Agility Nationals

On Animal Planet tonight, Ultimate Dog Championships was showing Agility National competitions. I only caught the tail end of it. I watched as all sorts of dogs, mixed, pure bred, big, and small, attacked a very confusing agility course. There didn't seem to be a circuit course, but instead a number of obstacles worth a variety of points and then a final four hurdles to the finish line were mandatory. During the first 30 seconds, a dog could run through a number of obstacles no more than twice each to rack up as many points as possible. Once the horn blew, they had to run immediately through the final four hurdles to the finish line. And they only had a limited amount of time to finish the final course. Many dogs ran out of time and were disqualified. What I noticed was that the handlers were having to do so much work, talking, signaling, praising, looking ahead, and the dogs just looked confused, trying to figure out what to do. I suppose if it was a set circuit course it would be much easier. But anyways, it was interesting to watch. I wouldn't want to try that kind of competitive agility. I'll stick to our little agility course for fun. In fact, another course is starting in just a few weeks and I'm very excited it's on a night that I can go to. I think we're gonna continue with this, just for fun.