Jackie

TIME: People don’t want TitR because it wastes other people’s time and makes tournaments go longer. The rule discourages unready dogs and unready handlers from running.

Very few instances of TitR would give a competitive advantage, since dogs that ARE trained are clearly faster than dogs BEING trained.

In Agility, for instance, if you have to guide your hands in and out of the weaves for a dog that isn’t really ready to compete, you can turn a 4 second weave poll obstacle into a several minute affair.

Course Integrity: Dropped food is a major distraction and since food is the key motivator, if you allow TitR, you’re going to get following competitors who will be at a disadvantage. Squeeky toys also become objects to be fought over and thus encourage turf war fights between dogs and are also a noise distraction to other dogs.

I am only in my first year of training for Agility and Flyball, but I think the central issue is making tournaments run faster and more fair.

Several of the TitR issues that others have brought up in the comments, such as where you stand and where you let your dog go from, are STRATEGY. They do, in no way, effect the speed of the tournament in a negative way or provide any distraction to another dog or team.

Calling such things training is to make the word too vague AS IT IS APPLIED in the rules. Perhaps a fault of the vague language in the rules and perhaps the human rules-lawyer nature to make a point… but if you want to go that far, saying “good dog” at the end of a run would be positive reinforcement ‘training’ too.

IMO, there should be maximum freedom given to what people do behind the first gate, as long as it does not provide a sensory distraction to the other team. I.e. no enticing smells, sounds, or sights. The gate forward all the way to the box should be as uniform and clear of distraction as possible.

So the lady using herself as a shield on the first jump… against the rules. Sure it’s strategy too, but it’s a stop gap for a dog that isn’t ready, not a slight modification of a ready dog, and her being out there is a distraction to the other team. Distractions or not, the course integrity should be maintained and it’s clearly easier to do so with no human interference and uniform equipment. The woman at the first jump could be seen as both distraction and as altering the equipment (gate+guide vs. gate).

Naturally, most people are going to be quite understanding in a situation with green dogs, though.

A way around it is to submit a substantially “faster” seed time for that time, that way the other team is done long before the fourth dog goes (under most circumstances) So no holding back is required.

I’ve seen teams in my region do the running up thing with the dog–they don’t necessarily run all the way up to the start line, but the people do run ahead of the dog for a bit and let the dog pass them. I never really saw it as ‘training in the ring’ but more like motivation to make the dog more drivey (like how folks scream ‘ready, ready, ready’ and such). As far as I know, no one has been called on it here. Yep–I’d have to agree that it is in the eye of the beholder.

Holding up a pass on a green dog is a completley different story. Dogs need to learn confidence and unless you have a wonder-dog… close passing takes time and patience. It just doesn’t happen over night for most dogs. I will admit that ‘some’ dogs have no issues passing right from go, but this has been a rarity in my experience.

As for training in the ring – my team has been called for it by a Judge before and we were all kind of shocked when it happened. We have a dog who is no speed demon but runs better with lots of revving and someone running beside him up to the start line. We lost a heat because the Judge interpreted running down the lane with him was training in the ring. Needless to say – we don’ t do that anymore.

It’s a very interpretive rule and let’s face it… we ALL do it to a certain degree! If a dog is having an issue during a tournament don’t we all ‘adjust’ our routine to help the dog succeed? I know my team does. I’d rather hold up a pass a little on a dog having a ball dropping issue than reinforce the incorrect behavoir over and over and over again. Just my opinion…

Holding a dog does not teach it not to cross the ring on another dog, it simply takes away the other dog from the equation and reinforces I go down to the box and come back, but it’s not training the dog not to cross. Though that’s just my way to interpret it. I can see how some people might argue holding as a training “device” but I don’t see it in my own mind.

Holding can however be a “Sandbagging” issue which is actually in the code of ethics and something to refer to the regional director. I don’t consider holding passes as giving a team an unfair advantage. Though I’m sure we might be able to come up with one or two reasons how it could in regards to break-out, taking 3/5 heats to five, etc… But would take these on a situational basis.

You will likely never see a head judge come and reprimand a competitor for “holding back” a dog that is known to cross as they are thinking of the safety of both there and the other team’s dogs. That being said if you must consistently hold a dog back at every tournament because that dog consistently crosses there is a question weather or not that dog should be competing. This of course is probably another topic as well. Because as a judge you may be asked to not run your dog if crossing is consistent.

A dog needs to gain experience. That should start in practice, solidify in warm-ups and all come together in a final heat. If you have a dog that crosses the most important thing as as competitor to do in my opinion, is once a dog does it is to immediately collect your dog and remove it from the ring this does two things
1) Shows to the other teams that you recognize the issue and are correcting for it
2) The dog learns that when it crosses it doesn’t get to play anymore. It’s important that the dog be taken to it’s kennel and not get to enjoy excitement of just sitting on the side of the ring.

Thanks for you comments Stuart! I thought you put a great perspective on things.

When we ran my dog in her first tournament less than a month ago, we held her passes.

While we had won the division the day before, we lost that day. In my interpretation, it wasn’t an “unfair advantage” to give every win to another team though some teams may have been miffed that is wasn’t a true race with a held pass.

(honestly though, every team we raced was so supportive of us getting her out there!)

When she was crossed over on in a warm-up and then that same dog was racing anchor as well – we made a quick decision to hold her pass until that dog had triggered the box and was over 2 jumps.

It was a big hold – it was an obvious hold but in my mind it was better to have a positive experience in the ring for her and risk a “training in the ring” than to have her spook at the line.