Clean Run Magazine - June 2008 - 78

© DOGHOUSE ARTS Australian Shepherd Club of America By Allison Bryant ASCA continues to work on its judges training program. The agility committee hopes to have something soon to present to the board of directors for a vote. Some recent changes: • As of January 1, 2008, the opening time for Gamblers is 30 seconds long for all dogs. In addition, the minimum opening point-accumulation requirement has been adjusted accordingly: Elite requires 21 points; Open requires 18; and Novice requires 15. • The board of directors recently approved a motion to create an all-breed merit list.With this change, all dogs competing in ASCA agility with a registration or tracking number will be able to accumulate points toward the Merit Program. The Merit Program will rank dogs in all three class types (Regular, Gamblers, and Jumpers) at all three levels.It’s a fun way to see how your dog stacks up against the competition. ASCA agility continues to grow with new trials and clubs popping up everywhere. Competitors and dogs love the open, ﬂowing courses. The laid-back atmosphere is a fun way to spend a weekend. To learn more about the program, please visit www.asca.org. Dogs on Course in North America By Jim Mills DOCNA has introduced a new spreadable tire to its list of equipment. In the performance of the spreadable tire, dogs may cause the tire to slightly split apart as they travel through the hole without being faulted; this would be considered normal tire performance, similar to when a regular tire moves in its frame. Spread tires will not be faulted unless they are unsafely executed. Dogs that land at the split of the spreadable tire and fall through when performing it will be given an unsafe performance fault. The purpose of the new tire is to prevent injuries, not to present an opportunity to assess faults that currently do not happen with a standard rigid tire. Judges will use common sense; if the dog would have bounced his way through on a regular tire, it’s a good tire performance.The test-tire came from Smith Training Equipment of Canada and the design has been tested in several venues. There are a number of YouTube videos that show the tire. Here are the links: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKFJ6SyNcDM www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2D4hpIxlPA&feature= related DOCNA clubs or training groups are not required to use the new spreadable tire, but DOCNA will be offering an incentive to help clubs to purchase it. For more information, please contact DOCNA at info@docna.com. The 2008 championships will be held October 3-5. The Eastern championships will be held at Orchard Hills Training Center in Barto, Pennsylvania, and the Western championships will be held at the Coors Event Center in Prescott, Arizona. Premiums for the championships are available on the DOCNA website: www.docna.com. North American Dog Agility Council By Sharon Nelson NADAC is seeing an increase in exhibitors attempting and successfully earning bonus points. Congratulations to those who have earned bonus points and to those who have achieved some of these ultimate awards. The PL-, the SB-, and the PB- indications have to do with bonus points and run indexes. In all Elite classes, with the exception of Chances, if dogs run at a speed (run index) of 100 or better, they receive a PL- in their records. The PL- indication has a number after it, such as PL-1, PL-2, and so on, which indicates how many runs that dog has had that are 100+ runs.Those runs accumulate into a Platinum Speed Star and a Platinum Versatility Speed Star. When you accumulate 20 rounds of Regular and 10 rounds of Jumpers that are 100+ runs, in addition to 10 Elite Chances qualifiers, the dog has earned a Platinum Speed Star. For the Platinum Versatility Speed Star, the dogs needs 10 Chances, plus 20 rounds of 100+ Regular, 10 rounds of 100+ Jumpers, 10 rounds of 100+ Touch N Go, 10 rounds of 100+ Tunnelers and 10 rounds of 100+ Weavers. The SB- indication (which stands for silver bonus) means that a dog earned distance bonus points with a run index of less than 100, while the PB- indication (purple bonus) means that a dog has earned distance bonus points with a run index of 100 or greater.SB- rounds accumulate toward a Silver Achievement Cup and a Silver Versatility Achievement Cup. PB- rounds accumulate toward a Purple Achievement Cup and a Purple Versatility Achievement Cup. 80 Clean Run | June 08

http://www.asca.org http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKFJ6SyNcDM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2D4hpIxlPA&feature=realted http://www.docna.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2D4hpIxlPA&feature=realted

Clean Run Magazine - June 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run Magazine - June 2008