Guidelines for the Team Captain

The Team Captain is a very important part of the team. The captain needs to have a good knowledge of the dogs in the team, how they act in different situations, and how they interact, as well as knowing the individual and collective goals of the people in the team. The captain has the very important role of developing the strategy to achieve a number of often conflicting goals. A team can win or lose due to decisions made by the captain, and people in the team can feel happy or disgruntled based on how the captain manages the team.

Some of the goals of the team may be to:

• win or place well
• give dogs an equal number of runs and a fair opportunity for points
• maximise the number of points earned
• give new dogs experience
• have fun

The role of the captain is to:

• attend the captain's meeting at the start of the day, and report back information to the team members
• decide which dogs will run in each heat
• fill in the time sheet and deliver it to the steward's table
• decide on the running order
• adjust plans to allow for unexpected problems
• change the time sheet if dogs are changed (before heat is run)
• represent the team in any disputes

Suggested ways to achieve the above:

• Become involved with the team before competition day, so you know the dogs and handlers well. Know which dogs can or can't cross with each other, who can or can't run first or last, and who has whatever problem and how to deal with it.
• Listen to your team. Make sure you know what they expect or would like. Find out how everyone in the team feels about balancing winning races with getting even runs for each dog.
• Decide before the day begins (together with the instructors, and based on the wishes of the team members) how you will deal with  issues if a conflict arises between the various goals (e.g. equal runs vs winning). Know how inexperienced dogs will be included in the team (equal runs, practice only, few runs if successful in practice etc).
• Talk to your team. Tell them how you will run the team, so that they know what to expect and can have some input into these type of choices. Tell the team members well before they are called for a race who will be running, and under what circumstances (e.g. dog A is in all heats of this race, unless he makes a mistake, in which case dog E will replace him).
• Watch each race your team is in, and review your choices based on how the dogs run, and how the other team is running.
• Be prepared to explain why you have made a particular choice. You are acting on behalf of the team and the team members have a right to understand your choices, but at the same time they must also respect your decisions.
• Work together with the captains of the other Croydon teams. Ask for suggestions if unsure how to solve a problem, and possibly cover for each other if you are running your own dog and can't act as captain for one race. If you are unavailable to captain for a race, make sure the team knows who will make decisions on your behalf.
• Plan ahead to ensure even runs and pace dogs that might not cope with a lot of runs in a row. Know if there are clashes with dogs that shouldn't run against a particular team (e.g. handlers with 2 dogs in different teams, dogs that are very distracted by a particular dog or breed). Tell your team what your plan for the day is, and if the day doesn't run to plan, tell them when things change.
• If you have new people in your team, make sure they understand how the lights work, where the stewards are, not to talk to the stewards, where to stand etc.
• Organise people to help with jump height changes before racing or between heats, to evaluate crossovers or record statistics from the timing gear if necessary.  Most people are happy to help if you just give them a few minutes warning and explain what is required. 
• If you make a wrong choice, learn from it and do it differently next time. Nobody's perfect, just do your best.
• If you respect the people in your team, take into account their opinions, make decisions with thought and keep your team informed, they are much more likely to respect you and your choices.

Unexpected problems and possible solutions:

• A dog makes a mistake - decide how likely you think the dog is to repeat the mistake based on your knowledge of the dog and the circumstances at the time, and decide whether to a) leave the dog in the next heat, or b) pull the dog for this race and try to fix the problem in practice before the next race, or c) pull the dog completely from racing.
• A dog continually interfering with the other team - you could continue to run the dog, but run it last and hold it until the other team have finished. (Tell the judge if you are doing that).
• A dog not wanting to cross with a particular dog (e.g. missing last jump) - advise the handler of the second dog to do a late crossover, or adjust the running order or which dogs run together.

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