at most I almost was on the local dock diving club committee but it sorta was sprung on me and I declined as I couldn't get all the answers to my questions before the deadline to accept (which was like 2 days haha).
Reply With QuoteI haven’t found most clubs to be cliqueish, but at Tanya says, anytime a group of people already know each other it can make someone new feel like an outsider. I used to be quite shy but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten over it and have found if I just go up to people and start a conversation (asking about their dog is a good ice breaker) most dog people are quite friendly.
I do think it’s true that younger people are more attracted to “fun” sports like Agility and Rally, but those can be a gateway - I’ve met a few people who gave up Agility when they got older in favor of Obedience as it is less physically strenuous, LOL. And also some that started in Agility, did some Obedience to get more control over their dogs and fell in love with it. There is no official “junior handler” program, but many clubs at least in the past would offer prizes for best junior handler. Too often those were’t won though. I don’t feel like there are fewer people doing Obedience in my area, but there are definitely fewer people interested in judging - that’s a problem as we’ve lost more judges than we’ve gained in recent years. The sport is changing though - we used to have huge, multi-ring trials but those are now being dropped in favor of more frequent smaller one-ring trials. Lots of people prefer it as their dogs aren’t properly proofed for the big events, but I miss the excitement and hustle-bustle of the larger shows.
 |
|
|---|
Originally Posted by Tanya
