Monday, October 27, 2014

Jake’s journey to RATCHX2

 

Jake RATCHX2

Some facts about our RATCHX2 journey:

  • 44 legs are required (novice-3, open-3, senior-3, master-5, ratch-10, ratchx-10, ratchx2-10)
  • 38 of the 44 were earned in WI (86%), 3 were earned in IL and another 3 in St. Louis.
  • In 43 of the 44 legs earned, he placed (27-1st places, 14-2nd places, 3-3rd places --the very first trial he took 5th).
  • 13 times he earned High in Class.
  • We averaged slightly less than one weekend per month trialing from July 2013.
  • We trialed under 14 different judges.
  • Our passing rate is 75% (Jake is 100%,  I am 75%)
  • Our average speed for masters is 2 minutes 46 seconds.

One more trial in 2 weeks in Menasha and then planning on the Sheboygan trial the end of March to start off the 2015 season!

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  • Kate Witas, Mary C Huff, Sandra Tung and 68 others like this.

  • Debby McNamara Congratulations on an amazing journey. Lots of fun for you and Jake and the opportunity to meet lots of new people (and their K9 partners) all while having a good time. Look forward to more successes for 100% Jake.

  • Linda Milbrath WOW you do a great job keeping records and it is very interesting. Jake is a great dog. You have come so far! I remember watching him drag you to the ring when you started! LOL Congratulations!

  • Andrea Marie He sure has found his calling

  • Nancy Yeoman Huge Congratulations!

  • Robin Abbott Way to go team!!!!!

  • Traci Eckrich Reinke Stunning picture

  • Jim N Barb Berry What an awesome year it has been! I remember meeting you and your dogs in Hortonville last year in Sept. I was so thrilled when Hudson got his first two legs in novice there I never dreamed we ever make it up to masters!

  • Laurel Stone Debby - you are so right.. I love meeting all the people and sometime I'm going to write a post called "it takes a village". Linda - lol... he still drags me into the ring... I have learned to stay on my feet now however! lol Barb - I remember that trial also - I had no idea what I was doing or even what the upper levels were!

  • Lisa Quast Gorgeous pic of Jake!

  • Laurel Stone Lisa - yes Tammy took a great shot! the sun was just right and it brought out the color of his eyes. And Lisa when you see the full shot you'll see that the ribbon was so large that it basically covered the front of his body....

  • Lynn Beauchesne Awesome write-up and congratulations!!!

  • Kim Kern Beautiful picture! You and Jake are a great team, congratulations and awesome job on the stats!!!!

  • Jeanette Showalter Rausch Very cool on the stats! That is truly one gorgeous boy!! Lucky for you, you left out the cost in entry fees for that title. I have been looking at it spread across five dogs. Quickly decided it was not that important.

  • Laurel Stone Jeanette - well I thought of the 'cost of the entries but I did just enter one dog until recently so that helped! All the money I spent on barn hunt added up probably wouldn't equal what I would have spent on a weeks vacation somewhere warm in the winter so I'm ok with spending it! It's all about our dogs, isn't it!

  • Linda Milbrath In agility we never mention the cost of a MACH either. Sure beats sitting in a bar or watching the boob tube etc.

  • Candy Henely You are a great and challenging team.

  • Laurel Stone Candy - Thanks! .....challenging as in "I need to build a course that Jake can't tear apart!" lol

  • Candy Henely That is exactly it Laurel Stone.....he has taught me a lot....

  • Laurel Stone Candy - I think he has taught a lot of judges lessons about course construction!!! lol

Friday, October 17, 2014

AKC and frustration...

 

I've registered Jake's titles along the way and have 4 extras because the initial ones were incorrect. Hopefully, I've helped pave the way for others. However, when I sent in his RATCHX they sent me back one that says Barn Hunt Master Champion. When I questioned it, this was the response from Lisa Strickland of the AKC: "The certificate will not print with an “X” it will only say Barn Hunt Master Champion. If anyone else has a different outcome when they get to this level or any input, please let me know.

AKC and frustration...  I've registered Jake's titles along the way and have 4 extras because the initial ones were incorrect.  Hopefully, I've helped pave the way for others.  However, when I sent in his RATCHX they sent me back one that says Barn Hunt Master Champion.  When I questioned it, this was the response from Lisa Strickland of the AKC:  "The certificate will not print with an “X” it will only say Barn Hunt Master Champion".  I responded <br /><br />If anyone else has a different outcome when they get to this level or any input, please let me know.

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  • Brenda Coffield Additionally, I see that it appears as a suffix title. I thought RATCH was defined as a prefix title. Did even the BHA certificates treat it as a prefix title, Laurel?

  • Laurel Stone Oh Brenda, that's a whole other issue. My understanding is that the AKC will absolutely not make it a prefix.

  • Laurel Stone's photo.

    Ann Kraft Most event titles are put after a dogs name - Earthdog, Obedience, Agility, etc. Conformation titles of CH and GCH go before a name. A DC goes in front for Dual Champion (Conformation and Field Champion), FC for Field Champion goes in front if the dog is not a conformation champion. Personally, I want Barn Hunt titles after my dog's name. Here are AKC titles and where they appear on a dog's name -https://www.akc.org/events/titles.cfm

  • American Kennel Club - AKC Titles and Abbreviations

    AKC Titles and Abbreviations
    AKC.ORG

    Brenda Coffield The RATCH is set forth as a prefix title in the BHA rules, p. 29, (like the MACH in agility). It is a champion designation, as are many prefix titles in AKC.

