DogBanter

DogBanter (http://www.dogbanter.com/index.php)
-   Dog breeds (http://www.dogbanter.com/forumdisplay.php?f=7)
-   -   New AKC Agility regs announced (http://www.dogbanter.com/showthread.php?t=24109)

Robin Nuttall December 20th 05 02:13 PM

New AKC Agility regs announced
 
The new AKC agility regs are in the December minutes:

http://www.akc.org/pdfs/about/board_minutes/1205.pdf

Summary on page 6, actual changes start page 9.

Lots of small changes, a few big ones--a new 26" height which will have
a 6'3" aframe, new weave specs which will make a lot of current weave
poles illegal, and a break for small dogs--the cutoff for 8" has been
raised to 11". Dogs now have to be 15 months old to compete.

And a new class! FAST (Fifteen and Send Time) involves an opening and a
gamble. I've read the rules twice and don't really understand them, but
I'm sure once we get some course examples up that will help.

Rocky December 20th 05 07:00 PM

New AKC Agility regs announced
 
Robin Nuttall said in
rec.pets.dogs.activities:

Lots of small changes, a few big ones--a new 26" height
which will have a 6'3" aframe, new weave specs which will
make a lot of current weave poles illegal, and a break for
small dogs--the cutoff for 8" has been raised to 11". Dogs
now have to be 15 months old to compete.


Pretty well thought out changes, I think, and they don't seem to
require a lot of expense on the part of the club for equipment
changes. New (longer) weave poles and 5' bars for the spread
jumps are all inexpensive PVC.

I think they should have gone to 18 months, though any number is
arbitrary what with the wide range of dogs competing - but at
least 18 months would have made them consistent with every other
agility organisation in North America.

The big change (to me, though I don't compete in the AKC), is
mandating that the teeter be slatless. I've never seen a reason
for slats on the teeter or dogwalk.

And a new class! FAST (Fifteen and Send Time) involves an
opening and a gamble. I've read the rules twice and don't
really understand them, but I'm sure once we get some
course examples up that will help.


If I'm reading the rules correctly, FAST sounds an awful lot
like AAC's gamble. AAC has "mini gambles" which are optional in
the opening (ie: you can do them away for double point value or
do them close for regular obstacle value), similar to FAST's
"send bonus". Instead of a closing gamble, FAST adds a time
fault from end of SCT to finish point (similar strategy to AAC's
gamble whereby the handler wants to be close to the final gamble
when the horn sounds).

It sounds like a fun game.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

cimawr December 20th 05 08:35 PM

New AKC Agility regs announced
 

Matt wrote:

Pretty well thought out changes, I think, and they don't seem to
require a lot of expense on the part of the club for equipment
changes. New (longer) weave poles and 5' bars for the spread
jumps are all inexpensive PVC.


Heh. Obviously, you missed the change to the weave pole requirements
which says that the supports must be on the opposite side of the dog's
path; there's a fair amount of angst going on on the Agiledogs list
about having to buy new poles to comply with that one.

And speaking of weave poles, I think we've got an agility first both
with that and with the requirement that pole bases now be done in a
nonslip finish - the AKC is making a safety change mandatory BEFORE
NADAC got around to it. ;-D

And yes, Robin, you BET I've posted to the NADAC list about the
non-slip issue...I'm waiting with interest, to see if my post makes it
to the list. I don't care much if it does, since my actual intent was
to tweak Sharon. ;-D

Weave bases are very much a pet peeve of mine... especially since just
prior to the discussion getting started on Agiledogs, I watched video
of an agility trial in early Nov, and in one place you can CLEARLY see
Rocsi's hind feet slip on the pole bases.


Rocky December 20th 05 08:58 PM

New AKC Agility regs announced
 
"cimawr" said in rec.pets.dogs.activities:

Pretty well thought out changes, I think, and they don't
seem to require a lot of expense on the part of the club
for equipment changes. New (longer) weave poles and 5'
bars for the spread jumps are all inexpensive PVC.


