I understand the expense thing...Dog showing in general is expensive! As far as futurities, is the expense you're speaking of mainly is the handler's fee??? ++++++++++++++++++= No not just the handlers fee. that is in there - their expenses and then my expenses to get the dog to the right judge at the right futurity I for one would never show a promising youngster at a local futurity if the judge was wrong for it. I would try to get it to the right judge for the dog even if that meant traveling many hours to do so. I don't want my " promising youngster" to get beat by showing under the wrong judge. So the costs add up. Like I said I feel there is not enough bang for the buck involved. I can 't even tell you who the national fut/mat winners were from 2004.(but I don't always remember what happened yesterday either) I think if most people were honest about it they would do the same thing. Most of the handlers know where others are going and very rarely do you see the top animals knocking each other off at the regional level. Using a JR would be great but do you want to take a chance of loosing with a good one because of lack of experience on the handlers part? I don't- I can only speak for my self but to get ideas out there is great. and I would say so far the majority wants to keep the reserve system - I have no ideas of how to improve on the futurity system or even if it needs to be improved. sally ============================================================================ POST is Copyrighted 2005. All material remains the property of the original author and of GSD Communication, Inc. NO REPRODUCTIONS or FORWARDS of any kind are permitted without prior permission of the original author AND of the Showgsd-l Management. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ALL PERSONS ARE ON NOTICE THAT THE FORWARDING, REPRODUCTION OR USE IN ANY MANNER OF ANY MATERIAL WHICH APPEARS ON SHOWGSD-L WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF ALL PARTIES TO THE POST AND THE LIST MANAGEMENT IS EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN, AND IS A VIOLATION OF LAW. VIOLATORS OF THIS PROHIBITION WILL BE PROSECUTED. For assistance, please contact the List Management at admin@xxxxxxxxxxxx VISIT OUR WEBSITE - http://www.showgsd.org ============================================================================