AKC Delegate Companion Events Committee Meeting Orlando, Florida Members present: Jim Ashton (Vice Chairman), Larry Wilson (Chairman), Ruth Crumb, Kitty Sarvinas, Gail LaBerge (Secretary), Betty Winthers, Bob Amen, Joyce Dandridge, Maureen Setter, Jack Cadalso and Barbara Mann. Also attending were AKC Board Liaison Dr. Carmen Battaglia, and Doug Ljungren, AKC Vice President of AKC Sports and Events, Pam Manaton, AKC Director of Obedience, Rally and Tracking and Carrie DeYoung, AKC Director of Agility. See Attachment I for guests. The Chairman called the meeting to order at 9:00 AM. The Chair asked the Committee Members to introduce themselves. The Chair asked for a motion to accept the minutes. Gail LaBerge stated that a correction to the mileage limit concerning when an event maybe held on the same weekend as another event be corrected to show 100 miles not 125 miles. Betty Winthers moved that the minutes be approved with the correction. Seconded by Jim Ashton. Motion Passed. The Chair asked for Staff and Board Liaison updates. Doug Ljungren reported: Agility is in a growth mode and is up 1 ½ percent. He stated that agility events should be up by two events for the year at the end of 2016. Obedience is still struggling and everyone is looking for ways to turn it around. Rally is continuing to grow. Tracking is up for the year.
Page Two Doug reported on 2016 Initiatives that will make life easier for clubs and exhibitors. They are listed below. 2016 Initiatives-Make Life Easier for Clubs & Exhibitors Effective 1. Allow Obedience and/or Rally Trials to Co-Exist March 1, 2016 2. Agility Single Breed Specialty Trial in Conjunction with All-Breed Trial March 1, 2016 3. Agility-Change in Required Wearing of Identifying Number August 1, 2016 4. Formation of Rally Clubs January 1, 2017 5. Amend the Requirements of A&B Matches January 1, 2017 6. Update to FAST Class Regulations January 3, 2017 7. Junior Showcase Events for Obedience, Rally & Agility January 1, 2017 Pam Manaton gave an update on the following: 2016 National Tracking Invitational was hosted by the Greater Louisville Training Club and the Mid Kentucky Kennel Club and held in September in Clermont, KY. The event had 12 tracks with one dog passing. The clubs did an excellent job and are interested in hosting the 2018 NTI. 2016 Obedience Classic & Junior Classic: It has filled with 62 breeds from 38 states for a total of 248 dogs entered. The 6 th Juniors Obedience/Rally Classic has 28 Juniors ranging in age from nine to 18 entered, showing 39 dogs. Obedience/Rally Online Education: Staff is exploring methods of moving components of the obedience/rally testing for the continuing education requirement to an electronic format so judges are tested in part electronically, but not in total for their requirements. The focus of online education at this particular time is conformation. Hopefully in 2018 online education for obedience/rally will start. Carrie DeYoung gave a report on Agility with the following information: The Agility Invitational has 700 entries. A dog must be in the top 5 in their breed to be invited. Junior Agility will be held on Friday, December 16. There are 86 entries with a total of 62 juniors entered. There will be an afternoon seminar for agility and obedience juniors. The Agility Grand Champion program started July 1, 2016. The first Agility Grand Champion is a Golden Retriever, the second is a King Charles Spaniel and the third is a Portuguese Water Dog. This represents quite an achievement for the dogs and handlers.
