After the annual Board of Directors meeting the USDAA has posted an announcement indicating that it will drop the height of the A Frame for both the Championship and Performance programs.

A-Frame Standards

The Board has revised the regulations for the A-frame, setting the height in the Championship Program for large dogs at no less than 5'9" and no more than 5'11", and for small dogs and all dogs in the Performance Program, no less than 5'5" and no more than 5'7". The final regulations will stipulate the range of angles in order that the standard will be more accurately specified and not be impacted by different construction standards. (In adopting the change, it was noted that the IFCS standard is may be changing to 5'11", or 180cm).

(Note that this announcement was modified on March 9, 2007; the range for the small dogs was intended to be 5'5" to 5'7" instead of 5'3" to 5'5". The top of each range represents the IFCS international standard.)

The effective date is March 30, 2007.

Now that the IFCS is lowering the A Frame this keeps USDAA in line with those specifications. There seems to be a fair amount of celebration on the USDAA email list for interested competitors.

The 4 inch height drop will reduce the angle the boards make with the ground and should lessen the impact on the dog's using 2o2o for their contact criteria. By my calculations the angle a nine foot board makes with the ground with the height at 75 inches is 44 degrees, with the height at 71 inches the angle is reduced to 41 degrees.

Thanks to 1728's Right Triangle Calculator and 1728's Pythagorean Calculator for making the calculations easy.

The AKC is conducting a survey to try to gauge interest in allowing neutered and spayed mixed breeds to compete in Companion Events (agility, obedience, rally and tracking).

Personally, I think the AKC should allow mixed breeds to compete in these events with the same titles and opportunities (including invitational, national and international competitions) as pure bred dogs. I think it would make for better competition and (contrary to the AKC's stated goal of increasing the desire for pure bred dogs) will show the benefits of adopting rescue and shelter dogs.

So let the AKC know what you think: here is the survey and information packet. The survey is open until March 31st 2007.

The AKC has posted its policy for clothing worn in the agility ring on its website:

Advertising is not allowed in the AKC agility ring on the clothing worn by an exhibitor or ring crew staff, such as, "train at Joe's Dog School," or "eat at Joe's Diner." Club shirts may be worn. Writing on clothing must not be in poor taste or contain profanity. Clothing must not display the name of a person or a persons' dog or their titles. If a dog food logo is worn, it must not be in conflict with a sponsor of the trial. A picture of the exhibitors' dog may be worn.

Judging by discussions on the agility email lists, this brings the agility policy more in line with that for other AKC events.

So much for those AgilityNerd T Shirts I was going to make and trial in :^)