Everything That’s Old is New

We are working on some sweeping changes to the basic rules, mostly to simplify and make play in Top Dog more attractive and easy to assume. Stand by for a gentle rewrite of our Rules and Regulations.

Not too long ago somebody told me “If you keep picking at it, it will never get better.” The point is well taken, of course. In my own defense you should understand that I have always observed the Antonio Stradivari method. He is rumored to have said “I just polish and polish until they come to take it away.”

The rules change that I’m most excited about is removal of the closing date for a posted course or a game. Results will be collected perpetually for any published event. With that in mind, we are going to go back through posted courses since the first moment we launched Top Dog. Some of these have robust results… and some are orphans.

This also means, you should know, that any player can call for an immediate “Mulligans” or a do-over. Both runs/attempts, should be reported in results. This is a dramatic departure from the way nearly any agility organization in the world operates. Who is to say that the “standard” is actually the best rational standard? All systems of rules at their core are irrational. We will observe our own standard of the irrational.

I wrote about today’s posted rerun in my personal blog: http://wp.me/pmSZZ-19L.

July 2013 Event Rerun

This is: 113012A86x98. Click to download the score sheet (complete with course maps for CRCD).

This course is both the oldest and the latest course challenge for Top Dog Agility. We’ve had a subtle rules change that allows re-running of any course. What it really means is that a course or game never “closes” but is left open like the high scores on a video game at the arcade where everybody has a shot at getting to Top Dog.

I’m having a conversation with a club down in Valencia, Argentina about joining us in the play of this course. That should be fun! Hey… isn’t it Winter in Argentina?

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Questions comments & impassioned speeches to Bud Houston Houston.Bud@gmail.com. Visit the web store at: www.dogagility.org/newstore. Please note that the web store carries The Book of Agility Games. This is an important reference for any club who plays the variety of games that we’ll play in Top Dog Agility Players.

July Top Dog

In consultation with the Top Dog Steering Committee we are introducing a few changes to the format. These really aren’t small changes. So try to follow along.

1. All events will be permanently open. Results for each event will be maintained on a historical basis. Therefore, all closing dates documented for events are no longer in effect; (give me time, and I’ll remove all of them).
2. A dog may repeat a course or game; and each score recorded individually. The repeated run may be on the same day… or at any later date.
3. Titles will be normalized to reflect systems used by other agility organizations.

The rules need to be edited to reflect these changes.

Events for July 2013

We begin July with two numbered courses. Please note that the second is a Jumpers course. Because it is not a game… it becomes a numbered course.

070113A90x86

 

 

070113A90x86

Numbered Course

Time Plus Faults

160 yards

 

Qualifying:	4″	92	seconds
	8″	82	seconds
	12″	74	seconds
	16″	67	seconds
	20″+	60	seconds

 

070113B60x90

 

 

070113B60x90

Numbered Course

Time Plus Faults

160 yards

 

Qualifying:	4″	50	seconds
	8″	45	seconds
	12″	40	seconds
	16″	36	Seconds
	20″+	33	Seconds

 

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Questions comments & impassioned speeches to Bud Houston Houston.Bud@gmail.com. Visit the web store at: www.dogagility.org/newstore. Please note that the web store carries The Book of Agility Games. This is an important reference for any club who plays the variety of games that we’ll play in Top Dog Agility Players.