The Impact of Moving Judges on Dog Agility Performance
19 Aug 2024
Janita Leinonen shared a great video of Jaako’s dog running a course with the judge purposely pausing and standing still as the dog comes out of the tunnel.
This is a key point for judges and any ring crew that move while a team is on course. I’ve seen it happen multiple times where a dog sees someone other than the handler moving and for a second thinks it is the handler and follows their motion.
It usually happens when a dog comes out of the tunnel (or chute in olden times) because when the dog exits it is looking to orient back to the last location where they saw the handler. If judge is along their sight line as they scan and the judge is moving it can change the dog’s path.
At trial a years ago there was one judge who kept moving in a front cross as the dogs came out of a tunnel and ended up pulling multiple dogs off course.
Kudos also to bar setters and leash walkers who pause when dogs are moving towards them.
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