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Clermont County All Breed All Stars in Milford, OH and Team Canada in Edmonton, Alberta Canada have reported results for the first game of the winter 2015 series of the National Dog Agility League.
You can view those results here: NOV RESULTS.
The competition is heating up!
We’re not quite ready to call an end to the November competition. I expect results from at least one more club this evening. Final results will roll out tomorrow.
A briefing for the game “Time Stands Still” is included below.
If you have interested in jumping into League Play, the November workbook for the first game of the winter series can be downloaded HERE. We’ll be accepting results for this event through the end of the day, November 30th.
Ostensibly this is a simple follow-the-numbers game. Howwever, the game has special rules for timing. When the teeter has tipped (and is touching the floor) the time will stop. OPnce the dog leaves the ramp, time will begin again.
Note that initially time begins with the dog first dismounts the teeter.
Since time is essential to the conduct of the game, the judge should personally carry and operate a stopwatch in order to use his own judgment in measuring the dogs time to complete the course [and to what extent time stands still.]
Time Stands Still is scored Time, Plus Faults.
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Questions comments & impassioned speeches to Bud Houston Houston.Bud@gmail.com. The web store is up and running. www.dogagility.org/newstore. You’ll find in the web store The Book of Agility Games, an invaluable reference to clubs engaged in league play.
We are happy to finally publish the results for the National Dog Agility League competition for March 2015.
Anne O’Neill, Wynd, Border Collie, F, 20, 16.71
Anne O’Neill, Wynd, Border Collie, F, 20, 16.71
Anne O’Neill, Snow Devyl, Border Collie, F, 26, 17.10
Teri O’Neill, Tylt, Border Collie, F, 20, 17.29
Kirstin O’Neill, Beckham, Parson Russell, M, 16, 18.29
Tracy Hanna, Jiro!, Belgian Malinois, F, 20, 19.60
Steve Schwarz, Flyer, Border Collie, M, 22, 22.18
Tony Sulita, Merlin, Border Collie, M, 22, 22.77
Carly Treinen, Moses, All American, M, 16, 23.00
Lori Rossi, Fysti, Sheltie, F, 12, 23.79
Laura Fearn, Sofia, Sheltie, F, 14, 24.45
Keith Staub, Scout, Chessie, M, 12, 26.85
Bud Houston, Kory, Border Collie, M, 20, 27.31
Tracey Lind, Paint, Kelpie, F, 26, 27.51
Bonnie Allen, Fame, Border Collie, F, 16, 29.00
Marsha Houston, Phoenix, Border Collie, M, 20, 29.93
Darryl Pubillones, Rosie, Border Collie, F, 20, 29.96
Susan Weber, Target, DSFD, M, 12, 30.22
Andrea Atkinson, Max, All-American, M, 20, 31.53
Jack Withrow, Zipp, Border collie, m, 20, 31.89
Kirstin O’Neill, Radical Rabbit, Malinois, F, 26, 31.96
April is a month in which we are treading water, as we build the founders coalition for the organization. Today and tomorrow invitations will be going out to our league clubs to join a discussion list on Yahoo. We have quite a bit of work to do to define the constitution of the organization.
In any case, we have two games scheduled for the month of April. These are described below, with links to download the scorekeeping workbooks.
Download Event Workbook ~ The workbook has the score sheet, the course map, and a briefing for this game.
The Box game is a sequencing game that provides for bonuses for the dog working at a distance. The Box Game is scored Time, Plus Faults, Less Bonuses.
This course is designed for Novice dogs to be successful and test basic skills. However, the game invites handlers of very advanced dogs who want to shoot for the high score on a ripper race track of a course.
Download Event Workbook ~ The workbook has the scoresheet, the course map, and a briefing for this game.
Download Results ~ This game was originally played in November, 2012. You can download existing results here.
Dare to Double is a dog’s-choice game. The objective is to score as many points as possible, repeating a doubling obstacle on course (traditionally the A-frame) as often as time allows. The dog risks losing half his points if the A-frame is faulted! The dog must get to the finish obstacle before course time elapses or be penalized. Dare to Double is score Points, Then Time.
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Questions comments & impassioned speeches to Bud Houston Houston.Bud@gmail.com. The web store is up and running. www.dogagility.org/newstore. You’ll find in the web store The Book of Agility Games, an invaluable reference to clubs engaged in league play.
This discussion is intended for the dog agility professional engaged in training services as a business; providing training expertise, site, and equipment. The addition of agility league play to the business mix provides a supplementary income stream, attracts new customers, and enhances student retention.
This business model is intended to provide an overview of dog agility league play, its income potential, and the business owner’s relationship with Top Dog Agility Players.
Dog agility league play is intended to be a weekly competition. It can be (and should be) conducted in conjunction with agility classes. If the business has 24 students who will participate in league play, and they are charged $5 each week for their participation, in a year the business earns $6,240.
Note that this is supplementary income and is not based on the recruitment of new students.
If the business is a large training center the math can be extraordinary. If there are 100 students and they are charged $10 each week, then the annual income from league play amounts to $52K.
Putting together an agility league in the training center can be an interesting logistical problem. You might have a staff of instructors who all have a different vision for training objectives for their own students. And you have students who come and go throughout the week on different days, at different hours.
The simple approach would be to select a course or game and set the floor for the entire week with that layout of equipment. Give the layout to your instructors and challenge them to find their training objectives without moving equipment.
