assess & accept our own actions.
But I digress, so let’s get back to these tunnels. The makers of the video state as fact that “more tunnel bags equal better footing” and most importantly for us all “fewer injuries for our four legged teammates”. Where are the statistics to back this? They don’t provide them during the clip or on their website. What about the possibility that this added rigidity is actually increasing stress on joints and ligaments, which will be more detrimental to our four legged teammates over time? Just about anyone over twenty can relate to something that just had to be, because it sounded good and made sense, only to find out the “real” facts proved otherwise. I have to applaud Chris for moving to collect the injury data, because presently so much of it is he said, she said.
In the video, I would say Blink has learned to “expect” those 6+ bags and run on the side, roof or any damn place he/she wants, and not specifically the bottom of the tunnel. I bet the poor dogs life flashed before its eyes when suddenly the support wasn’t there. If you went back to only 3 points (or in the case of NADAC, the ends only) regularly, I’m positive we’d see a different performance pretty quickly.
I regularly have the opportunity to watch some smoking fast dogs on courses with nothing but tunnels (DRIs reaching 110 +). I don’t see them running the sides of tunnels. What I do see is the entire tunnel absorbing a tremendous amount of energy and I can’t believe that banking up the walls would somehow make them any faster.
