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[aardogs]

I really don't understand how AKC Nationals works...how exactly is it determined who gets to the finals? Is it just cumulative from all of your runs over the weekend? And Friday is a team kind of thing? And the challenger round? USDAA Nats is so easy; Quarter, Semis, Finals, simple and linear! 

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Short FAQ for "really don't understand how AKC Nationals works"

[mike lifer (from livejournal.com)]

Friday has a jumper and standard course that count towards international qualifiers (ISC) and the state team competition. State team is for bragging rights. Some people use the competition as a warm up others are very serious and want to win. The warm up people were easy to spot. They'd take jumps the wrong way to avoid back side of jump and do 180's on threadels (two of the most common ISC legal paths that aren't found on AKC courses.) Most states put together a "team" shirt design and hold parties and dinners. It's a great time to socialize with those from your area.

Saturday/Sunday is the AKC National competition. There are 5 rounds. Everyone runs the first three rounds; jumpers, standard, and hybrid. None of the courses count towards AKC titles, most aren't all fully AKC legal. The table isn't used at all. The hybrid contains only 2 of the 3 contact obstacles.

For each course you are scored by time and faults. Your score starts at 100 and decreases with each fault. The rankings are done by score then time. A slower consistent dog is ranked higher than a faster dog that earns faults.

The total number of dogs that earned a spot in the Finals round from the first three rounds varies by class/jump height from 4 in all the preferred classes to 22 dogs in 20" class. The top 7% of each jump height goes to the finals. The minimum for each jump height is 6 in the regular classes, 4 in preferred.

There is one more dog from each jump height that gets into the finals, the challenger. Any dog that has at least two clean runs (no faults) AND earned a placement (1st - 4th) in the first three rounds is eligible to run in the Challengers round.

Note on the placements for the Challengers round; if you placed say 5th and the 1st place dog from that round is already in the finals or challengers round, then you are considered to be a placement dog and are qualified to enter the challengers round. There were dogs that were outside the top 8th place spots that made it to the challengers round.

The Finals round is a lot like USDAA Nats Finals. Everyone starts from scratch. You run in reverse ranking (except the challenger who they seemed to put into the running order at different places.) Placements are awared by by score then time with the top 8 dogs earning a placement.

Hope that helps. This was Stealer and my first year qualifying and attending AKC Nationals. We did much better than expected and look forward to the next one. Mike Lifer

Re: Short FAQ for "really don't understand how AKC Nationals works"

[aardogs.livejournal.com]

Thanks SO much! Very helpful!