Around the dog agility blog-o-sphere!

America's Best Dog Trick Contest

The Zoom Room Dog Agility Training Center and sponsor West Paw Design have announced the “America’s Best Dog Trick Contest” – a trick contest using only positive-reinforcement dog training methods.

Open to any American resident, dog owners will submit a short video of their best dog trick via the Zoom Room’s Facebook Page. Initially, anyone may vote for the Best Dog Trick on Facebook. The top five dog tricks will then face a panel of judges from the Zoom Room and West Paw to determine the winner.

The first place winner will receive $1,000 plus a collection of West Paw's Zogoflex toys. Second place will receive $250 plus the collection of Zogoflex toys from West Paw. The other three finalists will each receive Honorable Mention, as well as a Zogoflex toys.

AKC Eukanuba National Championships, Obedience Invitational and Agility Invitational

Don't miss the 2009 AKC/Eukanuba National Championship in Long Beach, California on Dec 12-13. Thousands of top show dogs from across the country and the world will descend on Long Beach next month to compete for the prestigious title of AKC/Eukanuba National Champion. In honor of the AKC's 125th anniversary, the invitational format is waived for the 2009 show. This year's open format means AKC will offer breed classes, giving dogs the opportunity to earn championship points for the first time in the show's history.

Each year the show is held in conjunction with the AKC National Obedience Invitational and AKC Agility Invitational, representing the culmination of a year of competition in three AKC sports: Conformation, Obedience and Agility.

For the AKC Agility Invitational, the first round of invitations to dogs ranked 1-5 in their breed closed on September 9th. If any of the dogs ranked 1-5 declined the entry to attend the Agility Invitational, the second round of invitations to dogs ranked 6th and higher were mailed September 14th. The AKC Agility Invitational report lists the top dogs ranked in Agility events and is based on the Top MACH Dog formula (Double Q's x 10) + MACH (Master Agility Championship) points that dogs have earned during the qualifying period.

The field is now set. Here is the running order.

The Agility Invitational will consist of Round #1 Excellent B Standard, Round #2 Excellent B JWW, Round #3 Excellent B JWW, Round #4 Hybrid (16-18 obstacles, two contacts), Round #5 Finals (open only to top 57 dogs overall through 4 Rounds of competition). For the finals round only one dog from each breed within each jump height will be invited to participate in the finals. More information about specific rules can be found here.

This year the competition will be held in a unique structure being built for the Agility Invitational. The surface will be a 2" thick sod which will be laid in the 2 rings and the practice areas. A change from past years. More news and updates can be found here.

If you can't make it to Long Beach, don't forget to watch the show simulcast on Animal Planet and Discovery on Saturday, Feb. 6, 2010 from 8-11 p.m.

Cynosport - USDAA

One piece of big news coming out of Cynosport is the news The Cynosport Games will not be returning to Scottsdale, Arizona next year. According to USDAA, they have worked to find other locations so that competitors will not have to travel to the same city every year. In 2010, the Games will take place in either Philadelphia or Kentucky. The event will be held earlier in the fall to take advantage of the area's nicest weather. More information will be coming soon.

Big congratulations to those who were able to attend the event, compete and to those who ran, placed and won. We watched a lot of the event throughout the weekend and saw some amazing runs. We hope everyone made it home without any medical travel snafus :)

We were blown away by the 12" performance Grand Prix run by Jean LeValley and Spec who won the event. Spec is only three (I believe) years old, and once begins maturing and tightening some turns will become an even greater force to be reckoned with.

It's always great to watch Ashley Deacon and Luka run, one of our favorites - they came away winning both the 16" Grand Prix and Steeplechase for I believe the second (could be the third) time.

Another memorable and amazing moment was the run by Tori Self and her BC Revolution in 22" Steeplechase Finals. Tori is just 17 years old, Revolution is three years, They beat out Marcus Topps and Juice (2nd) and Nancy Gyes and Ace (3rd) for 1st place. Really nice tight turns and great weave entrance.


A few items we found on YouTube.

Check out this very nice 7.15 YPS jumpers run by Chris Parker's Wowwie, from SpeedDoggie. Nice and tight :)

Silvia Trkman is in the US for the next couple of weeks providing seminars around the country. We found this vid of Kathy Mazzola and Georgeous at a seminar this past weekend with Silvia providing tips on running dogwalk.

OK this is cool! Two dog leg weaving from Sian. May have to give that a try since both me and Gracie know leg weaving.


We heard from the grapevine....that big congratulations are in order to Ann Braue and Scream (MACH3 Bluefire Causin' Commotion) for being chosen by the AKC to represent the USA at Crufts, March 11-14, 2010 in Birmingham, UK.

Interesting document on teaching a dog weave poles with clicker training from Robert Luftus. (Thanks JustAgility for finding this).

The new Agility Zone Magazine from the UK has a free October issue to read online. Interviews with Natasha Wise, French champion Amandine Caye, and more...

We heard on Facebook that Clean Run has negotiated rights to sell a 2-DVD disc set from the 2009 FCI Agility World Championships. The DVD was produced by Media Studio in Germany, that we told you about in our last 'around the Dog Agility blog-o-sphere' post.

Interesting blog post about TAGteach and handlers at shelters using the system with shelter pups to help them be more adoption friendly.

Lucy and Walter's Mom attended a Chris Zink seminar recently, head on over and read some of the good stuff on structure, a little core training and more. Day 1, Day 2.

Be grateful for you and your dog's ability to do agility!