Let’s celebrate May 4th with a look at some very different agility courses!

When you are training your agility dog, having very different courses to examine, and to set up and practice, can be very helpful. So check these out!

Practice Makes Perfect

This practice course was designed for an “AKC style” practice by Happy Urban Dog instructor Elaine Rinicker, CCFT, ABC-DT. There are some great elements to train in this course, including a challenging tunnel entry, a tricky weave pole exit, and good opportunities to test your contact training. It’s got some fun sweeping parts as well so your dog can really run!

A League of Their Own

Agility judge (and innovator!) Bud Houston has shared two courses from the National Dog Agility League. Bud says, “We have clubs in four different countries playing with us right now, and roughly 300 dogs each month. We all run the same courses, under the same rules and roll up the results as a single competition. It’s especially fun because most of the results have a link to a YouTube recording of the run. I want to share with you a pair of courses from our ongoing league play. Each month we have four different league courses that are closely nested. But each has a different flavor or ‘level’ of play. Performance rules most closely resemble TDAA or USDAA Advanced.”

–50×70 Fast & Fun

This is a numbered course which is scored time, plus faults.

–60×90 Masters – Time Warp

Time Warp is a numbered sequence that includes distance challenges that will reward the dog with bonus points. The dog will earn 10 bonus points for performing #2 to #4 without fault, so long as the handler stays on the opposite side of the blue containment line.

The dog will also earn 10 bonus points for performing #5 to#7 without fault, so long as the handler stays on the opposite side of the red containment line.

The dog will earn 10 additional bonus points if the dog performs the obstacles in both the red and blue sequences without fault, so long as the handler stays on the opposite side of the blue containment line throughout.

Time Warp is scored time, plus faults, less bonus.

See a video of Bud and Kory running this course.

Jumpers by Jelinda

USDAA judge Jelinda Pepper shared these two Jumpers courses. One is a Masters/PIII Jumpers course and one is a Masters Challenge Biathlon Jumpers course, so both are challenging, fast, and fun!

May the Fourth be with You!

King of Theme Courses, USDAA judge and Clean Run author David Bozak, didn’t have a Star Wars theme course on hand for us, but this “star” one is close enough to wrap up our May the Course be with You day! It’s a USDAA Snooker Master Snooker course. Enjoy!

Wait! There’s More!

What’s after May 4th? Cinco de Mayo! This Snooker course, also by David Bozak, was published in Clean Run magazine in the May 2017 issue. It’s based on Team Mexico’s logo. Have fun!