Clean Run Magazine - September 2007 - 68

The Judge’s Debriefing By Laura A. English I have been an AKC agility judge for many years now and the only thing that I enjoy more is showing my own dogs. I show my dogs in AKC, NADAC, TDAA, and UKC. Each venue has different qualities that I like. The ﬁrst time I attended a TDAA trial and saw the smaller equipment, I just kept saying “Oh, how cute!” The distances between obstacles will vary from 6' to 12'. In TDAA when I run my four 12" Cocker Spaniels I am in the big dog group, which still seems so odd to me. Running my own dogs in TDAA has actually made me a better course designer for the 20" and 24" dogs in AKC. When I realized there was going to be a TDAA judges’ seminar close enough to drive to, I blocked off that weekend and sent in my sign-up form. The judge’s clinic went well except the 12" inches of snow and being stranded at the motel one day. Being stranded helped the participants to become good friends. At most TDAA trials clubs offer two Standard runs at the Superior, Intermediate, and Beginner levels on each day, as well as two Game runs at the Game III, Game II, and Game I levels. Usually for the games, all levels run the same course, but they have different course times and points needed to qualify. I accepted my ﬁrst TDAA judging assignment for The Greater St. Louis Agility Club in Caseyville, Illinois, for March 31 and April 1, 2007. It was held at Kim’s Canine Center, a perfect place for a TDAA trial. The trial was a lot of fun and I especially enjoyed judging the games. The judge has the option to tweak the rules slightly for the games; I like that choice because the game is always slightly different even if you play the same one. Weakest Link Game My favorite game for the weekend was the Weakest Link, invented by Tara Choate and shown in Figure 1. Since it was the last game of the weekend, I wanted it to be especially fun and not extremely hard. The objective of this game was to score as many points as possible in 60 seconds. Obstacles were assigned point values and I called out the points once the obstacle was successfully completed. Jumps were 2 points, tunnels and the tire were 4 points, contacts were 6 points, and the weaves were 8 points. Teams could start earning points with any obstacle. The clock started when any part of the dog crossed the start line. The clock stopped when any part of the dog crossed the ﬁnish line after the 60-second whistle was blown; if a team wished to stop the clock before the 68 whistle sounded, the dog had to cross the ﬁnish line and the handler had to tell the timer to stop. Points had to be “banked” to count toward the ﬁnal score. To bank points collected, the dog had to get on the table with all four paws, but no particular position was required. Teams could bank points as many times as they wanted during the 60 seconds. Each sequence a team attempted had to be unique in some way (reverse order was ﬁne) and each obstacle in the sequence had to be worth as much or more than the previous obstacle taken. If not, the team would loose any unbanked points—any banked points could never be lost! I advised the exhibitors that they could also gamble as to whether or not I would remember their sequences, but that it would be wise not to risk it. During the brieﬁng we decided to allow dogs to earn points for back-to-back obstacles only once. 1 T 3 2 1 S F Greater St. Louis Agility Club TDAA Weakest Link April 1, 2007 Judge: Laura A. English Clean Run | September 07

Clean Run Magazine - September 2007

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