"Careful Dad, don't step on me."
It's tipping Dad, it's tipping..............How's that for a contact!
Practicing weave poles with 'wires'. ......... O.K., lets get on with it!
5 and 4 and 3 and 2 and 1 and GO! ......... "Tire"
click for larger pictures
This is a Crossover. Not too frequently used in Agility Trials. It's like a four sided Dogwalk with a platform at the top. Dog may be required to decend in a straight line or turn left or right as prescribed by the judge in the course layout. Quesnel, B.C. 1998
This is a Wingless Single Bar Jump. The rails are multi-striped for visability and are easily displaced for safety reasons. Dogs love to jump. Jump heights are relative to the height of the dog and vary from organization to organization. Prince George, B.C. 1998
Tire Jump. A tire or reasonable facsimile of specified size suspended at the appropriate height. Most dogs love it, although occasionally one will try to sneak under. That's a no, no. Prince George, B.C. 1998
A-Frame. Just what the name says. A two sided obstacle with an up ramp and a down ramp. The bottom portion of both ramps are painted a different color. (usually yellow) These areas are known as 'contact zones'. The dog must touch these zones ascending and decending in order not to be faulted. Prince George, B.C. 1998
Table(good) The Table is a stable surface 3'x3' set at the appropriate height. The dog is required to jump onto the table and assume the 'down' position for a five count by the judge. Although this may sound easy, consider a hyped up dog running the course and suddenly being told to 'down'. Some dogs respond quickly, others take some coaxing.
Table(not so good) Ebony is trying to convince Mom and the Judge that a squat is as good as a down but it's not working. Five count doesn't start until all elbows are on the table. Perhaps a long haired dog might get away with it, but not a Toy Manchester Terrier.
Puppy Jump. Dogs are not permitted to compete in Agility Trials before the age of 18 months. However some clubs holding Fun Trials will have a 'Puppy Class'. This is an excellent opportunity for young dogs (and handlers) to gain valuable experience. All jumps are set at their lowest height and some obstacles are ommitted for safety reasons.
Dogwalk(training) The Dogwalk consists of an up ramp and a down ramp with a horizontal section in between. Care must be taken when training a dog new to Agility to keep a slack leash so as not to interfere with the dogs natural balance. The Dogwalk also has 'contact zones' which the dog must touch going up and coming down. Telkwa, B.C. 1997
Dogwalk. Generally speaking, dogs have little or no problem learning the Dogwalk. Smaller dogs may have an advantage in the early stages of learning this obstacle. Larger dogs seem to have difficulty keeping track of their hind legs. Prince George, B.C. 1997
Rigid Tunnel. Once learned, dogs appear to really enjoy doing tunnels. Sometimes it's hard to keep them out of the tunnel. Tunnels may be straight, L-shaped, U-shaped, S-shaped or anything in between. Telkwa, B.C., 1997.
"Vilma" Fin Ch, Nordic Winner -97 Vuokkolan Vilhelmina (female) who at the moment competes in the mini II -class. We are one zero-fault-with-winning short from the III (third = highest) -class. It took only two competitions for Vilma to rise to the II class, so she has been very gifted at this sport! "grin" Vilma is now
3 years old and will continue her agility-career as soon as her puppies are weaned.
A-frame. Here is Vilma, a Standard Manchester Terrier owned and handled by Minna Laine from Virkkala, Finland.
Single Bar Jump. Vilma in the final stage of 'take off'. These pictures were taken at a competition in Turku, Finland 5th July 1998.
Vilma and Minna making time between obstacles. Notice the body position and hand signals by the handler.
This is Sarah using a 24" jump for warm up. According to Phyllis L Dorrough from Galveston County Dog Sports (Texas) "For an old, blind dog, she does pretty well -- she'll be 11 in January '99, and has lost 30% vision in one eye, 50% in the other, due to cataracts and a partially detached lens."
Sarah showing great form at her normal jump height. She has run a couple of courses at 24" for fun (we are allowed to jump above our jump height, not
under), but now just does a few 24" warm up jumps. At USDAA we jump 18 ", at NADAC it's 16", and AKC gives her "baby jumps" at 12".
Sandustin's M'Ladie Sadie UD MX AXJ is an 8 lb., 9 year old Toy Manchester Terrier. Pride & joy of Eileen Jaffee from Pinellas Park, Florida.
Eileen writes - aside from being #1 in my house, she has had a stellar career as a performance dog. She received a Dog World Award in Novice obedience, for 3 scores of 195 or better. Open was tough and took a long time, with many NQ's (to keep me humble) due to the fact that she couldn't do her job when I disappeared during those out-of-sight stays, but when she did it, she almost always won 1st place. Utility was over so fast I almost missed it! She qualified in her first 3 trials in the space of a week.
Meanwhile, Sadie and I were working hard to become a team in Agility. She now has her Master Agility title and lacks only 3 legs for her Master Jumpers With Weaves title. We aren't the fastest team (both of us are getting on!), but we're steady, as evidenced by our recent performance at the AKC National Agility Championships where we managed to rank 13th out of the 81 dogs.
I don't know how many years we have left to play, but am sure that whatever we do, we will be content, as long as we are doing it together.
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***************************************************** Thor is a 2 year old, Standard Manchester Terrier. Thor earned his 1st leg in agility at his very first trial with a perfect score. "Agility is fun, but nothing beats playing fetch!", says Thor, who is now attending TBAA (Tennis Ball Addicts Anonymous) meetings. Just joking. Now....if we could only find a local Flyball club.... Thor lives with his sister, a 7 yr. old Cornish Rex cat, who he only annoys occasionally. Besides Thor's agility and fetching ability, he also performs tricks such as play dead, roll over, crawl, bow and sit pretty. His dad, Greg, and I just love him to pieces! |
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******************************************* Tike got his 3 legs for his Open Agility (OA) Title with 3 first places. He also finished his Novice Jumpers With Weaves (NAJ) Title. Prissy (not shown) got her 1st NA (Novice Agility) legg with a 3rd place. Poor Punkie just ran, she fell off the A-Frame and I had to catch her... She is a sweet heart and is pretty small. Punkie is just Punkie. She is my full time bed buddy. I have 7 total. Anywhere from 1 - 6 sleep with me :) |