Page Three ACT: This program is designed to bring in those who haven t been competing before. It is a beginning level for Agility. A club may use an AKC Judge or an AKC Evaluator to offer the ACT. The fee for an AKC Evaluator is $35.00. The setting for the ACT is important, as you want those participating in an environment that is familiar and inviting. This is a place for juniors to start. At the ACT 1 and 2 levels the pass rate is 50%. There is an ACT page in the Agility area of the AKC website. In addition, there is a Facebook page, AKCACT. The upcoming Rally, Obedience and Agility Nationals will be held in Perry, Georgia March 24,25 and 26, 2017. Those wishing to volunteer to work at these events may fill out the volunteer form on the AKC website. The link is http://www.tfaforms.com/346839. Below are recently approved Regulation Changes and Upcoming Regulation Changes. Thank you to the Companion Events Staff for providing this information. Recently Approved Regulation Changes 1. Formation of Rally Clubs Effective 1/1/17 Allow for the accreditation of clubs formed for the purpose of holding Rally trials provided they are not formed in the territory of an obedience club that is licensed to hold Rally. 2. Update to FAST Class Regulations Effective 1/3/17 - The recommendation is to modify the course design specifications for the FAST (Fifteen and Send) class in order to decrease the time it takes to reset the course between levels, thereby making it more efficient for clubs to offer. Under the recommendation, a course may be designed which combines all three levels into one course with three different send locations. This allows for only one course build and one walk through for all levels. The changes will not compromise the intent of the class. 3. Amended the Requirements of A & B Matches Effective 1/1/17 1.) Allow Group and Specialty Clubs to offer Sanctioned A Matches for obedience and rally which may be open to their breed, the breeds within their group, or all-breeds (including FSS registerable breeds) at the club s option. This will allow specialty clubs the opportunity to offer sanctioned matches without a financial hardship, to increase entries and to attract new participants. 2.) To require one successful Sanctioned A Match prior to becoming licensed for obedience (instead of two) just as is required for rally and agility licensing so that all companion events sports are treated in a similar matter. 3.) Allow Specialty clubs to host Sanctioned B Conformation Matches for their breed, the breeds within their group, or all-breeds (including FSS registerable breeds). This change will provide more opportunities for exhibitors to participate in matches as well as broaden the pool of entrants for clubs to pull from for entries at the club s option.
Page Four Upcoming Regulation Changes 1. Obedience Preferred Class Trials The recommendation is to allow clubs licensed for obedience to hold trials limited to the Preferred classes without offering the Regular classes. A Preferred class trial would be defined as one where the club offers the Preferred Novice, Preferred Open and/or the Preferred Utility classes without the Regular classes. The Non-Regular classes will be allowed to utilize the Preferred class jump heights in all obedience trials. This recommendation will be voted on by the AKC Board and if approved, the change would become effective February 1, 2017. 2. Agility Day of Event Entry Change Due to Measurement The recommendation is to allow a change in entry on the day of a show when a dog s measurement that day does not support the class in which they are entered. This recommendation will be voted on by the AKC Board and if approved, the change would become effective February 1, 2017. 3. Rally Enhancements This is a recommendation, which will result in continued engagement in AKC Rally. AKC Rally has not changed in its class structure since its launch in 2005. We want to foster long-term growth in Rally by adding two classes; one at the beginning level (Intermediate Class) and one at the upper level (Master Class). In terms of difficulty, the Intermediate class is between the current Novice and Advanced classes. The Master class will be more difficult than the Excellent class. There will be titles associated with these new classes. In addition, a Rally Championship prefix title (RACH) is recommended for dogs that achieve a given number of triple Qs (qualify in the Advanced, Excellent and Master class at the same trial) plus earn a given number of points from the Master class. This recommendation will be presented to the AKC Board in January with a vote in February; if approved, the change would become effective for clubs to apply for events on August 1, 2017, for events held on or after December 1, 2017. Barbara Mann stated that her club is considering offering a trial for juniors only that would include Rally, Agility and Obedience. Pam Manaton asked the committee if they had any objections to eliminating the need to have passed a title after closing to transfer to another class in an upcoming trial. If this requirement is eliminated, it would allow a transfer if they had earned the title at any time. It was announced that the Masters Obedience Championship at Westminster would be held on Monday with 26 dogs entered. The top ten will go onto the finals. Doug Ljungren stated that AKC staff has been involved and a freestyle program has been prepared. Achiever Dog: Carmen Battaglia presented the results from a survey he has conducted related to the number of litters registered with AKC.
