Off to a BAD Start
Bad AttitudeBAD: Finally...Perfect Syncronization
MISS C'S THIRD MX LEG AND HIGH IN TRIAL
From: Betty Winfield of Nine Mile Falls WA
MISS C-Oak Meadows Fawn Calypso, AX, AAD, OAC, OGC, OJC, AADC
Date: Thursday, November 6, 1997
Hi BADies,
Last weekend Miss C and I went to an AKC trial in Missoula, Montana. The judge, Katie Greer, had lovely courses. Unfortunately, on Saturday we NQ'd by earning three refusals because Miss kept spinning to find out where on earth Mom was and why wasn't she where she probably should have been.
Needless to say, we had tons of confidence entering the ring on Sunday--our very last agility run of 1997 :-( It was a dream run (vs the nightmare the day before)! We were a team in every sense of the word--what a feeling to be in perfect syncronization!! I hope everyone gets to experience this at least once in their agility career.
So we were delighted that our 3rd MX leg was earned with a score of 100 and 1st Place. (The placement alone is a MAJOR accomplishment because we compete against Barb Benner and Lexy--they won their jump height at the 1996 AKC Nationals.) We were AMAZED to find that our performance was good enough to win Highest Scoring Dog in the Excellent Class and we went into SHOCK when we won HIGH IN TRIAL !! A Beardie...High in Trial...WOW.
If the season has to end, what a great way to do it!
I am not a believer in the High in Trial award (although I REALLY liked winning it) because I don't think there is any good way to compare the performances between the classes. I much prefer what our club does which is award High in Class for each class. Tie scores between jump heights are broken by the dog with the lowest percentage of standard course time for their jump height. This appears to be fair as both large and small dogs have won High in Class. The percentage of SCT breaks down, however, when trying to compare dogs in different classes because it heavily favors a large, novice dog. For the High in Trial in Montana, tie scores were broken based on yards per second. This generally favors the "large" dogs and usually favors the novice dogs because of the lack of weave poles. The method of calculating High in Trial is still set by the show-giving club, but the High in Trial score sheet sent to the clubs by AKC states "Highest Scoring Dog in Trial is awarded to the dog having the greatest difference in time between Standard Course Time and the individual Run Time." This method really favors the large novice dog because of the SCT being 2 yards per second. It is all this confusion and favoring that makes me not agree with even offering the award--it certainly isn't required by AKC!
Betty Winfield and Miss C
(who are already planning
their 1998 agility schedule)
Nine Mile Falls, WA