Waiting for that Lifetime Platinum...

SUMMARY: It's tiny in the grand scheme of things, but still--

--I did so want to get there. Particularly now that I'm unlikely to compete again, ever, let alone enough to earn all those Qs with a single dog. [I'm not heartbroken about that not-competing thing. But, you know--yes, about that award. ]

  Tika was only a few short of the 500 required when her heart decided that she was done. 

Tika's LAA Bronze (150 Qs)

But then, in January 2020, USDAA announced:

With new crossover rules in effect, these qualifications [counts for Lifetime Achievement Awards] may come from either the Championship or Performance program, and are limited on a combined basis to no more than 3 qualifications per class (the number to earn a class title) for a maximum of 15 qualifications at each level (i.e., Starters and Advanced), for an overall maximum of 30. This is in keeping with the definition of “Lifetime” and recognizing performances from the beginning of a dog’s career to retirement. This change will be reflected at a later date, following implementation of other programming changes. (https://www.usdaa.com/regulations/upload/USDAAChanges01_10_2020_announcement_Update01_23_2020.pdf)

Translation: Starters and Advanced Qs that didn't used to count towards LAA awards now do. And they'll retroactively update the records and titles for all affected dogs... and Tika had 13 Starters  and 11 Advanced Qs!

Tika's LAA Silver, 250 Qs

And then--COVID hit. So, I waited.

A year after that announcement, I finally asked USDAA In January 2021:

Did this actually go into effect? Specifically, my dog Tika had to retire just 12 short of her LAA platinum, but I see that none of her Starters or Advanced Qs are applied to her award.  Is there any action that I need to take?

Tika's LAA Gold (350 Qs) 

The response was:

Thanks for your patience  - we are still completing the work to update the formulas from the January 2020 updates. The pandemic and cancellation of events nationwide required that we shift all programming energies to the USDAA@Home platform.

LAA awards formulas should reflect the change this quarter. Dogs that were competing and earned an LAA at the time of the change will be awarded their plaques automatically.  We are working on a case by case basis to recognize dogs that have earned these retroactively and are no longer with us. Certainly a great accomplishment in either case.

Last year was a rough year for everyone, I understand that. Her record is still not updated on their web site. I am still trying to be patient. Sigh. I wonder how very many dogs are in a similar place with their LAAs of all 4 levels? (oh--wait--now there are 2 levels even higher!)

She was an amazing dog and gave me just about everything I could've imagined in agility.  But, yes, I greedily want just that little tidbit more.

-----

(See previous blah-blah-blah-agility-awards posts on the topic of Lifetime Achievement Awards)

Tika, 2006
Photo by Erika Maurer

Tika the Very Naughty Nose Wizard

SUMMARY: She loved food. Even on the agility course.

This is expanded version of a Facebook post Mar 2, 2020.

P.S. Food is not allowed on the agility course in most cases!

Tika was an absolute food hog. We were competing at the Masters level in USDAA--already had Silver Championship and Platinum Tournament Master--and one day, we were flying around a course with her way ahead of me as usual, when she suddenly skidded to a halt, veered off in an entirely different direction, completely ignored my attempts to get her attention, trotted about 40 feet away from where we had been to the edge of the ring, and nosed a tiny piece of some kind of food out of the grass! Then turned, blasted back to me, and continued full speed with what we had been doing. Seriously, how can a dog detect that tiny a piece of food, at that distance, at that speed, doing something that you'd think requires a lot of attention to avoid killing yourself??

But she wouldn’t eat bananas.**

(BTW: It was Steeplechase. Qualified and came in 2nd. Crazy dog; how she managed with all that wasted time, who knows!)

-----

** By contrast, Jake would tear things apart and escape from his crate to get a banana.

Terminology for non-agilityers--

• Qualifying (Q): Meeting the requirements for the class/run (time and faults or points) to earn a "leg" towards eventual titles.
• Silver Championship: Earning enough Qs to achieve multiple championships.
• Tournament Platinum:  Means she was really good at qualifying (had earned many Qs) for the often-challenging three classes that are eventually featured at the national championships. At the time, that was the highest title you could earn for collecting Tournament Qs.
• Steeplechase: Designed to be very fast. It's often the hardest of the Tournament classes to earn Qs in, because so many dogs are so very fast and, to Q,  you must be in the top 15% of the dogs running that course. (This is a simplification, but close enough.)

Photo by Sarah Hitzeman

Congratulations, Tika; Congratulations, USDAA!