    Part 16: Barn Hunt Champion (RATCH)
    •  Pre-requisite: RATM Title
    •  Number of Qualifying Legs Required: 10, from the RATM Class
    •  Summary: The Barn Hunt Championship is awarded to the dog who has achieved 10 additional Master legs after attaining the RAM Master title. The letters RATCH precede the dog's name.

    Part 17: Barn Hunt Champion (RATCHX)
    •  Pre-requisite: RATCH Title
    •  Number of Qualifying Legs Required: 10, from the RATM Class
    •  Summary: The Barn Hunt Championship X is awarded to the dog who has achieved 10 additional Master legs after attaining the RATCH Master title. The letters RATCHX precede the dog's name. Repeated RATCHX titles are allowed and are shown as RATCHX2, RATCHX3, etc.

  • Ann Kraft Might have something to do with AKC not running Barn Hunt??? Don't get me wrong - I don't want AKC in charge of BH

  • Renea L Dahms Where do ATCH< OTCH titles go? I thought those were in front

  • Bonnie Gutzwiler Has anyone with a dog who has AKC champion or performance titles requested their barn hunt titles? I'm curious if they ad the Barn Hunt titles to it? Or do you just get the Barn Hunt title from them with out the other titles listed after the dogs name? I'm struggling to explain myself...hopefully some one else understands my question lol

  • Becky Harrison Focht Do you have to pay $20 for each title or do they only charge you for the initial title and you just notify them of the new ones?

  • Renea L Dahms I would think you would pay each time. It is cheaper than having to compete twice to get the title twice

  • Becky Harrison Focht I figured you probably did, thanks Renea L Dahms

  • Renea L Dahms

  • Brenda Coffield In the August 22, 2013 version of the BHA Rules on page 19, the RATCHX title was described as Barn Hunt Master Champion Excellent, (then) "RATChX". If the title were now described Barn Hunt Champion Excellent "RATCHX", perhaps the AKC would recognize, by name, the next level title. AKC may be confused by the change in title names from one version of BHA rules to the next? Or maybe it is a simple typo by BHA that omitted the word "Excellent" in the title line of the new rules? AKC recognizes rally titles with excellent included in the name.
    Titles as described in the August 22, 2013, BHA rules on p. 19.
    •  RATCh: 10 Master legs after RATM title = Barn Hunt Master Champion
    •  RATChX: 20 Master legs after RATM title = Barn Hunt Master Champion Excellent

  • Judith Walker So I'd they can't manage to update their software (an excuse they've been using forever), do you get your fee back?

  • Judith Walker Correct, but the bottom of this one should say "Barn Hunt Champion X" and it doesn't. BTW the BHA rule book does not say "Excellent" it says "X".

  • Brenda Coffield Judith Walker, we should really ask Robin J Nuttall if it is a simple typo because, even in the current rules, it says Barn Hunt Champion in the title line for both RATCH and RATCHX on p. 29, Sec 16 & 17. This doesn't seem right; it is probably a typo. I remember writing to Robin when the first draft came out. The whole section on RATCH and RATCHX had been inadvertently omitted. Maybe something was lost on retrieval.

  • Robin J Nuttall Brenda, you must be looking at an old version of the rules, there was a typo but it was corrected a few months ago. The title listing now says Barn Hunt Champion X, RATCHX.
    Because Barn Hunt is not an AKC sport, they are not going to put a Barn Hunt Championship in front of a dog's name. That's for AKC Champions, Grand Champions, OTCH, MACH, etc. That is not something I have any control over. As for the X behind the name, I'm happy to email them but again, in the end.... not sure I have a lot of say if they decide not to do it. I'll certainly try.
    BTW, UKC will list all Barn Hunt titles in front of the dog's name, because that is their convention. So it would say RATN dogname instead of dogname RATN.

  • Brenda Coffield Robin J Nuttall, I looked at the current and an older version of the rules (the current was copied into an earlier post that was probabl;y buried when you looked) to try to understand why AKC used the language it did. It is much easier to understand if you lay the old rules next to the new rules, but you might want to check the title lines of Sec 16 & 17 on page 29. They both say Barn Hunt Champion for RATCH and RATCHX. Is that right? (Even tho the RATCH and RATCHX acronyms are in parens). I just downloaded a version today to be sure. In other words, should Sec 17 say Barn Hunt Champion Excellent (RATCHX)?

  • Robin J Nuttall Darn it, it was right on my copy but somehow did not get properly overwritten on the web. It's correct now. However, AKC does not read my rules all the time. So it's not that. But thanks for pointing out my error, that is now fixed.

  • Brenda Coffield You might want to look at the title page for the entire document, too.

  • Paula Hohol When we were at Nationals akc said you don't have to pay $20 for each. You can wait to pay $20 for ratchx or whatever you like.

  • Laurel Stone that's true Paula. I didn't know that until Jake had all his certificates. However, since you have to produce a certificate for Winnegamie to acknowledge them on the dog's plaque... I decided to just get them all. May not do that with Brita... we'll see.

  • October 17 at 6:54pm · Edited · Like · 1