Clean Run Magazine - September 2007 - 69

We need Judge’s Debriefing submissions from all agility venues. If you’re an agility judge and would like to share a course you designed with our readers, please contact Sharon Woolman at Debriefings@cleanrun.com for more information. 2 9 8 4 3 5 7 11 T 12 6 2 3 10 4 9 5 3 6 4 13 7 12 8 6 4 5 9 3 11 8 10 14 11 T 2 16 10 12 15 T 13 7 2 F S 13 F F 1 S FS 14 16 15 1 S F 19 18 17 1 S Greater St. Louis Agility Club TDAA Beginner Standard #2 March 31, 2007 Judge: Laura A. English 67 yards. 4 & 8 = 57 sec. 12 & 16 = 53 sec Greater St. Louis Agility Club TDAA Intermediate Standard #2 March 31, 2007 Judge: Laura A. English 86 yards. 4 & 8 = 62 sec. 12 & 16 = 59 sec. Greater St. Louis Agility Club TDAA Superior Standard #2 March 31, 2007 Judge: Laura A. English 100 yards. 4 & 8 = 58 sec. 12 & 16 = 50 sec. If a dog performed the obstacles in the gamble (labeled 1, 2, 3 in the diagram) with the handler to the left of the gamble line, it doubled the value of those obstacles. I would call “Gamble” and give a thumbs-up signal if the gamble was done successfully. On this day success added 8 points to the dog’s score, provided the points were banked before time was up. Teams were not required to gamble these obstacles; they could choose to just attempt to earn the obstacles’ normal point value. If a dog faulted, all unbanked points were lost. Faults included: dropped bars, missed contacts, taking an obstacle of lesser value, and failing to bank faults before the whistle sounded. If a dog faulted I would call “fault.” The handler was then obligated to direct the dog to the ﬁrst obstacle in a new sequence to begin collecting points again. Knocked bars were not reset, including the jumps in the gamble. The points needed to qualify varied by level: 50 for Game III, 40 for Game II, and 30 for Game I. The game was scored points, then time; time was a tiebreaker only. Usually when a game allows handlers to pick their own course most handlers choose a similar path. This course was no exception. Most teams started with a jump, followed by the gamble (jump, jump, tire) in hopes of earning a quick 18 points. Most teams were successful with this endeavor. Some teams even did the gamble twice successfully during their run! Next there were many different paths the teams chose; some banked the points and then moved on. Several used the back-to-back A-frame technique; in doing so, a few missed the contact and lost all unbanked points. Several dogs took a jump after the A-frame, which caused a fault since it was a lesser value obstacle. Since the dogs could do obstacles back to back once for points, a few of the handlers chose to immediately move on to the weave poles in hopes of accruing another 16 points before going to the table to bank their points. Things got very exciting at this point! Some dogs were sucked into the tunnel after doing the weaves, and since the tunnel had a lesser value, this caused a fault and they lost all their points. A few teams even successfully turned and did the weaves again, but the dog took the tire before banking the points. At this point no one was able to accumulate enough points to qualify in the remaining time. A couple of teams did not risk the weaves or contacts, and managed to maneuver a back-to-back tunnel and then move onto another tunnel. No one used the teeter and only two dogs attempted to include the dogwalk. Standard Courses In TDAA, Standard courses are judged somewhat differently than other venues. At any level a fault, such as a missed contact or wrong course, will cause an NQ. Exhibitors had the opportunity to enter four Standard rounds for the weekend. My favorite set of Standard courses was the second set of the weekend as seen in Figures 2 through 4. It was a sit on the table for the ﬁrst round; we had a down, a stand, and a handler choice, in the other three rounds. To read complete rules, regulations, equipment speciﬁcations, and so on for the Teacup Dogs Agility Association, please visit the website: www.k9tdaa.com. Another good source to learn about the TDAA games is The Clean Run Book of Agility Games, 2nd Edition by Bud Houston. D Laura A. English lives in Evansville, Indiana, with her 12-year-old son and four Cocker Spaniels. She also teaches obedience and agility classes, as well as being a CGC evaluator. Her dogs have earned over 175 titles in various sports and venues. She found agility about 16 years ago. September 07 | Clean Run 69

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Clean Run Magazine - September 2007

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run Magazine - September 2007