Before we start, a few notes for the uninitiated. An agility course is a series of obstacles laid out by the judges in a new course for each competition.
The handler must lead the dog through the obstacles in the correct order, meeting certain standards along the way. For example, when a dog goes over a jump, he or she must not knock down any of the poles and when the dog goes on the teetor-totter or over the A-frame, he or she must touch at least one foot in the yellow painted zones at each end of the obstacle. When a dog doesn’t meet one of the standards, a 10-second penalty is assessed. Going in the wrong order through the obstacles causes a 5-second time fault. A dog who doesn’t have any faults is said to have run “clean”.
Dogs run in classes defined by their heights so that the tallest dogs must make the highest jumps. An exception is granted for age, with senior dogs getting to jump one class lower than their height would otherwise dictate. This is a called a preferred class.
Come back for the 20-inch class results.