Zero Point Snooker Runs--the Epilogue

SUMMARY: I'll probably not compete again. Who knows. But, for now--

Backfill: Post & comment on Facebook, June 15-16, 2021

This is sort of an epilogue to Zero Point Snooker Runs from June, 2012 [hmm, my stats from that post don't match the stats here; there, I say *two* with Jake...].  I competed only another two years, and that last year, 2014, was sparse. But--here's my agility competition tracking database's info.

Posted June 15 on FB;
> Theory #1 from another discussion was that anyone who plays snooker is bound to get 0-point Snooker runs;
> Theory #2 is that no one else has ever gotten two 0-pointers on the same day with the same dog on different Snooker courses, like I did with Tika:

OK, those of you who play Snooker in agility, two questions:

1)  Estimate how many snooker runs you have done.

2) Of those, how many do you think have been zero points: A. At least one.  B. none. C. [Fill in whatever number you estimate you’ve done]

3) Have any of you had two 0-point Snooker runs on the same day with the same dog (on different snooker courses, not just reattempting the same one)?

I blame Julie Rice for taunting me into posting this!😉

A Snooker course. Snooker has three  (or more) red jumps worth one point (red flag). 
You have to start with a red jump, then take a non-red (e.g., the tunnel for 3 points). 
Er...you have to start with a correctly executed red jump.
So, if you knock the first one, you have to take a different one before you take the #3.
If the dog hits #3 after a knocked red, oops, all done.

I received several comments, including some people who've never had a 0-pointer, or maybe dogs with no 0-pointers, which astounded me. Until I looked at my own stats, which I posted in response on June 16:

Here are my stats (except for the last year or so [of competition]). Because, if I'm going to have kept track, I might as well use the info. Envy me, database mortals! 😉

• 15 out of 530 snooker runs were 0-pointers 

• 1 with Jake, 

• 3 with Boost--2 comments that I thought her first bar stayed up-- 

• the rest with Tika [who is still the #11 all-time USDAA Snooker P3 22" dog despite that]

• None with Remington! out of 46 runs--but he did get one 1-pointer. (He hardly ever knocked bars and, if he did, he was slow enough that I could redirect him.) 

• My comments on those 15 runs:
• kn[ocked] 1st bar & I didn’t realize it soon enough.
• kn 1st bar & I didn’t react
• 1st bar ticked, thought it was staying up, fell as she took next obstacle
• knocked first bar & I didn’t react quickly enough. A billion [people got the full points of] 51s...
• knocked first bar and while I was stunned he went into next obst [Jake *never* knocked bars!]
• set her up to go past 1 rather than over. Very amazingly stupid [Human].
• Ran past 1st (angled) jump & into tunnel before I could stop her.
• Knocked 1st bar & hit tunnel before I could stop her.
• Tried to do angled lead-out pivot & she ran past first jump. Dagnabbit. But a nice SL[start-line] stay!
• kn first bar & couldn’t react fast enough. Sigh. Nice SL stay, too
• thought she had gotten 1st jmp and heard it fall just as she was making perfect wv[weave] entry...
• kn first bar and I just quit crap
• moved at SL so kn 1st bar, veered to right instead of “come” with me standing still & facing her
• kn 1st bar.
• kn 1st red & over next jump before I could move.

Tika taking a 4-point obstacle.
(Brown flag = 4 --flag colors are consistent no matter where you go.
MOST flags also display the number on both sides, not just one side.)
Color rules and numbers match actual billiards-type Snooker! (except agility has fewer Reds)

Tribulations of Planning Agility Trials

SUMMARY: How to organize walk-throughs and runs for multiple dog heights?

Backfill: My responses to FB question on May 28 '21. Something that every trial chair has to wrestle with.

My first three agility dogs. All different heights, of course.

