NADAC Championships 2017 – Round 7 & Finals or Day 4

Day 4!  The final day of NADAC Championships 2017!!  This has been such a fun week, I’m so glad we came.

First a little about the scoring at champs.  NADAC Champs is scored differently than many competitions.  In each round there is a base number that is calculated from the length and difficulty level of the course.  This is your starting number for that round.  They do this so that speed AND accuracy are most rewarded not just straight out speed.  Then the time it takes for you and your dog to complete the course is subtracted from that number.  And any faults you incur are subtracted from that number.  If a bonus is offered and you get it bonus points are added to that score.  So for example say the starting course score is 150 and you run the course in 50 seconds.  Now your score is 100.  Then you have a 10 point off course fault, now your score is 90.  If another dog in your class and height also ran the course in 50 seconds but had no faults, that dogs score would be 100 and higher than yours so that dog would place ahead of your run.  At champs the higher the score each round the better.

For each round those scores are calulated and added together to obtain the cumulative score for your rounds 1 – 7.  If that cumulative score is one of the top 30% cumulative scores for your class and jump height you get to go to the final 8th round.  If you’re not in the top 30% once those scores are all added together, your runs at NADAC Champs end at round 7.

In finals, the scores are calculated the same way they were in rounds 1-7.  But unlike in many other competitions, you could win 1st place in your class and jump height in the final 8th round and still not be the champion of your class.  As the champion is the cumulative scores from all 8 rounds, rounds 1 through 8, not just the 8th finals round standing alone.  So even if you were to place 1st in the 8th round if the 2nd or 3rd place dog had more points going into the final 8th round than you they could still beat you in the cumulative points tally.  This really does make NADAC Championships a marathon and rewards the dog and handler team that are able to do well over the entire 4 days of competition.  And I think that’s pretty cool.

Sooooo drum roll please, we made it to Finals!!!  And then We WON!!!!!!!!  Zora and I WON!! Elite Standard Small Dog winner at 2017 NADAC Championships!!!!  I still cannot believe it.  This little dog is so freaking amazing.  And the support from Tom and my husband, none of this would be anywhere near possible without them.  I cannot believe it. We freaking won Championships.

Its still sinking in.  And it’s now very late.  And we have a long drive tomorrow, so I’m going to end this post with that.  We won, I can’t believe it.  So far exceeded any hopes I had for the week.  I figured I would call it a success if I could manage to get my body to cooperate through 50% of it.  It took a ton of micromanaging, being hyper vigilant of my body’s warning signals, and adjusting but so glad I was able to do all of our runs.  Such an awesome experience with an awesome little corgi dog and an awesome support team.

Also to stay consistent course maps from round 7 and the finals round: