I haven’t been training in agility for very long personally but this is something I’ve always thought about. I don’t understand what jump height really has to do with anything in regards to challenge or the sport in general.Or who has the authority to assign them without the use of research on impact on joints, trends in performace and general safety?
From my short time in agility i’ve noticed that poles generally come down due to ineffective handling, jumping in overarousal, poor understanding of jumping, not collecting, etc. Generally all classified under ineffective training in some foundation skill. The other flip to this coin is dogs with structural issues, injury or general aging.
On my travels to train in the UK it was such an eye opener to see veteran dogs at 12-14 years of age that are expected to compete at the same performance standards and much younger dogs (With a large portion of dogs jumping 26***8243
.
I know that competing in anything carries some general risk and that is a gamble we take everyday in anything we do. However, dog sports can be competitive, fun, and more height friendly to all dogs if those in authority would think more along the lines of dog wellbeing backed with research.
I work in healthcare and with all age groups and there are certainly changes associated with aging we all know that and I’m sure it is not exclusive to humans but all animals. Just as we wouldn’t expect our 80-90 year old grandmother to perform at the caliber of someone in their twenties then we shouldn’t be forced to expect the same out of our dogs. I know that some would say “well just don’t compete†or “retire the dogâ€. However, giving up something you’ve trained in, competed in and love cannot be just simply dropped that easily