Heh. Obviously, you missed the change to the weave pole
requirements


38 pages of pdf? Hah! Of course I missed lots of stuff.

which says that the supports must be on the opposite side
of the dog's path; there's a fair amount of angst going on
on the Agiledogs list about having to buy new poles to
comply with that one.


When course building, I've always set it up that way. I've
never enountered a set of weaves which required dogs to enter
and exit over bases - most weave bases have moveable
stabilizers.

Rethinking, I really like the very secure weave bases that have
non-movable stabalizers out to *both* sides which don't often
require spiking. I suppose that this is what the AKC is getting
rid of.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

Christy December 21st 05 01:00 AM

New AKC Agility regs announced
 

"Robin Nuttall" wrote in message
news:2sTpf.418072$084.216667@attbi_s22...
The new AKC agility regs are in the December minutes:

http://www.akc.org/pdfs/about/board_minutes/1205.pdf

Summary on page 6, actual changes start page 9.

Lots of small changes, a few big ones--a new 26" height which will have
a 6'3" aframe, new weave specs which will make a lot of current weave
poles illegal, and a break for small dogs--the cutoff for 8" has been
raised to 11". Dogs now have to be 15 months old to compete.


Let the whining commence. I can hear the 8" and 12" gang already - the "old"
8" are so spoiled by having half a dozen dogs in their height and getting
placements so easily, and the 12" are now going to have to make do with 40
MACH points per run instead of 50... The Agiledogs list is already afire.
I'm personally quite happy with the adjustments - I wouldn't have minded an
optional no-table, but at least a cumulative count should speed things up a
bit. The new age limit is a fair compromise, and I just don't see that the
SCT increase is all that huge, so I really have no complaints.

And a new class! FAST (Fifteen and Send Time) involves an opening and a
gamble. I've read the rules twice and don't really understand them, but
I'm sure once we get some course examples up that will help.


I get to play this game over New Years weekend! We'll see how it goes but I
think it looks fun, and I have to admit I would really enjoy getting a MF
title on my dogs... Wylie is one bad MF already...

Christy



Sionnach December 21st 05 02:32 AM

New AKC Agility regs announced
 

"Christy" wrote:


Let the whining commence. I can hear the 8" and 12" gang already - the

"old"
8" are so spoiled by having half a dozen dogs in their height and getting
placements so easily, and the 12" are now going to have to make do with 40
MACH points per run instead of 50...


Not to mention that the SCTs have been tightened up for all heights, but
apparently by significantly more for the 12" dogs.



Robin Nuttall December 21st 05 03:24 AM

New AKC Agility regs announced
 
Rocky wrote:
Robin Nuttall said in
rec.pets.dogs.activities:


Lots of small changes, a few big ones--a new 26" height
which will have a 6'3" aframe, new weave specs which will
make a lot of current weave poles illegal, and a break for
small dogs--the cutoff for 8" has been raised to 11". Dogs
now have to be 15 months old to compete.



Pretty well thought out changes, I think, and they don't seem to
require a lot of expense on the part of the club for equipment
changes. New (longer) weave poles and 5' bars for the spread
jumps are all inexpensive PVC.


Yes, except I'd say 95% of the weaves here have crossbar supports, and
they will need to now have offset leg supports. I paid $500 for my
Max200 weaves four years ago, and a friend of mine just bought an
identical set--lord knows how much she paid. Now relegated to practice.
Plus, some of our jumps aren't tall enough or made so that you can add a
26" height. So we may have significant jump expense. The difference
may make us reconsider doing a 2-ring 2-judge trial next year, I am not
sure we can afford to make all those changes and fill 2 rings with
equipment. I'm not saying they're bad changes, but they will take a
chunk of money.



The big change (to me, though I don't compete in the AKC), is
mandating that the teeter be slatless. I've never seen a reason
for slats on the teeter or dogwalk.


They'll almost certainly stay on the DW, and I have only seen one
slatted teeter in competition in 5 years, they were already extremely
rare. The elimination of the 8' dogwalk is causing some consernation for
those who run Novice-only trials in smaller spaces. But again, most
clubs use 12' anyway.


