Comments on Taj MuttHall Dog Diary: Perfect Dog, Imperfect Handler

It's the feet, not the pants legs. Still does it a...

2007-07-24T11:03:00.000-07:00

It's the feet, not the pants legs. Still does it at the end of a run, but I've been working hard at shuffling her rapidly to the exit gate with my hands under her neck while she TRIES to get to my feet, and cramming a toy or leash into her mouth so I can walk and also give her a play reward. It took a long time before she'd take anything but my foot, but now if I can get it into her mouth, she'll play with it. She'd always prefer my foot, though.

-ellen

Many congratulations to Tika! What a weekend, and...

2007-07-24T10:56:00.000-07:00

Many congratulations to Tika! What a weekend, and such a long way from leaving the ring and also grabbing Elf pants legs.

Holy moly!!! Awesome weekend -- congrats!

2007-07-23T18:56:00.000-07:00

Holy moly!!! **Awesome** weekend -- congrats!

The CPE jump height is the lowest dog height requi...

2007-07-23T17:22:00.000-07:00

The CPE jump height is the lowest dog height required to jump it--so dogs 24" and taller jump 24". But they also have the option of entering the Enthusiast or Specialist tracks, which jump 8" or 4" lower. Still, how many dogs are out there doing agility who measure 24" or taller? My Remington was exactly 24", but he was nicely built for jumping and not a thick, heavy build--he weighed in only between 50 and 55 pounds.

That's a lot of levels/heights to keep track of. ...

2007-07-23T16:56:00.000-07:00

That's a lot of levels/heights to keep track of. They must have generous height cut offs for the big dogs to have so few in the 24" class.

For a brief time NADAC still had a 24" height class after they invented the 20+ class and I would enter Cody in it because it slowed him down just a fraction and made it easier for me to handle him when we were starting out. There were usually only 2-3 of us at most who opted for 24" so they'd usually combine our scores w/ 20+ which put us at a disadvantage for placements. I didn't care but some people sure got bent out of shape. Of course now you don't have the choice at all but that's a rant for a different day.

Congrats, that is wonderful! The titles and ribbon...

2007-07-23T15:01:00.000-07:00

Congrats, that is wonderful! The titles and ribbons just show how much work you do with your dogs. :)

WOW! Now don't go getting a fat head. :-D. Amy

2007-07-23T14:49:00.000-07:00

WOW! Now don't go getting a fat head. :-D.

Amy

CPE has basically 6 height groups and 6 levels, so...

2007-07-23T12:17:00.000-07:00

CPE has basically 6 height groups and 6 levels, so that's (theoretically possible) 36 different groupings at a trial. So, for example, with this weekend's 225 dogs entered, that's an average of 6 dogs per group.

(There are two new additional parallel paths ("Enthusiast" and "Specialist") that make it theoretically possible to have 72 more groups, but in reality only a couple of dogs enter those, so they don't skew the numbers much.)

However, not all dogs enter all classes to begin with, plus we offered 6 classes but you could choose only 5, so that drops the average per class somewhat. Snooker and Jackpot in particular have fairly low entry rates in CPE compared to the other classes.

Next, only the very largest dogs are required to run at 24". Tika is eligible to run at 20" but, since she's required to do 26" in USDAA, I see only problems if I get her used to jumping 6" lower in competition. So there are very, very few dogs in 24" at all.

Thirdly, CPE's new titling structure has made it very unappealing to move to Level C. You're eligible for C after you've completed the requirements for your C-ATCH, but the next title at Level C is your Extraordinaire title (C-ATE), which requires in the vicinity of 250 *clean* legs, whereas to earn your C-ATCH 2, 3, etc, you stay at level 5, where (a) you can Q with faults and (b) it's only 40 legs per C-ATCH. So most dogs could complete their C-ATCH 6 in MUCH faster time than their C-ATE. So there's no motivation, really, to go to Level C unless you're competing with yourself.

And, lastly, there are just always more dogs at the lower levels, it seems, than at the higher levels anyway.

So, for example, Boost competed at Level 3 as a 20" dog in two classes; she had between 10 and 12 other dogs in the same group. In the classes where she's in Level 4, she had between 0 and 8 other dogs in the same group.

But Tika was the only 24" Level C dog in 7 of her 10 classes.

Interesting, huh?

Wow, that's amazing, I guess that makes you both a...

2007-07-23T11:52:00.000-07:00

Wow, that's amazing, I guess that makes you both a perfect 10.

I'm a little lost in the numbers though, was Tika really the only dog in her jump height in her level? Was it just a fluke or does CPE have a lot of levels and height options that maybe spreads people out a lot?