Wednesday, June 05, 2013

Improving Agility Organizations

Today is another Dog Agility Blog Event Day - June 6, 2013; please visit all the blogs at: (http://dogagilityblogevents.wordpress.com/improving-agility-organizations/).  Please leave comments, we all enjoy hearing what you have to say.

I mainly do AKC agility but will on occasion do CPE or NADAC.  My suggestions on improving Agility Organizations will be about AKC since that is where I have most of my experience.  This is very timely since the AKC Agility Advisory Board has asked for recommendations recently.

I know that AKC has changed the rule about running consecutive trials within 100 miles of each other if the club that held the date first gives their approval (rule here).  My personal opinion is there won't be many clubs who will approve it unless they have a great relationship with the other club.  There are so many trials now that have waiting lists I was hoping that AKC would lower the distance to 50 miles.  A friend mentioned on FB that they often have to overnight their entries when the trial is first received and still have not been able to get in. It is not that bad in this area but there are several trials I have been way down the wait list of over 150 people and our club's one ring trial had over 500 people on the wait list.

The other thing I would like to see is to get rid of the table (at least in Master classes); it is time consuming which cause the runs to be longer and makes course changes longer.

One of the recommendations I have seen posted is to make sure that the chute entrances are padded as some have sharp edges that could cut a dog.  If this is the case it certainly should be fixed for the safety of the dogs.

A few of the other suggestions I have seen posted:

  • All contact equipment has to be rubberized-which definitely should be a rule.  I have been to a trial where the contacts were not rubberized and it was really scary.
  • Fast reduced to one level course-I love this idea which it would make it similar to T2B.
  • Level C courses which would be optional and handled similarly to T2B-I love this idea and think it is a great way for those who want to be challenged more by international course have that opportunity. 
  • YPS requirement for qualifying runs for nationals-Not sure about this I will have to discuss this with my friends who have qualified.
  • Bitches in season will be allowed to run if they are wearing their panties-I understand there is a lot of this being done (without the panties) already and this would make it legal.
  • New veterans class and drop in height even if your dog jumps preferred.-I like this idea and think it is fair to our older dogs.
Just a thought to end this post; I have considered doing USDAA but the jumps heights are too high.  If those were changed I would consider doing that venue.

Please visit the other blogs and make comments, a lot of thought and effort goes into these blogs. I look forward to seeing all perspectives these blogs offer.









3 comments:

  1. Yeah! Anything to make it easier to play with our pups is a great suggestion, those wait lists you mention are insane! And my pups give two paws up to abolishing the table, too.

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  2. I agree with abolishing the table, too, but mainly because it was our nemesis for quite a long time :-)

    As far as yards per second go, I think the new requirement of having 500 (as opposed to 400) speed points to qualify will go a lone way toward eliminating the "slow and steady" competitors. If you don't trial A LOT, you aren't going to get that 500 points. I've got a fast dog, but don't Q in every run, so that coupled with trialing only once or twice a month, I'll be hard pressed to get those points.

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  3. Could we go to a pause box, or simple 6" raised platform for all dogs? I agree that the time in setup and changing heights is annoying, but I like the table for it's possibilities in course design.

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Please feel free to comment; would love to hear if you have suggestions or tips.