Monday, December 14, 2009

Forget Spring Cleaning, Spring Trials Await!!

In the cold of winter, It's always a challenge to find matches in which to test out your training.   At these matches, you can also test out what your score might be if you  would like.   Saccarappa Obedience club is holding three of these events, which they are calling Super Sundays this year.   January 17, 2010; February 14, 2010, and March 21, 2010 will be the dates.   Located at Westbrook Armory Stroudwater St Westrbrook ME the Judging will be from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM.


Entries start at 9:00 AM.   The flyer can be found on this link. ***AKC event FYI.

Additionally, I have started to identify the AKC Novice and Open trials that we will be attending this year with Jack, Magoo, and Bri.   Collie Club of Maine is having their Portland ME trials on the 5th of March.   Collie Clug of NH is having their Amherst New Hampshire trials on the 19th of March.   Sadly I am missing Casco trials in Bath Maine around April 17th due to a week with five new boarding dogs:(   However from May 20th to May 23rd in Scarborough Maine the Vacationland and York Obedience club trials will be going on.   This is awesome because you have four in a row, so if your dog wierds out on day one, you have some time to get them acclimated.   This will be the first of the outdoor trials, which I am better at.   I have yet to get a leg in a "real" indoor trial.   Once got a leg in an enclosed outdoor trial, but that is a bit different because it was basically outdoors.

A couple of things to remember when scheduling events:
  • Check who the judges are, so that you know if you will duplicate on or not.   Remember three legs must be under three different judges.   Course, I never assume I am going to get a leg, so if one judge is going to be two places, then that next trial will just be one more experience if I got the leg the last time.   I have to say, the AKC does try to really rotate the judges well, so it's most always not a problem, but check.
  • If you are like me and own a business, be sure to either blank out the days for business, or have a qualified replacement.   Luckily the winter and early spring months are easy for me to get away.
  • Matches are the hardest to find, because they are not online so much.   Sometimes, only internal club members may know when these are, if someone forgets to post them on the individual clubs online website.   The best thing to do is stay in contact with these club secretaries so you find out or subscribe to the listing that comes in the mail (however, I have forgotten how to do or find this LOL).
  • By having a free online account with the AKC, you can keep track of your dogs events, schedule events, and be reminded before the closing dates of events come up.
  • Infodog.com is an easy way to online enter into trials.   They can't always guarantee that you get in, and there is a fee for each entry of approx 15.00.   However, if I really want to get into that trial, I have found that I will more than likely get in using this service.

I will be looking at up and coming UKC events later.   I have heard you can modify exercises, and would love to have my dog Leon compete, if I could substitute stand for sit (bad knees).  Don't know if many of those events come this way or not.

http://www.mannerlymutts.com/
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