Proposal for an Master National Retriever Club By-Law Change
I am writing on behalf of the Western New York Retriever Club as we would like to submit a proposal for an additional strategy to be submitted to all MNRC member clubs for the
“Strategic Proposals Survey”.
Strategy overview:
To change the requirements to qualify to run the Annual Master National Retriever Club Event it would now state you must pass 6 out of 8 tests you run between August 1 and July 31. (This would be having a 75% or greater pass rate)
Due to the increased number of dogs qualifying for the Master National every year, there is an increase number of dogs entering and competing at the Master National Event. As a result, the way in which dogs qualify needs to be addressed. Over the years there has been an increase in number of Clubs running events and even running more events per year, as a result, getting 6 Master passes in the time span of Aug 1-July 31 every year is very doable especially when many dogs run 15+ weekend events to achieve this.
Obviously a dog that takes 15 or even 10 tries to get 6 passes is proving to not be very consistent and will not be running the caliber it needs to pass a national test which is essentially two events run in one week.
PROS
All dogs qualifying would be representing the same consistency rate whether they are
Amateur or Professionally Handled.
Pros would no longer have an advantage over “working” amateurs who are not able to
run as many weekend events to qualify.
ALL DOGS WHO QUALIFY WILL HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO RUN THE NATIONAL THEY HAVE WORKED SO HARD TOWARDS!
It will be easier to get into weekend tests! Because it takes less TRIES to qualify, there
will be more openings in weekend events which will help Amateurs greatly as well as
everyday local competitors that are just looking to get titles.
The number of dogs qualifying for the Master National will subsequently decrease which
will decrease the number of dogs entering and running the national.
– Because less dogs are running the national, judges can take their time in testing
each individual dog’s performance and not be pressed for time.
-There will be less dogs in each flight and/or less flights needed resulting in less needed resources to hold the event.
CONS
It will be harder for inconsistent dogs to qualify Many will bring up the points that held this proposal back in the past including:
“Handlers will judge shop”- due to the limiting of entries now implemented, this will have no affect on the clubs hosting events. The events will fill as they do currently, people that would “judge shop” are the ones that already do!
“People will scratch their dog from a weekend event after it already started in order to avoid a fail and then run another event”- It would simply be stated in the requirements to qualify that, a dog cannot be scratched from an event that has already begun unless it has been injured during the test and is immediately taken to the vet for evaluation and a vet note is submitted addressing why the dog was not able to continue to compete.
Also, this circumstance may only be used ONCE per dog per qualifying year. Any other scratches during a started event will be counted as a Fail.
Tammy Adsitt, President
Western New York Retriever Club
Co-sponsored by:
Dave Gaul, President
Ohio Valley Retriever Club
Robert Samios, President
Presque Isle Retriever Club of Erie, PA