SUMMARY: Tika's Gold Lifetime Achievement Award

Hoody hoo, Tika's LAA Gold plaque, which she earned in May, showed up in my mailbox this week!

In the past, they awarded these at the Nationals each year. Which mean that, for example, if you earned an LAA in January of one year, you'd have to wait until September of the following year to get it. It was kind of worth it, being acknowledged in a public ceremony, although there have been enough dogs earning them that they'd just do an "everyone stand up who earned one" thing; not quite as much fun, and, well, it would've been nice to have the plaque earlier. So, congrats USDAA on getting these things out so quickly! (I guess they're doing them quarterly now.)

The other thing I got this week was an official email from USDAA asking for a photo of Tika (or me and Tika) to be used " in a visual presentation at the Cynosport 2011 World Games." Now, that's a cool idea! Now to decide what photo to use--so many to choose from!

x

I'm sure it's just my weird sense of humor, but I suspect most dog photos will be them doing agility. I'm so tempted by the box one or the standing-on-the-tunnel one.

What do you guys think?

USDAA 2011 Top Ten

SUMMARY: Tika's standings after 5 months of 2011

I've updated Tika's Top Ten link (above, here at tajmutthall.org) for the first time this year. Took the current USDAA Top Twenty-Five info (which is through roughly May 15), added a note to the side on more points that we earned this last weekend.

We're currently #2 in Gamblers with almost enough points to not have to get any more this year and still be in Top Ten, #1 in Jumpers with almost undoubtedly enough points to not have to get any more this year and still be in Top Ten, way down at #12 in Standard, and this year for pete's sake after ending 2010 at #4 in Snooker, we can't get a super-Q to save our lives and don't even show up in the Top 25!

I vowed that I'm not doing any of this specifically for Top Ten, and I'm not. I didn't really expect to be able to do this two years in a row. But Tika has been such a consistent dog this year, I'm glad to brag this little bit.

About Top Tens

The Top Ten awards are a poor approximation of determining which dogs are the most successful competitors. To be in the Top Ten, you have to do a lot of trials and you have to do trials where there are more dogs competing than at other places in the country. I'm lucky on both counts.

The flaw in the Top Ten points awarding is like this: If Tika is one of 6 dogs on a course and wins, we earn 5 points. (See my USDAA Rules link, above, for Top Ten point rules.) If the judge were to set up the same course somewhere else in the country, and then:

• A dog wins it with exactly the same results that Tika got (same time, same points, whatever), but there are only three dogs competing, they get only 1 point. 
• There are 6 dogs competing, one of them does exactly what I do, but two dogs do better so they're in 3rd, they get only 1 point. 
• There are 6 dogs competing, all of them have really crappy runs and maybe don't even earn a qualifying score, the 1st place dog still earns 5 points, same as us.

So it's not really a good side-by-side comparison of dogs across the country, but it's fairly simple to calculate. Since in fact the exact same course almost never appears anywhere else in the country, ever, there's no actual way to compare dogs, so it's a best approximation by comparing how you do with other dogs on the same day, the same course, the same running conditions, the same judge.

UNbarkingBELIEVABLE

SUMMARY: I'd have never believed USDAA & AKC would do this.

I heard the rumors--maybe you did, too--that USDAA was up to something big.

MADE up my own ideas of what that might be--more titles? Change the Performance title abbreviations to something that--gasp--actually made sense? Announce that the nationals would permanently be in San Jose, California (hmm, not sure whether I'd be happy about that or not). Add herding as a titling event?

UP to now, of course, the only hint we got--and none of us caught it-- was the whole Andy Hartman brouhaha. Oh, right, boo hoo all the AKC members were upset that he got kicked out of AKC after running a really excellent agility ship for them, and then USDAA did the big announcement that he's actually joined a real agility organization.

THIS, it turns out, was a huge smoke screen! There was no falling out! No, USDAA and AKC are merging their agility programs! Can you barking believe it? I'm wondering if someone blew it by letting the news out now, right as the AKC Nationals are starting back east (BTW, good luck, Bay Teamers! and everyone else I know who's there now). Maybe Ken Tatsch wants to make the final awards presentations like he does at USDAA nationals. Who knows!

WHOLE batches of things are going to change in the combined program. AKC competitors, of course, will now have to learn how to do Snooker. (ha, will love to see those Excellent or whatever they call them dogs trying THAT for the first time.) The worst news is that USDAA's championship will now incorporate the "double-Q" concept--except that now, to earn your championship, it will be TRIPLE-Qs: You must Q in a least 3 out of 5 of the basic classes on a single day to earn points towards your CH--so in addition to the usual 5 standard, 5 jumpers, etc, you will now have to have 20 triple Qs! I can't believe my own eyes!