From Facebook (Cynthia H):

At AKC agility trials in the Utah/Idaho area, at the Master/Excellent level, we would usually split the walkthroughs for the small/tall dogs by using the walk/run, walk/run method.  This seemed to be highly popular in our area.  Lately, it seems clubs have changed to walk/walk, run/run.  With not much of a break in between, just to switch out workers.  I guess the theory is that it saves time, but it only saves about 5 mines per class, so maybe 10 minutes a day, which doesn't seem to me like it's worth it.  I'm wondering, in your area, what do the clubs do?  And what do you prefer?

Many comments about pros/cons of each. I'm picking this one:

Hmm good question. We typically do walk, walk, run for 24-20 then 16. Walk 12, walk 8-4 run all. So it's split tall and small.. I hate it personally because I have a 16 and a 20/24. So sometimes I have to cut my 16's walk short to get my 20/24 ready to run cuz he's often first dog on the line. 

Taj MuttHall says:

I had two 24-20 dogs for years (er... 30/24... er, 26/22...LOL!^note) with different needs and capabilities. So if it were walk/walk I'd sometimes sneak back out with the small dogs to figure out my 20" dog's plan--then cut that short and rush to get my 24" first on the line. But if they did walk/run walk/run (or only one walk for everyone), I'd have to cram two dogs' plans into one walkthrough. Or when running three dogs... [trembles with terror]. 

After several years of USDAA Nationals, where everyone walked all the courses early in the morning and you really literally might not run for hours and have to remember several courses, I learned that I can handle any variant.  

For handlers who are novices, though, arrangements that are easier on the handler are better.

I've been in on the planning and there's never a perfect answer for every issue, curse the agility gods! [Oops, sorry agility gods, I was joking...]

---

^{note 
About jump heights, if you care --
darn it, I might pull this into its own blog post. Later. There's never a perfect answer for every blog issue, curse the blogging gods! [Oops...]}

When I started, Remington jumped 30" and Jake jumped 24" in USDAA.

Shortly thereafter, that became 26" and 22", which lasted for years, so Tika jumped 26" and Boost jumped 22".

 

More recently, they dropped to 24" and 22"... or something... I've not kept up with it all. (In all cases, dogs in Performance jump one height lower so, for example, when I switched my dogs to Performance, Tika jumped 20" and Boost 16".) 

 

(I've not even begun to mention all the jump heights for all sizes of dogs. Here's page 1 (of two!) for USDAA this year.)

USDAA 2011 Top Ten

SUMMARY: Tika's standings after 5 months of 2011

I've updated Tika's Top Ten link (above, here at tajmutthall.org) for the first time this year. Took the current USDAA Top Twenty-Five info (which is through roughly May 15), added a note to the side on more points that we earned this last weekend.

We're currently #2 in Gamblers with almost enough points to not have to get any more this year and still be in Top Ten, #1 in Jumpers with almost undoubtedly enough points to not have to get any more this year and still be in Top Ten, way down at #12 in Standard, and this year for pete's sake after ending 2010 at #4 in Snooker, we can't get a super-Q to save our lives and don't even show up in the Top 25!

I vowed that I'm not doing any of this specifically for Top Ten, and I'm not. I didn't really expect to be able to do this two years in a row. But Tika has been such a consistent dog this year, I'm glad to brag this little bit.

About Top Tens

The Top Ten awards are a poor approximation of determining which dogs are the most successful competitors. To be in the Top Ten, you have to do a lot of trials and you have to do trials where there are more dogs competing than at other places in the country. I'm lucky on both counts.

The flaw in the Top Ten points awarding is like this: If Tika is one of 6 dogs on a course and wins, we earn 5 points. (See my USDAA Rules link, above, for Top Ten point rules.) If the judge were to set up the same course somewhere else in the country, and then:

• A dog wins it with exactly the same results that Tika got (same time, same points, whatever), but there are only three dogs competing, they get only 1 point. 
• There are 6 dogs competing, one of them does exactly what I do, but two dogs do better so they're in 3rd, they get only 1 point. 
• There are 6 dogs competing, all of them have really crappy runs and maybe don't even earn a qualifying score, the 1st place dog still earns 5 points, same as us.

