CPE Nationals Springfield, OH

Lucy and I are back from CPE Nationals. We are both very tired, but we had a lot of fun. For those of you that are not familiar with CPE, I’ll try to explain the classes and rules. There are 7 classes that you can run in: Standard, Colors, Wildcard, Snooker, Jackpot, Fullhouse, and Jumpers. Standard and Jumpers are similar to AKC rules, in which there are contacts, weaves, jumps, and tunnels on the course and they must be taken in the numbered order correctly, although Jumpers does not have weaves like AKC JWW does. The games include Colors: in which there are two courses and you must pick one; Wildcard: there are two options at three different places and you must pick two harder and one easier option at the higher levels; Snooker: there is an opening and a closing, the opening is a red jump and a color jump three times, and then the closing is a numbered sequence (this one is hard to explain); Jackpot: there is an opening and a closing, opening you get as many points as you can, completing the obstacles on the course, the closing is a gamble: there is a traditional and non-traditional, the traditional has a gamble where you have to send your dog away from you across a line made on the ground to complete 4 obstacles (this is similar to AKC FAST?), non-traditional, the judge can make up whatever they want; Fullhouse: you have to accumulate as many points as possible while getting 3 jumps, 2 circles (tunnel or tire), and 1 joker (contacts, combination, weaves). There are 5 levels plus a champion level to compete in, and 4 titles in each level: strategy, handler, fun, and standard. Each level requires more legs to complete the title. For example, level one requires one leg in each class, level two requires 2, and so on. Level 5 requires 5 legs in each class to complete the title. Once level 5 is completed, you can earn your C-ATCH, which equals 120 legs total. Each level has harder requirements to qualify. Level one does not have weaves or the teeter and faults are allowed. Nationals consisted of 6 rings (2 indoors on dirt, 2 outdoors under a covered pavilion on dirt, and 2 outdoors on grass) and 700 people running. It got pretty overwhelming at times, for people and dogs. Day 1 of Nationals was Standard, Fullhouse, and Wildcard. Lucy has struggled with weaves at shows for a while, although she does them great at home. She popped out of the weaves for a fault in Standard and was over 1 second, for NQ. We q’d in Fullhouse and Wildcard. Day 2 was difficult because Lucy was so tired. She is a one-day show kind of girl, and three days was too much for her. The first class was Jackpot, which she did really well in, but she does not send away from me and I finished across the line with her, which disqualified us. As I was leaving the ring, a person in the ring crew told me “that’s what a good handler would do” (continuing on and finishing positively). That made me feel pretty good. She knocked a bar in Jumpers and was 4 seconds over, NQ, and Standard, she was so tired that we were dismissed for being over time, NT. The third day I only took her in Standard, which we were over time in, but finished the course and her weaves. I came to Nationals with the goal of getting three Q’s. Sometimes you have to change your goals as you go, and two Q’s and an enthusiastic Jackpot run made me pretty happy. She did not have an off course in any class and we could do all the courses, we just didn’t have the energy to finish them. It will take us longer to get our C-ATCH now, but when we do, it will be all the sweeter.

I’ll post more pics when I get them from the photographers.