Agility Thougths

I've come to the conclusion that AKC courses are not designed for 26 inch dogs (possibly not for 24 inch dogs either but that is a different matter.) I watched three dogs run in the 26 in class this weekend and to me it looked like all of those dogs were trying to keep the bars up but could not put in the right amount of strides then take off from the correct spot to keep them up. In one run, one of the dogs had 2 full strides between a jump but that put him too close to the base of the jump and he contorted his body but ticked the bar and it came down. Watching the jumping styles of those dogs it doesn't quite look natural. I wonder if they had more room if they could have a nicer arc.

Agility is so weird that way. "They" come up with a rule- big does must jump 26 inches to qualify for the World Team, but they don't take into account that dogs in other countries jumping 26 inches are running a different type of course. Also, I have been told not only are the style of the course different, but each size of dog (small, medium and large) run a different course with different spacing between the jumps. Therefore, the small dogs aren't running forever between jumps, and the large dogs are not taking one jump and landing on top of another.


USDAA runs 26 inches as a mandatory height instead of the "optional" 26 inch height in AKC, but those judges are used to thinking about 26 inch dogs (I hope) where in AKC the 26 inch dogs are an afterthought. What is the purpose of jumping so high anyway? I don't want it to be like flyball were the dogs are hardly jumping, but what do high jumps do for the sport, other than stop our dogs from competing for as long as they want? Their bodies give out before their desire to play the game. I've read the big dogs used to jump 30 inches in agility- a legacy of obedience. I'm happy that went away.