Yeah, suuuurrre I'll give you my money so I can go play in the 'special' class with my mix. Sorry but I think we all know how 'separate but equal' turned out. And the clubs don't even have to offer the mixed breed class if they don't want to so you could potentially pay your $35 license fee to AKC and never get to play anyway or maybe only a couple of times a year if most of the clubs in your area opt not to offer the class. I'll take my money elsewhere. Oh wait, I already was taking it elsewhere, never mind.
The truly scary thing about this is how bad the economy must be that the AKC is hurting so severely that they're willing to hold their nose and let us riff raff in even if it is without full use of the clubhouse.
5 Tabata sprints today and my knee seems o.k. After 2 I wasn't sure I could carry on and I know I slowed down for #3 but I think I sped up for #5. Hard to say if it was because I'd warmed up a bit or because I knew I was done or because maybe I started slacking on #4. It's hard to maintain a consistent pace because I'm not a sprinter and I don't have a good sense of pace. Tomorrow I'll shoot for 6 and spend more time warming up to see if that helps.
My regular run with the dogs this morning was not so fabulous after 15 minutes but the same thing happened on Monday before this nonsense took hold of my brain and it feels like an overuse issue so I'll have to keep plugging along slowly and not blame the Tabata spritns. I found that if I took a longer walk break I was able to run again without pain so I think I'll shoot for 15 minutes of my regular walk/run pattern then take a 10 minute walk break then try to complete the other 15 minutes. Ugh, getting old sucks.
AKC, still scared the mixed breeds'll beat their purebred honeys. Which they probably would.
ReplyDeleteWhere do you do the sprints? In the road? Trails?
There's a soccer field a few minutes walk from my office that has that special soft springy turf and I go there because it's easy on the knees and I can see how far I'm running in 20 seconds so I know roughly when the timer will beep. But you can do them anywhere. I wouldn't pick a busy road because you're supposed to be going so fast that you can't really concentrate on traffic. I think an athletic field or a track would be the best options if you have any nearby but anyplace where you can run uninterrupted for 20 seconds should do. To give you an idea of how much space you need I go a little over 100 yards (maybe 105-110?) in the 20 seconds. Then again some people run in short about and backs and some even do it on the beach for greater torture effects.
ReplyDeleteWell it's too late for my Emma (BC-Pointer mix). She's too old now anyway. And she would much prefer to run with me in the foothills.
ReplyDeleteI am sure it's all about money. I've heard there are a lot of areas where AKC events (obedience and rally) don't fill. Why else would a registry for purebreds decide to allow mixed breeds to participate in their events.
Oh, it's totally about the money. And they've put in that nice loophole that the clubs don't have to include the mixes so if their trials fill anyway why would they? It's just extra hassle and cost to them and they don't care about mixes. Plus there are some clubs that have people that absolutely don't want mixes at their trials so it mollifies them by giving them the option to exclude. I think the AKC really cares more about that $35 registration fee, that right there is a significant chunk of change and it gives the clubs that can't fill their trials the option to make more money if they want.
ReplyDeleteI hope the people with mixes who are considering this option do some research into how many clubs in their area will plan on including them because it could turn out that they're paying $35 simply to line the pockets of the AKC and will still never get to play or only on a limited basis.
If the CKC were to go this route as well, I'd be glad for the options it would give people, despite bizarreness of the whole segregation aspect. Personally, probably the only event I'd consider for my mutts is tracking since there are essentially no tracking trials for mixed breed dogs. Tracking doesn't seem to be listed as one of the events now open to mixes in the AKC though...?
ReplyDeleteI didn't look into tracking so I don't know about that. The problem with the other non-agility events like obedience and rally is that there are so few stand alone trials and the mutts aren't allowed unless it's stand alone so I'm not sure it adds all that many options for people. Agility has a lot more stand alone trials but again you're at the mercy of the breed club and whether they want to let you in. I know some around here absolutely won't. The agility clubs and the breed clubs with lots of people involved in agility will probably let the mutts in but I'm not sure how many trials they do compared to the other breed clubs. I'm guessing if the breed clubs are hurting enough in obedience, rally, etc., and it sounds like they are, they might be more willing to let the mutts in but again it has to be a stand alone show and I'm not sure how many of those there are.
ReplyDeleteThe other stupid thing about all of this is that there are probably as many or more mutts that slipped through the cracks in the ILP program competing in AKC than there are in USDAA, DOCNA etc. Is the AKC going to relook at those dodgy ILP's and kick those people to the back of the bus as well? Will be interesting to see how that pans out. If they tighten up their ILP program they may even lose membership because people with mutts who might have slipped through before will full privileges will now be rejected and have to accept second class treatment/access to trials and maybe those people will say no thanks.
I won't even do AKC with my purebred because I dislike the organization so much and now I dislike them that much more.
I agree ... I'm not going to do any AKC because I'm so philosophically opposed the the organization that I don't want them to have any of my money. Add in the fact that the way they decided to include the mixed breeds is insulting and now I dislike them even more than I did before ...
ReplyDelete