So it's not really a good side-by-side comparison of dogs across the country, but it's fairly simple to calculate. Since in fact the exact same course almost never appears anywhere else in the country, ever, there's no actual way to compare dogs, so it's a best approximation by comparing how you do with other dogs on the same day, the same course, the same running conditions, the same judge.

Memorizing Numbers--Or Not

SUMMARY: A little more from the judging clinic.

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

Just a few notes on some of the numbers we were supposed to memorize for the written test. I didn't get nearly all of them (and some of my misses were just dumb--if you don't know by now that the Aframe contact is 42" and the others are 36", you're just not paying attention--and/or having a brain freeze on the test!).

But usually I remember patterns and exceptions better than I remember strictly bunches of numbers.

Here are some. Because I'm talking through the patterns, the discussions are long, but the ideas are fairly simple.

What are the height cutoffs for the various jump heights?
First, of course, you must know that the jump heights (championship) are 12", 16", 22", and 26". The height ranges at the shoulder for dogs are:

• Up to and including 12" for 12" jump height.
• Then through 16" for 16" jump height. (See the pattern?)
• Then through 21" for 22" jump height (there's the exception, it's one inch lower).
• Of course, anything over 21" jumps 26"

In performance, the ranges are exactly the same, but the jump heights are all one level lower (8", 12", 16", and 22").

What are the spread jump lengths?
I used to remember that it was twice the jump height, but that changed when they altered the jump heights way back when.

Old jump heights were 6" apart: 30", 24", 18", and 12". (There are 5 boards, 4 boards, 3 boards, and 2 boards. Easy to remember that.)

Old spread lengths were 60" (30"x2), 48" (24"x2), 36" (18"x2), and 20" (exception, not 2x12").

And--the NEW spread lengths are still exactly the same!--60", 48", 36", and 20" (for 26", 22", 18", and 12", respectively.)

For performance--take out the smallest board in all cases. So the spread distances drop by one height level--for 8" performance, it's only one board; for the others, it's 20", 36", and 48". (And 1, 2, 3, and 4 boards.)

What are the yards-per-second ranges (min and max) and absolute minimums for setting Standard course times?
Here's the patterns I figured out. I have to remember only 3 numbers, 3 patterns, and two exceptions, instead of 21 different numbers.

Starters: The range is 2.0 to 2.25 yps for all heights. (That's 2 of the numbers to remember.)

Advanced and Masters: The range sequence starts at 2.5 for advanced 12" dogs. (That's the other number.)

The normal minimums go like this:

Adv 12"	2.5
Adv 16"	2.6	(that's +.1 over 12")
Adv 22/26"	2.75	(+.15)
Mas 12"	2.75	(same as Adv 22/26 number)
Mas 16"	2.85	(+.1)
Mas 22/26	3.00	(+.15)

see the pattern--+.1 and +.15

The maximums go like this:

	min	max
Adv 12"	2.5	2.6	(that's +.1 over the min)
Adv 16"	2.6	2.8	(+.2 over)
Adv 22/26"	2.75	2.95	(I'd expect +.3, but noo--it's .2 over and an exception)
Mas 12"	2.75	2.85	(+.1 over the min)
Mas 16"	2.85	3.05	(+.2 over)
Mas 22/26	3.00	3.30	(+.3 over)

The absolute minimum is exactly the same as the normal minimum in all cases except they treat 16" masters dogs differently, so their absolute min is the same as the 12" dogs.

