UKC Agility/Obed at CCSC this weekend

This weekend (Feb 9-10) the Show Me Canines club will host a UKC Obedience and Agility trial at CCSC.

A bit about UKC. The UKC is not as old as the AKC, but it was founded in 1898. So it has a lot of history. The UKC has always sort of catered to working/sporting dogs and sponsors beagle hunts, coonhound events, etc. The UKC has always marched to the beat of a different drummer, and its agility and obedience events reflect that.

UKC obedience differs from AKC in a couple of significant ways. First, the UKC has an Honor Down, where one competitor's dog "honors" the next competitor by being on a down in the ring while the next dog works. It's a great real life exercise. There's also a jump on the recall in Novice. Open and Utility rules differ even more, with a walking steward in Open (a stranger who walks the opposite path to the heeling dog to show the dog's ability to work with distractions) and two glove exercises in Utility. There are other rule differences, but those are some of the major ones.

UKC agility is hugely different than any other agility venue. That's easily seen in the type of obstacles in the ring. In addition to the "normal" aframe, dogwalk, and teeter, there is also a hoop tunnel, pause box, sway bridge, swing plank, platform jump, and crawl tunnel. In Novice, the only different obstacle is the hoop tunnel, which looks like (well it IS actually...) a bunch of hula hoops looped together for a large, open sided tunnel. The other obstacles are in Ag 2 and Ag3, the more advanced levels. There are also many more handler behavior rules in UKC agility--a handler is faulted for passing his hand over a jump for instance. Finally, there is a lot more time to complete a course. UKC agility is a great place to start kids and young dogs.

If you plan to come this weekend, please keep a few things in mind.

It's free and open to the public. The entry is a bit small, so mornings would be the best time to come. Please leave your own dog at home. There is no smoking on the property, inside or out. And dress in layers, it's supposed to get really windy and cold Saturday and Sunday. Though the big building does have heat, it can't keep up well with extreme temperatures, especially when it's windy!