First AKC Trial This Monday

[Silaria]

Well, Monday is the day I run my first AKC trial. We are doing both Jumpers with Weaves and Standard - Novice A for both. There is a VMO scheduled to be there so I can get Edan's first official AKC measurement toward his p-card. (Do you still need 2 official measurements for a dog over 2 years old? Some venues only require 1 for a 2+ year old dog.)

Looks like I won't have a very long wait for my JWW run. The dogs are running Tall to Small and in the order of Open, Open Preferred, Novice B, and then Novice A. There are only 47 dogs (combined) in the Open level and 23 dogs in Novice B.

For Standard, on the other hand, I have a VERY LONG wait. Novice A is the 2nd to last group to run (Novice Preferred being last). That puts over 250 dogs (Most of whom are in one of 4 Excellent categories) PLUS time to course build. Admittedly, the Excellent class dogs start running before the JWW Open class (30 minutes earlier) but that is still A LOT of dogs.

I may go home between my JWW run and my Standard run depending on how the day goes. I live 10 minutes from the trial site.

For some reason I'm very 'eh' about going to this trial. I'm looking forward to next week's CPE trial more.

 

[take4roll10]

Good luck!

 

[corbinam]

Yes-good luck! I can't offer any input about AKC, sorry! But I think that that many dogs in between runs definitely merits a trip home, especially since you live so close.

 

[k9kreationz]

Good luck with AKC.

I think that's one reason AKC is kinda turning me off. I'm at the park for 8 hours and run twice. Wow! Seems crazy. Like maybe they can limit the number of entries or something. That or we're just used to lots of games in one day. Got my confirmation for my first CPE in June. 5 games a day. Just like NADAC.

Let me know how it is. Unfortunately, most AKC aren't close to my home (actually none of the venues are).

 

[Silaria]

Good luck with AKC.

I think that's one reason AKC is kinda turning me off. I'm at the park for 8 hours and run twice. Wow! Seems crazy. Like maybe they can limit the number of entries or something.

They do limit the number of entries per day; it's something like 750+ runs per day... almost TWICE what the max is for CPE. (We cap our CPE trials at 375.)

That very long day for only 2 runs bothers me too. So does the cost for that matter. I spent $24 for the 1st run and $13 for the 2nd run - $37 for ONE DAY! (Running more than 1 day? The cost remains the same - $24 for the first run that day and $13 for the 2nd for another $37. There is NO discount for registering for the full weekend.)

To equate it with other venues: that averages out to $18.50 per run.

Our CPE Trial charges $13 per run (or you can pay $125 for all 10 runs for the full weekend - $12.50/run).

That is a pretty substantial price difference.

I'll be honest, the only reason I'm bothering to run AKC is for my breeder. She's a good friend and would like to see some AKC titles on Edan beyond the CGC. I have NO plans to go beyond Open in AKC.

Got my confirmation for my first CPE in June. 5 games a day. Just like NADAC.

I'm running CPE next weekend also. My club's CPE trials are in June and August.

 

[k9kreationz]

It is hard to go to AKC isn't it? I also would like some AKC titles behind Koji's name. Maybe just some novice stuff. Otherwise, I'm liking NADAC. We'll see how much I like CPE after mid-June.

Have you tried NADAC? Just wondering if you wouldn't mind comparing the 3 so far when you're done.

And yes, the price. Granted, I know the one AKC trial I was thinking about said that a portion of that went to recording. But ouch. My NADAC ones are typically $10/run and then maybe 10 runs for $80-90 for the weekend. i.e. this 3-day weekend, 15 runs, is $135.

Now, I wonder how much better/worse USDAA is? Anyone? Anyone? lol. Are you going to try that too? Or stick with TDAA and CPE?

 

[corbinam]

Now, I wonder how much better/worse USDAA is? Anyone? Anyone? lol. Are you going to try that too? Or stick with TDAA and CPE?

With USDAA, you get a decent amount of runs per day. With our club, on a normal weekend it's about 4-5 events per day (standard, jumpers, gamblers, snooker, pairs). Then, some trials offer the tournament qualifiers, so add grand prix and steeplechase in there, too.

The cost of normal runs varies. For our trial in May, it was $24 for one run, $34, for two, $44 for three, and $54 for 4 ($108 all weekend for 8 runs). For our July trial, it's just $13 per run (Tournament runs cost more, they're $24). ($113 all weekend for 7 runs). But, I've heard that our club is more expensive than others nearby.

With USDAA, you can't set a limit on entries...that's the one bad thing.

 

[Silaria]

My primary focus and investment is TDAA and CPE.

My club hosts trials for TDAA, CPE, USDAA, and NADAC.

I wanted to do our NADAC trial this year but I had to work that weekend. (We only do 1 a year.) I wanted to get him exposure to rubberized contacts since that is currently the only venue that is requiring them. (They are coming to other venues but I don't know when.) Its also our only outdoor trial, something else we've never done so the exposure would be nice.

I'll probably enter some classes at USDAA because I usually go and help out with our trials anyway so I may as well run. I doubt I'll get very involved there though.

AKC, as I mentioned, I'll probably only go up to Open and only attend local trials. I just really can't see spending the money but I like my breeder so I'm going to do something.