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That depends on the Qualifying where the degree of difficulty varies more than in any other stake. Some dogs never have "a good chance" of placing in the Amateur. The fact that a dog can place in a 20 dog qualifying in no way proves that it has a prayer of placing in a 50+ dog Amateur.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rnd
I'd be curious how many of those dogs are double entered in the Qual and AM. I personally know of a handful that were double staked in either the AM or Open after a 2nd or one 1st in the qual.
Dr.Ed, This makes sense. The point I was trying to make is: If a dog has run enough Q"s to have a win... I would want to take my chances and run the AA stakes. If you get a good weekend you get AA points instead of a Q ribbon.Quote:
Originally Posted by EdA
I was not inferring that a Qaa, dog was the same caliber as a FC/AFC dog. Just that I would take my chances. (every dog has his day)
You of course speak from experience. If you told me in the gallery that my dog would benefit from running more Q"s.... We would run more Q"s:)
Randy
I doubled staked Bullet, but that was because I needed the experience as much as he did...will probably do the same with next pup if my Pro doesn't object (this of course assumes he makes it out of basics ;))
Me too. I double staked because the handler needed the experience! And it helped build teamwork between the handler and the dog. Etc. And because I could.
Many dogs are trained and handled to a qualifying 1st or 2nd by a pro. Then the owner is encouraged to get some line time with said dog. There is a much higher likelyhood they will get 3 or 4 series of experience in a Q vs. Maybe 1 or 2 series in the Am.
Rather than trying to disect the reasons the competition is there in the Qual, I just try to focus on doing the best job I can with my dogs and hope it's better than their best on that day, regardless of what placements they've had in the past.
Yes,as in my case,I'm a hunting ,hunt test trainer that trains my own dog with an amateur training group only on weekends.He won two Qs early ......which throws him into the Open.Whew, it takes a while to gain the maturity to compete there ,mostly on the blinds when they need to cut the field. But its still fun and a huge challenge.Quote:
Originally Posted by EdA
Don't dogpile for my comment. It discourages the HT folks from giving FT a try. If you want to attract new blood change this area.
Every time I think about entering a Qual I look and see the Pros entered and think why brother and don't want to embarrass myself. This not a criticism,but that is the prevailing attitude amougst my HT friends.
I have a little different slant.....I'm of the opinion that running a dog in a trial at any level does nothing good for a dog. To follow with that belief, I only enter events because I want the experience along side the dog, experience under particular judges, run on particular grounds (as well as compete, qualify for a nat'l etc) - and for the most part would not consider any of those things relative to minor stakes. To continue, since I think running a dog in a trial is not good for the dog, I enter as few minor stakes as I can while gaining experience with that dog (is he better, more hyper, less focused, more given to bad habits, etc than in training). So if I happen to get a dog qualifed by placing 1st or 2nd in a minor stake, I will not run that dog again until he is ready to run AA stakes....JMO. And like the OP, I do scratch my head at Q entries where the dogs are qualifed and the handlers experienced.
If you have a good dog, it does not matter who the rest of the field is. I used to have the exact same feeling that you did, and did not enter a few of our local trials because I just figured, why, when there is a pretty good group of Pro trained dogs and I have no chance.Quote:
Originally Posted by wojo
However, that does not mean those Pro trained dogs that are entered in the Q are any better than yours. Yes, there certainly will be some of them that are (those great derby dogs who go and win a Q in one or two Q entries), but not all of them.
In the last Q I ran, I was handling two dogs. We had 27 entries, and a good portion of those dogs were on pro trucks. I got both dogs to the third series, and got one to the final series. Of the 8 dogs that were in the final series, 4 were AM trained, and an AM won it.
So with that being said. Forget about the competition, and go run your dog. A well trained dog is a well trained dog. Do not worry about what other people think. Go have fun. Go enjoy yourself. And Go watch your dog do something that can be great / good / or downright horrible. The point is. It is only a game, and although placements are out there, it really does not matter in the end as long as you are spending a fun day with your best bud (the dog).
Doug