USDAA Participates in Equipment Research Project

Coalition for Agility Reporting on Incidents and Safety (CARIS)

We are pleased to announce that the following Agility organizations – American Kennel Club (AKC), Australian Shepherd Club of America (ASCA), Canine Performance Events (CPE), Fédération Cynologique Internationale (FCI), North American Dog Agility Council (NADAC), Royal Kennel Club (RKC), UK Agility International (UKI), United States Dog Agility Association (USDAA) – have committed to providing research information to the Canine Sports Science Consortium (CSSC) research group (Drs. Arielle Pechette Markley, Abigail Shoben, Melody Moore Jackson, Rachel Olson).

This initiative is designed to provide the first worldwide collection of evidential data to aid organizations in understanding the associated risks with the sport of Dog Agility in its various formats. All of the above-named organizations share the objective of providing evidence-based data to support the ongoing welfare of our dogs and to provide unbiased, independently researched information to owners / handlers.

The Canine Sport Science Consortium research group is a group independent of the above-mentioned Agility organizations and are committed to providing ‘open source’ published research based on the data provided.

The start point for this first research project of its type is to collect data on contact obstacle performance namely, the A-Frame, Dog Walk and Teeter / See Saw. Judges and Trial Secretaries / Show Organizers will be invited to complete ‘incident reports’ with the aim of understanding the relationship between obstacle performance, the total number of runs per course and recorded incidents. Data collection will commence on April 9 and take place over a six-month period, the details of which will be provided by your national governing body and / or Agility organizing body.

This level of cooperation between Agility organizations is unprecedented and we hope it will continue beyond this initial research project.

More information on the project can be found here: 
https://www.caninesportsscience.org/post/coalition-for-agility-reporting-on-incidents-and-safety-caris

Photo courtesy of Ginger & Black Photography