Evaluation of Variability in Performance by Dogs Completing Dog Walk Obstacles in Agility Competition

Introduction: We aimed to describe paw placement patterns for dogs completing the dog walk obstacle during agility trials. We hypothesized that dogs would demonstrate a series of definable placement patterns.

Materials and Methods: Videos of dogs completing the dog walk obstacle at the 2021 UK Agility International U.S. Open were reviewed (n = 295). Data regarding front and rear limb paw placement across the dog walk and time to complete the obstacle were recorded.

Results: Mean time to complete the entire obstacle was 2.26 seconds (SD = 1.03) and was similar across height classes. No predominate paw placement patterns were observed; a slight majority of dogs hit the up ramp with their right foot first indicating running on their left lead (n = 184, 62%) with some variation observed between heights. A slight majority (57%; 150/261) hit the down ramp with their right front foot first (150/261).

Discussion/Conclusion: There was large variation in observed dog walk obstacle performance, both in time to completion and in paw placement patterns. Our hypothesis was therefore rejected. This finding is in contrast to a recent study that was able to define a small number of paw placement styles for the weave pole obstacle and could be due to differences in the kinematics required for the two obstacles. The observed variability in performance suggests a need for kinematic and kinetic studies to better define movement patterns and forces, and how those may correlate with injury development.

Acknowledgments: There was no proprietary interest or funding provided for this project.

Publication History

Article published online:
11 September 2023