# AKC suspends Chute usage



## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Effective immediately, due to safety concerns as the dogs get faster and the courses become more complex, the collapsed tunnel (chute) will no longer be allowed in AKC Agility.

Safety will be reviewed. I am at work thus on my phone so cannot provide the link here.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

USDAA has also just announced their indefinite suspension of the usage of the closed tunnel due to safety issues.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Why is the chute more dangerous than the tunnel? 

I thought it was tunnel where dogs were getting hurt?


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

The dogs can get tangled (badly) in the chute and either panic or hurt themselves.

Plus, I guess the problems are made worse on some of the surfaces that are being used...obedience type flooring is fine but some of the astroturf surfaces are a problem ... My dogs love the chute so I am kind of sorry to see it go, but then again it might be nice to take the curtain & curtain rod out of the doorway to their training & grooming room - helps them LOVE the feel of fabric sliding on their back 

The judges can get totally crazy with their courses and seem to think all dogs can manoever like border collies, but border collies can be so insanely fast that some obstacles can become unsafe at those speeds ... At least that is my opinion.


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## ceegee (Mar 26, 2015)

Sunrise said:


> The judges can get totally crazy with their courses and seem to think all dogs can manoever like border collies, but border collies can be so insanely fast that some obstacles can become unsafe at those speeds ... At least that is my opinion.


There's a lot of discussion here in the Canadian (AAC) agility community about banning the chute too. It's been made optional in Master level courses as from next year, and there have been some changes to the structure and length.

I agree with you that the growing presence of border collies is changing the sport, and not - IMHO - for the better. It's becoming less a question of handling (again IMHO, the chute is as safe as the other obstacles if the handler chooses the proper line into and out of it) and more a question of blasting full-speed through the obstacles. At the recent AAC Nationals, here in Montreal, I overheard border collie people criticize curved tunnels as being dangerous, and dummy obstacles on courses as being unfair!! Already, local clubs here are being forced by the Association to adapt their equipment (at their own expense) to the demands of international team members (mostly border collie owners) who don't even support the trials, when the grassroots competitors - who contribute 99% of the money to the sport through their trial entry fees - are perfectly happy with the obstacles. 

If a handler chooses to run a fast dog at full speed, then clearly the sport is going to become more dangerous to that dog. I've seen border collies crash into jump wings or fall off dogwalks simply because their handlers didn't work the line into the obstacle in order to save half a second. We're never going to eliminate the potential for injury completely - it's a sport, stuff happens. But if things keep going as they are, we're going to end up with courses composed of straight tunnels, flimsy plastic jumps jumps and frames just so the border collies don't hurt themselves.

Obviously the sport is going to evolve ... but it would be unfortunate if this happened at the expense of the regular "weekend warrior" competitors who form its financial base.


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## Ljilly28 (Jan 22, 2008)

Here is a link: https://akcagilityjudges.wordpress.com/2016/08/29/akc-agility-suspends-use-of-the-collapsed-tunnel/


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Additional agility organizations are following suit...

I am offering my chute to my local dog pound, just the barrel portion. They seem interested but need to actually see it before deciding.... The barrel portion can probably offer the dogs in their care some fun


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## foley (Oct 31, 2007)

One of the video sources documenting the risks of a collapsible tunnel:


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## Panama Rob (Nov 26, 2015)

Wow!!! I'm a newly at agility. We have just started training on the chute.


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## gdgli (Aug 24, 2011)

I don't do agility. Video is an eye opener, I do not like the look of the chute. Just an opinion.


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## TheZ's (Jun 13, 2011)

We've dabbled a bit in agility and I'm happy to hear they're doing away with the chute. It's always seemed to me unfair to send the dog into something where they're completely blind with cloth draping around their head. It hasn't been a favorite for my dogs.

The other one I'd be happy to see some changes with is the dog walk. It seems very narrow for the bigger dogs and high for the little ones. I had a scare once when Gracie was running across one, her back leg missed the walk and she came off. Fortunately she's quick and agile and landed on fer feet as though she had jumped off but it was scary.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

The chute can definitely be a dangerous obstacle - I always check down my dog's speed and make the line straight in and out; while safer, these actions increase course time. 

Ah well, my barrel is going to the Dog Pound for their amusement, the cloth portions (3 of them for different lengths) have been tossed in the trash. I do not see the chute coming back or if it does, it will have been re-engineered.


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## my4goldens (Jan 21, 2009)

Tugg and I are very novice agility beginners, and he loves the chute. But he is one of those fast dogs and I could see him possibly getting tangled up in the chute material. So I guess it is a good thing they have done away with it. My instructor looked at me one day in astonishment when I asked her, how can I slow him down?


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

You should always be able to check your dogs speed down to make approaches and/or exits safer -- a simpler deceleration is also used to signal tight turning ahead. 

I have run a very fast dog (I suspect Aedan will also be very fast) and can tell you the need to be able to check that speed is critical - in Casey's case he literally beat border collies and ran low to the ground so we also had to work distance and that opened up his 'option' for zooming LOL 

But checking down and deceleration might cause a fast dog to slow down from say 6.6+ yps (I don't want a dog running that fast to hit the chute ); slower dogs (most of my goldens tend to prefer running fairly close to me and thus are slower) still need deceleration to cue tight wraps and such. So I would say you always need to know how to check their speed.



my4goldens said:


> Tugg and I are very novice agility beginners, and he loves the chute. But he is one of those fast dogs and I could see him possibly getting tangled up in the chute material. So I guess it is a good thing they have done away with it. My instructor looked at me one day in astonishment when I asked her, how can I slow him down?


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