About Refunding Entry Fees

SUMMARY: Some clubs do sometimes, some clubs don't.

It's important that clubs have a stated policy about entry refunds after the closing date (usually 2-3 weeks before the trial). It's important that the policy be reasonable. It's important that the policy be consistent.

Some thoughts along those lines:

• You don't want clubs necessarily playing favorites--refunds to some people after the closing but not to others. However--you can see that it might be reasonable to deny a refund to someone who wants to scratch after the closing date, time after time after time (it happens!), but to allow a refund to someone who always attends the trials and works their buns off but on one weekend has genuinely extenuating circumstances. But the lines aren't always so clear cut.
• Some clubs refund if a bitch goes into heat after the closing date. I've heard breeders say, "yeah, but they should've known that Fuzzy was due to go into heat."  I don't know about that stuff. It's just what I've heard.
• There was quite a  brouhaha earlier this year--on facebook or blogs or perhaps all--about a large (AKC?) trial that got rained out (?) and refused to refund any fees, even though that was their stated policy.  
• There are usually expenses that the club has to pay whether or not the trial goes on. They might have paid a nonrefundable deposit or fee for the site. They might have rented equipment. They might have to pay for the judge's nonrefundable transportation costs.  If the judges actually made it into town, they might have to pay for the judge's lodging. If there were out-of-pocket expenses for the trial--ribbons, food, and so on--then those are also nonrefundable. That said--there is almost always money that goes back to the club (and in AKC with their hugely inflated entry fees, that's particularly true); in that situation, I'd think that the trial would have given an accounting of their own nonrefundable expenses and then at least refunded the remainder. I think that's more or less what eventually happened.
• The club I attended this weekend who didn't refund my partial fees for scratching Tika 2 days before the trial (almost 2 full weeks after closing, and a few days after "secondary closing" intended only for move-ups earned the immediately preceding weekend) does have a clearly stated policy: no refunds for any reason after the closing date.
• When I asked for refunds for a third of Tika's runs was reminded gently of the policy, I said OK.  (I might have been less sanguine if, say, I had broken my ankle and couldn't run either dog and couldn't get a refund, but that wasn't the situation.) When I got there and scratched Tika from a couple of runs, they gave me a certificate for roughly equivalent free entries for a future trial. That's above and beyond what they've committed to do, and I'm grateful.
• At least one other person was refused a refund and was quite upset (and did not show up--I didn't hear the reason, but I know that the previous weekend the dog had finished the title they were working for).  Here's what the club had to say about that: They used to give refunds after the closing date for various excuses, including "dog in heat". Then they discovered that, on multiple occasions, people were entering *other trials* on that same weekend instead. So they instituted a no-refund policy.  I don't blame 'em.
• In short: Easy to have a stated policy, but not so easy to decide what's reasonable in all situations.

Cost of USDAA Nationals

SUMMARY: It's a lot of fun, but be prepared to shell out the dough.

If you're looking for a reason NOT to go to Nationals (it's a tough call--I had a good time while I was there, and all the final events are too wonderful to miss and five times better than seeing them in a video afterwards):

$ 40	Team shirt for one dog, with artwork from generous friend
$ 45	Grand Prix quarterfinals entry for one dog (less if you earned byes)
$ 75	Team entry for one dog
$ 40	Steeplechase entry for one dog (less if you earned byes)
$ 30	Two optional bonus classes for one dog
$ 40	Awards dinner
$ 50	Kennel space 5'x10' (for 2 dogs)
$ 10	Parking permit for 5 days
$104.35	Gas round trip from San Jose (750 miles each way at 23 mpg, $3.20/gal= $208.69, divide by 2 people; ignoring wear & tear on car)
$333	Hotel, slightly upscale & dog friendly, 5 nights: $665.95 (divide by 2 people)
$ 15	Ice for cooler
$105.76	Lunches & dinners & snacks for 6 days (all breakfasts are fruit & breakfast bars that I brought from home; 2 meals from grocery store; 3 meals fast food; 2 meals low-priced restaurants; rest purchased on site)
$ 20	Herding instinct test for unentered dog
$ 50	Five Lure coursing runs for unentered dog
$____	A week off work (or vacation time spent--your salary may vary)
$____	Shopping at the many excellent vendors whom you don't often find elsewhere (up to you; I avoided them this year)
~$900 plus time off work	My total (selecting from above items, as I didn't do everything)

