WHOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kinda seems to me that a number of folks are trying to be snarky and keep it under Sharon's "radar" and within the bounds of all that she'll allow before she puts her foot down!
First of all, you really do NOT need hoops to train for Hoopers or X-Hoopers! A couple of household objects, say coffee cups placed X inches apart will do. You are supposed to be teaching your dog to RUN THE PATH!!! If the dog is on path, s/he will perform the hoop! Try it! It works! For giggles and grins, my little Dachsie mix learned how to run a path in our tiny living room while I was drinking wine and watching the Indians whip the Tigers on TV! ...and she knew NOTHING about agility!!!
Secondly, A LOT of folks have gotten spoiled rotten by some other venues whose Nationals, Regionals, Whatever courses look pretty similar to trial courses. It's a pity that you weren't around in agility's infancy.......................for special events like those, there were almost ALWAYS challenges that exhibitors hadn't seen before! They were NEVER dangerous; but they did push beyond what folks normally trained for; but the philosophy was "If you want to be a NATIONAL champion, PROVE your WORTHINESS!" ...............and many did just that!
I really do think that some ambitious person on the forum should begin to categorize all of the excuses, whines (and the cheese to go with them) and petty critiques of NADAC and put them into a book. That way, it would save some folks A LOT of trouble..........................they could simply name the class; and then give the number or numbers of their whines and gripes!
FOR ALL THAT IS GOOD AND DECENT, have some of you forgotten that Sharon is still in the early stages of recovery from traumatic cancer surgery........................that Chris is recovering from surgery (hernia?) as well........................and that Sharon, Becky, Chris & Amanda have families and lives OUTSIDE of NADAC???
BTW, if you want to see a REAL NADAC black hole, come to Ohio!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.......................but we ALWAYS managed to find a way and a place to train.....................and to test our skills at trials. Trials were some distance away, so we turned them into mini-vacations!!!
When I go to a trial, I go to have FUN with my dog................THAT'S IT! If others want to whine, complain, pout or do whatever else negative they can think of, PLEASE STAY AT HOME!!! I don't appreciate seeing you......................and your dog probably is NOT having fun being around you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
.....................and if attendance drops off; and NADAC trials cease to be, so be it!
NADAC has ALWAYS "marched to the beat of a different drummer"...................and I, for one, am sooooooooooooooooo very grateful that it does! What I have learned about my dogs, about myself and about agility through my association with NADAC can never be taken from me.......................and I'm soooooooooooo NOT tallking about ribbons, awards titles or any of that trivial stuff!
Just my NOT so humble opinion; but if the driving force behind your doing agility are the ribbons, titles, awards and other trinkets, please do all of us...................and the sport, a HUGE favor and QUIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
More or less respectfully...................I guess it depends on how self-conscious and insecure you are.............
Al
P.S. Sharon & Chris & Becky & Amanda: If I get a warning regarding the tone of my post, I won't be surprised! If I don't get one, I may be a bit disappointed! <LOL> The NADAC family has been waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too good to us and ours for me to let these truly unfounded and unwarranted critiques to to without a rebuttal.
The point of the thread in the Champs forum is not whether or not a hoop circle should be part of NADAC. It's whether or not it's fair to have it as part of a Championship event when a large percentage of competitors have never seen one. It seems to me that the majority of people saying "it's not so bad, you should try it" are people who have competed a great deal in the class, or at least have had the opportunity to do so. I'm not sure why it's so hard for you to understand the point of view from those who have literally never performed this obstacle/sequence.
Karissa,
Oh, I think that point of view has been very clearly understood. But what you have failed to see is the majority of responses have been people *finding a positive way* to meet this new "challenge", not continually disparaging it. A trainer has said they will focus on it for the next 6 weeks with the *very large* group of students they always bring to Champs. Numerous people have sent in tons of suggestions to get started training this both from a small and large scale. There's been creative photos sent in on how to set something similar up at home or class. Folks who were surprised by this challenge are actively going about *finding a way* to make it work for them. This is how true NADAC Champions work! (OK, in *reality*, it's how ALL true Champions work! 
