Inner Workings of a Trial
by Jennifer Meyer
If you are like me, the first time you ever saw agility, you were either at a demonstration or a show. My first experience was at a demo, and I remember thinking "Wow! It looks like so much fun!"
About a year after Paul and I saw that demo at the Phoenix Civic Plaza, Paul and Christy were learning all about agility with Good Dog and I was watching. Around that time, Good Dog held a show and Paul volunteered to help by scribing. I didn't volunteer, but I came to watch. Everything went smoothly and looked effortless. The courses all were set quickly, the dogs ran well and ribbons were given out in large numbers!
Education begins
Over the last three years, I have gotten to know more and more about what it takes for a show to run smoothly for the competitors and be fun to watch. My education began at the first show where I volunteered to scribe and keep time. I began to realize what all those people standing around were doing. The often harried-looking person with a clipboard is the gate steward, whose job is to make sure everyone is ready to run when their turn comes. The scribe is the judge's hands, since the judge can't take his/her eyes off the dog to write things down. That person with the stopwatch (timekeeper) times each and every dog as they run the course. A fraction of a second can make a huge difference! And those people sitting around the ring watching the dogs run (ring stewards) ... jump up whenever a bar falls or the jump heights change!
Education continues
I didn't realize until the next show that there were even more people working than I thought! I just took for granted that the courses were getting built. Magic? Nope, just more dedicated people (course builders) turning a judge's vision into reality so everyone can play! And all those ribbons that get handed out - how do we know who earned them? Those hardworking scorekeepers hiding at the score table organize, tally, and calculate to determine how everyone did! I didn't even know they existed until a couple shows ago! And another person orders, inventories, and prepares the ribbons to be handed out!
A more visible group of people that I took for granted is the hospitality gang. Those people who make sure we have muffins, cookies, coffee and juice first thing in the morning and keep us in T-shirts, fanny packs and toys! Who could imagine a show without human treats, too! The hospitality people also run our raffle, selling tickets for wonderful prizes ranging from dog toys to agility equipment to Suns tickets!
… and continues
I never realized all the planning that goes on! We have to reserve a date a year in advance, decide what classes we will run, and hire judges! Once we have that taken care of, we start figuring out where we can hold the show. Did you know we have to reserve a park? Yup, and we come in a distant second to the softball leagues, so our choices can sometimes be pretty limited!
A few months in advance, we order ribbons, get plane tickets for the judges, and start looking for hotels that allow dogs. We also start working on T-shirt designs and publicizing our show.
About two months before the show, we create the show premium. (see "Completing the Entry Form for an Agility Show"). This is the letter that we send to everyone interested in coming to the show that tells them what classes we will have, who the judges are, some of the rules and good places to stay. Once this is printed, the folding, stapling and stamping begin! For the last show, we sent out almost 300 premiums! Yikes! This is soon followed by a flood of mail. For a while, the show secretary gets to feel like the most popular person on earth, getting five or six letters and phone calls a day! After the closing date of the show, another flood of mail is sent out, this time to confirm the entries of everyone who wants to come to the show. We had about 250 dogs at the last show, so you can imagine the mail and paperwork!
Right before the show, we do the final run down: Are the running orders correct? Is the equipment still OK? Do we have pencils, clipboards, stopwatches, electricity, lights, food and volunteers? Have we forgotten anything? At this point, we take a deep breath, compose ourselves, and relax into a state of calm frenzy.
If everything is planned well, what the people watching the show see is a sport that makes them think "Wow! It looks like so much fun!" And you know what? It is!