The Kennel Club has a long standing relationship with the American Kennel Club (AKC) which extends to co-operation over a number of issues and which sees the AKC sponsoring teams to compete annually at Crufts for both the international obedience and agility competitions. The AKC have been planning to develop a more international flavour to their events and decided to create an International Agility competition alongside the annual AKC Invitational Championships. Steve Croxford reports on the success of the British team in The States.

The AKC Invitational Agility competition is perhaps a unique event in that the aim is to ensure as many breeds as possible are represented and are able to demonstrate their agility skills. The AKC invite the top five dogs from each breed to compete at the invitational, which this year was to be held 2-3 December at the Convention Centre in Long Beach, California.

The Kennel Club decided to send a team to the event, initially as a one-off, in recognition of the support the AKC provides to Crufts every year and as a way of helping to develop international agility competition.

Agility is probably one of the few dog sports in the world that is in the position to develop international events with relative ease. This is due to the fact that agility rules are pretty similar everywhere you go. That said, the AKC have a number of variations to their rules which caused a little confusion for the team to start with (more on this later). The fact that the rules are similar everywhere must be put down to the influence the early (British) pioneers of agility had in the development of the sport in other countries. For once the influence prevailed to good effect and the sport has developed on similar lines almost everywhere in the world.

In March, after the decision was taken to send a team, the Kennel Club asked me to select a team to represent them in the USA. After consulting amongst some members of the Liaison Council and the KC General Committee, it was decided that the choice of team should be left to me as there was insufficient time to create a qualifying event just for this occasion. I came up with a short list of people who I thought would be able to do a good job as part of a team and during Crufts I started to sound one or two of them out about whether they would be interested in being a part of the team.

Briefly my selection criteria was

• Had they been on a World Championships Team before?

• What had their performances been like at Crufts and other KC Championship events?

•  Would they be able to handle the pressure of competing in the US?

I then started the slow process of inviting people, and then waiting to find out if they were prepared to travel with their dog to the? USA. Eventually, I got positive responses from three handlers

• Rachel Mowbray - Nutmeg, (Border Terrier)

• Hannah Mitchell - Gem (Miniature Poodle)

• Simon Peachey - Diesel, (Border Collie)

The Journey
Anyone who has travelled with their dog abroad will understand how complicated flying can be in comparison to travelling across the Channel. For reasons probably best known only to DEFRA, air travel with a dog is an over-complicated and expensive business. Having had previous experience in organising team travel by air, I know how important it is to get the right advice. You need to have someone on board (excuse the pun!) who is an expert in what they do. Fortunately, I had found a willing volunteer to help to organise this for me in Meg Purnell-Carpenter, who runs Overhill Kennels in Bristol.

From previous experience of flying, I also know that the last airport on earth you want to travel through with a dog is Gatwick. I do not doubt the professionalism of the cargo handlers at this airport, but it is so busy with air freight that you have do get in the queue with everyone else. Pleas about ‘priceless pet dogs’ fall on deaf ears when dealing with the cargo clearing people. I know I have tried it before. They have a system which they are going to stick to regardless.

Next up was the choice of airline, given my wish to avoid Gatwick, I decided to use Continental Airlines and travel via Bristol airport which had recently been approved under the pet travel scheme. This meant a bit of a convoluted journey to Los Angeles via New York, but I was happy that we would not need to clear the dogs through the Animal Reception Centre at a busy mainstream airport on our return.

In my experience, when competing with dogs abroad it is essential that the dog has sufficient time to recover from the journey before expecting it to give of its best. You need to allow a clear 24 hours for recovery before competing.

The team met up at Overhill Kennels early on the morning of Wednesday, 29 November ready for travel. Unfortunately, despite the best laid plans we were already aware that we may not be able to fly back into Bristol on our return. There had been problems with the Animal Reception Centre at Bristol which had only emerged a few days before we travelled.

The dogs were loaded into their travel crates. We waved our good byes to them and set ourselves for a long journey. The dogs were left in the capable hands of Continental Airlines for their journey which would involve a stopover for a couple of hours in New York before the onward journey to Los Angeles. Both flights passed off without incident, and we were pleased to see how quickly, after each landing, the dogs were removed from the plane into the hands of the animal handling people. We were assured the dogs were in good care and according to the records attached to the crates on our arrival in LA the dogs had been watered and exercised during the stopover.

It is worth passing on a tip at this point about travelling with pets by air. The team members had written up an introduction note (which included a cute picture of the dog!) to hand to the cabin staff when we boarded the plane. This helped to ensure that the staff remembered to confirm to us that the dogs were on the plane before it took off. As well as confirming to us that the dogs were on the same flight, the note served a useful purpose in bringing the presence of dogs to the attention of the cabin staff in a polite and friendly way.

