Subscribe To Pedigreedpups
The Competitive Sport of Dog AgilityThe sport of dog agility is quickly gaining speed as one of America’s and Europe's best known and most loved dog sports. In the sport of agility, a dog handler guides their dog through an intricately laid out course, filled with numerous kinds of obstacles, in the least amount of time possible.
The dog is not, and cannot be, confined to a leash during agility competitions. As time passes and the timer continues to tick on, the competing dog has to complete various obstacles, ranging from jumps to weave poles to chutes, etc. as spectators watch from the stands. Overall, the sport of dog agility is a fairly new knock off of equestrian stadium jumping, but it now has its own obstacles, rules and scoring agenda separate from the original root source. There are numerous organizations that cater to dog agility participants. In the United States, you can find organizations that conduct trials through local dog training clubs such as the USDAA or the NADAC. Both of these groups adhere to the rigid international rules for agility performance.
Ideally, the organization handling the trial will ensure that the agility obstacle course is designed with the safety of the dog in mind. For instance, if a dog calculates distance wrong, he won’t get injured on the jump bar because they’re displaceable. Additionally, painted surfaces are roughened up before competitions to ensure the dog doesn’t slip or slide on them to keep the dog from getting injured during an agility competition.
During an agility competition, the animals and handlers will participate in various obstacle courses that offer different levels of challenge based on the pet’s level of ability. As the agility dog trial begins, it is the job of the dog handler to maneuver their dog partner successfully throughout the course, with the least amount of mistakes, without use of a leash or any kinds of rewards, and by beating the competition because you have finished the entire course in the least amount of time. As the agility team participates in more and more agility trials, they will eventually move up to a higher level of competition because of all the practice and competition experiences they have gotten, meaning too that now the agility courses will get more and more complex as higher levels of agility performance skill is achieved. There are penalties that occur during competitions too. When a dog does something wrong during a competition, for example, it knocks down a bar or doesn't hit a safe zone correctly, it’s known as a “fault,” and the team is penalized for it. Lastly, dogs of equal size are pitted against one another in various size divisions in case you're wondering. And at the end, the dog (along with its handler who helped guide him through the course) that participates in the agility competition, and that garners the shortest time with the least number of faults, will win the competition in their height class.
Return from dog agility to Dock Jumping Dogs
|
