Getting Those 5000 CPE Points

SUMMARY: Will it take forever? (From an email to a friend.)

Q: Friend writes: I am not sure what cruel Nazi came up with the need to accumulate 3,000 points. I picture a dog in a walker struggling to get the last ten points before it succumbs to old age.

A: It feels so true! And remember--that's 3000 points in the required combination of classes plus an additional 2000 in any choice of classes, for a total of 5000. Yow.

On the other hand--in 2006, there have been or will be 17 CPE competitions within 2 hours of my home. Each weekend typically provides 8 or 10 runs per dog. So--if I went to all the CPE trials and if Tika earned Qs in all runs, that would be about 3000 points in one year.

Even at Tika's 2006 overall average Q rate for CPE trials (huh--just calculated it--70%! I didn't think it was that good! and that's requiring clean runs, too), that would be 2000 points in a year.

It's just that (1) I prefer USDAA trials over CPE trials given the choice, and (2) I just can't afford the time or entry fees for every trial all year. (Now, given that Tika's Q rate in USDAA is a dismal 26%, and I can hardly place for the life of me, why on earth do I prefer it? Maybe it's *because* it gives me more of a challenge--at least now that Tika's keeping bars up in CPE most of the time, I need to work on the difference that those 2" in USDAA makes. Maybe I should start practicing at 28"?? But I digress.) I've actually done 9 CPEs in the last year, but Tika wasn't competing at the top level yet in everything until November.

In fact, her first C-Level legs (4 of them) were in May 2005, so she has earned all 1800 points in just over a year, and she wasn't competing in all classes at the C level. Only--gulp--3200 hundred to go--but at this rate that'll be only 2 more years.

So we actually have a chance before we both start doddering. I'll just keep my fingers crossed that we both remain healthy and happy.

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