Best starter agility kit?

[MafiaPrincess]

USDAA can be pretty strict on their rules.. I was told a month ago by my trainer when I'd asked something else.. that someone big in the AAC agility community went stateside to play USDAA a year or so ago. Dog Missed their usual contact I think it was a rear foot on the contact zone, she looked at the dog before continuing to run, and the dog placed its own back foot on to 'correct' the error..

She was eliminated that moment from the ring for 'training'. She didn't DO anything.. She was eliminated not just that run and asked to leave the grounds, not just that day, she was kicked out for the weekend.. As they so do not allow training in the ring. She was in tears.. Awfully long way to go to be kicked out for the weekend.. Judge was excessively harsh to apparently 'make a point'.

She has gone back and played with them again as she qualified for the Arizona USDAA nationals.. But this story has stuck with me as uber as bad as it can get..

 

[agilityretrievers]

I think they mean that they don't want you telling the dog to down as a correction for a missed contact or something. If your dog just runs down the contact, lies down, and you release in a couple seconds, there should be no problem with that. Many dogs lie down in four-on-the-floor and I have even seen people put the dog in a down for a few seconds during a Snooker run without getting any problems.

It is also against the rules to cue your dog back onto the contact after they miss it, and if she was pointedly stopping and looking at her dog, I can see how the judge would interpret that as cueing the dog to get back on (I can get Boo to sit, down, or do 2o2o by looking at him). But it is unusual to kick her out for the entire weekend, I've only seen people get whistled off that run.