This sounds good! Just one question - how will Stakes play into the regionals?
Linda
At this point we're not going to be doing stakes for the regionals anymore. They don't really make any sense to be used in a regional since the main advantage is getting to run in finals, which all bonus dogs get to do regardless.
And I would hate to see a dog going to Championships just from winning a regional, when the odds are incredibly great it would be the only dog there in certain areas. So you would essentially just have to show up and get a automatic invite to Champs. Which isn't really in the spirit of what we're trying to do here.
I'm hoping that I am completely misunderstanding what Chris has said regarding Stakes at all the Regionals otherwise I will be really disappointed with the concept of having a "Regional" program. From my perspective (I do Bonus runs at trials and have *and continue to want to* run in Stakes at Champs

), being able to run in Finals wouldn't be the "main advantage" to winning the class at a Regional because, yes, Stakes dogs run in the Finals. It's the opportunity to be able to get the "automatic invite" that is *THE* super duper "prize". It's hard enough to get a Bonus run as it is, even harder now that in some areas there are less trials available to try and, as Chris has said before, not many trials at all in some areas. All of that makes it darn tough to get those elusive Bonus points for qualifying.
I really don't understand Chris' comment, "So you would essentially just have to show up and get a automatic invite to Champs." How different is that from any other class winner? Sure, the odds are totally in favor of a regular class dog Q'ing and "winning" the class that way, but how fair is that to the Bonus dogs? It should be an equal playing field. Actually, what does it hurt to "invite" these Bonus dogs? In some situations it's more than likely they won't be coming to Champs anyway due to distance, costs, etc. But if they are able to come now that they have been "invited" - how fun would that be to see dogs from all over the country who may not have been able to get those Bonus points due to lack of trials? It would be awesome!

Please re-think this, Chris and Amanda. What harm is it? It sure won't be much added extra time at Champs for a few extra Bonus runs. You also get more entry fees! Yay!
Thanks,
Kyle