In regards to tugging, I do think that we have to look the fact we are talking NADAC! And NADAC competitors have a history of being polite and friendly and considerate of other competitors. I think that is why we never see people tugging alongside the ring now tugging and bothering other teams. They could if they wanted to, but they don't. They do considerate other teams and how it affects them.
I don't foresee that we will see any teams staying in the ring at the end of the run doing an extended tugging. What I do see is that it could very well speed up the trial! If you watch teams running now, there is a huge increase in the number of dogs that either don't finish the last obstacle or they do the last one and then CHARGE back at the handlers, barking, nipping, and even BITING their handlers at the finish. That used to happen occasionally, but now it happens a lot! There seems to be a big rise in a lack of a good "finish line drive" and lots and lots of dogs charging back at the handlers.
If these dogs are trained to go to their leash, even if it means picking up the leash and then engaging the handlers in a game of tug, I believe that looks much better than the anger and ugliness of the dogs that charge at their handlers. If the handlers can't train their dogs not to charge them at the finish, maybe they can train their dogs to have a great finish line drive to a leash! It is going to make a much prettier picture to watch! And if they do the courteous thing and get the leash on and have something in the dog's mouth besides a body part, then they will be out of the ring much faster than before!
Let's get the training headed to a positive end! The current training doesn't seem to be working to keep dogs from charging at the owners and if the dog is wanting to put something in it's mouth, then much better to be a leash than a body part of the handler!
I do believe that the NADAC people will keep it polite and it will actually speed up trials and make the entries and exits cleaner than they are now! They can enter, run, and get out "as a team" instead of what we are seeing now that is rather ugly and time consuming.
I do believe that it will be much more important that a leash runner does not carry the leash to the handler, when they very well might be carrying the dog's toy across the ring. Whether they put it on the ground, a chair, leash pole or whatever the handler wants, the leash runner can do their job and be right back at the start for the next dog.