Participants had the opportunity to try out both Standard and Games, 2 courses each. Each dog could run twice on each course, that was 8 runs !! Plenty of fun for all who came.

BTW, PintSize agility is the First Sanctioned Club in California confirmed by Marsha Houston.

Thank you Barrie Gordon (and her husband and daughter) for being such wonderful hosts and having the meeting at their lovely home with incredible food to boot !

The Individuals that were available for this meeting besides Barrie were;

Deborah Lage

Maura Wernecke

Cate Bainton

Denise Fournier

There was a lot of discussion so I tried to put the information in a logical order with the next steps.

Item:  Event Locations

I have secured two places one in Davis and one in Dixon with “lush green grass”. Each of these places will have requirements such as insurance and some reimbursement to rent the facility. The Davis facility is at an Agility Instructor’s place and I know she would work with us on the those items.  The agility does not have to stay in this area per-se, right now it was more for convenience, accessibility and cost.  I have most of the equipment so the logistics of getting it from my place to somewhere else had to be considered.  Barrie Gordon is going to look into the possibility of renting the indoor building at the Napa Dog Training club for a winter trial.

Next Step:  Finding out about “event insurance”, or other insurance that will cover any event that we may hold.

Item:  Match versus Trial

We were split almost in the middle about this. On the one hand there are many people that are seasoned competitors that are drawn to the Trial and potential Titling, the biggest hurdle are the costs associated with a trial until we drum up more interest and participants. In order to cover insurance costs, Judges fees, Ribbons, Facility rental costs, etc. etc. we need to get enough interested people to break even.

Next Step: I have contacted the Davis facility about a date for a potential Match in October and to find out if we can “float” under her insurance for now.

Item: Equipment

The list the Cate so graciously put together and spear headed the creation of more jumps and the purchase of other equipment was reviewed. Some of this equipment was predicated on the events being held at PintSize Agility in Vacaville,/ Any of my “standard” equipment“ would need to stay here like my table. Luckily it isn’t much that can’t be utilized, and we looked at the equipment that Barrie was lucky to score.

Next Step: Some of the equipment Barrie has needs a bit of work, which she so kindly volunteered her husband for, we will need to find or make a table and eventually purchase more tunnels.

Item: Equipment purchase

Obviously it could become a logistical nightmare if the equipment is held with each owner. So we discussed the idea for now, that if you “buy” the equipment you have the option of being reimbursed down the road once we get rolling and it would be in one depository always available, or if you choose to buy and keep your equipment you can make it available.  The ideal situation is we earn enough money to purchase all the necessary equipment which would be owned by the club, something like that !!

Next Step: How will privately owned equipment be made available.  I have a trailer that can be towed that will fit the equipment in order to take it to another location.

Item: Fee for Matches

We decided on pre-entry for the match so we get an idea of  how many people will be there and we will also have day of match entry as well.  We decided on a flat fee versus a fee for each run, the match would have 2 standard courses, two games and it is limited to two runs per class per dog. We were thinking $ 35 for essentially 8 runs, assuming you run your dog twice, each class.

Next Step: We didn’t decide on the fee for a second dog ?

Other action items we didn’t get into is how formal is the club going to become, who will keep track of the money (Barrie). Who will do the software for compiling dog data (Maura and Veronica).

We are still in the planning phases, speak now or forever hold your peace. Most importantly we need to develop interest.

If I missed anything please don’t hesitate to fill in the blanks or correct me where I may be wrong.

Here are some random photos of the Teacup Seminar and Trial hosted by Pintsize agility and put on by SOAR !