06/19/2025
🎯 2025 Remainder Goals & Reflections: The Sport Balancing Act (buckle up, its a long one 😮💨)
The other day I added up my projected entry fees for the remainder of the year and the number surprised me. Honestly, it didn’t feel like that much as I entered things one at a time. But when I broke it down by sport, I realized a huge chunk of that was dock diving and Fast CAT.
So I started asking myself: Where is our time and money going, and why? What are our goals, both short and long term? And how do I balance the sports that are fun with the ones that contribute to our Hall of Fame (HOF) goals?
🐰 FAST CAT Goals:
• Riff – BCAT
• Hops – DCAT (maybe)
They’ll likely be done with Fast CAT after that. It’s one of those sports that can get expensive very quickly, especially once you start chasing FCAT. We’re choosing to pause here (Theory will likely do some once she’s of age) and shift our focus elsewhere. We have two weekends in September available, and if Riff picks it up quickly, his BCAT is absolutely within reach. He can’t start competing until after July 21, when he turns one.
🌊 Dock Diving / Jumping Goals:
• Hops – DS (maybe)
• Riff – Compete in ASCA or NADD?
Hops last jumped in what is NADD’s senior division at ASCA Nationals (Oct 2024). She already holds her DJ, and DS would be next if she keeps that same distance. I’m not planning to pursue ASCA dock jumping with her this year since she’s jumping at the bottom of the Deluxe division, and without my throwing skills improving, I don’t see her clearing the 17.5’ needed to move up.
Right now, I’m not interested in chasing advanced levels in the same distance category, because we’ve got limited time and money, and I want to prove my dogs across more venues rather than going deep into just one. Dock can get expensive fast, and our time is better spread out this season.
My goal is to get Riff off the dock before the season ends. A title in NADD or ASCA would be the cherry on top.
🐕 Conformation (and the mental game)
Let’s talk about my *ahem* conformation aversion.
I burned myself out chasing majors and CHs with Envy.. reserve after reserve, all during a chaotic time in my life. It really took a toll on my confidence in the ring. I’m working on rebuilding that. I had even sent Envy out with a handler for two weekends, but it was too expensive for my budget, and frankly, too stressful for her. I don’t have the financial or emotional space to pay thousands of dollars to a handler for months.
So I’m easing myself back in. I want to regain and keep the joy for me and my dogs in this sport. We’ve got UKC and AKC shows on the books, and maybe even IABCA. I hesitate to set a concrete goal of finishing a CH on Hops or Riff but I’d like to. I just don’t know if I can handle the grind mentally.
The area I live in is highly competitive for AKC conformation, a lot of breeders in the Midwest use professional handlers. Some long time breeders don’t. My handling and grooming aren’t as polished, my face isn’t well known, but I won’t improve if I don’t keep trying.
🏆Agility Goals:
• Hops – Novice titles in AKC & ASCA
• Riff – Build his foundation
Hops has been in agility training for about a year (off and on), and she hasn’t competed yet. Lately she has really progressed and our trainer says she is almost ready.
🐑 Herding Goals:
• Riff – Instinct test
Riff still hasn’t had an instinct test, because I’m slacking. If he shows interest, I’ll focus some thoughts into making a long term plan for him. Hops loves working stock, and I love working with her but with her agility training, possible conformation showing, and then hopefully breeding, I honestly don’t know where I’ll find the time to train her for herding titles.
It feels like a waste of money to keep training in stock if I can’t get to the point of titling. It sucks. I don’t have stock at home, and the commute + expense + time is a lot right now. Riff, being male (no heat cycles or puppies), may be the better long term candidate for stockdog goals but we’ll see what he shows us.
👃🏼 Scentwork
This is something I really want to do with both Hops and Riff. Cersei has her Barn Hunt novice title and loves using her nose, and her kids do too. But starting a brand new sport means time, money, and mental bandwidth.
Sadly, scentwork doesn’t count toward Hall of Fame in ASCA or AKC, so I’ll probably table this one until next year. I might be able to fit in a class with Riff for confidence building, though, if we can’t find another.
🎓 Obedience / Rally / Tracking
🔹 Obedience: I have mad respect for everyone who competes here but I’m not sure I have it in me to walk that path right now. Maybe in 10 years.
🔹 Rally: I’d love to do this with Riff, and maybe Hops. I’m considering a class for him. If I could line it up to attend the same day as another class for Theory, that’ll help justify the three hour round trip commute.
🔹 Tracking: Not for me. It’s just too hard to access training and trials where I am.
🧠 Big Picture: Balancing Fun vs. HOF
I’ve mentioned a few times that “it can get very expensive very quickly.” That’s true of probably all the sports. So I’m trying to strike a balance between:
• Sports that me and my dogs enjoy that are lower pressure for me mentally (like dock diving, Fast CAT, possibly scentwork), and
• Sports that contribute to long term goals, especially Hall of Fame recognition for Ausdauer.
Not all titles are created equal in the HOF world. AKC and ASCA require accomplishments in specific disciplines: conformation, agility, obedience, rally, herding/stockdog, and tracking. “Fun” sports like dock and Fast CAT don’t count and I get that. I’m not arguing they should.
But as a preservation breeder working toward HOF goals, I have to align the smaller goals with the big ones. That means making tough decisions about how we spend time, money, and energy, without losing the joy that made me love this in the first place.
The “harder” sports bring more pressure. There are higher barriers: access to equipment, access to trainers, handling skills, nerves. Sometimes we just want to do the fun things with our dogs. And sometimes, I think the dogs want that too.
So I’m here still figuring it out. I know my dogs are capable. Now it’s my turn to hold myself accountable, set smaller stepping stone goals, and build us up toward the bigger dreams.
