I have just spent the last three days stewarding for obedience and rally at hte Rose City classics. There was a lot of talk about mixed breeds entering in area trials and most of it was very positive. The general consensus among the exhibitors was that we all started somewhere and it is about enjoying your dog. There were lots of breed exhibitors who were also entered in rally/obedience. By the way - got to see rally pairs competition for the first time - too fun! Ruth ________________________________ From: "ejdegen@xxxxxxx" <ejdegen@xxxxxxx> To: Stormy435@xxxxxxx Cc: showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Thu, January 21, 2010 11:34:05 AM Subject: [ SHOWGSD-L ] Re: mixed breeds competing in AKC There are many reasons while trials may or may not fill. In agility, there may be multiple trials within driving distance. Also, some trials are "more" desirable because of (1) judges, (2) location (indoors with air conditioning on a good jumping surface draw a lot of entries in the summer!), (3) lower entry prices, (4) offering the "optional" classes like FAST or the International class, (5) multiple venue trial, (6) good RV parking, (7) multiple day trial (3 or 4 day trials draw more entries than a 2 day usually does), (8) good trial secretary (as opposed to some secretaries whom are AWFUL to work with), etc. I could go on and on about what makes a good trial, but above are just some of the reasons. As for obedience & rally, rally was filling up and still is occasionally, but it's fairly easy to add another rally ring if the show giving club chooses to do so. Some may not choose to do so because it may not be worth the money to bring in another judge and have more workers if they're just a few dogs over the limit. The only places that I've seen obedience filled in the last several years are at all breed shows where they put severe limits on the entries because of lack of space. Julie Degen _www.caissonkennels.com_ (http://www.caissonkennels.com/) "A well-balanced German Shepherd has a title on both ends!" In a message dated 1/21/2010 2:21:41 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, Stormy435@xxxxxxx writes: Somebody wrote that Agility/Obedience/Rally trials are not "filled" at some specialty shows. Is that advertising or the area? Is there less conformation entries at those shows, too? If Agility trials are so filled in one area, why not another. (I love to ask questions when I have no answers. You guys are so good with the answers) Stormy On Jan 21, 2010, at 11:05 AM, _ejdegen@xxxxxxxx (mailto:ejdegen@xxxxxxx) wrote: The first thing we do is not ADD to the problem by allowing mixed breeds to enter ANY trials until ALL purebred dogs that want to enter are allowed in....and then make sure that rule is not changed in the future. We have opening and closing dates for trials. If you send an entry before the opening date, it is returned. With highly desirable trials, we have to enter by overnight mail to make sure it is one of the first received. Some agility trials are also by "draw". You enter a trial before the draw date and then entries are drawn on that specific date. If there are still spots available after the draw, then entries proceed as normal. If all the entries are taken, then the dogs are put on a waiting list in the order in which they are drawn. Mixed breed dogs should be placed on a waiting list until entries close. When entries close after ALL purebred dogs are accomodated, if there are still entries available they could be offered to the mixed breed dogs. Julie Degen _www.caissonkennels.com_ (http://www.caissonkennels.com/) "A well-balanced German Shepherd has a title on both ends!" In a message dated 1/21/2010 1:21:18 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, _Stormy435@xxxxxxxx (mailto:Stormy435@xxxxxxx) writes: Here are the obstacles correctly stated. What can be done to overcome them? Storm On Jan 21, 2010, at 10:02 AM, _ejdegen@xxxxxxxx (mailto:ejdegen@xxxxxxx) wrote: As someone else has already stated, it might be "possible" to add judges, however it is usually not PRACTICAL in agility trials. Besides the SPACE required (which usually isn't available); the additional equipment needed is not normally available and even if it would be, it is extremely expensive. Stormy asks "why aren't more specialty clubs offering them"....well, they need to be approved to do it and it does take a *lot* of workers! Some of my favorite trials to go to, tho, are run by some "other" breed specialty clubs. They've committed to the time and work it takes to put on the trials, they pick good judges (agility may be a "mostly" objective sport with the actual judging, but the judges design the courses, so we like judges that design decent courses!), they give great incentives to work their trials and they have them in good locations on safe equipment. = ============================================================================ POST is Copyrighted 2009. 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. 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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://showgsd.org NATIONAL BLOG - http://gsdnational.blogspot.com/ ============================================================================