Big Shout out to Jim Nally and his courses

[Lisa Schmit In The Zone Agility]

Jim was my judge last weekend for my In The Zone Agility trial in Illinois.      I have know Jim for a long time and he has always been one of my favorite judges!!   

 Jim's courses this past weekend were so fun and challenging ! Reminded me of old NADAC courses!  Fun beginnings, challenging middles and fun fast finishes!  Dogs got to RUN and then had to collect, listen turn etc but then got to run again at the end!  The infamous tunnel hoop hoop ending was so FUN !!

With judges   designing their own courses now,  I really wanted to give Jim a big WOOHOOO and THANK YOU for just great FUN courses!!    Since judges started designing their own courses, I have run some courses that were very collected and controlled.... and honestly not that fun (even when I was successful and even sometimes from the Bonus box). So I am not complaining because I lack the skills.   I run in NADAC so that my dogs can RUN and extend their strides but then have to collect and turn and listen etc.  I don't  want to run courses where my dog is collected the whole time or I have to be be in my dog's face the entire course.     So it was just a PLEASURE to run Jim's awesome courses!

NADAC you should put Jim on your course review team HE ROCKS !!!

[Bernie Doyle]

I second your joy with the courses from last weekend!! Kuper, Rumor & I had a BLAST!! Fair challenges & bits of “homework” for my youngster & me!!

Bernie~

[Tamier]

Lisa, I so agree with you.  I came back to NADAC from AKC after a 15 year absence..
So my dog could run fun open courses without me me being in his face every three obstacles..
I enjoy a challenge, but discriminations every other obstacle that require a line change is not fun
For either of us... we will hang out a bit longer.  But I have the choice of many AKC trials that are munch closer to home.  I like NADAC because they are different, but it’s it’s headed in the same direction as the others, what’s the point ?

[Chris Nelson]

Hey Guys,

I just want to say from a personal standpoint, that comparing even the worst NADAC course to an AKC course is pretty far off from being even close to apples to apples.

First off, NADAC requires 21' between obstacles, no backsides, no threadles, etc.   

Everytime I usually hear someone complain about a NADAC course being too much like AKC it's because it has a challenge they haven't trained for, being unprepared for a challenge does not make the course bad.  Actually, isn't that kind of the point of agility?  to be challenged?

Are there bad courses and good courses out there?  Absolutely.

But no, the direction of NADAC is not to have big giant loops where the dogs are never required to collect.  That was a trend for a bit, and as it becomes apparent in a lot of these conversations, it completely killed handlers ability to train for new challenges.   And now anytime a challenge is presented, it's too much like AKC.

I'm perfectly okay with folks just saying, hey this course kinda sucked.

But to continue to make these comparisons to AKC is getting kind of old.    I will gladly post any approved NADAC course out there, and then compare it to an AKC course and I can guarantee the differences are going to be pretty dang large.

Challenge is not a bad things, there are some challenges that are bad, and typically those don't come back around.   But to have one bad course and then say 'well the direction of nadac is going towards AKC' is kinda silly


Rant off

[Billie Rosen]

 I was just talking with people at our NADAC trial this weekend that it is refreshing to have courses with new and exciting challenges.  Bring it on!!!!!  If there is a course with a challenge I haven't seen before and can't figure out how to handle well with the skills I have in my tool box, that's great.  It gives me something to solve and train!!!!!  Chris, there are lots of us who enjoy the challenge, so please keep them coming.  And those who think NADAC is becoming like AKC obviously don't do much AKC.  I love both organizations, but they each have their own unique features and that's how it should be.  One of the great things about the sport of agility (as opposed to so many other sports) is that we have choices among the venues.  Do the ones you like the most and don't do the others, but don't bash them, all of the venues have things to offer people and dogs.

[Edraith]

My fav most recent course set is Milk!

[Cheryl Gilbert]

I really like courses with different challenges.  I like to learn new things.  I enjoy getting Q's of course but I love it when my dogs and I get an opportunity to learn and master different things.  That is one of the beauties of video runs...We can look for courses that are not in our basic wheelhouse and challenge ourselves.  I recently worked thru some small course setups with much sharper turns than I usually do...and it got Allie to listen better...she often thinks she knows the next obstacle and is very frequently correct but this set required different skills.  It was a challenge, frustrating at first but then rewarding as we got better and better with practice.  Please keep up with the challenges!