Just some thoughts I had about the DOCNA champs and getting to/from there.
- Why select a facility to host an agility trial that doesn't have any grass available for the dogs to use? Even wild field grass would be nice. There was a grassy area next to the arena that we were told to keep off of, as it was a kids play area. There were no kids there for the 4 days we attended, and its just an empty grassy area, no playground equipment, nothing. I think having grass available somewhere other than tiny patches growing wild next to the building should be a primary concern.
- Arizona & New Mexico seem to be full of these nasty plant "spikes" that get stabbed into a dogs foot rather easily. These spike plants seem strategically placed around rest areas and other logical potty spots for the dogs as you travel. I'm not talking about cactus, just some kind of crazy spike plant.
- Jeeze the FLIES! We must have had 50 flies come into the camper trailer at the site in Arizona, and another 30 in the truck. Holy moly that would make me insane having to live near there with that many flies.
- Doesn't anyone fly the American Flag anymore? Driving along, I was looking for flags to see what direction the wind was blowing, and NOBODY IS FLYING THE FLAG. Lets go back to the post 9/11 days when everyone got all patriotic.
- Agility has now become a "Star Spangled Banner" sport, where we got to hear our anthem before starting each day. Why is it we only hear the anthem before sporting events? Is that what our founding fathers envisioned?
- DOCNA needs fewer divisions or more attendees at their Championships. I know its a new venue and is growing, but there sure were a lot of divisions with 1 dog entered, and many more with 3 or less dogs entered. I know everyone does agility for different reasons, but isn't there a little bit of competitiveness in all of us? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to take that 1st place ribbon by running better than another team? At least for me, there are tons of dogs in the 20" competition division.
- Gas price gouging is alive and well. Many of the stations that are just off the freeway were charging up to 50/cents a gallon more for diesel than another station a mile or two away, closer to "town". Go where the bigrigs go and you will be way better off.
Ok, thats all for now. See ya!
2 comments:
It would be nice if there was more competition. I think getting rid of the Specialist/Intern divide would help. NADAC does something similar with Elite/Pre-Elite and I never liked that either. No reason all the dogs can't compete together like at USDAA Nationals. Have one level of NAC to qualify and anyone can enter, just like Grand Prix. Especially since there are probably quite a few people competing in Masters in other venues who haven't had enough DOCNA trials available to work their way into Specilaist. Hopefully the venue will grow and more people will go to Champs in the future. Even if they'd combined Intern/Specialist my Lola would still have been the only dog in her class in the West and I think some other classes would still have remained small.
BTW, Skye had some lovely runs, really fun to watch and would have given those Specialist dogs a run for their money.
Yea, I'd say they could do away with the Select vs Competition, or why do they need to have Veteran AND Grand Veteran. I suppose its really to give a fair playground for each and every dog & handler combo, from the 3 legged dog, to the 300lb handler, but it really doesnt work so well when only one 3 legged dog shows up.
Say, thanks for the kind words on our runs. We had a really fun time and I was generally happy with our performance. Next year I am shooting for the USDAA Championships though so probably will skip a year at DOCNA, but who knows - still need to do enough USDAA shows to qualify.
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