My view is you run Qs until you are qualified, i.e., your dog takes a 1st or 2nd in a qualifying stake & no longer. Then train your dog to the point it can be competitive in an AA stake. Some folks have the approach that they go directly from derbies to amateur stakes, bypassing the Q all together. Their logic is that a good, competitive dog might place in an Amateur stake (& therefore gain a qualified status) earlier. My personal goal is to get my dogs QAA by the time they are 3 yrs old. Sometimes I have that success, sometimes I don't. As a general rule, IMO, if a dog can't gain QAA status through Q entry in 18 months of attempts (i.e., by the age of 3.5 yrs), there is a probability the dog may never make QAA status. There are exceptions of course. You just have to objectively judge your dog's potential to be a true AA dog. And there is a big difference between QAA status & a true AA dog. Many QAA dogs never make true, competitive AA dogs.
As for the level of testing in Qs versus Ams, you will find substantial variation in the relative difficulty in both stakes from trial to trial (& from the relative strength within the field of dogs from trial to trial also). As for "damage", I am of the view that there is little to be gained from running your dogs at any level in a trial relative to positive "experience" except the owner/handler gratification that comes with a dog's success. IMO the positive experience is best gained with good training.
