Las Vegas is internationally known primarily for gambling and casinos. What about agility in Las Vegas?
Sasha To-Stewart is a 23 year old agility fan from Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, where she lives with her husband. They share their life and home with two wonderful young dogs, Ayumi the Border Collie and Esha the Belgian Malinois. Sasha is also an entrepreneur who runs a company called ZUMI, which specializes in pet photography as well as producing handmade dog products. Agility has been a source of energy for Sasha and her dogs for many years. In the following blog, Sasha presents some basic principle regarding agility in the United States and shares thoughts from a small agility community situated in Las Vegas, as well as revealing how much her dogs mean to her.
Written by Sasha To-Stewart
Positive attitude
Before delving into this article I thought it best to introduce myself and a bit about my training routine. I am a passionate agility trainer like many of your and I have been training and competing since I was 13 years old. To this day, I continue to train and compete regularly in competitive sports with my dogs. Agility is our main focus, but we dabble in other sports for fun. My dogs continue to provide me with endless inspiration every day. I love them unconditionally and get nothing less from them in return. They never fail to teach me something new and keep me grounded. I could never ask for more from these two, yet each and every day they continue to give me more than the day before.
If all these years of training and competing has taught me anything, it’s to be positive. No matter the results of a trial, a training session, or even a day at work… it’s all just part of the journey. As hard as it may seem at times, we should take failure and success all in the same stride. Every outcome, whether it’s good or bad, is part of our growth as trainers. I try to keep this in mind every day, even when it comes to my other daily activities. Everything that happens makes us who we are now; it’s up to us to take the next step in the direction we want to go.
In the following I will describe the World Team selection process in the United States as well as take a closer look at the atmosphere of agility in Las Vegas.
Agility in the United States
Agility first started in the United States during the early 1980’s. It was in the 1990’s that the sport started to flourish. The U.S. now has multiple sanction organizations, including two organizations from the United Kingdom. These are organizations such as AKC (American Kennel Club), CPE (Canine Performance Events), NADAC (North American Dog Agility Council), USDAA (United States Dog Agility Association), DOCNA (Dogs On Course in North America), TDAA (Teacup Dog Agility Association), UKI (UK Agility International) and UKC (United Kennel Club). According to the USDAA alone, there are over 25,000 registered competitors.
The U.S. and the FCI
Although America is not one of the FCI’s members (of which there are 80 countries), America along with the British and Canadian kennel clubs are allowed to participate at the FCI Agility World Championships by special invitation. The AKC selects teams based on a set of prerequisites and tryouts.
For the European Open the AKC will select up to 32 dogs to represent the United States Dogs must have their AX (Excellent Agility) and AXJ (Excellent Agility Jumpers) titles and be competing in the Masters levels by a given deadline. All teams must also meet the “basic eligibility” requirements set by the AKC as well. Teams that are eligible for tryouts will be scored over 2 days of competition to determine the final selections for the teams.
For the World Championships, the AKC will select up to 12 dogs to represent the United States In addition to fulfilling the “basic eligibility” requirements, teams must have a minimum of 8 standard scores of 100 at a minimum rate of speed for their given jump height. The same minimum of 8 jumpers with weaves class scores of 100 at a minimum rate of speed is required. The teams also need a minimum of 4 double Q’s and has to submit their “intent to enter” if interested in competing at the ITT (International Team Tryouts). Teams that are eligible for tryouts will be scored over the same 2 days of competition as the EO selection to determine the final teams.
Agility in Las Vegas
Considering how vast the sport of agility is, how about taking a closer look at a city in the U.S.? I interviewed local competitors in the small agility community of Las Vegas, Nevada. A handful of individuals were asked questions so that we could get a better understanding of the agility communities in the U.S. However, we must keep in mind that this is a relatively small community that works under unusually weather circumstances year round. The following is based on what we gathered from the individuals who participated in our interview.
Training
Training in Las Vegas, like trialing, can be quite difficult due to weather. The extreme heat throughout half of the year keeps training and trialing alike to a minimum. The locals here average around 1 or 2 practices a week during the summer and up to 4 times a week in the winter. Group training is kept to around 5 or 6 teams in class settings and each group averages about 5 minutes per teams turn. The locals prefer to practice skills and drills while leaving course work for usually only one of the practices out their scheduled practices.
There are 4 established training arenas in Las Vegas. Teams can join group classes, book private ring time, or one on one training with the trainers. There is one indoor facility. This facility is fitted with rubber matting for its flooring. The space offers an escape from the year round elements, but is quite small and cannot fit a regulation size course. The remaining 3 arenas are outdoors. These spaces aren’t as small, but trials are not held at these facilities. 2 have gravel surface while the other is grass.
Competing
In Las Vegas, NV there are usually around 5 agility trials a year. The local club is working hard to add new shows every year. On average the local competitors will attend 4 of the 5 trials throughout the year. As an example, we will use a trial that has a turnout of 100 dogs. Of those dogs, 75% would run regular/championship classes while the remaining 25% runs preferred/performance classes. If they are attending an AKC trial each dog can run up to 3 times a day. However, in USDAA a dog can run up to 8 times a day. Your typical small dogs are Papillions, while medium are Shelties and large are Border Collies. The locals in the area average 2 dogs per handler.
On average it will cost $20 for their first run and $15 for additional runs when competing in AKC. USDAA averages about $16 for their first run and $13 for any additional runs. Typically ribbons are awarded to teams that place or qualify. If the club running the show wants to add additional prizes, such as a toy for first place, it’s based on the clubs discretion, but will not have anything to do with the venue itself. However, USDAA offers a Steeplechase class that offers a cash prize to those who place in the second round. As tradition, any teams that achieve a championship title are awarded with a special ribbon or plaque for their achievement. Each team usually takes a “victory lap” (with the jump bar of the final jump) around the course once they have finished the course clean and secured their new title.
Given the small amount of trials available in the Las Vegas area, traveling to other states to trial isn’t 
uncommon. When the participants were asked if they travel and if so, how often/how; the answers varied widely from person to person. There were those who do not travel at all because of their work schedules or finances. Then there were others who travel up to 5 to 6 times a year. For some traveling is the only option if they want to meet their trial goals. For those that do travel, it’s by car around the tri-state area.
Passionate community
Despite having such a small community with training/trialing limitations, it’s a passionate community. Many follow online agility media such as Cleanrun or training blogs to further their knowledge of the sport. When asked what the best thing about agility is in the United States, every handler interviewed had to agree that the comradely between their fellow handlers is a big part of their involvement. The only thing that was above this was the bond they create with their dogs. Everyone involved does this sport because they genuinely love it, so as a community they worked together to grow and cultivate the sport.
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