THING is, I've been thinking about giving up agility anyway. Maybe this is the final straw.

FOR more information about this post, you're going to have to hunt a little from top to bottom.

YOU can do whatever you want, but I might just go take up flyball. Or knitting.

New USDAA Performance Titles

SUMMARY: Adjusting titles to be more like Championship titles.

You'd think that the easiest thing to do to make the Performance titles more like Championship titles would be to just add P. As in--
AD - P-AD (or PAD)
AAD - PAAD
MAD - PMAD
SM - PSM
JCH - PJCH

But no, they have to get fancy.

Hence
AD - PD
AAD - APD (oops, APD USED to mean P-ADCH; now *that's* confusing!)
MAD - MPD
SM - PKM (yeah, that's obvious--)
JCH - PJCH (now, see, isn't this one easy?)

So it's not even self-consistent: Sometimes the P is in the middle, sometimes it's not.

But at least the Championship title (which used to be "APD" so everyone said, "Performance Championship") now looks like a CH: PDCH. Three cheers for that!

But I still think I'll have to continue saying, "P-AAD," "P-MAD," and so on. SO much easier than constantly saying "performance equivalent to ...", which is what I say every time someone asks or when we send out announcements about new titles.

Link to download PDF comparing old and new Performance titles, and also Championship vs Performance titles (which they wouldn't even need if they had done it logically! but ok I'll be quiet now): https://www.usdaa.com/article.cfm?newsID=1732

Nifty Blogger Feature: Static Pages

SUMMARY: Note the "Home" and "USDAA Rules" links above.

Blogger has included this feature for quite some time and I've been meaning to investigate. Static pages don't show up as blog entries; instead, they can contain static information that you want to be generally available (e.g., "About me") at all times.

Turns out to be pretty easy to use; it's just like editing blog pages.

So now there's a USDAA Rules tab, under which I'll put USDAA Rules info (really, did I have to explain that?) that might be of use to me or to readers. Just now added "Top Ten Rules" explaining how Top Ten points are calculated.

Anything you can think of in my prior posts that you've wanted to refer to more than once (doesn't have to be USDAA rules) that you'd like to see a link for? I've got some ideas... although not much time at the moment (or ever).

Performance Tournament Top Ten

SUMMARY: OK, something that we're not even close to being competitive in.

There has been a Championship Tournament Top Ten posted on the USDAA site for a few years. Until yesterday, I thought that there was no Performance Tournament Top Ten, because none has ever been posted. But apparently now, according to this USDAA News article, there IS such a thing.

And, unlike the other four top ten categories, Tika is not even close to Top Ten and never will be. The 25th dog on the list has 28 points as of a month and a half ago. Tika has 25 as of two days ago. Dogs who compete in Regionals and the national championships are likely to go wayyy beyond what we'll get, because there are more dogs there, more rounds that count, and therefore more points. So we'll never catch up, so I don't have to worry about it. :-)

Thanks to Ashley, who explained what counts after I couldn't find it in the USDAA rules, here's where Tournament Top Ten points come from:

• Grand Prix in regular competition, both round 1 and round 2 at Regionals, and both semi and finals at Nationals.
• Steeplechase round 2 in regular competition, round 2 at Regionals, and finals at Nationals.
• DAM non-relay classes in regular and Regionals, not nationals.

Top Ten points earned are based on the number of dogs competing in that round (with some exceptions...in a moment) (same numbers apply to Top Ten in regular classes--Standard, Jumpers, Snooker, Gamblers):

• 1 dog: 0 pts
• 2-3 dogs, 1 pt 1st place
• 4-5 dogs, 3 pts 1st, 1 pt 2nd
• 6-10 dogs, 5pts 1st, 3pts 2nd, 1pt 3rd
• 11-20, 7pts/5pts/3pts/1pt
• 21-30, 9pts/7/5/3/1
• and increase like that for every additional 10 dogs.

Exceptions:
Pts for steeplechase at local show and in finals at Nationals are based on
the number of dogs in the previous round (that is, in round 1 at regular show and in semis at Nationals).

This is one reason why 8" performance and 12" championship dogs hate it when there are no other dogs in their class. Doesn't matter whether, for example, they beat the scores or times of all the dogs in the other heights; if they're not directly competing against another dog, they get nuthin'.