Safe passage for the dogs was our prime concern, and I am pleased to report that Continental Airlines did there very best to ensure the dogs were well cared for throughout the journey. However, it was still a relief to see the dogs safely at the other end even though they were being carried on the back of a fork lift truck! None of the dogs seemed any the worse for the journey and quickly set about restoring the normal order of things by checking out the new territory and leaving their mark as best they could.

The Competition

It is not in my nature to bore people with long explanations of the rules in an article. However, the rules played an important part in the team's overall performance and, therefore, need some explanation for the reader to understand the event.

The nature of the competition in the USA is somewhat different to the UK with the emphasis first and foremost on ‘clean runs’ which score points to the all important MACH titles that can be earned with your dog. This has its benefits in that very few dogs of any breed are excluded from earning titles because of speed. This emphasis on clean runs changes the nature of the competition in so much as people are more focussed on this than necessarily speed like we are used to in Europe.

The American Scoring System
Another element to the way this competition was judged was the faults gained whilst on course (or off course). I still find the concept of a ‘wrong course’ rule a hard one to grasp, even ten years after it was first explained to me.

A ‘W’ (a wrong course is marked as a ‘W’ on the score sheet) means you can continue as long as you correct the wrong course element before you complete the round. So a handler and dog combination could get miss out an obstacle at the beginning of the round and, as long as they go back and complete the course before the dog takes the last obstacle, could still accumulate a score for the overall competition. (You can download a copy of the rules if you really want to know; otherwise just take my word for it!)

Course times play an important part, because handlers are trying to achieve a ‘Q’, - qualifying points for the all important MACH title, but these are generous, too. Only handlers failing to correct errors would see their dogs eliminated from the competition. Or I should say, in the vernacular, ‘failure to complete’ an ‘F’ on the score sheet. So, if you take a wrong course and fail to correct it, say by missing out the last two weave poles, then you get an ‘F’. (You get F’d and not E’d so to speak...)

Each course fault, including ‘Ws’, would see 18 deducted from a possible maximum score of 100. ‘F’s do not score any points at all. So a clean run would score 100 points, a round with one jumping fault (knock down) would score 82, a round with a jumping fault and a refusal would score 64, a round with a ‘W’ would score 82 points. I think you should be getting the gist of it by now.

All this took some getting to grips with, and our inexperience of the scoring system left us at a bit of a disadvantage to start with. In short, our tactics at the start were 'get four clears and see where it gets us.' As it happened, it got one of the dogs in the final so it can’t have been too far wrong, just a bit naïve!

International Flavour
Starting a truly international competition is always a challenge and this was the first time the AKC have tried to attract entries from other countries. The international flavour was provided by handlers and dogs from Argentina, Canada, Puerto Rico and the UK. Both the Canadian and Argentina teams were represented by handlers and dogs that have competed at the FCI world championships.

The competition was for dogs in five height categories 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24 inches. The British team had entered dogs in the three height categories most familiar to us; the 12 inch Rachel Mowbray and Nutmeg, the 16 inch Hannah Mitchell and Gem and the 24 inch category Simon Peachey and Diesel. There were two runs per day, a ‘jumpers with weaves’ and an agility round. All four rounds would count towards qualifying for a final were the top dogs from each breed overall would compete in the grand final.

The 12 inch category
Rachel’s first run did not get off to the best of starts, with faults incurred at the weaves when Meg lost her footing on a raised weave pole base. Unfortunately, Rachel was too late to correct the error immediately and in returning Meg to the start of the weaves incurred a wrong course faults as well. Completing the course correctly (under the AKC rules) Meg finished on a score of 64 and a time of 38.80.

Now Rachel was in the unhappy position of having to play catch up over the next three rounds. Despite having started with a disadvantage Meg put in three clears moving up the leader board from a lowly position after round 1. Rachel finished third overall in the international line up behind Justin Davenport of Canada.

Results - Rachel Mowbray with Nutmeg (Border Terrier)

At the end of the class the 12 inch category was won convincingly by Michelle Beardsley with Willow, a Australian Shepherd Dog (yes, you do read correctly!) In second overall was one of my favourite dogs of the tournament, Hoosier a Boston Terrier handled by Kelly Misegadis.

