I guess I'll finally get in this conversation for a piece or two.

First I'd like to say that bonds are not VITAL to success. As I've said many times, I do think they can play a part in a small number of dogs, but overall, it's not vital to success.

I would like to say that I know, over the years, there have been some dogs I've bonded with, but there have been countless others I have not. I can't sit here and honestly say that I've ever felt like it made a difference or not. So this nonsense about not being man enough along with whatever other hogwash was said in that particular vein is just that, nonsense. I've cried over dogs that have never won when they died. I've cried over dogs that did win and passed on. Hell, I've cried at pretty much everything at one point or another, because I'm the exact opposite of what bolero says. I'm about the most emotional person I know in regards to most everything.

I will only talk about what I've seen personally. I've known a lot of men in my time in dogs that never developed any kind of bond with their dogs aside from whatever is formed by feeding/taking care of them. One of the owners of Hunter Red never did anything for his dogs but feed, work, and put them back out. His litters of pups were born on the chain spot. The dogs were a means to an end. He won a lot more than he lost. He bred some dogs that went on to form their own line of dogs, and he is but one example of many I can think of that didn't go out of their way to form any bond, and it was never vital to his success.

Most of the dogs I've used over the years are such nutters that bonds simply aren't something you form with them. You could spend all day, every day, with Smiley and she wouldn't care who you were when it came time to do her thing. I know because I did, and she won without me being there with someone she barely knew. Maybe it's the type of dog I have; I don't know. I have never seen a bond make a dog scratch when it normally wouldn't have. I've seen men use their house dogs, hell, I saw one man use his SON'S dog, with his son there, and it made zero difference.

I certainly don't fault someone who attempts to do everything within their power to have an edge, I just have never seen that type of "edge" factor into play. Or maybe it did factor in and no one knew. Either way, it made no difference in the outcome of the contest.

One time, many years ago, I owned a dog that wouldn't do anything in a box without me being there. She wouldn't start; she wouldn't run; she wouldn't do anything. She was a one owner dog, and I was the one owner. In the end, she still quit in under 40 minutes.

So yes, bonds are an intangible thing that are hard to quantify so there's no way to accurately say, in fact, that it helps at all. I disagree with the pole in that it's vital to success, as I stated earlier, when it's simply not vital at all.