So my table looks something like this in patterns:

	min (add to previous min)	max (add to min)	abs min
Starters	2.0	2.25	same as min
Adv 12"	2.5	+.1	same as min
Adv 16"	+.1	+.2	same as min
Adv 22/26"	+.15	+.2*	same as min
Mas 12"	same as adv 22/26"	+.1	same as min
Mas 16"	+.1	+.2	same as 12"*
Mas 22/26	+.15	+.3	same as min

*=exceptions

OR you could memorize the numbers in this table:

	min	max	Abs min
Starters	2.0	2.25	2.0
Adv 12"	2.5	2.6	2.5
Adv 16"	2.6	2.8	2.6
Adv 22/26"	2.75	2.95	2.75
Mas 12"	2.75	2.85	2.75
Mas 16"	2.85	3.05	2.75
Mas 22/26	3.00	3.30	3.00

OK, then, I have answered three questions, and that is enough,
I fear that I'll give myself airs!
Do I think you can listen all day to such stuff?
Let's be off, or you'll kick me down stairs!

Nifty Blogger Feature: Static Pages

SUMMARY: Note the "Home" and "USDAA Rules" links above.

Blogger has included this feature for quite some time and I've been meaning to investigate. Static pages don't show up as blog entries; instead, they can contain static information that you want to be generally available (e.g., "About me") at all times.

Turns out to be pretty easy to use; it's just like editing blog pages.

So now there's a USDAA Rules tab, under which I'll put USDAA Rules info (really, did I have to explain that?) that might be of use to me or to readers. Just now added "Top Ten Rules" explaining how Top Ten points are calculated.

Anything you can think of in my prior posts that you've wanted to refer to more than once (doesn't have to be USDAA rules) that you'd like to see a link for? I've got some ideas... although not much time at the moment (or ever).

Performance Tournament Top Ten

SUMMARY: OK, something that we're not even close to being competitive in.

There has been a Championship Tournament Top Ten posted on the USDAA site for a few years. Until yesterday, I thought that there was no Performance Tournament Top Ten, because none has ever been posted. But apparently now, according to this USDAA News article, there IS such a thing.

And, unlike the other four top ten categories, Tika is not even close to Top Ten and never will be. The 25th dog on the list has 28 points as of a month and a half ago. Tika has 25 as of two days ago. Dogs who compete in Regionals and the national championships are likely to go wayyy beyond what we'll get, because there are more dogs there, more rounds that count, and therefore more points. So we'll never catch up, so I don't have to worry about it. :-)

Thanks to Ashley, who explained what counts after I couldn't find it in the USDAA rules, here's where Tournament Top Ten points come from:

• Grand Prix in regular competition, both round 1 and round 2 at Regionals, and both semi and finals at Nationals.
• Steeplechase round 2 in regular competition, round 2 at Regionals, and finals at Nationals.
• DAM non-relay classes in regular and Regionals, not nationals.

Top Ten points earned are based on the number of dogs competing in that round (with some exceptions...in a moment) (same numbers apply to Top Ten in regular classes--Standard, Jumpers, Snooker, Gamblers):

• 1 dog: 0 pts
• 2-3 dogs, 1 pt 1st place
• 4-5 dogs, 3 pts 1st, 1 pt 2nd
• 6-10 dogs, 5pts 1st, 3pts 2nd, 1pt 3rd
• 11-20, 7pts/5pts/3pts/1pt
• 21-30, 9pts/7/5/3/1
• and increase like that for every additional 10 dogs.

Exceptions:
Pts for steeplechase at local show and in finals at Nationals are based on
the number of dogs in the previous round (that is, in round 1 at regular show and in semis at Nationals).

This is one reason why 8" performance and 12" championship dogs hate it when there are no other dogs in their class. Doesn't matter whether, for example, they beat the scores or times of all the dogs in the other heights; if they're not directly competing against another dog, they get nuthin'.

And also explains why, in the 22" championship classes, the top 25 dogs currently range from (in Jumpers) 32 to 85 points, while Performance 8" jumpers ranges from 2 to 12 points.

USDAA Gets Around to 24" Weaves and Other It's About Times

SUMMARY: New rules forthcoming!

In today's news posting on the USDAA site, FINALLY! 24" weaves are acceptable! I believe they were the last agility organization in the known world to allow it (but they did it by making it 22" spacing with 2" tolerance. So you better not be MORE than 24")! Did I actually predict that in my blog earlier or just in general chitchat? I know I predicted to someone that it would be soon, because there was just no reason to stick with the 20-21" when everyone else had changed.

