Where agility is the bees knees
 In 1994
Alan Shrimpton and his family arrived in Auckland from Australia. They had no home - just a
truck load of baby things and dog gear. He is currently the Zone One Representative and he sits
on the NZ Kennel Club Dog Training Committee. Agilitynet has invited him to share his
experience at New Zealand's largest obedience and agility jamboree.
Every year we hold an National Dog Obedience Assembly (NDOA).
It's the largest Obedience and Agility Show at the one venue in New Zealand. The name is a
hangover from the days when there was no such thing as Agility. This year, however, is the last
time it will known by this name because, in future,
it will be called the National Dog Training Assembly (NDTA).
The Show was held over our long Labour Day weekend on 24
- 26th October. Dave and Mary Ray from the UK were there. From what they said, the UK doesn't
have anything quite like it - a three day National devoted purely to Obedience (indoors) and
Agility (outdoors). To win here is the 'bees knees'. People come from all parts of the country
for the social occasion and to catch up with old friends. Many take it extremely serious. Some
will take great pride in how many "D's" (Disqualified) they get. I think you call it the "Big
E" as in Elimated.
Standard Classes Explained
First a word about how Agility in New Zealand is organised. The country is split into
five geographic areas called Zones. We differ from the UK in that we have only four Standard
classes of Agility - Starters, Novice, Intermediate and Seniors. There is also an AD Trial
which consists of 12 set courses. One course is drawn from a hat on the day, and any dogs going
clear will go towards a handler's AD Title. This is just a qualifying round rather than the
Standard win to get out.
Each dog is able to enter any two of these classes,
excluding the AD, in their entire Agility carrier. The title 'Starters' refers purely to the
dog, so an experienced handler can enter it again with their next dog. Starters has no contact
gear. Now a dog can enter Starters and Novice.
Novice has all the contact equipment, but the courses are
much the same as Starters. Once you have two wins from either of these, or your AD title, you
can then no longer enter Starters classes. You can, however, enter Novice and Intermediate.
Once you win three Novices or Intermediates, or have two wins and your ADX title, then you can
no longer enter Novice. You can only enter Intermediate and Seniors.
Meanwhile Back at the NDOA
Friday night is Registration. You can pick up your numbers and enjoy a light meal with a bottle
of beer or wine. On Saturday night after Day 1 of the competition, there is a social evening
when each Zone has to do a skit. This year the theme was 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum'. Sunday night
was another evening of socialising. On the last day Monday, we hold the Teams Event which is
the final thing for the weekend. Each zone furnishes a team of Agility and Obedience
competitors.
This year we had 11 classes of Agility including two
Starters (123 entries), three Novices (153 entries), two Intermediate (105 entries), three
Seniors (59 entries) and one AD. On top of that, there was one Novelty at the end called
Gamblers. This is the same as the Gamblers you get in the USA. You do sequences of the course,
and if you make an error, the other dog has to continue from that obstacle.
Obedience classes were run over the Saturday and the
Sunday at the same venue. This year the classes were big enough to split in the Obedience
sector. There were also Working Trial Tests including CD (Companion Dog), UD (Utility Dog) and
WD (Working Dog). No TDs were on offer this year due to lack of space. As this letter is
supposed to be about Agility Down Under, I won't go any further into the Obedience.
The Grand Finale
Monday was the Teams Event as I mentioned earlier. This is how it works. Each Zone
enters one dog in each class. Monday morning started with the 'parade in' with the team members
and their mascots, which are some pretty funny people in animal suits attacking each other. The
mascots are a Cat, Frog, Dog, Panther and Penguin. Next the previous year's winners of The Cup
(Obedience) and The Shield (Agility) return their trophies and the show begins.
The first class was the Special Beginners. Each Zone's
Beginner did their stuff. They are placed from 1st -5th (being only five Zones). Then the
Novice dogs ran, followed by Test 'A' dogs. We then had a break from the Obedience and went to
the Agility (hooray).
 The
Starter dogs went first, placed again from 1st - 5th. First place gets five points, second
place gets four points and so on. Next came the Novice dogs, followed by the Intermediate and
lastly, the Seniors. At the end of the day, the points for each Zone were added together to get
the Shield winner. That's me picking up second place at the prize giving with my wife's
Standard Poodle Riot.
With the Agility over, we went to the Obedience,
finishing with Test B and lastly Test C. During all the action there is cheering, razzing and
comradeship. A jolly good day had by all! Of course, you get what you put in. If you go to have
fun, you do.
Anyway that's enough from Down Under NZ for now. Hope you
enjoyed my NDOA as much as I did. This year the NDTA will be held in Invercargil South on the
South Island. Our tickets are in the post!
About the author...
Alan Shrimpton is an Aussie living in New Zealand. He is a member of North Shore Dog
Training Club in Auckland and does obedience and breed showing as well as agility. His breed is
poodle. This year his Standard Poodle, Summer, was Top Dog in his Zone. By the way, his dog
Indi picked up 2nd and 6th places at the NDOA while Riot got a 2nd and a 10th place.
If you would like to know more, you can email him
on loverslane.poodles@aka.electrics.co.nz
or you can visit him at
Loverslane Poodles
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