A few thing to share in this edition.
- AKC open and novice only trials
- AKC premiums
- Valdosta Kennel Club and my "Pensacola Dilemma"
Two clubs have scheduled AKC Open and Novice only trials this Fall. Pals and Paws has one scheduled for September 25&26 and it looks like it will have T2B and all levels of FAST so you can get your other dogs some exercise. Central Florida Agility Club has one scheduled for November 13&14 and also offers T2B but only Open and Novice FAST (the judge is provisional so an AKC rep will be on hand). The premium is already available for this trial: 2021-11-13-AKC-Central Florida Agility Club-Novice/Open Trial They intend have an ACT event on Friday (TBA).
AKC Premiums are probably the most time consuming to find. Premiums can be published to AKC so that they can be found during an event search but it must be done by the club using the online event management process. It would be nice to see all clubs in Florida take advantage of this feature, even those who utilize professional trial secretaries. The premium is right there when a potential customer searches for a trial. There are a couple of clubs that have figured this out. Now, for trials that are not handled by Lori, Jacqui or June, I now bookmark the AKC event page for one of the trial days. I then load the bookmarks up in a bunch of tabs and I can scan a dozen event pages in a couple of seconds. I handle UKI & USDAA events in the same manner.
I have started listing the Valdosta Kennel Club trials in the Calendar. I am guessing that a number of the competitors are from Florida since it is only about 30 miles north of the border. For the December trial, I may do a site description and publish the premium. This surfaced what I call my "Pensacola Dilemma” or how can I make this web site more relevant to them. They have to travel a fair distance to trials that are not held locally. The Greater Panama trials in Baker will be a help if they ever get started. But the closest trials outside of Florida are a fair distance away. Mobile, AL is close but the Mobile clubs hold their trials in Vancleave, MS which is quite a bit west of Mobile. I thought that was a bit strange until I looked at it on the map. The Google driving time/distance between Vancleave and Pensacola & New Orleans is nearly the same and it is close to a number of gulf coast communities like Biloxi. This gives them a broader population within a two hour drive. I would be willing to list relevant trials in the calendar but I would need some local assistance in determining what is relevant.