AND, this is equally fantastic, they're finally changing the Performance program title names to parallel the Championship program! No more of the old "Just earned our APD! That's the Performance Championship!" Now we can *legally* say, "Just earned our Performance Championship!" Yowza! I'm'a bein' vera happy about dis one, jes I am!

They had already changed "Performance Whatever It Was" to "Performance Grand Prix," thank goodness, now the only holdout is "Performance Speed Jumping" instead of "Performance Steeplechase." I'm still hoping that someday they'll see the wisdom in changing that, too.

I salute you, USDAA; late on these issues is better than never!

(There are other changes; these were just the best IMHO.)

The Truth About Boost's Jumpers Q

SUMMARY: Just for the record.

First, the rules:

To move from Starters to Advanced, you need 3 standards and one each of jumpers, gamblers, pairs, and snooker.

To move from Advanced to masters, you need 3 standards and one each of jumpers, gamblers, pairs, and snooker.

To earn your MAD (at the masters level), you need 3 standards and one each of jumpers, gamblers, pairs, and snooker.

In USDAA, Jumpers runs must be clean to earn a Q. (In Starters and Advanced, runouts and refusals aren't faulted, but knocked bars and off courses are.)

DAM Team Jumpers now can be Qing (didn't used to be) although they only count towards lifetime totals, not towards regular titles. The catch is that, even if you're clean, you earn a Q only if you're within 15% of the average of the top 3 dogs, so it's even harder to earn a Q there.

So:

Boost ran 4 Starters Jumpers, Qed in 1.
Boost ran 12 Advanced Jumpers, Qed in 1.
Boost has now run 42 Masters Jumpers, Qed in 1.
Boost has run 5 Qable DAM Jumpers, Qed in none. BUT! She was clean in the one this weekend, just not quite fast enough (3 seconds over the avg).

In short: 63 USDAA Qable jumpers, 3 Qs.

But actually that's two clean Jumpers runs in one weekend. Maybe there's actually hope!

This Weekend--Hopes and Fears

SUMMARY: USDAA Southwest Regional Championship/Qualifier

This weekend my club, The Bay Team, hosts one of the six(?) annual Regional events for USDAA, the oldest and the most interesting and challenging agility venue in the United States.

Until last year, if you took 1st place in Steeplechase or Grand Prix at a regional, you earned a bye into the finals at Nationals. No more; firsts this weekend aren't special. The advantage here is that all qualifiers in Grand Prix or Steeplechase Round 2 earn byes into the semifinals at Nationals.

Of course, first you have to make it to round 2. In Grand Prix, you just have to run clean; in Steeplechase, your time plus faults has to be within 25% of the top 3 dogs' average score. Those Qs count towards titles and send you to the quarterfinals at the nationals (AKA round 1 at the nationals).

However, to get the bye into nationals semis, you have to do well enough in round 2 this weekend in comparison to the other dogs who made it to round 2. In Grand Prix, you have to be in the top 50% (I think, jeez, why isn't that in the premium? That's what it used to be). And in Steeplechase, you have to finish within 15% of the average of the top 3 dogs.

Plus there are all the regular classes.

My fear is--based on last night's performance in class--that I'll be forgetting courses again; I must have forgotten half the courses we ran.

My hope is that the dogs will run as well as they did in class last night. Tika ran two courses at 26" without knocking any bars, for example. Boost is running like a champ.

And once again, I try not to focus on titles too much, but for the record:
* Tika Jumpers Q at 26" completes her silver ADCH (that's like a regular championship 5x over).
* Boost Jumpers Q completes her MAD (master agility dog).
* Tika Performance DAM and either GP or Steeplechase earns her performance tournament master title.
* Boost gamble earns her masters gambler title.
* Tika needs 2 Performance Standards and a performance Jumpers for her performance MAD--of course she can't get the jumpers until she's finished that last one at 26".
* Tika Pairs Relay Q earns her performance masters relay title.
* Boost needs the first-round steeplechase Q to be qualified to run Steeplechase at the nationals. If we go. Which we won't. Unless boost wins round 2 this weekend. (It is to laugh! I laugh, ha ha!)

