Just wanted everyone's thoughts/opinion on having to trial at a Regionals in order to go on to the USA German Shepherd Nationals. A 270 is still required whether you get it at the Regionals or local club trial...

I saw a club trial in this area a couple of weeks ago. The (previously respected) judge knew this one person needed a good score to make the nats. The person got it with a real s#!+ performance. Would this have hapened at a regionals? More than one dog that should have failed, passed this club trial.

As long as the regionals are properly run with a good hard judge and a good hard helper, it gives the handler a good idea of how their dog might handle National level. Since many club trials do not test the dogs sufficiently or score the dogs correctly, I think it is a good idea to show at regionals first.

Louise

I think that requiring a passing score at the Regional event to qualify for the Nationals is a good idea, in fact the qualifying score should be raised to a 280, in my opinion. Maybe even 285.
The SchH USA Nationals are just ridiculous nowadays - there are so many dogs that just aren't National level material competing in that event that it's silly. A requirement for a higher qualify score to compete in the Nationals would send a clear signal to handler's that the Nationals is a serious event.
Right now it seems that the Nationals are used as a money making machine for SchH USA ( $100 per entry with 140+ entries, do the math... )

Bob,
Do you have a recording of that incidence with club trial and the bogus scores? If so, make a copy of the recording and send it into the SchH USA main office ( if it was indeed a trial held under that organization ).
Crap scoring and outright favoritism by Judges towards handlers that own a dog out of another Judges breeding is the entire reason that I complain constantly about the lack of ethics in the GSDCA/ WDA organization. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

I do understand the requirement. But, the 270 at the Regional is being held off indefinitely; still will be a 270 at a club trial and show at a Regional.

But, if the idea is to get people exposed to what a National would be, most of the Regionals are not being held in stadiums (per a requirement, not sure if it still one). I do know that the SE regional has been held in a stadium for the past 3 years.

And I do understand supporting the regions. But, if you make a 270 or compete at the NA or the HOT trial, that does not count for regional; you still have to compete at a regional.

Will
What national are you refering to? Germany?
There were eighty some this year and a couple pulls brought it down to the seventies.

I will also say in my humble openion, the dogs this year were three times as good as those last year. I believe do to the regional rule.

A lot of people that just go to one club and never get out to other trials, dont have a clue as to what it takes. They truelly think there sh## dog is good bvecouse there comparing it only to those they see at there home field.

I like it as is. If you raise the qual. scores to 280 or 285, Im afraid there wouldn't be enough entries to pay for the nationals.

Ron

I think regional championships are a very good idea for several reasons...one: they let clubs compete against each other in their own region, as far as training levels and styles. two: many people are simply not able to travel to nationals, or is not in their budget, etc. regional championships are a good way of showing your dog's qualities and training level to people from around the region, rather than just the same club people. three: in virtually no other sport can you go right from the club level to the national level. i competed in cycling at the national level, and to compete in the nationals, i had to get a top placing in the regionals. However, travelling with a bike is a lot easier than travelling with a dog, or several dogs. i think we have too few regions in this country. some regions are twice the size of other regions! perhaps USA should divide the country into more regions. the regional championships are very important, not only as a qualifier to enter nationals, but also as an indicator of the training quality and quality of dogs and handlers from that region. and raising the qualifying score of 270 to more than that, when the judging at the regionals is supposed to be harder than at the club level, may be detrimental as pointed out earlier, to the amount of entries at nationals. however, one must think about what that means: the national championships is to determine the best in this country, and then send them to the world championships, representing us. perhaps, and this is only a suggestion, to qualify for nationals a team must place in the top three at regionals overall. and to qualify for regionals, a team must achieve a minimum score at a club trial. each region could send an amount of teams to the nationals based on amount of registrations in that particular region...then the national championships would contain a fixed amount of competitors, theoretically only the best from each region. i'm not saying this is the best way to do it, just thoughts....

Will
How about this!
Require that the program for the nationals state the name of the judge that gave the dog its qualifing score.
If the name of the judge was out there I'll bet there wouldn't be as many crap dogs qualifing.
Ron

Ron,
Oh man, that would make them think a bit about it, wouldn't it!

That sure would have tightened up scores at the last trial I saw.