Page 124 - ShowSight - February 2020

Breed Education Fifth in a Series
BY CELESTE M. GONZALEZ
IT STARTS WITH BYOU
reed educa- tion starts with you: you the seminar
presenter, you the learn- er and you the seminar coordinator. Breed edu- cation serves prospective adjudicators, be they judges or breeders. What you put into the learning or teaching experience, is what you, and others, get out of it. In the case of the seminar coordina- tor, what you put into it affects the learner(s) and the teacher(s).
In the last issue, we looked at the sometimes-overlapping phases of preparation and implementation for a breed(s) seminar(s) from the perspective of the seminar coordinator. In this article, fifth in the series, we will cover the working aspects for the learner and seminar presenter, as well as the rest of the implementation aspects by the seminar(s) coordinator.
LEARNER
You will get the most out of a seminar and workshop when you are mentally prepared to engage. You’ve done your homework on the breed(s) offered and may have some questions in mind.
Be sure to sign the sign-in sheet at the beginning of each semi- nar. It’s your responsibility to account for your presence, not the seminar presenter’s or coordinator’s. If you are attending multiple breed seminars over a short period of time, it helps to bring a copy of the registration form you submitted indicating the breed seminars for which you have registered and paid.
Following presenter/coordinator directions, arriving on time at the beginning of each breed seminar, focusing on the presentation, following directions for the hands-on, etc. will make the seminar and workshop go much smoother for yourself and for the other learners. Engaging in conversation with a classmate is distracting to the rest of the learners. Engaging with your smart phones, tablets or other reading material rather than the presentation is noticed by presenters and coordinators. It sends a message that you are not interested. Don’t be surprised if a presenter refuses to sign your
certificate of attendance if you are absent for a substantial portion of the presentation or are doing something other than paying atten- tion to the presentation.
Asking the seminar presenter for clarification on points in the standard, or in the presentation itself are usually welcomed and expected. What is not welcomed is arguing. If you, the learner, are not accepting of what the seminar presenter is stating, it’s best to approach the presenter when the presentation or hands-on is completed.
You should pick up a Hands-On Workshop Breed Evalua- tion Form and Judges Breed Study Group: Participant’s Evalua- tion Form for each breed seminar and hands-on you attend. Even though there may be more than four exhibits for the hands-on por- tion, you are required to examine, write you’re your observations and reasons and rank only four exhibits. Set down your clip board with evaluation forms prior to examining the example exhibit. For table/ramp breeds please place the clipboard on the floor, not on the table or ramp. As you finish the examination of an example exhibit and jot down your observations move to the next example exhibit in the lineup until you have rotated through four exhibits. While it’s natural that you will want to examine all dogs, if there’s more than four, in order to train your eye and hands note that the AKC limits hands-on examination of each exhibit to 20 people. This does not exclude additional people per exhibit from evaluating the gaiting portion of the hands-on.
Be cognizant of those in front of you or behind you during the gaiting portion of the workshop. If you were in the front for one of the down and backs, it is courteous to move to the back so another learner can move to the front for the observation. On occasion, you may want to see two exhibits gaited together. Please ask the seminar presenter and/or coordinator to accommodate your request. Most are quite willing to do so.
When the hands-on workshop portion is complete, you’ll come back for a debriefing of the exhibits just examined. During debrief you should have the opportunity to ask questions, respond to ques- tions by the presenter or volunteer your own observations.
After the debriefing, complete your seminar participant evalua- tion form and the hands-on breed evaluation form (with your name and date on the hands-on form if want credit for attendance). The seminar participant evaluation form is anonymous, so please com- plete it so that presenters get needed feedback on the presentation content, structure, delivery and anything else that will help the pre- senters to improve their seminars. >
“FOLLOWING PRESENTER/COORDINATOR DIRECTIONS, ARRIVING ON TIME AT THE BEGINNING OF EACH BREED SEMINAR, FOCUSING ON THE PRESENTATION, FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS FOR THE HANDS-ON, ETC. WILL MAKE THE SEMINAR AND WORKSHOP GO MUCH SMOOTHER FOR YOURSELF AND FOR THE OTHER LEARNERS.”
122 • ShowSight Magazine, February 2020