The premium is now posted for our ‘Bringing in the New Year’ trial at the Oriole Dog Training Club in Halethorpe, MD. This trial as usual is all about the team tournament. This year we are offering a Two Dog Team format; look for our cool prizes as usual including the “Rookie Team” prize. Other class offerings include a Grand Prix and several titling classes.

Our judge is provisional judge Lauren Kras (Yay! We’re training new judges again!)

Entry fees for the titling classes are the typical low cost of $15 per titling class.

Thank you to Roger Ly and Helen McNenly for this summary of what changed in the USDAA rules since October 2022:

Summary of new USDAA rule changes, courtesy of Roger Ly:

1. New jump heights! USDAA has settled into jump heights that align more with other venues
   like AKC. Note that there is no longer a 10″, 14″ or 22″ height, and a 4″ Performance
   height has been added. So, you are looking at Championship heights of 8, 12, 16, 20, 24.
   Performance heights are 4″ shorter: 4, 8, 12, 16, 20. Cut-offs are similar to that of AKC with the
   exception of the two smallest heights which have cut offs of 15″ and 12″
2. If you have a recorded measurement in USDAA, it SHOULD get updated in the system to
   reflect your new jump height
3. If you don’t have a USDAA measurement, but you have a kennel club measurement, you CAN
   use that one. So, you can use your AKC measurement if you’d like. Note this ONLY applies to
   your national kennel club measurements, not all other organizations.
4. You CAN jump higher in your Championship height. You CANNOT jump higher than your
   Performance height.
5. Spreads will only be available for C16″ or higher dogs. That means if you jump lower than
   16″ or you are in Performance, you will not see a spread.
6. Long jump distances are now simply double the height the dog is jumping: 24″ jumping dogs
   get a 48″ long jump span, for example
7. There is an 8″ table for 8″ and smaller jumping dogs.
8. Minimum age for competition has been changed to 15 months.
9. Dogs can start at any level. If you think you are ready for Masters, you can enter Masters
   without going through Starters/Advanced. Whether you SHOULD do that is a decision you’ll
   need to make for yourself.
10. In the original announcement for Cynosport 2023 rules, it was indicated that the winner of
    GP at a “super” Regional Final would automatically get a bye into Cynosport GP Finals. That has
    been updated to say that the winner of GP at ANY Regional will get a bye into GP Finals at
    Cynosport.

Summary of Measurement Procedures, courtesy of Helen McNenly:

1. Coming from AKC? We will accept the AKC permanent height card AND you can slide right into Masters if you don’t want to work your way up from Starters 🙂  
2. Have a permanent USDAA height card that shows a higher height than your AKC Permanent height card:? Use THIS FORM and get one CMJ measurement
3. Have a permanent USDAA height card and now you want to challenge the measurement? Use THIS FORM and get one CMJ measurement

All trial documents for the Mid-Atlantic MADness March MADness trial (our 57th trial) are now available for viewing/download:

The posted Running Order is a draft; the finalized one should be posted sometime on Friday. If you see an issue with it or in your received final confirmation, please notify the trial secretary as soon as possible; they are so much easier to correct the sooner they are caught.

Course Diagrams will be posted at this site each morning at 3am

The premium is now posted for our annual spring trial at Hog Dog in Millersville, MD. We’re getting this premium out a little later than usual, so we’ll take entries up until secondary closing. But our trial secretary will be traveling the week before so it would sure be appreciated if you got your entries in a bit early.

This site offers plenty of room to run your dog when you’re not in the ring as well as parking for cars, tent campers, and RV’ers.

Our judge is provisional judge Jason Pierce (Yay! We’re training judge again!)

Entry fees for the titling classes are the typical low cost of $14 per titling class ($10 for Intro). This trial also features local qualifiers for Grand Prix and Steeplechase.

Lots to look at! Check out the trial photos at:

This year’s team tournament had 32 teams competing with the win captured by the “Norse Legends” team of Rowan/Heather Witt and Odin/Derek Hall with a score of 846.96 points. Following on their heels were the teams of:

2nd place – “Let’s Jump Over the Candlestick” – Nimble/Cynthia Hornor and Kwik/Christine Tschech – 822.33 points
3rd place – “It’s Never Too Late to Crush It ! – Truant/Cynthia Hornor and Crush/Chelsea Singer – 785.81 points
4th place – “Gold Rush” – Jet/Christina Turner and Ember/Sue Peppes – 777.77 points

Other notable awards were for the Overall Top Team Dog and High Scoring Rookie Team (awarded to the team that has at least one dog showing at the Starters level). The Top Team Dog, in a highly contested race for the ‘tall cup’, went to Truant/Cynthia Hornor. Top Rookies went to the team “#TeamBarksalot” – Puzzle/Janina Vickers and Figment/Amy Foster with 639.05 points.

Titles are rarely completed at an all tournament trial, but we did have two. Congratulations to:

ADCH – Nimble/Cynthia Hornor
ADCH-Bronze – Jack/Terry Elison
LAA-Bronze – Jack/Terry Elison

Finally, we were glad to celebrate the retirement run of Ringer, run by Aly Garcia. Ringer completed his agility career by helping his team “Once More for Road” with Idgie/Terry Herman to a qualifying finish in 13th place overall.

Full results for the two day tournament only trial are now available:

Happy to see so many teams competing and we wish everyone the best in the New Year going forward!

Here are the biathlon results as of Saturday evening: