AKC Agility Judges Guidelines

the contact and are corrected for missing the contact by being asked to
down or sit or by otherwise restricting their forward movement should be
excused for training in the ring as this is a punitive action. See Chapter 6
of these Guidelines for “training in the ring” situations.
Non-faulted descent: A dog that is descending a contact obstacle would not
be faulted for placing one or more paws on the ground prior to placing a paw
in the contact zone, as long as the movement is in the dog’s natural stride. This
may occur with larger or long-bodied dogs that, with their natural stride, move
over the majority of the contact before a rear paw engages the contact zone.
Therefore, a dog whose two front feet hit the ground first and whose hind feet
(or foot) then come to rest or push off the contact zone is considered to have
successfully performed the contact obstacle and shall not be faulted.
Faulted descent: Conversely, a dog jumping off a contact obstacle prior to
placing a paw in a contact zone, even though it might inadvertently make
contact with the bottom edge of the contact zone, shall be faulted for a missed
contact (e.g., a dog that leaps off the board, yet a small portion of a back foot
or the rear end or hock of the dog lands on the bottom edge of the board). In
this instance, the dog typically gathers itself prior to touching the contact and
then leaps to get off the board. Therefore, the dog left the obstacle with all 4
paws in an attempt to get off the board and the coincidence of the dog landing
on the end of the board is not to be considered the proper performance of the
obstacle.
Seesaw: To properly perform the seesaw, the dog may not exit the plank until
the elevated edge hits the ground for the first time. The dog must touch the
descending contact zone at the same time or after the plank has hit the ground.
The dog may exit the plank anytime after that, even if the plank has bounced
and is no longer touching the ground. Exiting the plank before its elevated edge
hits the ground is faulted with an “F” for a flyoff. Merely slamming the plank
loudly into the ground is not faulted; however, the dog must still be in control
and have touched the contact zone at the same time or after the plank touches
the ground.
Pause Table: A dog is not on the table until completely on it with all 4 paws
(i.e. no paws on the ground) and has not exited the table until it has left the
table and all 4 paws have touched the ground. Until a dog is completely on
the table they are still subject to refusal and run out calls. The judge should
immediately begin the table count once the dog is completely on the table.
• If the dog places one or more paws on the ground (the tail does not
count), the count stops and restarts from the beginning once the dog is
back on the table.
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