OK, better go back and get ready for four (groan) days of agility. I won't be online at all (unless I decide to come home one of the 3 nights after all) until Monday evening at the earliest.

24" Weave poles

SUMMARY: Should USDAA change weave pole spacing?

I've had 4 dogs in agility. Two (so far) have had a bit of arthritis in their necks and/or backs. Don't know that it's caused by agility--two previous dogs who didn't do agility also had arthritis. But I know that 24-inch spacing on the poles is much easier on dogs' spines than the current USDAA 20-21". One of our own club members did some overhead videotaping--unfortunatly don't think it's online. But there are other videos available if you search.

International competition (FCI) now uses 24" spacing. The Canadian associate of USDAA, AAC, is going to 24" weaves next year. AKC and the Canadian equivalent, CKC, now use 24". CPE is probably in the same arena--the current rules stae "21" to 23" from center to center with no more than a 1" variance"--which means that 24" (if they're no more than that) are OK.

USDAA has recently reviewed the topic and decided not to change, and has said that the issue is closed to any further discussion. I have no idea why. Sure, weave poles aren't cheap and not every club can afford to replace them (or every competitor--I'd want to replace my own, and they're just not cheap). But still, I'm a strong advocate for the wider spacing and for consistency (so dogs aren't going from, say, 20" to 24" from weekend to weekend or ring to ring), but I can deal with a phase-in period of maybe a couple of years.

It also presents a different course-building challenge--if you add 3-4" of spacing between all poles, the weaves are now 3 to 4 feet longer than before! But we can learn to live with that, I'm sure.

Susan Garrett has posted about the topic.

and there is now a 3-question survey on whether USDAA should allow 24" weaves. Please take the survey. Please go and vote for the increased space. Even if your dogs seem happy with the current spacing, please consider other dogs whose lot might be improved by the change.

Thanks.

Clarifying DAM Team Bonus Qs

SUMMARY: Just a little more on how well Tika did but still didn't earn those new Qs.

I explained in this post that you can now not only earn just the one Q in DAM Team based on all 5 runs of all 3 dogs, but also in the individual events if your score is within 15% of the average of the top 3 dogs. I expressed doubt that even Tika would earn many Qs that way; I expected that it would shut out most dogs just like Steeplechase does and SuperQs do.

Yesterday I noted that she got only one (Snooker) of the four possible bonus Qs this weekend. But I also want to point out that, for example, she was 8th of 24 dogs in Team Jumpers and didn't Q, and 7th of 24 in Team Gamblers and didn't Q. Only 5 of 24 Qed in Team Standard; Tika had a clean run that I thought was particularly fast, but apparently the open course and cold weather had all the dogs running particularly fast, as she was still 8 seconds behind the winning dog.

Oh, well, I'm glad to get one additional Q towards our Lifetime Achievement Award (LAA), but it just means that all of my faster, more talented, and/or better trained friends who already stack up awards that I try hard (but don't always succeed in) not to compare myself to will stack them up even faster. Run, little handler, run!

Move Tika to Performance?

SUMMARY: Do I need to move Tika to the lower jump height division? What are my criteria?

I've had the gut feeling that Tika has been slowing down on her courses. She'll be 8 in February, but really I don't think of 8 as being that old, and we've gained a comfortable working relationship that works fairly well in USDAA and very well in CPE (which we're not doing much of at the moment). Plus she still jumps nicely most of the time at 26".

(Fun note: In CPE, I jump her at the highest height, 24", to avoid messing up her 26" USDAA Jumping. But she's legal for 20" in CPE. Which means that I could eventually move her down to 16" in their Specialist category--like Performance in USDAA--or even to 12" in their Enthusiast category! Can you picture Tika running a course at 12"?!)