Miscellany

SUMMARY: Agility blogging, agility training, agility entries, agility knee

Saw my orthopedic surgeon Tuesday for the last time; he said there's absolutely no fluid in the knee which is awesome considering where I'd been for months before the surgery, and gave me a 100%-go-for-it rating (no restrictions of any kind), just suggested that I keep on with my physical therapy to build those danged quads.

Went to class with Tika last night for the 2nd time since arthroscopy. Knee is still a bit stiff but the big problem is that I don't feel that I'm moving anywhere near full speed. I need to practice running, but of course running is the worst thing that one can do now that one has had confirmed that one's knee has begun arthritis. Just HAVE to get back to walking, at least, and maybe jog around the back yard a couple of times a day--I'm sure that 100 feet of jogging will be helpful--

Tika, however, did very well. She was even pretty close to trial-fast. (Where I can't normally get her revved to full excited speed in class, then she takes off like a rocket at trials. It's exhilarating at trials but wish I could practice our living-on-the-edge running a bit more often.) I had trouble with a couple of trick round-about-front-crosses-after-270s kinds of things that we were doing, but Tika had no trouble with some tough weave entrances that others were challenged by. So I guess we're all getting something out of the class.

Agility blogging, for me, was solely an attempt to keep my own diary of my dogs' lives and progress. It has turned into this social thing. People actually read it. And of course I'm intrigued by the thoughts and experiences that other agility people go through, especially in different parts of the country. In class and at trials we don't usually talk about our day-to-day experiences, our fears, our hopes, our deepest challenges (well, ok, I talk about my deepest challenges all the time to anyone who'll listen, usually right after I've screwed up another run). One of the blogs I've been reading for a while (Flirt the Squirt) just pointed me to yet another agility blog, this one Colorado based, and the writing is entertaining: Days of Speed and Slowtime Mondays: How Not to Train for Triathlon and Dog Agility. Just what I need, more blogs to follow. :-)

It's been 2 months since I was last in class with Boost, and today's the day (if we don't get some surprise rain or, they're predicting for san jose, snow flurries (!!). At the moment it's sunny and 30 degrees, quite cold for 9 a.m. She's been blasting around the equipment in the back yard, where I mostly send her rather than run with her, looking ever so much like her superstar mama. But our problems on courses were showing up to be my inability to judge when she had actually committed to an obstacle and pulling her off constantly, and not signalling soon enough on tight turns. I mean, Tika's fast, but-- well, I think Boost could beat Tika, and Tika's speed is right up there. Maybe Tika and I have just gotten used to each other, and Boost's still just a baby competitor. Although she'll be 2 in just 3 weeks! Can you believe it?

So anyway I said "yes" (with some arm twisting) to a classmate's suggestion that we try for a two-dog private lesson with Nancy on Sunday. I can use all the field time I can get with The Booster for now. Especially since I've started sending in those entries with the highest hopes, and wanting to get Qs instead of feeling like I'm wasting my entry fees.

And there's where the money comes in (aside from lessons, I mean). Bay Team's first trial is one day Masters, one day Starters/Advanced, and I had two $50 gift certificates, so I had to pay only about $20 for that weekend (plus I guess I'll need to stay in a hotel; no sleeping in my minivan in this weather). But I also sent in my entry for the following weekend for VAST. Five runs per dog Saturday, four-per Sunday, for a nondiscounted total of--gulp--$248. PLUS gas to get there and hotel in cold/wet weather. This is why I have no money. This is why there aren't very many younger competitors. I'm signing up for trial committee jobs that earn me free entries left and right, but that still covers only a small portion of my entry fees.

If it weren't so much danged FUN.