How do your clubs keep trials short?

I have seen at a couple trials that if they are late and miss their run they don't get to run it at the end.Alot of times it is conflicts but the times I have seen people lose a run is they are off chit chatting.Watching the slow dogs who barely run is painful enough but to miss arun is even more painful in the wallet/:gaah

I'd say almost all venues, if you miss you're run, you're SOL. If you are able to run, it's because the gate is being nice. I have missed runs, one gate yelled at me and refused to even ask if I can run again. Another moved me down about 5 dogs. Another moved me to the end. It just depends on the person/club running the show.

Unfortunately for us, our gates are too nice. I mean, we literally wait as someone is running from across the field to get over to us, catch their breath, and then run. When we simply could have moved on, and allowed them to run later, or not at all. AKC is usually the venue that won't allow people to run, here, they're very strict about it. I've just lucked out.

I did have to laugh at the last error I made. I was at the gate. Um, my dog wasn't.
 
is it a supply/demand thing?

(a) If there arent that many trials in your area you'll possibly get more entries than average.
(b) If entry fees are lower than other trials you'll possibly get more entries than average.

Since any one club is unlikely to be able to change (a), that leaves (b): try doubling entry fees & see if the trial goes on as late :)

Seriously, if you have folks enjoying a full day of agility then that is a good thing!
 
I'm really taking notes here! I've called for a committee meeting next week so I'm going to bring all these tips up.

Here's our problem. We have:

  • 1 ring
  • 2 paid non-agility people to help set up course/pick up knocked bars (food given)
  • 2 paid non-agility timers (food given)
  • 1 admin non-agility person who arranges the prizes and records the scores
  • 1 scribe (doesn't trial but understand agility) (food given)
  • 1 trial manager (agility person who also trials) (food given)
  • (And it's always the same people, a handful of us in the agility committee, not even the whole committee, who help out.)
And 1 other person might chip in to help now and then. But that's all the workers we have! No other incentive given.

  • Walk throughs are not timed.
  • People don't automatically come to the gates to wait. It's outdoors, and our amplifier isn't that loud and people at the other end of the dog run where trials are held can't usually hear anything, so we rely on people shouting the message down. We do call out for dogs, but we also wait for them.
  • We have a prize giving ceremony at the end so people can take pictures with the judge and their prizes (this part I think most enjoy..)

We are a poor kennel club so our fees are quite high (received complaints from those who trial multiple dogs already). We are however the only ones holding trials regularly, so there's no competition there. Definitely alot of demand!

I just counted the number of runs we had at the trial and I am in AWE as to how 660 runs can be done in a day! We only had 150!!! :confused2: If we had 660 I think we'd take 4 days!

Question:
  • Do the people who are working during the trial also run their dogs?
  • How are your records kept? Do you have a booklet or are they kept online?
  • Are your trials mostly indoor or outdoors (no shade over or around the ring)?
  • On average how many workers do you have at a trial?

I'm still amazed by the 660 runs in a day! :eek2:
 
Ours are outdoors - which is why third call and you're out. And that's not third call when its your turn to run, that's third call before your height class runs. You're expected to keep an eye on the rings yourself so you're fault if you miss your run. Only leeway is if you have a conflict in rings - and the judges decide beforehand which ring gets priority when there is a conflict.

Having one ring running will be one of the big problems with why it takes so long. But I guess that's unavoidable if you don't have the judges. You should definately ask the judge if they want the next person readied before the end of a run to move things along.

Ask the judge if you can print off copies of the course to hand out on the day. Generally Australian judges only do that for games trials but it would cut a lot of walking time down if people had the course on the day to look at.

Triallers are actually expected to set up the ring. It's an added bonus because you get to see the course before everyone walks it so we always have plenty of volunteers. We use the other volunteers (the non-triallers) for ring duties, esp marshalling and ring stewards (taking the person to the start line, taking leads, exiting triallers from the ring, picking up dropped poles).
 
Our club has just started hosting trials and we only have 1 ring as well--that makes it even more critical that things be moved along.

I think the hardest thing for you will be getting all the competitors on board since they have been used to dawdling at the trial. If you do decide to enact some of these time saving tactics, I would have a big meeting at the beginning of the trial (before the first walk through) and talk about it. You could even mention the fact that most people think your trials are too long, but that you need everyone's cooperation to get out at a decent time. Mention all the changes you're going to make--timing walk throughs, getting your dog out and ready to run well in advance, etc...

