PACH (Agility)

[Guardyan]

The following is an excerpt from the Chairman's report for March:

"In Agility, I’m pleased to announce the creation of the Preferred Agility Championship title, or PACH, which will take effect July 1st. Originally scheduled for 2013, we’re happy to implement it almost 2 years ahead of schedule to recognize our Preferred Agility dogs. Dogs must achieve a minimum of 750 championship points and 20 double qualifying scores from the Excellent Standard and Jumpers with Weaves classes to obtain the championship.

The PACH title is also retroactive, so that any dog that met the requirements prior to July 1st, 2011 will have PACH prefix added to their AKC registered name in the registration database."
(Source: American Kennel Club - March 2011 Chairman's Report )

COOL!!!

[MaggieRoseLee]

Since the program is retro-active there may already be titles out there.

[wildo]

a minimum of 750 championship points and 20 double qualifying scores from the Excellent Standard and Jumpers with Weaves classes to obtain the championship.

WOW! I get that this is basically the highest title you can get (for preferred) but wow, I am blown away by the requirements. How many points does one typically get at a trial? And does all this have to happen in one season? That could be a lot of trials!!

[EDIT]- nevermind, I found the scoring criteria section in the regulations pdf. I just haven't had a chance to read through this yet. Looks like a max score of 100 points for Standard or JWW. So maybe 750 isn't so much after all. But the 20 double qualifying scores is probably the harder part...

[MaggieRoseLee]

Isn't it the same as a MACH? One point for every second under course time?

[Guardyan]

Yep, one point for each second under course time in Exc B Std or Exc B JWW. They've updated the regs ( http://www.akc.org/pdfs/rulebooks/REAGIL.pdf ) See Appendix D.

[wildo]

This scoring thing is confusing. At first I thought that if you do a clean run, then you get 100 points. Then MRL made her comment which seems to be backed by the linked regulations:

1 point is awarded for each full second under Standard Course Time. (No partial points are awarded.)

But if you keep reading, it also states:

Any score of 100 (clear round) obtained in the Excellent B Preferred classes will count towards both the dog’s Preferred Championship requirements, and the dog’s MXP titling requirements.

So my only conclusion is that a clean run earns you 100 points, but only (QA time - Finish time) number of points actually count towards a PACH. So if the QA time was 45 seconds, and you had a clean run at 40 seconds, then you are awarded 100 points, and also (45 - 40) == 5 points towards your PACH. Is this correct? If so, what do the 100 points go towards? Must just be your dog's overall ranking to other dogs?

[Guardyan]

Lemme' see if I can make this clear as mud. :-)

You start with 100 points at the beginning of a run. Each time you make a mistake, points are taken away. When you get to the higher levels of agility (like Master's) you have to have completely clean runs with no points off for wrong courses, etc. In other words, you have to finish with all 100 points. However, those points are completely different than speed (MACH) points. They don't really count toward anything, other than you need to have all of them to Q at the upper levels.

Speed points are awarded for each second under course time. If you ran 5 seconds under course time, you would earn 5 speed points. If you're running in regular, they're MACH points. If you're running preferred (after July 1st) they're PACH points.

So, to earn the PACH, you need 20 double Qs. These are earned by qualifying in Excellent B Std and Excellent B JWW on the same day. You also need 750 speed points. Those are earned for each second under course time.

The tricky part about the MACH (or now the PACH) is you have to be fast to earn speed points, yet consistent enough to earn those double Q's.

I hope that helped at least a little.

[wildo]

Perfect- I totally get it now. Thanks!

[Guardyan]

You're welcome!

[Guardyan]

AKC released some additional information this morning:

American Kennel Club - American Kennel Club Introduces Preferred Agility Championship Title

Really cool that points will be retroactive!