Questions Regarding Use of Ring and Schedule

We have received a couple of questions regarding use of ring and schedule.

Q: I have seen that the ring size has now been announced to be 15x25 metres, can you tell me if the judges will take notice if you use the entire ring or not?? In my country "big" dogs have to use about 75% of the available space.

A: There is much more to 'making good use of the ring' than just covering a set procentage of the ring. The judges will notice how you use the available space - if you move in more directions, if you always move in straight lines or use for example diagonals or circles too and if you always move around the same way (e.g. always clockwise or always anti-clockwise) or have more variation. There is no set procentage mentioned in the rules.

Q: I have also noticed that it's possible to practice in the ring Thursday but we may arrive too late for that? Does the HTM competition start Friday and Freestyle Saturday? How many will qualify for Sunday?

A: You can book practice time in the ring on Thursday afternoon by sending an e-mail to Hanne Madsen (The Danish Kennel Club) at hama@dansk-kennel-klub.dk. You can ask for a time as late as possible. Otherwise there will be a warm up ring with the same kind of surface and in the same hall as the competition ring. You can use that all 3 days without booking time in advance.

Programme:

Friday the 25th of June 2010:

Team competitions in Heelwork to Music and qualifiers for the Individual Final.

All competitors perform their routines and are judged. The results count towards the team competition. At the same time the results are qualifying for the Individual Final.

Saturday the 26th of June 2010:

Team competitions in Freestyle and qualifiers for the Individual Final.

All competitors perform their routines and are judged. The results count towards the team competition. At the same time the results are qualifying for the Individual Final.

Sunday the 27th of June 2010:

Individual HTM Final and Individual Freestyle Final.

The ten teams that have acquired the highest score in each of the disciplines qualify for the Individual Finals (10 Heelwork to Music and 10 Freestyle).

These answers have been confirmed by the Head Judge.