Traveling to Trials

corbinam

corbinam

Moderator
I'm looking for some advice.

We aren't super serious about agility, and thus far have only competed in our club's trials. However, these trials are small-scale, which I love. This past trial we only had 39 dogs! Sometimes we have around 75-100, which is a good size.

Bentley needs a Starters Pairs (Relay) Q in order to get his AD. Our club offers pairs infrequently, and also the only other dogs who jump in his height class aren't very good (no offense to them). Also, we just need 1 Advanced Snooker Q for his title. But, our club isn't offering Advanced Snooker until July.

So, that lead me to consider traveling to go to a trial this summer. I would like to either go somewhere close (NC, GA, etc) or go somewhere where I have friends or family (OH, VA). However, I don't think we are ready for a huge trial. Some friends of ours suggested the trial in Perry, GA...but that's the regional qualifier. So first of all it's going to be huge, and second of all, we're not very good yet so I don't want to look stupid :o

So my question is, how do you know if a trial is big, little, etc etc? Thanks!
 
You can always check the premiums too. Most of them that I have seen for my area, usually tell me the max number of runs. Which then, you can kinda figure out how many dogs there'll be.
 
I assume you are talking USDAA? If so then there are no limits on entries and it can be somewhat hard to predict....well this year at least. Because of nationals getting moved east for the first time in a loooong time, USDAA entries have gone way up. I know of a few trials this year that unexpectedly had to add judges/rings at the last minute due to the high volume of entries! Exciting in a way, but like you I really do prefer the smaller trial environment.

It's too bad you are looking for something earlier in the summer though. I was going to suggest my local club's starters/advanced trial (in VA). All classes are offered, plus steeplechase, and the entries are always very reasonable since there are no masters classes offered. That trial is always held at the beginning of August though.
 
DogIsMyMantra said:
It's too bad you are looking for something earlier in the summer though. I was going to suggest my local club's starters/advanced trial (in VA). All classes are offered, plus steeplechase, and the entries are always very reasonable since there are no masters classes offered. That trial is always held at the beginning of August though.
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Where is the trial? We might still be interested :smile2: I have family in Virginia so as long as it wasn't a busy weekend, we might be able to make it.

Also, if we are going to completely retrain the a-frame, it will be good to have all summer to keep working on it and not trialing :)
 
What I do to check is look at last years catalogues - most are usually still online at the agility forum. Gives me an idea about numbers in each class and also who competes. Plus the instructors all travel to comps so can usually tell me what the trial has been like for the last couple of years. My club only has maybe 3 trials a year, most of the trials in this state are held on the south side so I am always travelling, but even then I live in a small state so often everyone crosses the border to compete. I dont do it too often as I hate travelling but I have to travel for flyball (only 3 comps in the whole state per year). The farthest I will go is a 4 hour drive (except for nationals).

It is a whole different experience attending big trials, and quite nerve racking for the dogs, there isnt such a big difference for the handlers though. A lot of dogs dont perform well at large trials - there may be a lot of dogs but usually are not a lot of qualifiers. So dont worry about not being good yet. Like my instructor said - better to learn to handle the bigger trials in novice levels than wait until masters.
 
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