Bernhardt - Bernhardt's Journey

July 18, 2020November 2, 2020

Number One –

or why WINNING must NOT be IMPORTANT

I remember that a little more than a year ago i kept asking myself looking at the seasonal leaderboard of our jump division how do you get to be on the number one spot hitting the exact 19 feet 11 average using 15 jumps or more to earn an invite for finals. That year we finished in 22 nd with 19 feet 10. And this year as of yesterday we do rank in first in a tie leading a field of currently 303 – yes Three Hundred and Three dogs. And the season is just half way over. And not only that – we also won a direct qualifier producing the high score at Westrover’s National qualifier in Alabama. So we hit the jackpot – twice!

But how did we get here ? By not thinking about the distance jump at all, shifting focus towards the new very dog friendly low body impact discipline of Hydro dash, some Air retrieve on the site just trying to form a well rounded versatile canine triathlete.Changing the whole throw technique towards place and chase equal to LESS human and MORE dog. Working on performance fun, stressing soundness and physical fitness and backing off hard work to just get somewhere. Feel and fun and soundness. And so “the” Bernhardt delivered – all natural just by himself ( you really can’t make him do something he doesn’t want to ) with some guidance.Of course on top of that we got the little necessary Luck that created jump sequences that like a miracle added up perfectly to put us in the lead or as humans would say WIN.

In the end one just realizes how fragile the human mind can be when it comes to competing having animals involved. Those just do not care about WINNING, they care about evolutionary survival. And that means very clearly – Showing animals can never be a survival boot camp for them. They trust our judgement, they serve our interest , they look up to us and want to PLAY with us because we are fun. And feel good. And so we better keep it that way. The dedication towards our animals is what in the end we can than call personal victories – It’s the animals that MAKE US WINNERS !! It is there way of saying thank you.Our very special thanks goes to Lucy Hoeppner that applied all her magic art of bodywork helping Bernhardt to be loose elastic and flexible to keep on dealing with the challenges of dog agility. It needs a sophisticated team to groom an athlete. I do highly recommend her for horses as well having felt what she can do. There are results and that’s what matters !!

December 30, 2019November 2, 2020

The Learning never ends – 2019 Nadd/Akc Eukanuba National Championship

Well, we went and realized that the learning in regards to showing, training, preparation and actual performance just never ends.

One has to not lose track of the impacts that are highly influential – the emotional stress factors and distracting environmental displays towards the animal as well as the handler. For us it was a huge deal being the first full season on the dock diving circuit to just get there. Sure there where reasonable expectations – on the human side – to end up in the top ten percent of the field of roughly 180 dogs . In the end we finished on 63 which is still a placement in the top 30 percent of all finalists and that was pretty good to begin with. Some dogs did not jump at all, the majority under performed by 2 feet or more, you get only two jumps period so eventually the luck factor plays in as well.

The things that truly mattered where of a different sort – we could handle the dense traffic and exposure to hundreds of other dogs nicely, Bernhardt jumped without any hesitation, my friend Pamela Doolittle escaped any critic for may be having held the dog slightly wrong (really) and the main competitor left the premises physically unharmed.

Remember that even just the Olympic thought is only a human one – it does not exist for the animal. So next time you go out to show take it easy and just try to set everything up in the best interest for your partner and your reward will be great regardless the placing.

Eventually your teammate will blossom to the best of his or her potential and than YOUR TIME HAS COME !!

September 2, 2019November 3, 2020

Vision and Foresight

or THE TRUE MEANING OF A VERY TALENTED ANIMAL

There is a German saying ” when you work with a lot of limited or poorly trained horses you eventually want recognize exceptional talent nor know how to work that ” For that i personally always assume that any animal comes with a great amount of natural talent and want miss one when i see it. All can be brought to their best potential and will shine one way or the other. In reality all animals are plenty equipped to perform at most or almost any level of human desire – they just have to run into the right person, somebody that understands the game from scratch or one that is willing to learn.

Almost on the day one year ago a than 11 months old puppy started at his first dock diving event ever with his very green handler who did not know anything about the sport engaging in. There were funny throws, fumbles, stumbles, the puppy got loose, there was no plan or concept and plenty nerves – on the human side. The puppy however showed something that is embedded in the expert commentary on this video – He showed NATURAL TALENT – and NO NERVES jumping 8 feet 9 inches. In reality it is almost always the case that our horse or dog is way ahead of us in training because nature had given them all the ability to do so. Showing and/or training are nothing but a replication of natural given talent, the demonstration or execution of that is based on trainable pattern recognition.The trick should be an easy flow on a small command.

We, the humans just ever so often fail to keep up with the very simple complexity of nature by not having our priorities in order and by giving into our emotions and social pressured way of thinking way to easy forgetting about the ultimate important part – to observe, feel and interact with the animal.

So next time things don’t go so well just be aware – you might be behind for whatever reason unrelated to your partner. And when things go extremely well you have to think about how to preserve and protect the talent and to keep the correct time frames of training as your priority.After all i have seen and learned in only one year competing on the national dog dock diving circuit i must say a huge big thank you to dockdogs organizer and host Thomas Platts who was a very genuine, patient, never tired to help and explain teacher for a back than absolute beginner like me. A part of Bernhardt’s great success with invites to all national finals. He saw him first and i was lucky.Thank you for making us better !

……this could be a big jumper, guys ….. A true expert recognizes talent no matter how strong or good a performance really is. Thomas Platts of Dock Dogs comment at Bernhardt’s first show Ridgeville Oh 08/2018

May 28, 2019November 2, 2020

Truly Majestic

30 jumps of the dock with 21 one of those in the range 18’3 ft to 21’6 ft. That is the advanced senior title and the confirmed invite to the US championships in Orlando end of the year. Fact is that no matter how hard it emotionally can get to the human training and or owning animals you must simply NEVER forget the moments of joy,reward and gratification you DID receive. Than you must ask yourself whether you truly had always RETURNED that favor in the same way.Remember that your dog or horse means well and will give their best purely based on your ability, your experience and skill level to train. Nothing else matters here. Your animal reflects your daily work and routines and the patterns you have established with that.Finally be aware that what they give to you is their way of saying thank you in their personal special way and that is TRULY MAJESTIC !!

April 19, 2019November 2, 2020

Early Rewards & Prizes

This is what we have so far with a career start in August of 2018 not to forget the WC invite 2019 and an almost confirmed invite to the US championships 2019. WELL…but being me i still see this 28 pounds starved little creature all beat up sitting in Texas in his crate and how amazed i was that there was not even the blink of anger or aggression towards humans in that dog. How forgiving he acted. How trusting he went with anybody. How quiet he sat when Magdalene Guiot gave him a first time bath.And so i can only repeat myself saying that there is that ONE ribbon that really does matter working with animals, the most meaningful one of all. I call that one the human FEEL ribbon.That’s the one we truly should try to win and that’s the only one that matters. Before one ever becomes a meaningful winner one has to learn how to truly be a superior looser. And that is the true meaning of Bernhardt’s story. To be continued…….