And also explains why, in the 22" championship classes, the top 25 dogs currently range from (in Jumpers) 32 to 85 points, while Performance 8" jumpers ranges from 2 to 12 points.

USDAA Gets Around to 24" Weaves and Other It's About Times

SUMMARY: New rules forthcoming!

In today's news posting on the USDAA site, FINALLY! 24" weaves are acceptable! I believe they were the last agility organization in the known world to allow it (but they did it by making it 22" spacing with 2" tolerance. So you better not be MORE than 24")! Did I actually predict that in my blog earlier or just in general chitchat? I know I predicted to someone that it would be soon, because there was just no reason to stick with the 20-21" when everyone else had changed.

AND, this is equally fantastic, they're finally changing the Performance program title names to parallel the Championship program! No more of the old "Just earned our APD! That's the Performance Championship!" Now we can *legally* say, "Just earned our Performance Championship!" Yowza! I'm'a bein' vera happy about dis one, jes I am!

They had already changed "Performance Whatever It Was" to "Performance Grand Prix," thank goodness, now the only holdout is "Performance Speed Jumping" instead of "Performance Steeplechase." I'm still hoping that someday they'll see the wisdom in changing that, too.

I salute you, USDAA; late on these issues is better than never!

(There are other changes; these were just the best IMHO.)

USDAA Breaks Free

SUMMARY: New logo

No more confusing it with the AKC logo.

Yes, it's here and being phased in.

Notice that it no longer fits nicely on the round parts of rosettes? What WILL we do?

Tika Top Ten Updated Update

SUMMARY: I take it all back.

USDAA responded immediately with info on Tika's Snooker Top Ten points for last year, and I was then able to get to the two ERBs on the club sites (THANK YOU, Bay Team and SMART, for posting those and keeping them available! They have been so helpful to me on many occasions) and discover that, yes, Taj MuttHall's database was incorrect in 2 places, and I could also identify how I made the error (e.g., copying the 16" number of dogs rather than the 22").

So, thanks, USDAA, and here's my corrected table:

So this shows:

• How many points we've got and trials entered so far this year, plus how many more trials I plan to enter this year
• How many points and trials in each class last year (at P3)
• How many points it took in 2009 to make Top Ten in that class.

	'10 trials so far	'10 trials more	'10 pts	'09 trials	'09 pts	'09 USDAA to be top 10
Gamblers	5	7	20	7	29	30
Jumpers	5	7	28	1	3	28
Snooker	5	7	21	9	29	30
Standard	5	7	21	5	11	36

Tika Top Ten Update

SUMMARY: We've got 2 months to our next USDAA trial, so this is the last you'll have to hear about it for a while.

This morning is the first time that I've counted (per my database) how many points I got last year in how many trials (because I moved Tika gradually into Performance Level 3 as she completed 25 Masters Qs in each class).

So this shows:

• How many points we've got and trials entered so far this year, plus how many more trials I plan to enter this year
• How many points and trials in each class last year (at P3)
• How many points it took in 2009 to make Top Ten in that class.

	'10 trials so far	'10 trials more	'10 pts	'09 trials	'09 pts	'09 USDAA to be top 10
Gamblers	5	7	20	7	29	30
Jumpers	5	7	28	1	3	28
Snooker	5	7	21	9	32	30
Standard	5	7	21	5	11	36

Well--holy contact zone and crap, my database shows Tika with enough Snooker Top Ten points to be in the 2009 Top Ten, but I've been relying on the USDAA Top Ten page for their count! What a dork for not looking sooner. I've just now sent them an email but it might be way too late to correct (assuming that my records are correct).

No, I don't pay to subscribe to their whole web site--$30/year just to look at my dogs' Q records to catch their errors (and a couple of times when I've looked, I have in fact caught one or two)? Or $12 to get a one-time print-out mailed to me? Yikes. Shouldn't they be paying me for proofreading their data entry?

Correction posted: Later the same day here.

I think we're doing well so far, and pending anything that keeps us out of any remaining trials, we might actually make Top Ten in something this year. See you USDAA fans again in July!

Why Are There So Many Agility Organizations?

SUMMARY: In some parts of the U.S., you have almost a dozen sanctioning organizations, or "flavors," to choose from. So--why?

In my previous post, I listed the various organizations that provide rules under which people can compete and earn titles in dog agility. So, why so many flavors?

Let me ask you this: Why so many types of vanilla ice cream? There's regular vanilla. There's premium vanilla. There's low-fat vanilla. Sugar-free vanilla. Vanilla bean. French vanilla. Vanilla with chocolate chips. Vanilla with cookie dough. OK, which of those would you regularly stock in your freezer? Which would you never touch with a ten-foot set of weave poles? Sure, they're all vanilla, but the differences are important.

