Originally Posted by
colliemad
this sort of comment gets up my nose just a little bit. Yes
some handlers and their dogs will do very well with a youngster but that does not mean that it has been trained early or intensively. Some experienced handlers are simply that,
experienced good at what they do and able to get the best out of their dogs early on in competition because that experience means that they don't make a lot of the silly mistakes the rest of us do! If an experienced handler brings out a young dog and does well early on the assumption is that they have trained it hard and this is not always the case!
It favours the senior trainers? Mmm do you mean older or those at a higher level than you? The handlers I think you are referring to at that show are as much entitled to be there as anyone else. Only one had a dog in grade three and with only 2 clear rounds over the weekend resulting in 2 places both in jumping classes I cannot see what a difference it would make to you? I travelled nearly 4 hours to kernow K9 and really enjoyed my weekend, it is not a show I have ever done before but certainly would go again. I have been re-training my (grade 6
) dogs contacts so held them all weekend and managed to cock up his jumping classes, I also have a grade 3 dog whose contacts I held all weekend yet he still managed 2nd and 3rd. Finally I have a dog that runs in anysize and he only got one clear and a 7th place but had a whale of a time. I have collies because I like them not because of agility, my eldest dog was 2 1/2 before he even saw a jump yet he is the grade 6 that will go into grade 7, my grade 3 will also make it to grade 7 although I have just put him out of grade 3 on points as the flat out courses are not helping him.
I don't like the new system, I think it encourages people to bring a dog out ready to win out of grade 3 because that is the hardest level to get out of even for experienced handlers. The points progression was supposed to help this but still people are complaining that they want to
win out of that level. I can understand winning out of grade 1 or 2 but after that the only other win that is needed is into grade 6 so why can't people take the points option?
Agility is not just about speed, I have seen good handlers do well with a average dog, if speed was all that mattered that wouldn't happen.
What a load of rubbish! having a collie does not mean that you will win, there are plenty of slow ones out there beaten regularly by very good ABC's!
You are never going to have a level playing field. Under the old system your dog would be competing in novice now against the same handlers and their dogs so that itself hasn't changed
as for the dogs your OH trains..... so what if they didn't get placed? The higher up you go the harder it gets to come home with a rosette. It is always going to be harder because the standard is that much higher. It is also harder for an inexperienced handler to get a place in a class that is combined with higher grades, I think the small and medium classes were either 1 -4 comb or 5-7 comb?
It appears to me that sour grapes really is the order of the day! You have a dog that you don't expect much from because it's older and not a collie and you don't think experienced handlers should be at a small show and you clearly don't approve of them having more than one dog as this means that they must be selling them?
Never even heard of that happening, hell of an assumption to make!! Did it not occur to you that some of these handlers are running other peoples dogs? I saw several doing just that over the weekend!
ETA I also don't know of that many experienced handlers having a string of dogs? I know of dozens that only have 3 or 4.............