) They see a problem, they find a way to fix it, move on and win, rather than just sit on their butts and harp on the negatives.
You've made it very clear that you aren't coming to Championships this year. Lucky you! You've been given a 13 month "heads up" on one of the possible focus of one of the courses you might see in 2017, if you choose to qualify and enter. 13 months should be *plenty* of time for you to figure out how to train this thing. Actually, it will probably take you, as a handler, maaaaybe 13 minutes and your dog about 13 seconds. It's not exactly rocket science....since your dogs *do* know what hoops are.
So, Karissa, you better jump on the Circle of Fun Train along with the rest of us! It's coming to a town near YOU next year! We've all bought our tickets, climbed aboard and are having fun enjoying each other and our dogs in the Club Car....where are you???
-Kyle
I totally understand what Karissa is saying. There is ONE club in the Chicagoland area that teaches NADAC and hosts NADAC trials. That club, for me to train is over 2 hours away on a week night. I just can't make it there. All the rest of the clubs teach AKC/USDAA/CPE and now UKI and ASCA are coming in. So, Kyle, you can say that "a trainer just offered to set it up, train it...." But sometimes it just isn't feasible for people. Not everything is as simple as some people make it sound. I for one, work a full-time job, a part time job, have a house to clean and care for and have a 90 year old mother that I help take care of. Time is limited. Add to that, that I don't have a big yard to play in. I train 1X per week if that. I simply don't have the time to rent a facility and if I did, then they would not have the equipment necessary. The fact is, that adding it to Champs IS a large disadvantage to those of us who never see it here.
The second part she was saying also holds true. The fact is, Unfortunately in this area, there is very little cross-over. People either do NADAC or they don't. The trainers that are out there (other than the 1 club), simply don't run NADAC and don't/won't train for NADAC. I have hear them say things like "I won't train that crazy distance needed", or "I won't do a venue that has such different obstacles" or "I need my dog to be able to collect and not work away from me and he simply can't do both". Is it true? NOPE. But can I change their mind? NOPE. I have gone to USDAA and AKC trials to watch my friends. I hear the conversations that take place about NADAC whether they know that I run NADAC or not. Even if I try to defend NADAC, the issue is things like the barrels or hoops. Now, I have convinced some people that a hoop is simply like a jump without the bar. They train their puppies on jump standards, what is the difference? I have convinced some people that a barrel is simply teaching your dog to go around something (like a jump standard). However, the vast majority do not going to listen. For whatever reason, NADAC is like a black hole here. Like Karissa said, there are some that will come and use it for training, there are some, that if there is no other trial around, will come and play for a day, but the vast majority just stay away. The main complaint that I hear is the "constant change on a whim". To me that is both good and bad. Some of the changes are for the better, some are not (in my opinion), but for the most part, we all get heard. BUT, for those that are thinking about crossing over, adding something like a hoop cirlce would totally cut them out. Trainers are NOT going to pick it up and teach it. Not only do they not have the skills necessary to teach it, but they also are not likelly to be supported by their students because it isn't required in any other venue. And if their students balk at it, so will the trainers because they need to keep their students. The students pay them to teach them the skills necessary to compete and that particular skill just isn't necessary (in their minds anyway) to compete in AKC, USDAA, CPE, UKI or ASCA. The fact is, NADAC IS different. I enjoy NADAC but I was lucky enough that when I started in agility, that club trained NADAC. That doesn't happen with most newbies anymore. The only place I could take my "newbie" dog is to an AKC/USDAA facility. I can guarantee that all of those dogs in her class will end up NOT knowing anything about NADAC except what I have told them.
And quite honestly Kyle, this comment, "So, Karissa, you better jump on the Circle of Fun Train along with the rest of us! It's coming to a town near YOU next year! We've all bought our tickets, climbed aboard and are having fun enjoying each other and our dogs in the Club Car....where are you???", is one of the MAIN reasons people don't do NADAC. I am sure you didn't mean it to sound snarky, but to someone who only does a small amount of NADAC and has other options available, it could definitely come across that way. Karissa is one of the few people who supports NADAC in her area. Without her talking it up, do you really think that we will gain competitors?
