Geoff Empey

Hey .. Since we live in a increasingly litigious society. I am wondering what other dog sport clubs have done to protect themselves from god forbid unfortunate incidents. That may happen to members, guests and their dogs while training under your clubs auspices?

I went and trained with a different club than I normally do last saturday. It was mostly Shutzhund people but the field is only 20 minutes from my house.

They mostly train tracking and obedience as they have no helper. I don't mind that as I just wanted to utilize the blinds and train my Ringsport obedience etc.

The reason why they don't have a helper is the helper they were using got nailed on the hands really bad after the helper had corrected a dog, the dog turned on him and nailed him.

I don't know the whole story but I understand that there was permanent damage to this guys hands. Before I stepped on the field with my dog I was asked to sign off a waiver of responsibility. I have no problem with that, they accepted me as a 'guest' for the day and that was that.

What was told to me was if I wanted to continue using this field. I had to join the National Shutzhund club or else I wouldn't be covered under the field owners insurance. To me that seemed a little much and another additional expense that I think is unneeded, (since I really don't want to do Shutzhund) as I had already signed the waiver plus there is no bite-work involved and have my own insurance if my dog injured someone or damaged something. It's not my field I don't make the rules but it just seemed overly cautious. They are really nice people and the facility is top notch, it's to bad as I'd really like to utilize the field.

How does this work in your own clubs? We obviously do something that is potentially very dangerous, so the risk is there. How do you protect yourselves from potential litigation from working your dog or working other members dogs in a club atmosphere?

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"Does your dog bite?" "No" .. Person tries to pet dog .. GRRR RAWR ROFFFFF!! "I thought you said your dog doesn't bite?" "That's not my dog ..."