The agility organizations are just like that. Sure, they're all dog agility, but the differences are important.

Here are just a few examples (note that I'm not fluent in many of the organizations so most examples are with those I'm more fluent in):

• How often do the rules and/or the equipment specs change? Examples: 
• USDAA has a reputation for moving slowly and ponderously, much to many people's frustration (just ask about allowing 24"-spaced weave poles, to name one). ]
• NADAC has a reputation for changing things frequently, seemingly at the drop of a hat. 
• Either of those extremes can drive people nuts, especially club organizers and equipment purchasers.
• What equipment is allowed?  Examples:
• NADAC has disallowed the teeter-totter and spread jumps as dangerous.
• UKC allows (even requires) the swing plank, sway bridge, and crawl tunnel, which none of the other organizations do. 
• USDAA allows double and triple spread jumps. 
• Some people don't want their dogs doing certain equipment--or DO want their dogs doing certain equipment.
• What are the specifications for individual obstacles? For example, 
• NADAC prohibits slats on the aframe and dogwalk as safety hazards (dogs stub toes, break nails, etc).
• USDAA requires them as safety elements (prevents slipping, gives dogs better grip going up, etc.)  
• CPE allows either one but the club is supposed to state it in its premiums. Some people feel that slatless dogwalks confuse their dogs versus the teeter. Some people feel it makes no difference.  
• As another example, the length of the yellow zones on the contact obstacles vary. If you have a long-strided dog with a running contact, you might prefer CPE's longer contact zones over USDAA's.  USDAA's Aframe was considerably higher (therefore steeper) and NADAC's considerably lower (therefore more running than climbing) than "average" for a long time.
• How obsessive are the rules? For example, 
• AKC has become extremely strict (some say unreasonable) in stating exactly when you must remove the leash from your dog at the start line, what you can and can't do at the start line, and what penalties you face if you don't leash your dog immediately at the finish line. 
• USDAA is much more relaxed, although all organizations want the dogs under reasonable control.
• How many faults are allowed and what kind? For example,
• in USDAA Jumpers and Standard, your run must be clean to earn a Q, even at the Starters level. 
• In CPE Jumpers and Standard, you can earn Qs with a variety of faults, which decrease as you go up in levels. 
• USDAA and AKC count runouts and refusals; CPE and NADAC don't. 
• USDAA judges the up contacts as well as the down contacts; I think that most or all other organizations don't.
• How high does your dog have to jump?  
• All organizations base the jump height on the dog's shoulder height and then some throw in extra qualifiers (length of dog's back versus legs, age of dog, etc.). But where they divide the jump heights and how high those heights are varies considerably. 
• For example, my dog Tika must jump 26" in USDAA unless I move her to Performance, where she can jump 22".  Boost must jump 22", unless I move her to Performance, where she can jump 16". 
• In CPE, Tika's *regular* jump height is 20" and Boost's is 16"; CPE gives two additional tracks of competition, one 4" lower than regular, the other 8" lower than regular. So I could in theory jump Tika at 12" and Boost at 8". 
• Some people do not want their dogs jumping the higher required jumps or their dogs simply can't jump the higher jumps, usually for structural reasons (some dogs aren't built for jumping).
• What's the atmosphere like at trials? 
• CPE participants generally find that it's a relaxed atmosphere.  CPE has so many levels and height groupings and low qualifying requirements that lots and lots of people earn Qs and placement ribbons. In addition, CPE trials tend to be smaller--CPE allows clubs to limit entries.  
• USDAA events tend to be intense. USDAA has many fewer levels and fewer height groupings, so placements are harder to come by. USDAA trials can be huge; USDAA does not allow clubs to limit entries. Around here, 3- and 4-ring trials are not uncommon.
• What are the courses like? 
• NADAC and ASCA courses tend to be open and flowing. 
• CPE courses tend to be small and generally fairly simple. USDAA courses are usually large (using most or all of the 100x100-foot field) and can be technically challenging. 
• AKC has a bit of a reputation for tight, choppy courses. 
• Teacup courses are designed exclusively for small dogs, who may have a variety of challenges on courses on which much larger dogs also run.
• How fast does your dog have to be? 
• CPE's course times are extremely generous. 
• USDAA has some classes that require that your dog be in the top 15% in his class to earn a Q. 
• NADAC times are extremely tight; your dog had better be fleet of foot, particularly in the upper levels.
• What variety of classes are offered? 
• AKC for the longest time offered only Standard and Jumpers; recently added the FAST (sort of gambly like). 
• USDAA offers Standard, Jumpers, Gamblers, Snooker, Pairs Relay, and the tournaments Steeplechase, Grand Prix, and DAM Team (although the tournament classes are really just slight variants on the regular 5 classes). 
• CPE offers 7 different classes, some of which are similar to USDAA classes and some of which are entirely their own. 
• NADAC offers 6 or 7 classes (I've lost track), which  are mostly different from those offered anywhere else. 
• Some people (like me) love the variety. Some people (particularly those who start in AKC) find the variety intimidating and prefer the clarity of simply  numbered courses.
• Are mixed breeds allowed to compete? 
• Can you say "AKC" (not)? Other organizations don't care what your dog looks like, as long as she's healthy and sound and old enough.
• Do you want to compete at the top of the sport, possibly including internationally?  
• AKC's program is affiliated with the FCI for their world championships. 
• USDAA's program is affiliated with the IFCS, lesser-known and not [yet] as prestigious.
• CPE has no international affiliation. It's not a particularly competitive venue. Only a few of those who are at the level where they could be finalists at AKC or USDAA national events will compete in CPE trials. 
• Some people feel that competing against the best that the sport has to offer helps them to improve their own performance. Others prefer not to have to compete against those who have made agility competition their primary focus.
  