The league play competition could be sandwiched between classes. For example, you have a one-hour class that begins at 6:00 pm; and another that begins at 7:30. To introduce league play you ask the later class to come a bit early. Briefing begins promptly at 7:00 pm, then walkthrough, then run the game. The later class begins immediately after the last dog has run and will have its own full hour.
Top Dog Agility Players features a titling program that measures the skill and development of both recreational and serious dog agility competitors. This program can be conducted at the host clubs site without many of the associated costs and requirements imposed by other agility organizations.
Top Dog provides incentive for your customers to participate in league play. Their achievements are recognized and celebrated by agility titles conferred for each dog’s performance in competition.
If you would like to participate in Top Dog Agility Players league competition contact Bud Houston at Houston.Bud@gmail.com. We will endeavor to help you get your league competition up and running smoothly.
Anyone (club, group or individual) may set up any or all of the Challenge Courses. For results to be recorded for this event the courses must be run in the month of September, 2014, and results must be reported by midnight on September 30, 2014.
If you would like to play, these are important resources for you:
Top Dog Pup Registration Form (it’s free);
Scorekeeping Package for September 2014 Challenge Courses (Excel file);
Top Dog Rules and Regulations (Our simple system for scoring performance)
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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.
We need an earnest discussion about the “agility league” especially and obviously as it relates to Top Dog Agility Players. Just a couple days ago we published an Introduction, which outlines how the opening night of league play will work at Queen City Dog Training Club in Cincinnati, OH on August 5, 2014.
And now, the real question for which inquiring want an answer. Why is the final league team randomized? Why not come into a competition with a team already assembled. After all, that builds team spirit and camaraderie.
Bear with me on this. One club only gets one team. Can that club preselect the team? Of course they can. What we have at Queen City is a competition to which about 40 dogs will be invited. Why would they show up if “the team” were already selected? What we’re going to do is have two rounds of qualifying courses or games. Every dogs placement against the field accumulated over the two rounds will determine who gets to be on the five dog team. And then, in the final round, the scores earned by those five dogs will constitute the score of the Queen City team. And this is the score will be recorded against any other teams that report a score for league play.
A league must have rules. One of our really basic rules is that the team must be selected before running the challenge course. It would be unfair (and, obviously, against our rules) if we ran 40 dogs on the challenge course and afterwards picked the top five scores to represent the team score. That wouldn’t be a team at all.
At this point we don’t even know if other clubs around the country (or around the world) will compete with the Queen City team. This isn’t going to be a quick and easy start-up.
If you are going to play, or feel like you want to… get in touch with me. I’ll help you get started! ~ Bud Houston Houston.Bud@gmail.com. Come out and play with us!
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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.
I am excited about the start of the New Year as we begin the marketing of Top Dog Agility Players in earnest.
Top Dog is intended to be a truly recreational venue. As such TDAP should not be compared to any of the training venues that all subscribe to essentially the same model of progression and distinction. While we aspire to eventually have our own world championship tournament, right now we modestly aim at growing participation and figuring out the complicated logistics of a competition that is conducted in more than one physical place.
I have agonized for some time over the issue of jump heights, especially. Mind you that I’m an old timer. My first agility dog, Winston the Wonder Dog, was 13″ tall and had to jump 18″ (back in the day) to earn his ADCh title in the USDAA. And big dogs actually jumped 30″ in those days. In any case, all jump heights are arbitrary and by some measure or another irrational.
We began our definition in the rules by establishing jump heights, and then providing for Jump Height Exemptions for long aback dogs, dogs with dwarfish legs, and so forth. But the more I thought about it the more I was convinced that there are any number of reasons a handler/owner might want to jump his dog at a lower height. Giant breeds, for example, might deserve a lower jump height; or the handler might have a dog that is convalescing from some injury; or who knows… I don’t really care to explore the entire psychology of jumping at a lower height.
In any case, we are going to make an important and fairly bold change to the rules (that is bound to cause smart-alecky purists to not take us very seriously). The following bit comes right out of the rule book. Red text indicates change or addition:
Jump heights are determined based on the height of the dog at the withers. It is the responsibility of the judge appointed by the host club to measure and determine the correct scoring jump heights for all dogs in competition. The score sheet for an event shall contain two important indicators: 1) Jump Height; and 2) Scoring Jump Height.
A dog may jump at any jump height the owner/handler desires. Jump height exemptions are self-declared. A dog may be jumped at a lower height for any number of reasons (the dog is slightly lame; the surface is not optimal for jumping at full height; the dog is a non‑confident jumper). Top Dog Agility Players will not monitor dogs’ jump heights in league competition.
Dogs with a jump height exemption jump at their exempt height but are scored with dogs in their measured height (Scoring Jump Height). Please note that a dog can jump at any height greater than his measured height if desired. This includes 24″ and 26″ jump heights.
Scoring Jump Height is the measured height; the height at which the dog would jump if no jump height exemption whatsoever is extended.
Jump Height is the exempt height; the height at which the dog actually competes.
Opening Jan 4, 2012 ~ Closing Jan 25, 2013
This is a numbered course, judged under TDAP rules.
Competition shall be conducted by a judge and stewards appointed for specific tasks in conduct of the event. No certification process exists for judges. TDAP will rely on good sense in the selection of experienced persons to perform this task. A judge is initially registered with TDAP upon submitted event results.
The judge or appointed stewards shall observe and signal course or game faults or points. The judge alone will sign off on competition results.
The Event Closing Date January 25, 2013.
010413A60x85 ~ A numbered course for an 60′ x 85′ space.
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Visit our web site: www.dogagility.org
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.
International Dog Agility League 