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
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:
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:
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 above buttons will pop up a window with a scrollable list of links for each of the appropriate categories.
Trial Hosts is list of organizations that have held trials since the start of COVID. The list includes the venues offered and all discovered links. A number of organizations have discontinued or cut back on trials. For example, Indian River DTC has only held TDAA trials, Dog Obedience Club of Hollywood and Tallahassee Dog Obedience Club have not held trials recently, Mid-Florida Golden Retriever Club handed off their trial dates and equipment to NorAust.
Trial Secretaries with web sites
Equipment is a list of equipment vendors. These will have the state abbreviation at the end and they are listed in the approximate distance from Florida. For example, a Georgia company would be listed before a California company and companies in Florida would be listed first. The vendors offer everything from inexpensive backyard equipment to competition level equipment. For inexpensive equipment, you can also consider online vendors such as Amazon, Ebay, Chewy, etc. Companies like MAD Agility sometimes come to Florida with a trailer full of equipment hoping to leave with an empty trailer. For example, in January 2023 their show schedule had four trial sets over a five week period in January. You can pre-order equipment and take delivery at a trial and save on shipping.