Do you guys have a gate and gate sheets that show the event and the running order? It sounds like maybe you don't. Before each walk through every competitor checks in at the gate. Then they know when to get their dogs out and when it's close to time to run. I think you'll have to take a hard line on this--get your dog out and ready to go or miss your run. Get somene really bossy as the gate steward and have them hunt people down by height class. It's not unusual for us to have someone wandering around going "26 inches, get ready!!!! Beau, Atom, Snickers!" and making sure that those people are already out and ready to go before we even start. At the end of the height class they'd shout "last 26 inch dog, 22 inches please get ready" and then they round up the first few dogs in that height class--but they do this at EVERY dog. "This is Lexi, Bentley is on deck and then Salsa" or whatever. No excuses for people not to know when to go.

To answer your question:
  1. I work as trial secretary (me and another woman take turns score keeping, etc...) and we run our dogs. In fact she runs 3! We just take turns scoring while the other gets their dog out and ready to go, etc...
  2. Our records are kept in a computer program called AGTSec made especially for agility. Scribes and timers write everything down on paper, and then we input it into the program. We send the paper and printouts to USDAA at the end of the weekend.
  3. Our trials can be indoor or outdoor. The club we just joined has only done them indoors, but our old club only did them outdoors. We were lucky in that we had a lot of shade--but the other club in town does their trials at a park where there is little to no shade.
  4. At our old club (we held smaller trials) EVERYONE was signed up to volunteer. There was a not in the trial premium basically saying if you enter the trial, you're volunteering and we'll provide you with an awesome lunch. People were automatically signed up to help beforehand (we usually knew most of the entrants and could decide what duties they could perform).
 
Trials Short

I would not want to be a trial secretary.Hats off to those who do it .Our Thanksgiving Cluster here in New England is the largest AKC agility trial in the country with 1900 runs a day.I wouldn't want to run that.
 
Our club is small (<30 people) and we hold one AKC agility trial/yr (and one AKC ob/rally trial).
the agility trial is held outdoors under cover (packed dirt horse arena)- two rings, only one running at a time. timewise- probably 8 am to 3 pm, maybe 4ish. Course building happens in one ring while the other ring runs.

we do have self serve ribbons/prizes so people check the binder of results and pick up the appropriate ribbons. People who title sometimes get pix with the judge but mostly that's the only time there are pauses for pix.

so there is a scribe and timer at the table, 2-3 bar setters, leash runner, gate steward, scribe sheet runner - all those people are usually also competing.
we have 1-2 club people entering the scribe sheets into the computer- may or may not be competing.
we do not have the people to cover all these tasks for 3 days- many of the other agility competitors volunteer. we have incentives like food, worker raffle tickets (future trial entries, prizes, etc).
now that I have been to a few trials- it is always the same people working- whether in our club or others.
 
Oh thank you thank you thank you!! Understanding how you guys do things in the US and Australia is very helpful! I'm printing out this thread and highlighting stuff. :lol:

We will probably have to implement quite a few changes (some triallers will probably complain and see them as being "drastic" changes), but hey.. if they want to continue having trials, this is the way to go.

Having 2 rings would certainly speed things up too, but we don't have enough equipment.

I like the idea of getting the triallers to set up the course. If we limit the walk throughs to 5 mins, surely they would be happy for that extra little bit of time they can get to check out the course when they help set it up!

I also need to look into SOFTWARE (and extra battery packs for the laptop since we have no power source). The person who records the scores keeps changing (admin staff don't usually hold their job at our kennel club for long) and over the last trial, there was mistakes made which of course screwed up prize giving, etc.

We definitely also need to implement this getting people ready before the trial starts and giving people only 3 chances to turn up when called. The onus of getting to the ring on time needs to be put on the triallers. We do have gate sheets but I think no one really looks at them. :( Will need to make them more prominent and important to the triallers.

And incentivising volunteers with prizes and trial entry fees (a good idea since some think our fees too high!)!

You've all given me so many things to think about and discuss with the committee! I hope the August trials will be run more quickly, smoothly and with more help. It's incredibly tiring on the usual volunteers!
 
Oh thank you thank you thank you!! Understanding how you guys do things in the US and Australia is very helpful! I'm printing out this thread and highlighting stuff. :lol:

We will probably have to implement quite a few changes (some triallers will probably complain and see them as being "drastic" changes), but hey.. if they want to continue having trials, this is the way to go.

