The Care and Feeding of an Agility Trial

Last weekend the Show Me Agility Club of Central MO had our AKC agility trial at CCSC. This was the fourth AKC agility trial that I've served as Trial Chair, which is another way to say "chief finger-pointer, worrier, obsessor, and over-organizer." But an AKC agility trial is a huge club-wide effort and I thought I'd give some insight on how much work goes into the final product of two (hopefully flawlessly run) days of agility.

Agility trials are often planned well over a year in advance. I line up a judge and secure the venue. This was our first time at CCSC. Previously we'd been at the Boone County Fairgrounds. There were a number of differences between the sites we needed to deal with. The Fairgrounds is on a dirt arena, where we can hammer down the obstacles that move easily like tunnels and weaves. Can't hammer into the rubber flooring at CCSC, so we needed to adapt. In this case, that meant that the equipment chair (Kathy) and I collaborated on ordering new sets of weave poles that would work better on the rubber surface. We also had a club work day and made sure all of our tunnel weights (sandbags) were nice and heavy. CCSC would also mean a different ring layout and different duties. We had to establish a grounds chairman (Gary R) to do things like monitor trash and help people park efficiently. As part of our contract, we had to clean the arena before and after the show, which meant a massive vacuuming effort. We vacuumed the entire building on Friday. That's 28,800 square feet of vacuuming. Some of our competitors, coming in early from all over the midwest, actually helped us. Agility people are great. We also needed to get a food vendor in (Jamaican Jerk Hut) as well as snacks for our large corps of volunteers who work the show in exchange for being fed. Patti organized that.

Our club hires a trial secretary because we don't have time to do that ourselves. She gets the Premium (the info people use to enter) done and also actually accepts and processes all the entries people send. She prints up armband numbers and running orders, sends out notices to people that they've been entered, and deals with early withdrawals. She prints up a sheet for each dog to be used on each day of the show so their score and time can be individually recorded. On the day of the trial she processes all of the results, entering the information from each dog's run (time and faults) into her computer. She generates a result sheet and labels which our awards person (Linda in this case) takes and puts on the ribbons for placements of first through fourth and also people who qualified but didn't place in the top four.

Our judge (Bonnie D from the Chicago area) stands in the arena all day both days and makes calls. She's designed the courses for each level (Novice, Open, Excellent) and each type of run (Standard, Jumpers with Weaves). She is the ultimate authority on the show site on things that go on inside the ring. I am the authority over all things that go on outside the ring.

When the trial rings are actually running it's a symphony of motion. Each dog and handler team comes out into the ring and to the start line just as the previous team is finishing. The timer, who runs our electronic-eye system, presses the "Go" button and the team starts. The judge watches the dog and handler and has a series of hand signals to indicate any faults she sees such as refusing an obstacle or jump, going over the wrong jump/obstacle, not putting a paw in the safety zone at the bottom of each obstacle, and/or dropping a bar. The scribe at the side of the ring is intently watching the judge for those hand signals and writes each error down (if any) on the scribe sheet for that dog. When the dog crosses the finish line the scribe flips her sheet over to the assistant, who writes down the time it took the dog to run and then hands it to a runner. Meanwhile the scribe is already doing the next dog, and the runner takes the sheet to the secretary to enter into the computer.

The organization of getting that ring running smoothly belongs to the ever important gate steward. The Gate has a listing of who is supposed to be running when, and exhibitors make sure they're in line so they're ready to step forward to the start. A good Gate steward can make a trial, a bad one can break it. Oh, and I can't forget the bar setters. Each ring has at least 3 people sitting inside the ring to put bars back on jumps in case a dog takes one down. So just for the ring, you have a gate steward, 3 ring crew, scribe, assistant scribe, timer, sheet runner and a leash runner to take each dog's leash from the startline to the finish (dogs must enter and exit the ring on leash).

But that's not all. After a class is finished, Kathy, our extremely capable chief course builder, steps into the ring to build the course for the next class. She also has a crew of people who help her. Kathy's job is to make sure each class is built to the judge's specifications, and those measurements are given to her on a map that tells her exactly where each jump or obstacle goes literally to the inch. So you see her in the ring with a measuring wheel and a 100' tape.

This year we had a few hiccups that were things out of our control, so it was even more nerve wracking than usual. However, on the weekend itself, everything went perfectly. The exhibitors were thrilled with the new location, not upset by having a delay in getting their ribbons and placements on Saturday, and very complimentary. In fact I think it's our first show where no one complained about a single thing all weekend. And agility people are really the best. We had a lot of volunteers who were non-club members. Best of all, we had fun. It was a weekend of teasing and laughter, of great runs and not-so-great ones and some that were a comedy of errors. But that's what agility is all about.

For our November trial, I'll turn the Trial Chair responsibilities over to Deb H. But I'll be back next April or May for our next spring trial. It's a huge amount of work for the whole club but somehow still fun.