AKC Agility Judges Guidelines

CHAPTER 2
JUDGES DUTIES PRIOR TO THE TRIAL
Section 1. Communication
Communication with Trial-holding Club: Correspondence with the club
prior to the trial will help ensure its success. Calls inquiring about availability
for judges should be returned promptly. The judge should get both the Trial
Secretary’s and the Trial Chairman’s phone numbers (cell phones and email
addresses are also very helpful) to have at least two points of contact with the
club.
Items Requiring Clarification Prior to Accepting Assignments: Verifying
these items is required prior to accepting an assignment from a club.
Dates and the trial location: This is so you can verify that you will not be
in conflict with the regulations regarding other trials that you may have
already committed to judge (200 miles within 30 days). If the distances
are close, you or the club should request that the AKC verify the distance
between trials based on the AKC’s “in-house” program that calculates the
distance between trials.
Judges fees: Judges Fees should be discussed and agreed to prior to accepting
the assignment.
Expenses: Determine what expenses the club is paying for, such as course
copies, travel fees (expectations of whether the judge will arrive by car or
plane), meal costs, etc.
Classes: Determine the class(es) the judge is being asked to judge.
Judging Limits: A judge should discuss his or her own personal judging limits
(i.e., the number of dogs they feel they can judge consistently in one day)
with the club.
Travel arrangements: Determine who is responsible for making travel
arrangements to get the best rates. Whoever makes the arrangements,
it is important to note that the judge is committed to the club to judge
all classes he or she agreed to judge. A judge may not leave prior to
completing the assignment, which includes verification of all scores in the
official catalog. It is imperative that a sufficient amount of time be allowed
between the expected finish of judging, completion of all paperwork, and
the time when the judge must leave. The Trial Chair or Secretary can give
usual entries and judging lengths to give you some information on which
to base your transportation choices.
Reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses: Discuss how quickly the judge will
be reimbursed for out-of-pocket expenses. This is especially important if
the judge is arranging his or her own flights.
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