AGILITY COURSE DESIGNING

The art and science of Course Design…

Perhaps the hardest part of being an agility judge is the planning and designing of courses for the competitions that you are hired for. Ensuring the challenges are suitable for the level of competition while maintaining a personal signature on the courses can be very difficult. The course design must have elements of challenge and elements of fun while adhering to the most important requirement…Safety for both the dog and human.

I have been an FCI judge since 2013 and my favourite part of judging is watching competitors tackle my courses with absolute trust in their dog’s skills. Sometimes it's the team you don't expect that absolutely nails it and seeing that success is so fun. I have designed courses for all levels, from first time competitor to international champion. Some days I watch courses being ran exactly as I imagined when drawing it out and some days a course runs completely different from what I expected (in good OR bad ways).

My first priority is ALWAYS safety, mostly for the dog but also considering the handlers path and my own path while being in position to see every contact, bar and weave. Not only do I have to ensure there is a safe line for the dog to every obstacle, I need to assume that people may choose a different line that will in turn change approaches. I need to consider spacing, turns, speed, visual lines and work within pre-set ring sizes and equipment availability.

Competition level can vary within geographical locations and designing a course that will adequately test people and dogs while not completely destroying morale is a big consideration. Different provinces or even countries can be close in proximity and have VERY different levels of competition. My personal goal is to have about 50% of teams make it through clean or nearly clean. Watching every single team fail miserably on a course would be a nightmare for me as a judge and having 100% clean means that competitors did not get their $ worth for challenges.

Judges have a personal style that makes their courses unique and takes time to develop. Challenges on course change rapidly with the times and designing courses to keep up with those changes while maintaining that personal flair is fun. Personally, I don’t believe agility handlers should have to be olympic sprinters to get through a course successfully but I do believe in independent sends to obstacles and solid skills on the dog that can be trusted. If you stand around watching your dog go into a tunnel, you aren't going to make it through my course ;)

Course design is both an art and a science. It is something that takes time to master but for me it is worth the effort. Of course not all courses are going to run perfectly but watching teams enjoy and successfully navigate my design keeps me coming back to stand in the wind/rain/sun for hours at a time!