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barren4ever
How fricking annoying. I spent a couple years at dog shows with a friend who bred Great Pyrenees. She has three daughters, and only the oldest one participated. She was and still is my favorite, smart, quiet and mature beyond her years. She would never act like the brat you had the misfortune to encounter. In my biased opinion, the only youth attending dog events should be junior handlers or mature teens who know to mind their own business. Once my friend stopped showing, I made other friends showing Anatolian Shepherds. I never heard or saw kids with them. Same with people showing the breed I have now in rare breed shows. JHC, the dog "fancy" used to be mostly adult, but larvae must insinuate themselves everywhere. You are far nicer than I could ever be. How dare anyone question the way you train your dog.
You are absolutely right, there was a worse incident at an agility trial back in the fall where some feral brats were there to watch Grandmoo show her Golden Retriever. These brats got in an off limits area behind where my friend and I were crated WITH THEIR PARUUNTS and were bouncing a ball off the walls. My poor dog was huddled in her crate scared. I got so angry, my friend went and told them to stop doing that. Then Grandmoo said LOUDLY to the spawn "I'm sorry you had to stop having fun". It wasn't her dog being terrorized, it was our dogs, so who cares right? THEN another feral brat came up in front of the crate housing my friend's 85 lb German Shepherd Dog (my 35 lb Border Collie wouldn't have been enough of a challenge for Bratlee in this case) and started loudly bouncing his ball against the cement floor and jumping around teasing the BIG dog in a soft crate that he could have easily ripped out of instantly if he had wanted to. IDIOT!!!!! I guess he didn't see a Rottweiler handy to torment so a German Shepherd had to do. My friend, shooed him off (I have no guts when it comes to spawn, I am afraid the parents will get me kicked out or do something to my dog, of course if parents threatened my friend they could end up with her dog protecting her in a big way. He's gentle unless you threaten his person).
I emailed the trial secretary the day after the trial about kids being allowed to run loose and tease dogs. That's simply not safe. And if a dog reacted he/she would be kicked out of competition if not put down. Completely unfair to put people in that position when they paid their money to come to the show. The parents of those brats didn't pay a dime. I never got a response from the trial secretary. Typical.
My 11 year old niece is a junior handler, in no way would she ever behave like any of the brats above. She is incredibly responsible. She trains her dog wonderfully and adores animals to the point of telling of a Bratlina who was mistreating her own cat when they were about 5. She is considering that she might want to be a Vet when she grows up. I love being around her, she's a great person. She's basically just a small person rather than an indulged little monster.