For members regarding
TEAMS AND COMPETITIONS
- Which teams and how many are likely to be racing in competitions each week?
- Why is one
of my dogs racing and my other one isn’t?
- Why is my dog running for a different team?
- Why isn’t my dog taking part in the team it normally races for, yet its team-mates are racing in that one?
- As team captain why have the dogs in my team been changed ?
These are the sorts of questions I have been asked so I’ll explain the processes and problems we face when entering our teams in competitions.
a. This year we have 9 open teams and from May onwards we could have 2 – 3 starters’ teams besides. This could mean considering 45 open and 15 starters dogs, an awful lot to juggle into correct teams! For any period of up to 2 months
duration, Vicky & Viv collect and I gain from the website members availability. From that to roughly work out how many teams we could enter, but after that it is swings and roundabouts as to how many of them we can actually put in.
b. The availability gives a picture of which members and their dogs are able to race any weekend. Members need to ensure the information you give is precise, given in by the date asked for and if anything changes at a later date make sure you let
us know. Anyone that can’t say whether or not they are available, it will be assumed you aren’t. So if you want to take part in competitions, contact Viv or Vicky post haste
c. Members that have 2 or more dogs are the key to how many teams we can enter.
No problem if these handlers can be there both days, but if they only want to be there 1 day out of 2 it may mean one or two of their dogs may
miss racing. Occasionally, we could try to include them in a another team that is short the day the handler is there – but that can’t be guaranteed!
d. 5 weeks prior when
I enter any show, I would need to gauge what teams I can safely enter so none is in danger of being withdrawn later (ie. so we wouldn’t lose money) if 2 dogs from any team aren’t available we’d be struggling to enter that one, but if
one or more teams of similar ability are affected, then - to give all dogs a chance to race - we could ‘mix’ teams together.
e. 2 weeks before we need to confirm with the show organiser
all our team names and if any without a seed time or the team has changed for any reason, need a declared time. With a mixed team, it needs deciding whether we declare, or run on one or other of the team’s seed times. We’ll only declare
if we really have to!
f. At the same time I can request the show organiser to arrange for a few of our teams to specifically race one day which helps those multi-dog handlers that are only available one
day! After that our other teams have to be prepared to fit in to race either day! A Tournament organiser though has to dove tail in with other team’s requests, so will fit our teams in where they can! It isn’t certain we’d get what we requested
so have to be prepared for the result to be different than we’d hoped for and flexible enough to adapt accordingly! Even if all 9 of our teams appeared to be complete at the time of entry, because of that possibility it may still mean
we’d have to limit the number of teams we enter ie. have 1 or 2 teams less allowing - once running orders are out - for manipulation to pick those teams that have the most dogs (5 dogs min.)
g.
For all competitions we will always aim to put in ALL the available dogs, preferably in their own teams, for the day they want, but with l imitations on availability this may mean that in the long run it can prove almost impossible to achieve, but we do our
best! After this any teams depleted we would have to try and make them up, otherwise we’d have to enter less teams than we’d planned.
f. 7 to 12 days before the show when
the running orders are posted on the BFA site, we then know the days all our teams are racing. We are then in a position to work out when each available dog can be fitted in to race. If we have the time, teams are sent to captains, then once ‘approved’
announced on Facebook/Our website. As far as possible our aim is that the largest majority of dogs will race in their normal teams. Usually one, (very occasionally 2) teams may need to have their numbers made up to include dogs from a team not entered.
We believe most members would prefer to race than not and so that means we need to be prepared to be adaptable so as many members dogs as possible can race over all the competition weekends.
If
you have difficulty attending etc. in the week before the competition, we’ll need to know as early in the week as possible to give us time to replace your dog.
Note: if you don’t attend training fairly regularly
(ie twice a month) or aren’t a paid up club member, then your dog(s) could well be left out of our teams! So come to training and if you owe fees, pay your dues at the next session.
Anne
– May 2014