Then there's the issue of her coming up sore periodically. This weekend she did 6 runs Saturday and was fine, then Jumpers Sunday morning and was fine, then came out of her crate before Snooker saying "I'm sore, I'm hunched over, I don't want to play tug of war, I can't do anything." Fortunately there were about 8 dogs ahead of us, so I got her moving, got her stretching, massaged her neck and spine and shoulders, used treats to encourage her to stretch her neck and back in various ways (boy, she really perked up at the treats), and by the time we went into the ring, she looked perky and comfortable. Ran fine. Ran fine in Standard, too. Ran fine for frisbee later. Looks fine today. Maybe just a cramp? But I was inches away from scratching her because she looked so unhappy.

So there's that to consider.

To help decide how much she's slowed down, I took my useful database of info I've collected on my dogs' runs through the years, threw out Novice and Advanced classes, threw out classes where we had refusals or runouts (because they'd skew the picture of her true speed), chose only Grand Prix, Jumpers, and Standard as useful classes, and ended up with data from early 2004 through this weekend. For each of the 3 classes I plotted the following in Excel charts: Her yards per second (YPS), how far off the SCT (standard course time) her time was, and how far off the first-place dog's time she was.

I couldn't clearly tell from the plot of her YPS whether she's slowing, so I did a sort of a running average, and it showed a few interesting things.

1) Her YPS in Standard abruptly shot up starting in April 2007. (--about .2 YPS--which for her would be about 2.5 seconds faster on a Standard course.) What happened in April 2007? The Aframe height changed from 6'3" to 5'10". (Caveat: At some point last year I decided that it was OK for Tika to have running contacts because she was doing it anyway and we needed the extra speed. I can't find my blog post on that, but I was still trying to get the 2o2o behavior at that time.)

I can't quite tell whether it affected everyone equally; it looks like she picked up some time compared to the first-place dogs, but not a lot.

2) Her Standard YPS has indeed been drifting slowly downward since, from 3.9 then to 3.7 now, over a year and a half. So we've lost those couple of seconds again.

3) Her Jumpers YPS rose steadily from 2004 to 2006 as we learned how to work together, peaked at almost 6 YPS in early 2006, slid steadily to just over 5.5 YPS in mid-2007, and has very slightly drifted to below 5.5 YPS since. (In other words, she hasn't slowed much on Jumpers courses in the last year and a half.)

4) Oddly, her Grand Prix YPS average seems to have climbed slightly over time--but we don't have nearly as many good data points on that.

So I'm not sure what it tells me. She's still way below SCT and is by no measures a slow dog. But the numbers from this weekend tell me that we're still fighting a battle to ever earn placement ribbons: Note that in every class, she did very well as the Q rate seemed low--but in almost every case, she was the slowest of the dogs to Q or to get the highest points.

I don't know what moving her to Performance would do in that area; Performance is not an escape from experienced, top-quality competitors. Several dogs who've beaten her consistently in the past in Championship are now in Performance.

The other thing is--she's now getting so close to her ADCH-Silver that it would be nice to finish at least that, and if this weekend's any indication, she's very capable of doing it without hurting herself. To do that, she needs 25 legs in each of the 5 regular classes, and has:
* Standard: 22
* Relay: 26
* Gamblers: 22
* Snooker: 30
* Jumpers: 20

It's always those danged Jumpers, isn't it!

So I'm sticking with a wait and see strategy on her regular classes.

I can also decide on the tournament classes. All she needs for her Platinum Tournament Championship is one DAM Team Q and one additional Q of any kind (DAM, Steeplechase, Grand Prix). There are no higher awards in the Tournament area. So I could move her to Performance's lower jump height there if I wanted to. The question is just whether--if there's another Nationals out west--I'd want to qualify her in Championship or in Performance, and whether I'd really want to go anyway, with the fact (same as this year) that she just can't compete with the top dogs.

It's only Gamblers where we can really shine on opening poins, as usual.