Elimination ritual

I've never seen a dog dropped from a competition if she eliminated during the return from a retrieve, though I have heard that she's likely to be dropped if she stops to eliminate on the way out.

However, ideally, you'd prefer that the dog not eliminate on the way out or on the way back.

One way to reduce the likelihood of that happening is to develop an elimination ritual to be used every time you take the dog out of the vehicle to run a series.  You would use this same ritual when training alone, when training with a group, and when competing.

Laddie's ritual is this: I take his softball out of the trunk, let him out of his crate, and toss the softball, saying "Go potty!"  When he actually does eliminate, I often say, "Good!  Go potty!"

For Laddie, actually eliminating can take considerable time.  Each time he brings me his softball, I toss it again, either in the same direction or some new direction, of course watching for other dogs or other possible risks.

After Laddie does eliminate and then brings me the softball, I make a point of tossing it for him at least another time or two.  I don't want him to learn that eliminating ends the fun, perhaps causing him to delay it as long as possible.

By the way, I use a softball rather than a bumper in order to create a specific context for our elimination ritual, hopefully increasing the likelihood of success.