You enter the field with your dog on leash, proudly displaying your prohibition "membership card" on a lovely string of beads. But, you have decided that you want to visit a speak easy and have a few drinks, so you meet up with a friendly decoy who offers to take you there. You are scored on your dog's behavior during the initial meeting with the decoy.

Some dogs had a little too much interest!

The decoy also collects your beads, because no prohibition member should have their membership card with them at a speak easy!

But, the way is secret so the decoy hands you a black hood to wear and you start heeling to your first obstical.


All of your communication with your dog was verbal, and though we were not marked off for "checking in" with our dog through touch. Multiple commands were penalized as was the dog forging, lagging or other "bad" behaviors. You could also converse with the decoy and have them help you keep track of the dog's whereabouts.
So as you are heeling to your first obstical, you hear a voice over the speakers warning you of bad weather coming in. You are then told to stop and sit your dog. Then you hear loud crashes of thunder over the speakers and rain comes pouring down on both of you. You feel for your dog to see if they are still where you put them... and if they aren't, you try to get them back where they belong by touch, and shield them from the rain as necessary.


When the rain lets up, the decoy comes back to get you to continue on your journey.

Without the ability to see your dog, they tend to get away with things they would never be able to do normally. Like taste test decoys...

You heel along the path, and encounter a "creek" that you need to cross with your dog.

After the creek, thunder rolls in again, but this time your dog needs to be in a down through the storm.


After the next rain passes, you can remove your hood, you're almost there!!

You heel towards a rowdy table of decoys enjoying the "speak easy." You stand at the table and converse with them,

and suddenly sirens wail over the speakers and more decoys come out of the tent yelling! It's a raid!!!


OH NO! You don't want to get arrested!! Where is your Prohibition Membership Card? Your friendly decoy guide dropped it! You have to hustle and find it!


Once you have it, the obedience portion is over.

For the Obedience Only dogs, there is a Meet and Greet with the judges and they exit the field.

Some dogs took a little dip on the way out

The Protection dogs then continue to the protection scenarios.

Our first scenario is the car. You are sitting in your lovely Chevy truck minding your own business when a friendly stranger approaches. Your dog is supposed to remain neutral while they engage you in conversation.

When the stranger becomes aggressive, the dog protects the car and handler.


After the car is civil agitation on the tie out.




The final phase of protection is the handler protection bite. You put your dog in a position of control - a sit or a down - and go to the end of the leash. A decoy approaches and engages you in conversation.

The dog remains passive until the decoy becomes threatening.



All done!

And sometimes, just to make things more interesting... Plain old weird things happen.
Just after I put my hood on for my trial with Riggs a gust of wind took the announcer's tent into the goat pen. Yes, there is a goat pen with 8 goats right next to the trial field. Quite frequently, there were one or two sitting in the shade on the other side of the fence from where we did the down.


I had no idea what was going on, though I knew there was something happening.


Just added things for Riggs to pay attention to instead of paying attention to me!

In other years, goats have gotten on the field, other dogs have come out on the field...