Greatest American Dog

i recall the host saying that the judges would be paying particular attention to the type of interaction the owner/trainer uses.. they seemed especially impressed with how calm and collected teresa was (as opposed to using intimidation or getting too hyper).. it seems the more confident and less stressed she gets, the better leroy performs, and i would not be surprised if they win the whole thing.. it may have been advantagious for herding breeds, but then again the agility challenges gave an advantage to agility dogs and the photo shoot gave advantage to show biz dogs etc.. i think there is enough diversity that all dogs get a chance to shine..

Exactly my point....you just said it better. Each competition may seem slanted to a particular dog but in the end the have all had that advantage. I want Bill and Star to win but Teresa and Leroy winning would also please me very much. I just don't want Galaxy to win...nothing against him..he is super...but his owner is too full of himself. lol (I do think Teresa's wonderful manner with Leroy has erased the snarl bands fiaco from the judges minds)

itsnotthedog wrote: I meant Galaxy. She doesn't look BC to me. Maybe she is BC/Pointer but I still don't see it.

I'm sure ALL th owners have good and bad sides. None of them are perfect, I'm sure. But I don't agree that each challenge has been slanted toward each dog. None of the challenges have favored smaller dogs. Not one bit.

dianne we are definitely on the same page

Agile, you are, of course, right. I know that aussies vary a lot too. Even my two who are sisters look different. One has a very sleek shiny coat while the other has more of the thick fluffy coat...one has a blunter nose, etc. I wasn't taking that into consideration. I guess most of the BCs I've seen were the shorter, stockier type.............It's true that Leroy was slower....but they were also three different puppies from the ones previous dogs worked with. I still think there was a difference in the puppies. In the first 3 there wasn't a lead puppy that followed the dog. In the second batch there was...the other two follwed the puppy...not the dog.

ps, i also agree that though it may have been well suited for a herding breed because the task "resembled" herding, it wasn't entirely based on herding, more about keeping pace with the pups.. i don't think leroy's slow pace was due to not being trained for speed (he can sure be speedy when it's encouraged!).. i think it was just as the judges pointed out, that teresa's calm understated demeanor is what reflected in leroy's leisurely pace and helped the puppies keep up with him.. that worked better than those who got their dogs revved up and focussed on trying to beat the clock.. if teresa had used the stressed out tone we'd seen in earlier weeks, leroy woulda been all over the maze instead of staying on task as well as he did.. bill and star have always been my favorites but i also would be happy to see teresa and leroy win it

Well, realitynot, for one example, the dancing challenge was one that Bella Starlet should have done very well in...and you can bet the people who come up with the challenges knew it. ..I don't mean that ALL challenges are set up to favor a certain dog...but some definitely are.... I do know that some reality shows DO set things up that way...and I believe that they are doing it with this show. It doesn't matter...we can agree to disagree...................... ...Hi, Lily! TY!

Hi, Lily! We were typing at the same time. I agree with you about Leroys pace etc. but...part of herding is keeping the same pace...nudging the animals until they get where they are supposed to be. Very true about Teresa's demenor. This show has really helped me in working with my girls. I love it. I'm laughing...it just dawned on me...herding is SHOVING not leading...lol

i love it too i think since week one teresa is the one who seems to be applying what she's learning and improving week by week.. that's why she is starting to run neck and neck with bill as my personal favorites she doesn't stagnate, i can literally see her growing in confidence and performance right before my eyes, and leroy seems to be enjoying the experience too i hope star was just momentarily off her stride from the puppy stress and that she isn't starting to shut down.. i will cry if they get sent home, but on the other hand i'll be happy that they'll be able to be with their family again.. i think star is a very family oriented dog, and even though bill is her favorite she probably is pining for the rest of her gang just as he is, and they feel each others' sadness, it breaks my heart, but they're so sweet to watch together so fingers crossed that she'll perk up next week.. but who knows how any of those dogs are gonna react to an elephant! or how in the world are they gonna incorporate that into a dog challenge?? gotta give the show points for creative ideas even if they do get a bit silly at times

Perhaps a better word to describe this challenge would have been shepherding rather than herding.shepherdingOne entry found.shepherd[2,transitive verb] Main Entry: 2shepherd Function: transitive verb Date: 1790 1 : to tend as a shepherd 2 : to GUIDE or guard in the manner of a shepherd my personal assessment of the challenge:I have to say that this was the most impressive challenge from all angles but two that I've seen to date.It displayed the owner/dog relationship, the application of training to a new situation, the dog's interaction with a new experience, the puppies along with the maze, displayed the dog's intelligence along with the owner's along along with the team's patience level.The two bad angles:1. Size of the puppies and age of the dogs involved should have come into consideration in the selection of the puppies. Why couldn't there have been six different type of puppies, perhaps a mix of pure and cross breeds to try to put each dog on a more even playing field?2. The number of puppies. Since time didn't really seem to play a role in the judging, why couldn't it have just been one dog leading one or two puppies. Two puppies would have brought the element of the puppies object of interest into play while I think that three was overdoing it from an endurance aspect.I think the number of puppies put the physical endurance of all those involved to the test. Puppies don't have a particularly long attention span, older dogs don't necessarily have the patience to deal with puppies and course length and the amount of puppies put the physical endurance of everybody to the test.Before watching this challenge, I was very skeptical of it because of the previews and the introduction of puppies into the whole bizarre mix of personalities of the owners, mix of training styles and the various ages of the dogs involved.In the commonly understood definition of herding I think it was a poor choice of words to describe the challenge. But looking at it from several angles, a dog walking behind the owner is not normally accepted behavior. Walking beside is preferable, and if they are a service dog performing their duties, with perhaps a few exceptions, most jobs require them to be in the lead. In this case, one might say the person who needed rescuing was the owner, the dog was guided by their voice, and led/guided the puppy (in a rescue this would be the owner/trainer) to a secure place.Respectfully. Tink

Lily, I really hadn't been thinking along those lines but yes, Teresa really has learned and grown more than any of the others. .....Star really is much older and because of that she's less quick to adapt that some of the others....and yes, more likely to stress. The poor old girl! It just dawned on me...if Star gets too stressed Bill will walk. He won't go to the end. He would never do that to her. (crossing my fingers that she holds up ok...but now I'm getting a bad feeling....)....My dream ending would be Star and Leroy being the final 2...assuming that's how the show is set up. (I watch way too much reality tv!!) If it were to be the two of them (well, the four of them!) at the end I wouldn't really car who took first place...and ya know what? I don't think they would either. .wooohoooo! I added my girls as my photo. They were about 3 months old there.

and yes...the elephant has me very worried.

Tink,herding = shovingshepherding = gentle shoving....LOLHmmmmm...well two puppies would have been easier...I think they didn't want it to be too easy..they wanted chaos...and that's what they got.The puppies were adorable...but I do think their size made it much harder for the smaller dogs. Alphas like the smaller of my mini aussies could do it (but not with all those people around!) but only because she's such a stubborn little thing. Her sister would have said, "the heck with this! Where's mom?"

itsnotthedog wrote: I don't think that challenge had anything to do with dog intelligence, breed or anything like it. None of the dogs except Presley (the Boxer) seemed interested in the puppies. They all could either care less or they wanted to get away from the pesky fluffballs. They clearly either just ran the maze to respond to the recall their owner had or to get out or both. I actually thought Preseley did great as he had a great recall! He just happened to lose because the puppies couldn't keep up with him and chase him to his owner at the end!