Congratulations to Link Canine Coaching , Michelle and Chris, on hosting their first USCSS Scent Work trials.Lots of great searching by some amazing teams.
Thank you to CSD Dianna Santos and judges Lindsey A and Sharon K. And a million thank yous to every single one of you that came to play and volunteered and enjoyed the day with friends and your pup/s.
With another fun USCSS trial in the books we now have the time to reflect on the trial and the rules. What is working and what areas would benefit from a few tweaks.
First we would like to thank everyone for all your patience as we take this new organization from infancy to the next stage. Growing pains are a fact of life and we appreciate your understanding.
Sometimes an idea with a specific intention is implemented and even if the intentions are honorable sometimes the real world application is too cumbersome. So we have run into this little issue and will be taking steps in fixing this.
The issue is with fringing.
The intention was to help green dogs and handlers be more successful. The reality is fringing, all the way around, seems beyond the grasp for all to wrap their heads around. And this is not a hill I choose to die on. So we will be updating the USCSS rule book to reflect the decision to take fringing out of the 2 lower levels of USCSS trials.
A couple of other things came up and we will be meeting to see how best to address these.
I would like to mention one of the issues here and give you all something to think about.
Hides and searches at a trial CAN NOT be talked about in any way shape or form while the trial is still running. It is not cool, not fair and down right disrespectful to do so.
Our hope was to not have a rule book that was of epic proportion. …. a little courtesy and common sense on everyone’s part will help keep the rule book a smaller size.
As soon as we revise the rules to reflect the above issues we will post it.
Again thank you all for your kind words and encouragement. I have to say that a few times during the Claremont trial I stopped and just soaked in the scene and the vibe, and it made my heart smile. I saw relaxed people enjoying the day with their best friends with like minded people in the beautiful outdoor setting with the sun shining on the bright green grass. Fun times indeed.