I could list many other chocolate chip or low-fat variations, but this should give you an idea. Now time for some nice peppermint-stick ice cream.

nYAAO! Yet ANother Agility Organization

SUMMARY: In case the umpteen variants currently available aren't enough for you, here's another one coming your way.

Noted agility seminarists Greg Derrett and his significant other, the formerly Bay Area local person Laura Manchester [Derrett], are bringing their new agility organization to the U.S. You can read about it on the UKI (UK Agility International) web site.

That's  in case you aren't already flush with conflicting rules and equipment in these other umpteen agility organizations, almost all of which are available here in profusion although perhaps not in your neighborhood (in alphabetic order):

• AKC (American Kennel Club's program)
• ASCA (Australian Shepherd Club's program--rules are what NADAC used to be)
• CPE (Canine Performance Events)
• DOCNA (Dogs On Course North America)
  
• NADAC (North American Dog Agility Council)
• TDAA (Teacup Dog Agility Association)
  
• UKC (United Kennel Club's program)
• USDAA (United States Dog Agility Association)
  

And that's not to mention the Canadian org's if one happens to live in that vicinity. And if you compete internationally, there's the FCI and the IFCS agility venues as well. Eeeegads.

I'm not saying that any existing agility organization is perfect or couldn't use improvement. UKI might be the be-all and end-all of agility that solves every issue that anyone has ever had with agility and people would be willing to drop their lifetime title pursuits in other organizations to start over there. But wait, how about this: Hey, the Bay Team is a big organization with a lot of ideas and experience; maybe we should start our own flavor of agility, because WE know how to DO IT RIGHT!

24" Weave poles

SUMMARY: Should USDAA change weave pole spacing?

I've had 4 dogs in agility. Two (so far) have had a bit of arthritis in their necks and/or backs. Don't know that it's caused by agility--two previous dogs who didn't do agility also had arthritis. But I know that 24-inch spacing on the poles is much easier on dogs' spines than the current USDAA 20-21". One of our own club members did some overhead videotaping--unfortunatly don't think it's online. But there are other videos available if you search.

International competition (FCI) now uses 24" spacing. The Canadian associate of USDAA, AAC, is going to 24" weaves next year. AKC and the Canadian equivalent, CKC, now use 24". CPE is probably in the same arena--the current rules stae "21" to 23" from center to center with no more than a 1" variance"--which means that 24" (if they're no more than that) are OK.

USDAA has recently reviewed the topic and decided not to change, and has said that the issue is closed to any further discussion. I have no idea why. Sure, weave poles aren't cheap and not every club can afford to replace them (or every competitor--I'd want to replace my own, and they're just not cheap). But still, I'm a strong advocate for the wider spacing and for consistency (so dogs aren't going from, say, 20" to 24" from weekend to weekend or ring to ring), but I can deal with a phase-in period of maybe a couple of years.

It also presents a different course-building challenge--if you add 3-4" of spacing between all poles, the weaves are now 3 to 4 feet longer than before! But we can learn to live with that, I'm sure.

