Third Day of Judging Clinic

SUMMARY: Thank the universe for showers! And what about that judge's path?

Related posts: Judging/Course Building Clinic First Day of Judging Clinic Second Day of Judging Clinic Third Day of Judging Clinic

Fourth Day of Judging Clinic (Almost) Wordless Wednesday Yes I Was Really There Course Design Memorizing Numbers

Hot day--in the 90s again--not enough sleep--before heading home this evening, I felt about ready to collapse. But home around 7:30, a little game of fetch with the dogs (in the near-dark), which I haven't done for 3 days, and a just-warm-enough shower--yeah, works wonders!

And dinner's in the microwave.

Apparently I have learned something about designing courses through the years just by competing and knowing how to walk courses looking for the challenges presented (so I can get through them with my dogs!). I got good marks for the dog's paths and challenges, but not so hot on designing a good judging path. Because, I mean, in all these years, it never occurred to me to even think about that. I admired judges because they always seemed to get to where they needed to be to judge the contacts and runout lines.

So who knew it was because they designed the courses so they could do so?! OK, probably lots of cleverer people than me figured that out. But doh! not Score Table Girl!

Basically, that's why you'll never see a 100x100 course with the dogwalk on one side, the aframe in the middle of the other side, the teeter in the middle of a 3rd side, and the weaves in the middle of the 4th side. Ya just can't get there to judge them all.

I also got top rating for my table count! Woohoo! (That's a joke--of all the zillions of things we're getting evaluated on, THAT'S what I did well on? OK, maybe I didn't have to explain that.)

Apparently I can do the on-course judging thing kinda OK, too. Just something else I've picked up by watching and paying attention. Raise the right kind of hand at the right time, keep my eye on the obstacles, get to where I need to be, and stay out of the dog's and handler's ways. Not as hard as I thought it would be, but I definitely need a lot more practice

I think I made a mistake on the score-table paperwork! Gah! Just a stupid thing that I forgot to mark (because the judge usually marks it, not the score table--and the thing is, I don't even NOTICE that stuff any more because, after seeing it at the score table and ignoring it for how many hundreds of classes, my brain apparently just filters it. Ah, well.

So I survived the day with decent ratings so far.

Tomorrow--the 3-hour written test. 80 questions, I believe. Jeez. I haven't done anything like that since college, which need I say was more than a couple of years ago.

And I have to STUDY! There are so many things I'm got only vaguely in my mind!

They told us: Even someone off the street can probably pass the Masters faults portion of the test--if it looks like a mistake, it's probably penalized. But Advanced and Starters? Pshewwww....

Now it's 8:15. Don't have to be there until 9 tomorrow, yeah!, but still gotta get up at 7:30 probably. SOoooooo---it's been fun, but now gotta go eat and study. Wish me luck!

P.S. Yesterday, I took some photos of some of the participants, but not all. Today, the over-the-hill paparazzi (santa cruz and vicinity, among others) were there in my judge's briefing test with their own cameras. I wonder if I'll make Team Small Dog this week?