What a lovely cup of tea! for me?

And it looks like they’ll be fun to play with!

UKI Agility has come across the pond!  This organization is a fun, lighthearted place to work with your dog and brings ‘european’ courses to America, with their tighter turns and big handling challenges without their being a huge equipment challenge- the A-frame tops off at 5′7”.  Dogs have angled entries to go through, and handlers have cross-over challenges.  Think of European courses as the Da Vinci’s of the Agility world- they’re real works of art, in a simplistic, understated way.  They require thought and preparation but in the end… it’s oil on canvas.  It’s you and your dog!

While this may not be your cup of tea, there’s more!  You can bring toys’ on-course for ‘training runs’, which means you can take your trial-shy dog for fun runs with toys, and then do a real run later in the competition! Think of how much zoom you could avoid!  There’s also ‘nursery class’ for debuting dogs, which I know is a blessing.  You can also enter a trial online (that’s right, no postage!) and keep track of your scores online as well.

The organization is still in the infant stage here in the U.S., but check here for a trial near you and try it out- you may just find that you love it!  (I know I’m going to try it once my dog is old enough!)

Q. In AKC agility, when you get into Excellent B and you start getting points for your MACH, who keeps track of the points?

A.  The AKC has a computer system that keeps track of all qualifying scores and points earned in any of their dog sports.  To see points earned as calculated by the AKC, go to www.akc.org and log in to the online store.  Click on “AKC Reports” then “points and Awards”.  Enter you dog’s information and click “View Points/Summary of the Title Progression for this do.” This will display a free report that shows your dog’s information in detail, including what events have occurred but are not yet included in the repot.  Even handlers who keep their own records should check the AKC site periodically to make sure that an error has not occurred.

Actually, every handler should record his or her own accomplishments in some way.  Occasionally, qualifying scores are lost or points are miscalculated.  The best way to make sure that your championship points are recorded properly is to confirm that your score is recorded correctly at a trial.  You can do this by checking posted results before you leave the trial and keeping your own accurate records that you cross-check with the AKC’s listings.

© Clean Run

When you’ve completed a title, the agency knows and will send you notification, but it’s much more fun to keep track yourself.  That way you can tell yourself, and your dog that “Hey, sweetie, if we Q today, you’re a Mach! let’s go.”  Maybe your dog doesn’t care… but maybe he does!

Distance: 177 yards SCT: 67 seconds Excellent A Pref 20 inch Judge: Kurt Matushek
Place Name Time TFlts RFlts WCFlts TblFlts E/F Score
Ruger/L.Freed 60.21 0 1 0 0 2 Elim

The Distance is the total yards the dog must run. This is measured by the judge prior to running the course. You will see the judge out there with a measuring wheel, checking the yardage.

The SCT:67 seconds means that the course should be completed within 67 seconds. SCT = Standard Course Time.

The rest of the information tells me that I was running in Excellent A Preferred at 20″ and my judge was Kurt Matushek.

The second part of the scoring is where people often are clueless. So I’ll explain what it means. The top row is labelled with the headers: Place, Name, Time, TFlts, RFlts, WCFlts, TblFlts, E/F, and Score. Directly below these headers will be the information pertaining to your run. Place is if you ran a qualifying run and got a ribbon placement. You would have 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th under Place. Obviously in this example Ruger did not Place. Name is self explanatory, the dogs name/owner name. Time is the amount of time it took your dog to run the course. TFlts =Time Faults, this indicates the amount of time you went over the SCT. RFlts = Refusal Faults, this will show any/every time you had a refusal on course. WCFlts = Wrong Course Faults, will show any/every time your dog went off course. TblFlts = Table Faults, which indicates any fault occuring at the table. E/F = Error/Fault indicates any errors or faults other than the previously listed ones. Things like dropped bars and missed contacts are indicated under the E/F heading. Score, will show if you were Elim (Eliminated) or if you Qualified (Q).
I hope this helps to understand the scoring a little bit. And I hope that all of you have better runs than the one Ruger ran on this day!!

~ Thanks to Linda Freed at http://agilityteamair.wordpress.com/ for the above entry~