Friday, August 28, 2009

Around the dog agility blog-o-sphere!

Silvia has some updates on how she teaches running contacts. And always good for a little review. Read more...

If you'd like to see the results from the Eastern Regional of the Purina Incredible Dog Challenge held in August in Indianapolis, read on...

Susan Garrett has a few posts about how she exercises her dogs to get in shape for agility. Definitely worth a read, here, here and here.

The debate rages on for the 24" weave pole spacing in USDAA. We've posted about it before, and yes, we are for 24"!!! Would love the opportunity to save my back if I can, fur sure! The latest is a weave poll survey the Susan Garrett posted that we posted about a couple of weeks ago. Here are the results from her survey, as she posted on the USDAA Yahoo Group list:
2658 completed the survey - (The numbers in the bracket beside are the numbers she last reported)

Question one:

1. Do you think USDAA should change their weave pole variance to include the option of having 24" spacing.

Yes 94.7% (94.6) (94.3 in the first 700 respondents)
No 5.4% ( 5.3) (7.7 in the first 700 respondents)

With 428 people leaving a written comment

Question two:
2. Do you think USDAA should eliminate the option for clubs to use weave pole bases that are less than 22" wide?

Yes 87.5% (87.5)
No 12.5 % (12.5)

With 315 written comments

Question 3

3. Do you compete in USDAA agility with your dog?

Yes
60.6% (62.5)
Not yet but intend on it
26.2% (24.8)
No but I would if they made the change to 24" weave pole bases.
7.2% (6.7)
No, I do not compete, nor do I have any plans to compete in USDAA
agility 6.8% (6.0) (mostly Canadians that live too far from
the border to compete in the US)

With 388 written comments.
TajMuttHall has a little post about their class experiment with timing 20 vs 24" poles. Interesting info.

Nice little instructional video on "How to build a tire, Part 1" from Gone To the Dogs Agility.

Great little post about how to make homemade dog boots from Agility Adventures.

The FCI World Agility Championships are coming up and will be held September 18-20, 2009 in Dornbirn, Austria.

The US team was chosen through tryouts held in May in Hopkins, Minnesota after qualifying in seven ISC events held throughout the US from May 08 to March 09.

Small Team:
Marcy Mantell, Wave, Shetland Sheepdog, CA
Katie Conn, Twix, Shetland Sheepdog, PA
Dee Anna Gamel, Kelsi, Shetland Sheepdog, GA
Melanie Del Villaggio, Dara, Shetland Sheepdog, TN

Medium Team:
Ashley Deacon, Luka, Pyrenean Shepherd, CA
Karen Holik, Sizzle, Shetland Sheepdog, FL
Paulette Swartzendruber, Rush, Shetland Sheepdog, MA
Jennifer Crank, Blaster, Shetland Sheepdog, OH

Large Team:
Channan Fosty, Icon, Border Collie, CA
Marcus Topps, Juice, Border Collie, TX
Geri Hernandez, Focus, Border Collie, CA
Denise Thomas, Zippity, Border Collie, PA

Team Captain - Andy Hartman
Team Coach - Nancy Gyes
Ast. Coach - Kathie Leggett
Team Mgr - Toni Osojnicki

The US Team will be competing against the likes of Susan Garrett (CAN), Greg Derrett & Bernadette Bay (GBR), Svetlana Tumanova (RUS), Silvia Trkman (SLO), Silas Boogk (GER) and more top world teams.

Here's the schedule:

Friday:

Competition 09:30-20:00
Team Jumping Large (Judge: Bernd Hüppe)
Team Jumping Medium (Judge: Manuel Alff)
Team Jumping Small (Judge: Bernd Hüppe)
Team Agility Large (Judge: Manuel Alff)

Saturday:

Competition 08:00-19:00
Single Jumping Small (Judge: Manuel Alff)
Single Jumping Medium (judge: Bernd Hüppe)
Single Jumping Large (Judge: Manuel Alff)
Team Agility Medium (Judge: Bernd Hüppe)
Team Agility Small (Judge: Manuel Alff)

Sunday

Competition 08:00-16:00
Single Agility Small (Judge: Bernd Hüppe)
Single Agility Medium (Judge: Manuel Alff)
Single Agility Large (Judge: Bernd Hüppe)
Final event / award ceremony ca. 16:00 about 16:00

Here's a nice little vid of some running contact training from Ingerid Margrete & her dog Orkan at a clinic with Fanny Gott and Justine Davenport.


Great tutorial about how to teach side legs up, enjoy! Now if I could just get un-maniced and get serious about my back legs, sheesh!


Happy agility!

3 comments:

  1. Thanks again for the mention. Not that I'm particularly concerned about increasing my readership, but it *is* nice to know that things I post are of interest from time to time.

    And thanks, as always, for your survey of interesting links.

    Looking at the breeds on the world team remind me again of how breedcentric agility has become, at least at the top levels. Hmm, something else for me to post on. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Of interest, you kidding right :)

    It would be nice if I spelled your name right, off to fix.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very sad news. We just got word from Nancy Gyes: Geri's Focus (World Team) dropped dead at the practice field this morning. I don't know that it's OK to post geri's email address, but I can forward comments if anyone wants to send them. I'm going to ask nancy whether it's OK to cross-post her longer message, at least on Taj MuttHall.

    -ellen

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for barking in!

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