ULTIMATE FINALS

Hi Milt,
Hey, our little Bugz jumped awesome on Sunday. He jumped 22'9"!!! We're soooo ecstatic!

Anyways, here's what I've been pondering. How come there is a limit on the Ultimate finals? It seems that the dogs who jump into the ultimate category should all get a chance to be in the finals. Since we're not regulars to most events, I don't know how many dogs that would be on average for these finals?

I'm not Milt... but I wanted to say congrats to you and Bugz! He was jumping awesome this past weekend and definitely is a sweet, great little guy.

This isn't the first time that there have been dogs who jumped in Ultimate and didn't make finals... and I doubt it will be the last. Heck, as we gain more and more jumpers through new events (along with UAD's partnership with UKC) I can see each of the Finals (not just Ultimate) having higher "cut-offs" at the larger events.

UAD has, for many years now, worked to really promote the idea that the littlest jumpers are just as important as the high fliers. So, having the same five per finals rule for each helps reflect that. I'm actually very proud to be a part of an organization that considers the "top dogs" to be the ones having the most fun, rather than it being dependent upon jumping ability alone.

The same thing has happened to several friends of mine with Ultimate jumpers. And, of course, it also happens to teams in all the other divisions. Luckily, even if you don't make Finals, everyone still knows and recognizes your dog's accomplishments. My boys may not have made Finals this past weekend, but they both set new PBs and we got a lot of nice compliments from our friends and various spectators. So, I'm quite pleased with that and couldn't be more proud!

Again, congrats to you and Bugz! Hopefully we'll see you again soon at another upcoming event!

On a side note... Milt does occassionally include all dogs in Finals at some of the small events. However, for reasons ranging from time, space, number of entries, etc., that can't always happen.

Thanks Kel,

I know it's all about the fun of jumping which is why we do this. I was just wondering how often it happens, and can definitely foresee this happening more often with all the great jumping dogs with UAD! Keeping the top five in all categories makes sense to me now, thanks for the explanation.
I hope I didn't sound like I was complaining about not being in the finals(maybe whining a little LOL) 'cuz that was not my intention.
Anyways, we had lots of fun and I'm extremely proud of Bugz! Congrats to all your guys also, they are wonderful dogs!

Thanks! So is your boy!

As for the rest, no worries!

bugz wrote:Hi Milt,
Hey, our little Bugz jumped awesome on Sunday. He jumped 22'9"!!! We're soooo ecstatic!

Anyways, here's what I've been pondering. How come there is a limit on the Ultimate finals? It seems that the dogs who jump into the ultimate category should all get a chance to be in the finals. Since we're not regulars to most events, I don't know how many dogs that would be on average for these finals?

Ditto what Kel said in much of her post. Congrats on your jump! Even those of us who jump regularly enough to have an Ultimate Title are amazed at the amount of Ultimate dogs these days. The Ultimate division used to be 23' and over, it was changed to 22'6" and over. Most of us had to pay our dues and work hard to get to the Ultimate division There are times when many of us had dogs who were holding 1st place in Masters and to our excitement our dogs jumped into the Ultimate Division and bumped themselves out of Finals as a result. Celebrate your jump. I always say that a new personal best is better than making it to finals. A new pb means that we are continually improving.