Other breeds represented were a Parson Russell Terrier, a Shetland Sheepdog, a Miniature Pinscher, a Manchester Terrier, a Poodle, a Sealyham Terrier, a Pug, a Rat Terrier, a Border terrier and an American Eskimo Dog

The 16 inch Class
Hannah Mitchell and Gem looked the class of the field from the start of the competition being placed highly in each of the two runs on the first day. Placing third overall after the first two runs was an excellent achievement and the pairing looked to have secured a third clear round on Sunday until the last hurdle when a slight detour from the optimum line and a late correction from Hannah saw Gem knock the last pole down. It seemed that luck wasn’t to be with us on the second day.

This pushed Hannah and Gem way down the leader board. Despite a fantastic run in the Jumpers round at the end of the day which saw the pairing come out overall winners of the class, they just missed out on a place in the grand final. Unfortunately the scoring system had worked against us again on this occasion. Faults incurred for a knocked pole (18) seem somewhat harsh when comparing it with rounds where dogs taking the wrong course (an elimination in the UK) were faulted the same. This is an anomaly which I am sure the organisers will have to look at for next time.

In any event, Hannah and Gem were still impressive and the win in the last individual round of the day made up a little for the disappointment of not qualifying for the grand final. In the final results Hannah and Gem were the second highest placed international pairing over the two days behind Jessica Martin of Canada and her Toller. Gem also won the top award for an International Competitor in the best three runs  out of four and the top award in the same competition overall.

Results – Hannah Mitchell with Gem (Miniature Poodle)

Winning the overall event and qualifying for the final was ex-patriot Brit Ashley Deacon with his Pyrenean Shepherd dog Luka. Again the mix of breeds qualifying for the final was impressive, a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever in second followed by, a Poodle, a Portuguese Water Dog, a Beagle, a Welsh Terrier, a Bedlington Terrier, an American Eskimos Dog, a Welsh Springer Spaniel and an English Cocker Spaniel.

The 24 inch class
Strictly speaking under AKC rules, the pairing of Simon Peachey and Diesel should have run in the 20 inch class. However, the international teams were invited to compete under the FCI classifications (for Small, Medium and Large) and so it was that they competed in a class higher than all the other Border Collies in the competition.

This should not detract from the performance of the pairing who, apart from an uncharacteristically cautious run in the first event, were on fire all weekend. Living up to their billing as one of the best pairings around in the UK at the moment, they stormed to three wins out of four over the qualifying rounds ‘maxing out’ with a score of 400. Playing catch up from the slow start, Simon and Diesel never topped the cumulative leader board at all over the weekend.

A time-for-time battle was going on between J. Rusty Pearson with his Belgian Shepherd Dog Maxwell and Simon with Diesel all weekend and it was great sport to watch, particularly as both handlers were going for it every time the left the start. In the end there was only a few tenths of a second in it for the overall places setting up a real battle for the grand final.

To cap a very good weekend qualifying for Simon and Diesel they finished first overall in the international competition too, way ahead of everyone else. They also won the top award for an International Competitor in the best three runs  out of four and the top award in the same competition overall.

Results – Simon Peachey  with Diesel (Border Collie)

So in the final we had a Belgian Shepherd, a Border Collie, a German Shepherd Dog, a Labrador, a Gordon Setter, a Boxer, a Doberman Pinscher, a Siberian Husky, an Irish Setter, a Great Dane, an Alaskan Malamute and a Dalmatian.

The Grand Final
The finals course was set and judged by Marq Cheek. Agility fans will know Marq as the character from the US supporters team at the FCI world championships. He usually dresses up in spectacular regalia and leads the dancing for the US team. Much more conservatively dressed than I have ever seen him, Marq has set an interesting finals course that was to challenge the best dogs, handlers and breeds from two days of competition.

The last two combinations to run in the televised final were Simon Peachey with Diesel and J Rusty Pearson with Max in the 24 inch category. A fiercely competitive but sporting competition had been going on between these two all weekend. Simon was first to go with Diesel and, once again, they put on a display of controlled aggression and team work. They put in a storming clear in Rusty Pearson and Max had been the model of precision and speed all weekend, but they really needed to put in a fast clear in order to push Simon out of the leaders chair. In the end, the pressure told and the pairing gained faults on both the dog walk and see saw in putting down a very fast time of 31.79. It was a shame for them to end the competition this way, but they were trying for the outright win and it needed something special to beat Simon and Diesel. For a jump-by-jump video comparison of the two dogs on course, click here.

Overall the first ever British team to compete in the USA acquitted themselves well and made many new friends along the way. Our hosts the American Kennel Club were fantastic and made everyone on the team feel welcome. We look forward to returning the compliment to the USA team at Crufts in both the agility and obedience competitions in March 2007.

[bottom.htm]

© Copyright Agilitynet