Page Five There was discussion on Companion Events and how to increase entries and to help the average club be more successful in offering these events. Ruth Crumb suggested that the CEC undertake a study of some kind related to the previously identified issue that many all breed clubs have dropped obedience. She suggested picking 10 all breed clubs and developing a questionnaire to see why they dropped obedience. Doug Ljungren suggested taking all the all breed clubs who dropped obedience in 2016 but who had held obedience in 2015, and send the survey to all of them. The CEC created a sub-committee to develop the questionnaire, send it out and compile the results in order to help address the issue of declining entries. The Chair asked Ruth to chair the sub-committee. Members will include Barbara Mann and Jack Cadalso. Doug believes that the names of the all breed clubs that held obedience in conjunction with their conformation show can be provided to the subcommittee. Barbara Mann stated she believes a problem with getting people into obedience is that they don t know anything about it. Owners may come to a basic manners class, but then don t know that there are things to do beyond that. She feels some good videos showing Rally and Obedience dogs in competition would help with encouragement. She believes these should not be dogs that are perfect but the average dog doing ECE events. These videos should be available online and advertised widely to CGC evaluators, clubs, and anyone advertising training classes on AKC Marketplace. Several CEC members had comments: Joyce Dandridge stated there is a skill in teaching; sometimes those who volunteer to teach don t have the skill. Her club offered a class for teachers and a packet for them. She believes some class members drop out because they don t have a rapport with instructors. Jim Ashton stated that he felt if you could give pet dog trainers material to pass onto their students that would encourage those students to seek out advance classes.. Maybe a flyer that would also reference a video and the link to the video provided. A comment was made that Petco and Petsmart should be a partnership in supporting companion events programs with AKC, but they are not. Maureen Setter stated her club did a study on where their students were from. Those with puppies were in the area surrounding their facility. Her Club feels that those beginning go to the closest facility offering training, but as the dogs and their owners start doing more advanced work, they are willing to travel further for classes. Betty Winthers presented information that she had gathered from judges in her area on putting on a successful trial and increasing entries.
Page Six Ruth Crumb asked Doug Ljungren about having some material written that could go on AKC s Facebook page to promote Companion Events. At this time, the Board s direction to staff is to concentrate on Agility and Conformation on the AKC pages. The CEC held a discussion on ways to bring in new people and the audience commented on ways to get out into the community. Carl Ashby, AKC Board of Director member, stated that a 22-minute video on the 2015 National Championships was made. It was presented to a focus group in New Jersey and one in Chicago. NJ and Chicago. The presenter talked about agility, and then asked those in the groups if they would be interested in talking their family and going to watch a trial in their area. Those in the focus groups did not know anything about the number of agility trials in their area. The reason is that trials are not advertised. He stated we need to motivate our agility people to let the public know about trials. Harvey Wooding, AKC Board of Director member, stated we have great difficulty drawing people to our Sport; the average person today isn t drawn to our sport. He stated the general public doesn t relate to our sport. For example, meet up groups are only there to have fun, which is why they are successful. He stated we need to build on things that are easy, that don t take a great deal of time, and that give a reward. Ruth Crumb gave an AKC Reunite Disaster Relief Trailer report: There are 353 clubs involved, donations totaling well over a million and a half dollars. There are 55 trailers in 28 states. The CEC discussed the proposed rule amendment change to allow clubs to make closing time for an event up to 11:59 PM on the day of closing. This would be a benefit to clubs that secretary their own trials in obedience and rally. Gail LaBerge moved that if the amendment did not pass at the December Delegate meeting, that the CEC ask the Chair, Larry Wilson, to send to the AKC Board of Directors a request to make a regulation change allowing obedience and rally events to close up to 11:59 PM on the day of closing. Seconded by Betty Winthers. Motion Passed. Jack Cadalso moved that the meeting adjourn. Seconded by Jim Ashton. Meeting adjourned at 11:37 AM. Respectfully Submitted by, Gail LaBerge CEC Secretary
AKC Delegate Standing Companion Events Committee Orlando, Florida SIGN IN SHEET ATTACHMENT I Name Carl Ashby Noreen Bennett Dominic Carota Becky Campbell Mary Curtis Carol Fisher Kathy Gregory Stephen Hersey Bonnie Lapham Gloria Marshall Jeannette O Hanlon Patty Sample Harvey Wooding Club United States Kerry Blue Terrier Club, Inc. Leap Agility Club Pharaoh Hound Club of America Mastiff Club of America First Dog Club of NNJ Valley Forge KC Port Chester Obedience and TC Skye Terrier Club of America Glens Falls KC Bayshore Companion Dog Club Staffordshire Terrier Club of America Anderson Obedience Training Club Westminster KC