a Taj MuttHall Dog Diary: Obstacle Speed Standards

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Obstacle Speed Standards

SUMMARY: Contacts and weaves: How fast is excellent?

I have notes from Rachel Sander's class in Sept 2003 that says that the top-performing dogs have times in these ranges:
  • Dogwalk: 2.2 to 2.5 seconds
  • A-frame: 1.5 to 1.75
  • Teeter: 1.0
  • Weaves: 2.1 to 2.3
I wonder whether those are still the goals to strive for, or whether they're even faster now? Anyone have any sources they can cite for these numbers currently?

I just videotaped Tika and Boost in the yard and timed them while watching the video. I didn't factor in the time while the dog is stopped in a 2 on/2 off position.
  • Tika dogwalk: 2.5 to 3.15 seconds. (I know that she used to cover the first 2/3 in about a second and then sloooowwww down on the downramp. I didn't time it by parts today. And she's almost always faster in competition than at home or in training.)
  • Boost dogwalk: 1.94 to 2.03.
  • Tika weaves: 3.01 to 3.45. (Again, in the past, I have timed her competition weaves at under 3 seconds consistently. But never near 2 seconds.)
  • Boost weaves: 2.39 to 2.5.

11 comments:

  1. I think dogwalks are a bit faster and weaves are a bit slower in general. For weaves on video, it's the rare dog I clock at better than 2.5. At FCI, I think the spacing is bigger, so most dogs aren't even sub 3.0 except for Juice. The rottie is DW 2.0-2.8 AF 1.5-1.7 SS 1.5-1.7 WP 2.6-2.9 depending on approach, footing, etc. Of course, we probably all have different timing methods...

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  2. Go to agilityinmotion.com, time Jenny Damm's std run, and see what you get.

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  3. Oh, good thought for comparing timing methods. If you're referring to the "Team Agility, 6th place" video, I timed all the big obstacles twice and was within hundredths of a second both times. I got:

    Aframe: 1.35/1.42

    Dogwalk 1.87/1.90

    Teeter 1.01/0.99

    Weaves 2.82/2.85

    I also found an older Clean Run article by Kathy Keats that I'll post the numbers from.

    -ellen

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  4. it also depends how you time them. I belive it's first foot on to first foot off for contacts and nose entering to nose leaving for weave poles.

    Are you using video camera or as you go? If you're using video camera are you aware the after the 'seconds' timing it's at a fps (frame per second) rate that only goes to 30?

    Either way, great times for you dogs :)

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  5. Yup, using first foot on to first foot off or nose in/nose out.

    I hadn't thought about limitations off of video. I'm timing while watching the video, not using the camera's timer (even if it had one); is that what you're referring to?

    -ellen again

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  6. Rounding to the nearest tenth for Jenny: AF 1.5, DW 2.0 to 2o2o but 2.3 to actual release, SS 1.0, weaves 2.8. I have 2 times for the dog walk since she held him a tad while she caught up. And whether it's video or live doesn't matter so long as you're consistent (compare video to video for your dog, and live to live) when evaluating your dog's progress.

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  7. If you upload your video to the computer and time in from there, you will notice that the time in your video software is probably mm:ss.ff The ff is frames and there are only 30 (so to get the milliseconds you have to divide the ff into 30)

    I'm not sure how it works with the camcorder itself. I bet that would be fine.

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  8. I definitely think DWs are faster these days, when you look at the videos on Silvia Trkman's website you'll see some very fast ones there. The last one I timed off a video recording of a masters agility class played through the computer using the software that captures frames etc Raven had a 1.64 dogwalk and that was with her applying brakes in the contact area and a 1.12 aframe bearing in mind the dw's in Australia around 9 -12 meters long and A Frame no taller than 5'6 at the apex? Not sure how this compares with your times. Taking the timing from when the first paw hits and the last paw leaves.

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  9. Found this on Clean Run group archive:
    -----
    Taken from my video of this year's AKC's ... Friday's International Sweepstakes Jumpers Class ... twelve rigid poles ... 21" spacing ... packed dirt surface ... my timing is based on the digital video counter ... from dog's nose breaking the plane of the first pole to the dog's nose breaking the plane of the last pole ... when the handler or judge was in the way, I did the best I could to approximate when the dog's nose broke the plane of the pole ... I did not tape everybody, so this is far from a comprehensive list.

    REMY TERRY SMORCH 2.60
    MAYHEM CHRIS PARKER 2.60
    DISCO BRETT DUKE 2.67
    ARIBA CINDY BRICK 2.67
    COMET STEVE FRICK 2.67
    SUNI ELICIA CALHOUN 2.67
    RIOT NANCY GYES 2.67
    STATIC JEN PINDER 2.67
    SPRING JULIE DANIELS 2.70
    WHIST RACHEL SANDERS 2.70
    KES CRAIG FRENCH 2.70
    ECHO KEN FAIRCHILD 2.70
    AWESOME LINDA MECKLENBURG 2.70
    NEVER PAULENA RENE HOPE 2.74
    RIP SHARON FREILICH 2.74
    SCOUT RHONDA CARTER 2.77
    LACEY DARRELL BOMARITO 2.80
    ZESTA LINDA MECKLENBURG 2.80
    BRUMBY WENDY CERILLI 2.87
    KELSEY MAGGIE DOWNEY 2.90
    JESSIE LINDA KIPP 2.90
    LAZER MONICA PERCEIVAL 2.90
    WICKED NANCY GYES 2.90
    HOLLY JANE SIMMONS-MOAKE 2.94
    SPIFFY LINDA MECKLENBURG 2.97
    CURRY TERRY SIMONS 3.00

    I kept these posts out of interest, they were posted on the 18.2. of this year.

    Regards
    Gaby and "The Girls"
    ----------

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  10. Excellent. Thanks. I'll have to try to get a better video of Boost's weaves and post it and retime it; my times seem very optimistic compared to what you've got here.

    -ellen

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  11. Don't underestimate Boost, he's probably actually that fast!

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