usdaa juniors or performance?

[Lenajo]

Ok, I should just read the rule book but I bet it's faster to ask here. I've got an older dog who's coming back to agility after an injury. He would normally jump 26 inches. He's sound for agility now at a moderate level, but has some arthritis that makes me reluctant to push it in the standard classes. I considered retiring him, but he loves doing this, so I thought about maybe letting a junior I know run him in juniors, or performance 22 inch. Which would be better? The kid is 15ish - would she bet "too old" for juniors? She's a gentle girl and he likes her - so it would be a good match if she can come by about once a week to practice.

[Kat's Dogs]

The USDAA juniors class is very different. The first level the dogs can be on leash, and it doesn't have a lot of the obstacles. For an older, experienced dog - I think I would run him in Performance. That would be agility more like he remembers it. Of course, depending on the arthritis, you might want the lack of obstacles. I don't know his physical state so it is hard to say.

 

Or if you want to start with something that will be very low impact but get back to competing, you could also do the NADAC skilled class (or NADAC, skilled, Junior - allowing to jump 8" lower than measured height! You could do the same with veterans class instead of juniors of course). The have the lower aframe, lower jumps, and less turns on the courses. A lot of older dogs can really enjoy NADAC. Or maybe CPE....

[Rosanne]

When I was a junior showing in USDAA I refused to show in Junior handlers because it was embarassingly easy :-)

Junior Handler courses are waaay easy, and really geared more towards little kids. If this teen has any basic handling knowledge, the dog will probably be happier doing Performance. You can start in Performance I even if he has a title.

 

Around here, hardly anybody even holds Junior Handlers. There's maybe 2 or 3 trials all year in the whole of the Northeast/Mid-atlantic region. (probably because it's silly-easy and nobody enters it)

[Kat's Dogs]

Around here, hardly anybody even holds Junior Handlers.

That is the other problem. It is optional to hold Juniors. I have only seen like 2 a year here at most.

[Pat W.]

I agree with Roseanne, my daughter started at age 7 in championship masters(pre performance and they didnt qualify for veterans) with a dog that was loaned to us (eventually Rush became ours) the Jr. Handler courses are frighteningly easy. In my opinion a steady dog that loves agility and knows his job is a wonderful teacher. They are not likely to get frustrated like a green or high drive dog might when a green handler makes mistakes. When Breanna would get confused or lost on course Rush would simply wait until she got it sorted out and then off they would go again Performance is a great thing I was able to run my Sr. Dog Ashe until last summer when he retired, Breanna put a PD1 title on Rush until he had to retire, my aussie Riley is running performance for fun due to vision problems. Performance also offers all the regular and tournament classes now for titling.