Dog Agility: Understanding What Makes A "clean Run"

Dog agility is a highly popular sport and is fun for the dog, the handler and the spectators. There are quite a few different organizations around the country that host dog agility contests. While each group has their own course designs and scoring guidelines, here is some general information that might help you learn what to expect if you compete.

Generally, you will encounter the same basic obstacles everywhere. Your dog will be expect to navigate several different kinds of jumps, run through weave poles, sit and stay on the pause table, shuffle through tunnels and handle several contact obstacles. These contact apparatus include the a-frame, the dog walk and the teeter totter or see-saw. Practice makes perfect, so set up a dog agility course in your backyard to make it easy to practice every day. All of the dog agility equipment you need can be purchased at Carlson Agility, which sells pause tables, a-frames, tunnels, dog agility jumps, teeters and everything else you would ever need.

Each dog agility group separates dogs into different categories or competition classes, which are based on the size of the dogs, as well as the experience level or the age of the dogs. For each class, there is a specific amount of time allowed for completing the course, and each obstacle must be completed correctly in a certain order. The dog must complete the course without earning a fault. There are time faults given when a dog takes too long to complete the course, as well as many other faults.

Aside from not completing the course in time, a dog can incur a missed contact fault if they fail to complete a contact obstacle correctly, such as jumping off when they are supposed to walk down. If you dog turns away from an obstacle or goes up to the obstacle but pauses too long, this is known as a refusal fault. A runout occurs if the dog simply passes an obstacle, and an off-course fault happens then they run the course in an incorrect order. Failing to go through the weave poles the correct way earns a fault, as does dropping a bar or panel on a jump.

Even handlers are not immune from earning faults. For instance, handlers are not allowed to touch obstacles or touch the dog, if this happens whether on purpose or by accident, it is called a handling fault. Another fault is given if the handler appears to be training rather than simply giving signals to help guide the dog through the course. Handlers also can get into trouble for bringing incentives on to the course, such as a toy or a treat. Dogs are meant to complete the course without the use of any kind of incentive.

These are just a few typical faults that you might see when you compete. Sometimes you must run a completely clean run with no faults in order to progress in a contest. In other cases, a certain amount of faults might be allowed. Learning about the various faults and obstacles for your specific organization is an important key to success in the world of dog agility.