Exciting dog weekend so far - first time bite work and some show brags (Liesje)...

That's so cool Liesje!  And we are sockless sisters.  I despise socks (and shoes for that matter), and am a footwear minimalist.  Flip flops for any activity in the summer (or bare feet), and crocs in the winter.  But, I do wear crocs in the pasture - at least they offer some cushioning from sheepy stomping!   I've got a nasty bruise from the other day when a customer came for a lamb and I forget to change my shoes before running out.

Protection work is pretty wild.  I got a chance to see French Ring in person a couple years ago.  Wow, that was impressive.  They were mostly Bouviers des Flanders - those are some intense dogs.  And loud!  yikes!  I thought my eardrums would burst at some of the competitors during the holds and the object guarding.

Yeah French ring is insane.  They can bite anywhere, right?  Gotta wear a full suit!  SchH can be quite mild compared to some other training and ring sports.  It's really all about the sleeve and tug games used to develop that drive.  The dogs get revved about that, not necessarily the person, at least the dogs we were working.  The dog titled in SchH didn't care about any of the people, but when she saw the sleeve come out she was ready to go!

We're doing herding next weekend and I was planning on wearing my "muck boots". 

Yup, full protection for the FR.  And they say that they still get bruised - forearms seem to be able to take more abuse than most other parts.  Still, the tests were very impressive.  They did FCI conformation too - it included a temperament test to see whether the dogs retained an appropriate balance between being reserved around strangers, and not being overtly aggressive.  Bless me if I can't remember what they did, either.  Dang.  I loved the thing where they left a purse/briefcase with the dogs.  Now that's practical!  Although in today's world a dog that actually did that would probably be shot.  Grr.