If I'm reading the rules correctly, FAST sounds an awful lot
like AAC's gamble. AAC has "mini gambles" which are optional in
the opening (ie: you can do them away for double point value or
do them close for regular obstacle value), similar to FAST's
"send bonus". Instead of a closing gamble, FAST adds a time
fault from end of SCT to finish point (similar strategy to AAC's
gamble whereby the handler wants to be close to the final gamble
when the horn sounds).

It sounds like a fun game.


I think it will be fun. You *must* complete the gamble portion in order
to Q, but you can do it at any time. If you flub, you can't try it
again. And you have to do at least 15 obstacles, all of which are
assigned a point value. I don't understand it completely yet but I'm
looking forward to it.

Robin Nuttall December 21st 05 03:26 AM

New AKC Agility regs announced
 
cimawr wrote:

And yes, Robin, you BET I've posted to the NADAC list about the
non-slip issue...I'm waiting with interest, to see if my post makes it
to the list. I don't care much if it does, since my actual intent was
to tweak Sharon. ;-D


Oh you meanie! I do think the nonslip and the offset stabilizer bars are
important, but it is going to hurt our club a bit. We just had our first
AKC trial, kept it small and worked a lot more on making people happy
than making money, so we didn't clear much. We're a little club, and we
want to spend some of that money on some of our other activities. So we
are really going to have to have some discussion about what to do about
financing the changes.

Weave bases are very much a pet peeve of mine... especially since just
prior to the discussion getting started on Agiledogs, I watched video
of an agility trial in early Nov, and in one place you can CLEARLY see
Rocsi's hind feet slip on the pole bases.


Another thing, the AKC is now suggesting weaves be 22" in spacing, it
was 21" before. I think 22" should be mandatory across all venues. Still
tight enough to not penalize the little dogs, but big enough to make a
huge difference to the big dogs.

Robin Nuttall December 21st 05 03:28 AM

New AKC Agility regs announced
 
Christy wrote:


Let the whining commence. I can hear the 8" and 12" gang already - the "old"
8" are so spoiled by having half a dozen dogs in their height and getting
placements so easily, and the 12" are now going to have to make do with 40
MACH points per run instead of 50... The Agiledogs list is already afire.


Not really, I've been pleasantly shocked at how many people are
supporting the change in times for the 12" dogs. It needed to happen.

I'm personally quite happy with the adjustments - I wouldn't have minded an
optional no-table, but at least a cumulative count should speed things up a
bit. The new age limit is a fair compromise, and I just don't see that the
SCT increase is all that huge, so I really have no complaints.


I like pretty much everything they did, but wish they'd made it so that
24" dogs can compete fairly at the Nationals...

I get to play this game over New Years weekend! We'll see how it goes but I
think it looks fun, and I have to admit I would really enjoy getting a MF
title on my dogs... Wylie is one bad MF already...


If it's going to be allowed as a non-regular class, I'd like to put it
in our trial for next December.

Christy December 21st 05 06:14 AM

New AKC Agility regs announced
 

"Robin Nuttall" wrote in message
news:K53qf.641764$_o.244791@attbi_s71...

Not really, I've been pleasantly shocked at how many people are
supporting the change in times for the 12" dogs. It needed to happen.


Well... most of those people posting aren't 12" people. And maybe its just
my area, but we have a lot of vocal competitors in the small dog classes who
aren't going to be happy. However, I think its about time - I've had runs
with my 16" dog that I got 12 MACH points or so while the winner of the 12"
class got 40, and their times were the same. Granted, I didn't get a
multiplier, but still.. that's a big difference. It hasn't affected me
specifically, because I'm not trying for the top Shelties list, but you can
see the disparity when the top dogs are all in the 12" class because they
get soooo many more MACH points for the equivalent run.
But anyway, I meant that the list is afire discussing all the changes - I
was unclear.

If it's going to be allowed as a non-regular class, I'd like to put it
in our trial for next December.


I assume it will be allowed, or it wouldn't be offered, but I guess we'll
see!

Christy




All times are GMT +1. The time now is 11:44 PM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.2.0 (Unauthorized Upgrade)
Dogbanter.com