a Taj MuttHall Dog Diary: Team Troubles for Nationals

Sunday, October 05, 2008

Team Troubles for Nationals

SUMMARY: Losing a team member hurts.

One of my teammates for Nationals, for Tika's team, has found out that her father, who is quite ill, will most likely be in the hospital by the time Scottsdale rolls around, so she can no longer commit to going. I don't envy her situation at all, having someone close to her be so ill.

But that does leave us other two in a bind. Remember, this was the team of people who weren't going to go and all talked each other into going at the last minute. Closing date for entries is long past, so we can't talk someone else into going in her place. No one else in the huge Bay Team apparently entered as a draw. So we don't have a 3rd.

If we don't have a 3rd, then that means each of our dogs would be doing only 2 or maybe 3 runs for the whole week without the additional 4-5 for team. And that would really suck. It would suck enough, in fact, that our other teammate says that if we can't confirm a 3rd before we go, he'll cancel out, too, because it's way too expensive for just one dog and only 2 runs, both of them the extra-don't-really-count-for-fun runs.

I've just sent email to the USDAA trial secretary asking what's the process for finding an entered 3rd.

Life often hands one some interesting challenges, eh?

Meanwhile, Boost's team ("Handling Distortion") already has a t-shirt design, thanks to teammate Jill's human dad. And it'll be purple, too. Good color choice.

5 comments:

  1. I'm so sorry to hear about your friend...that is awful!

    But, I know of someone who entered the Nationals as a draw...at 26"...Darlene Woz and her Dal, Wilson. You might want to see if they've teamed her with anyone yet.

    Good luck!!

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  2. Ouch. But I believe you would get to run all team events (other than Relay) anyway.

    From the USDAA nationals entry form:

    Draw Team ... Entries not matched for team/pairs shall be entered as individual entries in the appropriate classes.

    (It is under the Entries & Entry closing date section)

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  3. Yeah, but what fun is competing on team if you can't do anything in team?

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  4. USDAA says they'll team us with a draw entry. Hope they tell us soon who it is.

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