Running a Trial

The other clubs who do not have the ability to pre-print the forms have the steward write down the relevant details as the dog enters the ring. This seems to work very successfully. (Jane Heritage)

Put the dog's number, breed, class, and which division they are in on the sheet. Have the papers in a stack in front of you in order. If there is a last minute change in order, just move the papers to the correct order. Always communicate with your gate steward, they keep the flow going. Also have someone else escort the next dog into the ring with the score sheet. Have them double check that the dog and handler match the score sheet. (Pam Wilson)

The ring steward has a pad on which she writes down the number of the dog about to enter the ring. Between dog runs, a runner takes the top sheet of the pad from the ring steward, hands it to the scribe, takes the old sheet from the scribe, and takes that to the table steward. The runner then returns to the ring steward to wait for the run to finish. Prenumbering the forms is dangerous because if one dog goes out of order, you can end up with 20 dogs having the wrong scores. (Marty Zimmerman)

At the NADAC benefit shows in Perris, CA two stopwatches were used to speed up the runs. It works like this: The timer times the run as usual; as soon as the watch is stopped the timer passes the watch off to a scribe-assistant who immediately hands the next watch to the timer and then takes the first watch and the score sheet to the scoring table where the time is entered on the score sheet. This process makes it possible to literally run dogs continuously with perhaps 10 secs. between runs (unless an adjustment or reset is needed on the course). This *really* speeds things up.
(John Ostrowski) Another recommended method is called the "double pad" system and it requires a Runner who is on the ball but other than that it is quite simple & efficient. At any given time, there are 2 pads active. The Gate Steward, who more than anyone else is knowledgeable about exactly who the next person is in the ring, records the armband number of the next person to run on the top sheet of a scorepad. He/she hands this entire pad to the Runner. When the Runner goes to collect a completed scoresheet from the scribe, he takes the entire pad from the scribe and hands him the pad that has just been completed by the Gate Steward. He then tears off the top sheets, takes the now blank pad back to the Gate Steward so that he can prepare it for the next dog, and then takes the completed sheet to the scoretable. The Runner then returns to the Gate Steward to start the cycle again. The Gate Steward should have a couple of extra pads so that in the event the Runner doesn't make it back in time from the scoretable (because of dog elimination usually) the class will not be held up waiting for the Runner. (Janet Gauntt)