So my agility boyfriend Greg Derrett decided that us agility pansies over here in Not England needed some more agility fun and hence, UKI Agility International!
It sounds a little bit like USDAA but with more wacky, twisty, turny courses with crazy weave pole entries and places where you have to do the sideways fast scuttling like a crab handling. And you move up really fast through your titles if you WIN. You can still move up if you don’t, though. Because sometimes some of us win, and sometimes some of us don’t. You get points. Like Weight Watchers. Which you won’t need if you are doing sufficient sideways speedy crab scuttling.
Also maybe Greg Derrett is coming here to introduce his agility? With his lovely wife. Who is also named Laura. I don’t want anybody here to think all Tiger Woodsy and so forth and then Greg Derrett has to quit agility and who is the one that actually bashed up the windows with the golf club? PVC jump bar? So I think in UKI agility I can’t call Greg Derrett my agility boyfriend anymore. I’m going to use a code word from now on. Keanu Reeves.
So meet my new agility boyfriend, Keanu Reeves. Who is not a golfer. Or married to a Laura.
With all that cleared up, here are some very nice facts about UKI agility that have me jumping up and down and clapping, like Hurrah Hurrah, which is what they say in England. Righty-o? Because for UKI agility, I’m listening to the Madonna soundtrack from Evita where she learned to sing with an English accent to play an Argentinean in a movie about a happy dictatorship. Also, remember when Keanu was British in the Dracula movie? You had to take a tequilla shot everytime he says Trahhhhn Sahhhhl Veiny-yah. Just like Madonna.
Any-hoo. As they say across the Pond.
There’s a Performance type option called Select with one jump height lower, no spreads and a nice, 5’3″ a-frame. In the UKI, all my dogs would jump 12″, but I could run Ruby and Otterpop in the Select so they could jump 8″. Ruby could do agility again! Thanks Keanu Reeves! This is particularly exciting to me. She could still do agility in CPE, but this sounds much more exciting! Wacky Euro-threadles and tight turns are FUN!
Also, for a dog that say has a teeter fear, or is distractiony, or is working on contacts, or all those things you wish you could just go in and do a couple rounds with that frisbee in hand for a quick reward, HELLO! Training rounds! You can be entered in the dog show, but go and do a training round with your toy. Brilliant!
Actually, why am I trying to explain all this to you? Just go look on their very organized and easy to understand website. All the rules are there. All the classes. What level you can start at, how high are a-frames, stuff like that. Everything you ever wanted to know about UKI agility even though you didn’t even know it existed until like 2 days ago.
If you live by me, there are even some matches coming up in January. The very first one in California will be held in Beautiful TURLOCK by our friend Mary. Turlock, the glamour capital launch pad of the new UKI Agility International! We hope to see you all there.
But their rulebook really needs some editing. And better formatting. EVERYONE's rulebooks need better editing and formatting. Maybe I can trade some editing and formatting for some–hmmm, I dunno, english shortbread?
P.S. Dang, thought I'd gotten rid of one of the thin, athletic, talented lauras, and now she's back. So there are, what, 4 of you? 5 of you? now? One of you should shave your head so at least I'd be able to quickly identify which laura it is.
Not, of course, that I have any trouble–
I just check who their dogs are.
Heart Dog Agility is now in the UKI loop! My February fun match (and possibly my March fun match and beyond?) will be UKI sanctioned. You can UKI it right here in Santa Cruz.
Way cool….
Kathleen–excellent!
Dang it (as Elf would say), Kathleen, I signed up for the Turlock UKI fun match before you posted. Oh well, I like Turlock and I love Mary VW., so I'll just be forced to go to all of them.
Allright! UKI agility in Santa Cruz! Most excite!
Most excite, indeed! I set up the Standard (aka: "Agility" in UKI lingo) course from the UKI website and ran it today. It's very different from what we are used to but interesting and fun!
Mary, you may see me in Turlock, too!
I so don't get bringing Brit style agility here. To get anywhere you HAVE to WIN, and that is something that a lot of people find completely off putting.
Though I do like that they have admited that there are dogs who jump under 13".
Ellen–actually the placements are just *extra* points. From their web site. "Points are also awarded for clear rounds that are not placed." So just takes you longer if you don't place.
Yes, you don't have to win. You can still move up, you just move up faster if you win. That gives everybody more incentive to go REALLY FAST!
I do like the jump height cutoffs too, mostly because it means Ruby can run in it! She was always the smallest 16" dog, and that height was just too much for her. I should have moved her to performance way earlier than I did. UKI, she is 8", which she can still jump comfortably for now!
There is a lot of interest in UKI here on the East Coast. We figure that we are closer to the UK, therefore we will have an easier time mastering the Euro-challenges than our friends on the, say, West Coast. The Canadians will find UKI the easiest, because they were more recently ruled by the UK than the US was.
Tracy: Your logic is impeccable! We shall see, however. Sometimes these theories prove to be peccable after all.
Well, yeah, the whole East coast/West coast thing totally makes sense. Plus you are doing it 3 hours earlier than us. So totally HUGE advantage. I am still in bed while you guys are mastering your first Euro-challenge of the day.