Susan Garrett has posted about the topic.

and there is now a 3-question survey on whether USDAA should allow 24" weaves. Please take the survey. Please go and vote for the increased space. Even if your dogs seem happy with the current spacing, please consider other dogs whose lot might be improved by the change.

Thanks.

We Don't Get No Respect

SUMMARY: AKC and the public perception of agility.

My sister brought me a souvenir from her recent trip: An in-flight magazine (USA Today Open Air Magazine) containing the article "See Spot run...and jump" by Steve Dale. A full page article about dog agility! Cool! Some people get souvenir t-shirts from their relatives. I get copies of free magazines. But she knows what I like!

Even cooler: It mentioned 6 people from around the country, and I know 4 of them! (Laurie Leach, local, author of The Beginner's Guide to Dog Agility and USDAA nationals winner with her sheltie a couple of years back; Marj and Bruce Vincent, used to own Starfleet Agility--now WAG--in Elk Grove; and Sara McKinley and the local Haute Dawgs Agility Group.)

Gives contact info for AKC, USDAA, NADAC, and DOCNA (wth? no CPE? Which has been around twice as long as DOCNA?... weirder, DOCNA's not even mentioned in the wikipedia article. Guess I'd better fix that.)

But, OK. Here's the thing. The article starts with a brief intro sentence and then, WHAM UPSIDE YOUR HEAD, "Dog agility is a bona fide dog sport, sanctioned by the American Kennel Club." [italics mine] Argh! Like, it's not a bona fide dog sport if it's NOT sanctioned by the AKC? There wasn't even any AKC worth mentioning when I started; USDAA was already big and televised regularly before AKC agility got any traction. USDAA pretty much started agility in north america (short of a year or so of effort by Bud Kramer), and USDAA is huge. USDAA isn't even mentioned in the article until 3/4 of the way through. All the statistics about how many dogs are competing are AKC statistics.

Fah.

When AKC associates their name with something, then they own it. In the public's view, at any rate.

Fah, I say.

Of course, USDAA added to the confusion by cleverly creating a logo by taking the AKC logo, changing "AKC" to "USDAA" and adding a little yellow tint here and there.

And, P.S., the author missed an excellent opportunity to say the sport is a bona fido sport. Or bone fide sport. What's the world of professional writers coming to?

Preparing for CPE Agility This Weekend

SUMMARY: ...in the rain...with no practice... riding along with my train of thoughts this drizzly morning...

Since I haven't been going to class and haven't been working on agility with Boost, that means (by various contorted TMH logic) that we also haven't been doing agility with Tika. So it has now been at least 2 weeks since I've done ANYTHING with agility equipment.

And now there's a competition coming this weekend. And the yard is sopping wet and muddy, and it's raining, and looks to keep that way most of the week. Maybe I should get out there and do it anyway; good practice for Tika to run in the rain in case we have to do so this weekend. Maybe just a few bar-knocking drills and contact drills. Maybe some weave entries. Maybe some gambles. I dunno. I'm almost entirely unmotivated.

Tika is gradually working on her C-ATE in CPE. That's roughly equivalent to the ADCH-Silver: around 250 Qs at the top level of competition. That's a lot of Qs when you're doing only 3-4 CPE trials a year, with a maximum of 8-10 possible each weekend--with a trend lately towards 8 rather than 10--and you know that we won't get all the Qs every time.

I was more interested in Boost trying to get a few more CPE titles and work on her C-ATCH, since that's more within range (Tika needs about 130 Qs still but Boost needs only 45), but the next 2 weekends are 2 of our 4 or 5 CPEs for all of 2009, and she's not competing. Sigh.

Now that Tika's 8, I'm wondering whether we'll ever get the C-ATE; if she gets 7 of 8 Qs (pushing it) per trial at 5 trials (pushing it) a year, that's another 4 years, and I'm thinking it's unlikely she'll be competing that long (although in CPE she will be legal to jump at 16" and even 12" if I really wanted to be extreme--oh but I have to check whether moving her to Specialist or whatever resets the count on the C-ATE? Gads, I hope not!).

And I'm not sure that I want to give up USDAA trials for CPE trials.

USDAA Rules Change to Qualify in Team Individual Events

SUMMARY: Now your individual events in DAM tournaments can count as Qualifying scores (Qs) towards your LAAs. Maybe.

Effective Sept 19, dogs can earn Qs in the individual events in the DAM tournament.

This will be calculated similarly to Steeplechase: Average the top 3 scores in each jump height, and dogs within 15% (Steeplechase is 25%) will earn a Q.

