In the animal world, sports are becoming a bigger and bigger draw. Today, you can find multiple televised events in which animals are the competitors. Of course, the biggest animal competitors are dogs and horses, and today I am going to talk about dogs. While there are a variety of events that dogs compete in, my favorite event is the agility competition. The agility competition has become a national sport that has more than 400 competitions a year. Some of these events have cash prizes, and they allow any dog to compete, pure-bred or not. Truthfully, all you need to be competitive in the agility competitions is an agile dog, and a skilled handler. The main association for dog agility competitions is the United States Dog Agility Association, Inc.
The USDAA, according to their website, was organized to “Promote International Standards for Dog Agility.” The dog agility competition has been in America for decades, and I personally find it a very exciting sport to watch. There are two main divisions for dog agility, and each has specific standards for performance. For example, if your dog is competing in the more competitive category, they will have to be able to jump at least their height. If your dog is competing in the less competitive category, they will need to be able to jump about 80% of their height.
In addition to jumping obstacles, there are a variety of other obstacles that your dog has to be able to manuever through. To help you understand what agility equipment for dogs exists out there, I will give you a brief overview of each: – See-saw The see-saw obstacle is just a 12′ see-saw that the dog gets to run up, and then wait for it to lower down. If you just imagine what it would be like to run over a see-saw, you will see why this is one of my favorite pieces of agility equipment for dogs.
- Dog Walk
The dog walk is also 12′ long, but instead of see-sawing is just a platform that the dog gets to run up and over. At its highest point this obstacle will be about 4′.
- A-frame
The a-frame is an exciting obstacle because it is somewhat steep. Dogs will run over it so quick that sometimes it looks like they are just going launch over the other side! – Table The table is just a small square table that the dogs have to momentarily stop on. This is a tricky part of the race because the entire rest of the time the dogs are running at full speed, and then when they get to this they have to stop.
- Weave Poles
Between 5 and 12 poles are spaced about 20″ from each other in a straight line. This is one of the most memorable parts of the agility race because the dogs can really get going quickly through these, and it is easy to see how difficult it would be to navigate.
- Tire Jump
The tire jump is just a round obstacle that the dogs get to jump through. It is pretty fun, but pretty straight forward.
- Tunnels
There are two types of tunnels that the dogs work with, and the first one is the pipe tunnel. The pipe tunnel is just an open tube that the dogs run through as fast as possible. The collapsed tunnel is a tunnel that is open like the pipe tunnel at the front, but the other side is, you guessed it, collapsed. This means that for a little bit, the dog runs blind.
- Hurdles
The hurdles that the dogs jump simply involve a pipe for them to jump over. These are adjusted according to the dog height and program.
So, there you have all of the main obstacles used in the USDAA agility competitions. You can purchase your own agility equipment for dogs that will help you to train your own dog, and there are a variety of different retailers for these. If you have never had agility equipment for dogs before, this will put you well on the path to winning your $10,000 prize money!