Finals Curiosa

[Donald McCaig]

Dear Doggers,

 

I’m doing some little jobs for the Finals, among them: preparing the notebook the announcers use. With their entries, each handler was asked to fill out a profile which asked - among other things - how long they’d been trialing and how many hours they trained weekly. Since that’s quantifiable, I thought I’d quantify.

 

Nursery dogs (under 3 years of age) are much easier to get qualified than open dogs so I expected more less experienced handlers in the nursery class. About half the big hats didn’t bother to fill in the profile - and if they were added the year’s trialing would skew higher. Since some big hats earn their livings with sheepdogs, the number of training hours would skew higher too.

 

I only included handlers who answered both questions: those who replied that “they didn’t spend enough time” training, or “been running trials forever” didn’t get quantified.

 

Results:the average handler running a nursery dog in the USBCHA National Finals has been trialing for 15 1/2 years. He/she spends 14 hours every week training.

 

Donald McCaig

[juliepoudrier]

Hmmm...that seems to fit with the oft-repeated wisdom that one generally must run (well?) in open for 10 years before expecting to be competitive at the finals.

 

J.

[gcv-border]

Dear Doggers,

 

----snip----

 

Results:the average handler running a nursery dog in the USBCHA National Finals has been trialing for 15 1/2 years. He/she spends 14 hours every week training.

 

Donald McCaig

 

Sorry to ask a beginner question: is the 14 hours per week spent on the same dog or spread over more than one dog? I am guessing the latter?

 

Jovi

[Liz P]

If it is for one dog then I will never stand a chance. I've got to keep the day job to pay for my addiction.

[juliepoudrier]

I sent my survey in with my entry, but I think the question was simply "how many hours a week do you spend training?" which I took to mean all training, not just a particular dog. But that was just my interpretation.

 

J.

[Maja]

Results:the average handler running a nursery dog in the USBCHA National Finals has been trialing for 15 1/2 years

Dear Mr. Donald,

You've made my day! Thank you .

 

For me it would be also interesting how long it takes for an average person to train before they star trialing.

 

Maja

[Donald McCaig]

Dear Doggers,

Julie wrote: " I think the question was simply "how many hours a week do you spend training?" which I took to mean all training, not just a particular dog. But that was just my interpretation."

 

I have the sense that most respondents read the questions as Julie did. The outliers were 50 hours and four hours respectively (I suspect the 4 hours was for one dog).

 

I calculated an average, not a median. Only a few in my sample had been trialing less than ten years; only a few trained forty or fifty hours a week. Responding Big Hats trained a little less: maybe 7 hours weekly but, as one wrote, "I think about it all the time."

 

Donald McCaig

[stockdogranch]

Slightly OT: Did I hear/read somewhere that Ray was announcing? If so, he's absolutely the greatest!!

A

[Maja]

Responding Big Hats trained a little less: maybe 7 hours weekly but, as one wrote, "I think about it all the time."

Oh my, now I will be thinking that somewhere deep inside I am big hat waiting to hatch .

Maja