Having 2 rings would certainly speed things up too, but we don't have enough equipment.

I like the idea of getting the triallers to set up the course. If we limit the walk throughs to 5 mins, surely they would be happy for that extra little bit of time they can get to check out the course when they help set it up!

I also need to look into SOFTWARE (and extra battery packs for the laptop since we have no power source). The person who records the scores keeps changing (admin staff don't usually hold their job at our kennel club for long) and over the last trial, there was mistakes made which of course screwed up prize giving, etc.

We definitely also need to implement this getting people ready before the trial starts and giving people only 3 chances to turn up when called. The onus of getting to the ring on time needs to be put on the triallers. We do have gate sheets but I think no one really looks at them. :( Will need to make them more prominent and important to the triallers.

And incentivising volunteers with prizes and trial entry fees (a good idea since some think our fees too high!)!

You've all given me so many things to think about and discuss with the committee! I hope the August trials will be run more quickly, smoothly and with more help. It's incredibly tiring on the usual volunteers!

We have magnetic easels at each gate with the list of dogs in running order.
we also have one at the ribbon/prize table with each class listed and the positions that need to be filled so people can sign up for the job that they would like to volunteer for...............

Our two rings- one is for standard and one is for jumpers so the big stuff stays in one ring.
we did have a weave pole issue this year and had to move one set between the rings on the first day. we had another set brought to the trial by one of our members so we didn't have to keep doing that:winkgrin:
 
I'm going to try to make this short, but I'm sure it won't be. sorry in advanced. This is how ours runs and the people we have....and although we are known for great trials, we're also known for being kinda slow.

Positions (for at least one ring):
trial secretary (coordinates everything)
volunteer coordinator (makes sure all positions are filled)
ring steward (makes sure there's enough volunteers at the ring)
1-2 people enter in times (2 is more important when doing games that require adding up points)
1 scribe sheet runner (sometimes it's the person who enters the times too)
1 scribe (needed at the ring)
1 timer (needed at the ring)
1 gate (needed at the ring)
1 leash runner (needed at the ring)
2-3 jump setters/chute fixer (depending on the course, standard usually needs 1-2, jumpers needs 2-3)
And of course, course builders. Usually we have one main person in charge, and anywhere from 2-5 people assist with moving equipment. Our equipment is on the field the night prior (but not laid out as we don't have the actual course maps until the morning).
Sign up sheets for volunteer positions is usually either on the board at the gate, or near the course maps. One venue I run, uses a large white board, where people just fill in their names. That way, you also know where you need help.
I missed hospitality. Usually 1 person is in charge, but person usually recruits another person to help out.


Usually we have a briefing in the AM before the first dog on the line. In AKC, there's usually a general walk-through before the briefing (meaning anyone can walk). After the briefing, typically we get an 8 min walk through, then 5 minutes before first dog on the line. Typically, you check-in (put a check mark next to your name on the running order at the gate) sometime when you're walking (before, after, etc). And usually the gate starts calling out people who haven't checked their name off to make sure they are there. During the runs, the gate calls out who's at the line, who's on deck (next up), who's in the hole (after the deck person) (I think all that comes from baseball, lol). And then sometimes continue with a few more names to make sure they know they're coming up.

The person entering the scores is typically doing them as the dogs are running...because the scribe sheet runner should be getting them. :) The scores are typically printed out (by classes), and put in a binder and also posted. You pick up your own ribbons. The only time we do photos is when someone gets a major title (MACH, CATCH, ATCH, etc). If you want to keep the presentations, maybe you can do it at the end of every class (not jump height). For example, photos only after all Novice runs.

Lastly, how to entice people to work? Vouchers. Usually, it goes something like this. If you work 1-2 full classes (e.g. 16" excellent standard), you get a lunch ticket. If you work more, you get a voucher for $$ off our next trial. Some will give out $2 per class. Some give more money. This works well when your prices are slightly higher than normal.

I think I covered it all. I'm sure I missed something.

Oh yeah, also look into purchasing a portable generator. That's what I've seen used when there are no power sources. Some are gas powered, others are basically big batteries. Usually we have one at each ring to run the timers and another one for the computers at the scoring table.

Of course, the same people are always helping out. that's the way it is everywhere. for our club, it's "mandatory" that you help either set-up or break-down.

hope this helps you a bit.
 
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