It's nice to get additional Qs towards the LAA. But. Take Tika, who always is within Steeplechase time at 25%, but just barely. She'd never be in steeplechase time at 15%. So she'll probably never Q in Team std or jumpers at 15% of the top 3 dogs.

I did a quick look at our Team Standard from Labor Day. Forty-eight 26" dogs ran. The top 3 did Standard in 29.39, 30.52, and 31.98 seconds. This averages to 30.63. Add 15% of that, and the qualifying score is 35.22. I see only 9 that would've Qed: Dan, Reya, Icon, Rusty, Jester, Apache, Cirque, Aiko, and London. All very fast border collies, I believe, except Apache (Terv--34.68) and Rusty (Aussie--32.71, actually pretty good). That's under 19% Qs.

Tika was clean but 2 seconds over. I didn't note anything in particular that we did wrong on course. Still, hmmm, we're often comparable to Apache's and Rusty's time, so maybe on a good day...

Once again, rewarding the very top dogs and blocking out those who aren't at the top of the sport. USDAA is less and less a venue for Just People with Just Dogs.

Uninspired and Still Reliving Scottsdale

SUMMARY: Postnationals Tropical Depression

I am SO uninterested in practicing anything related to agility. Maybe it's because I worked on it so much more than usual before Scottsdale. Maybe it's because it's finally raining in San Jose worth mentioning and the lawn looks gorgeous (how can that possibly happen overnight?) and I know that dogs rampaging around on it will tear it even more to shreds by spring way beyond what the grubs did to it this fall and the barometic pressure is hosed.

Maybe I'm still still still getting over that nasty cold from Arizona.

Maybe it's that everything in my life is full of challenging transitions at the moment: So much to learn, so much to process, only so many hours in the day. Pursuing photography more. Want to get back to writing more--November is NaNoWriMo again and again I have friends pounding away at their keyboards and again I'm missing it; agility season never ends in California (but girl don't they warn ya...) and we've got a trial this weekend and I'm looking for teams for both dogs for our December trial because my Scottsdale teammates aren't available; trying to get rid of Stuff From My House; eager to help my parents with some things; Boost wants me to throw the tennis ball throw the tennis ball just throw it; Tika is bored and chasing around after the crows in the sky; not enough chocolate; not enough hiking.

I need some ommmmmmmmm time I think. Or more sunrises like this one Sunday morning over the kenneling area in Scottsdale.


I thought I'd type up more notes from our competition at Scottsdale but am feeling uninspired there, too. Have sort of sorted through the photos at a quick first pass. More work to do. I like this one of Robert and Cap in the Grand Prix finals, making sure they get that danged dogwalk contact after 10 of the 24 22" finalists got called on it. And the judge is looking to make sure he does, too!



Here's my World's Most Expensive Polo Shirt! (I'm wearing it over my other shirt, which is why I look a little bulky in the upper vicinities.)


Here's my traveling companion, Dogg, with her Grand Prix finalist shirt, wearing her finalist Team shirt as well. Looks pretty danged happy to me! I'm delighted that she's done so well, as this is the first time at the nationals with her new corgi after 3 years of absence after her last one died so suddenly (see here and here).


Her license plate is apparently pretty accurate; in addition to being in two of the three finals, Porsche was the overall highest-scoring 12" dog in the team event over four individual classes. Not bad for a wee shy doggie.


And here's d star corgi her very self.

Zero-Fault Grand Prixs

SUMMARY: You just knew it was going to happen sooner or later.

Well, folks, we're getting word that the 2009 Grand Prix qualifying season will now require clean runs to qualify.

Sigh--I knew that would happen sooner or later. There go all of Tika's future GP qualifiers. (It's like steeplechase--knocked bars have kept her from qualifying SO many times; now it'll be the same in the GP. 19 of her 25 GP Qs have been with 5 faults. And one of Boost's two Qs has been with 5 faults. Basically-- I'm doomed.)

Here's how they've gradually been shortening the leash:

Grand Prix introduced: 1988. I have no info from then through 1996.

1997: 15 or fewer faults to qualify.
1998, 1999: I can't find info. Anyone have this?
2000, 2001, 2002: 10 or fewer
2003, 2004, 2005, 2006: 7 or fewer
2007, 2008: 5 or fewer
2009: 0 or fewer

2012: 0 or fewer faults within 25% of the top three finishers?

2015: The top three finishers with 0 faults?

Maybe I shouldn't even suggest those, even facetiously, in public...it might give the wrong people some bad ideas...