Florida Agility
a guide to dog agility competition in Florida
These statistics are a byproduct of a spreadsheet that I use to keep track of trials. I cannot report on numbers of runs, etc. Except for AKC, the figures are just not there. Even then it takes weeks to get the numbers from the AKC.
CPE is the second most popular venue in the terms of trial weekends and trial days. The bulk of the trials are currently held in the main part of Florida north of Tampa. All of these sites are outdoors on grass. Recently, Calusa has been offering CPE trials at Bratty Paws (indoors on synthetic turf). Also, the introduction of CPE Speedway events that consist of hoops, barrels and tunnels and the smaller space requirements have prompted IPOC to hold some Summer Speedway events on their indoor mats.
Some useful CPE links
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The most popular of the venues. Nearly half of the trial sets and over half of the trial days. Most AKC events are held indoors on artificial turf or in outdoor covered areas on dirt. A few are held outdoors on grass. Most of the AKC sites have RV facilities or will allow dry camping. The major exception is the indoor site at St Petersburg which does not have room. AKC trials are held in all parts of the state from Pensacola to Miami. Most weekends will have at least one set of trials and I have seen as many as four AKC trial sets spread across the state.
Some useful AKC links:
If you desire, you can subscribe to the individual venue calendars with your own personal calendar program. The iCal links to each of the venue calendars is located below:
The method used will depend upon each system and application. If you click on a link, it may open the appropriate application and start the process or you may have to copy the link (usually "right click" and select copy link) and then paste it into the application of your choice (this is usually the safest way if you have multiple apps that handle the iCal links).
DACOF is a state wide agility team competition that is usually held at the end of June at a large indoor facility. It is not sanctioned by any organization but generally follows AKC rules. Teams are sponsored by clubs or can just be a group of individuals that train together.
DACOF also has a Facebook group
If you would like to organize a team, you need to start planning by January. Check the “Send a Team” title on the DACOF web site for what you need to do to send a team. Also check the “Important Deadlines” page on the site for the various deadlines. These deadlines will also be in the Floridaagility Calendar.
NADAC is in the bottom tier (under 20 trial days per year) of trials in Florida. All of the trials are in the Tampa area and do not have RV facilities. They are mostly outdoors on grass and a summer trial indoors at DTCT.
Some NADAC links.
TDAA is in the bottom tier (under 20 trial days per year) of trials in Florida. Most trials are in the middle of the peninsula. They are mostly in indoor training buildings on mats. One trial set is held outdoors on grass.
TDAA links
UKC is in the bottom tier (under 20 trial days per year) of trials in Florida. The trials are basically offered by two clubs. MADTA in Ocala and IPOC in Lakeland. IPOC trials are indoors on mats and MADTA is usually outdoors with Obedience, etc in their building.
Links for UKC
The Australian Shepherd Club of America ranks in the bottom tier of agility trials in Florida. A single club offers four sets of three day trials a year. The trials are held under a covered arena (Baker, FL) in the panhandle..
Some useful ASCA links:
Each venue is actually a separate calendar. At the upper right corner of the calendar (next to the view modes) there is a little downward pointing triangle. If you click on the triangle, a list of the individual calendars will appear. You can select which organizations to view in the calendar. This can be handy if there are more events than can be displayed.
Event Sorting in the calendar The following are my observations on how the events in the calendar are displayed.
The starting date and length of the event. A three or four day event will appear before a two day weekend event.
Calendar name - AKC will appear before CPE, etc.
Event title
If your calendar program can handle the iCal format, you can subscribe to these individual calendars - click here for more info.
If you use a Google calendar, you can copy specific events to your own calendar. Click on the event and click on the “copy to my calendar” link at the bottom.
For events outside of Florida, I normally select events that are at least four days long (and I would consider the drive from Plant City) or national & world championships (information links included but no active premium search). For example, I will list the four/five day trials in Perry, GA but not the three day weekend trials. If you can think of an event that I should include, use the contact webmaster link below to suggest it.
I am considering Valdosta Kennel Club a “Florida” club for agility trials held near Valdosta since it is so close to the Florida-Georgia line and likely attracts a number of Florida competitors. The premiums will be distributed but the trials do not count as Florida trials in the stats.
UKI lies in the middle tier of organizations in Florida. Not as many trials as AKC or CPE but significantly more than the organizations in the bottom tier. The UKI US-OPEN will reside in Jacksonville for the next few years. Anyone can attend the US OPEN but you can earn byes into the later rounds at UKI trials. The trial sites are either on grass or on synthetic turf at Bratty Paws.
UKI Links
USDAA lies in the middle tier of organizations in Florida. Not as many trials as AKC or CPE but significantly more than the organizations in the bottom tier. Most USDAA trials are held in the north half of Florida. Most of the trials are on grass but Pals & Paws does them on dirt indoors at the Jacksonville Equestrian Center or outdoors on dirt under cover at the St. Johns county fairgrounds.
USDAA Links
The following are the notification options. In general they are the easiest (and most invasive) to the most difficult (and least invasive) order:
FEED LINK: http://floridaagility.com/premiums/premiums-index.xml
The trial status is represented by an emoji as the first character of the calendar entry. The following is a list of the emojis used and their meaning:
⚠️ A tentative or corresponding event. I create these events for the next year around the time of the current event. Clubs own a weekend and the licensing organization enforces a mileage restriction on other clubs holding trials on the same weekend without permission from the club that owns the weekend. Weekend number one is the first weekend in January unless Saturday falls on the 1st or 2nd (AKC and most others USDAA is January 1 only) in which case the next weekend is weekend number one.
✅ The trial has been scheduled on the licensing organization calendar. At this time I add additional information to the calendar entry and enter it into the trial tracking spreadsheet.
😀 The premium or test schedule is available and the trial may be open for entry. I add a link to the calendar entry to the page on this site that has the summary information and a link to the premium.
🚫 The trial has been cancelled. A tentative event may or may not be scheduled for the following year.
🏁 After the trial status on a CPE trial indicates that this is a Speedway event.
🌐 After the trial status on an AKC trial indicates an ISC ONLY event. ISC ONLY events are not restricted by the 100 mile distance restriction from regular AKC trials.
🌖 Indicates an evening trial (can appear anywhere in the event title)
Calendar help: Seeing CAPTCHA request?, Calendar Color Codes, Trial Status, Other info