Reetta Pirttikoski is a Finnish agility competitor and coach, but first of all, she’s an agility judge. She has three dogs: border collies Peli and Palo, and a young Spanish water dog Piika. Her goal is to judge big international competitions and become an international judge. We asked her about judging and other hot issues being discussed, even argued, in the agility world today.

Reetta quit her day job to be able to continue judging

Judging agility competitions is Reetta’s great passion and when she ended up burning out working in a hospital, coaching and judging at the same time, she didn’t quit judging, as many would have done. Instead, on her husband’s suggestion, she quit her job. The fact that the person closest to her suggested doing so, shows how important judging really is to her.

But why is judging so great? What is it about agility judging that is so amazing? “There are so many aspects to this! I love to design courses and also plan courses for training. And I love to watch agility! I could watch it all the time and forever. When the competitors enjoy themselves and master the course or some parts of it, and find a solution to a challenge I’ve designed, that is just wonderful. And seeing good cooperation! For me, the key to this sport is in the cooperation between the handler and the dog.”

Can I afford to be a judge?

We often take judges for granted and forget that they are using their time and even some income to be able to judge. Reetta was able to choose judging over her job because of the strong support of her husband, but that is not possible for everyone. “Because you are not paid to judge, you need to have a day job. Some judges have shift work which requires a lot of organizing to get weekends off, and some people need to take an unpaid vacation for judging and travel days.”

“In spite of the support of my husband, I need to consider whether or not to take on a seminar or a judging gig, as for a seminar I get paid whilst for judging, I only get reimbursed for expenses. We all need to make a living, after all. So the essential question is, in fact, can I afford to be a judge?”

This sounds a bit unfair, and we haven’t even covered the time judges take to plan the courses. Reetta thinks that getting rewarded for the job would be greatly appreciated: “It would mean that judges could afford unpaid vacations from their day jobs and some people could even live off judging, at least partly.”

The most challenging part about judging - dogs that aren't ready to compete

A dog that isn't ready to compete doesn’t often mean the same thing for you and for me. We all see it from our own perspective. However, when asked what the most challenging thing for an agility judge is, Reetta says it’s seeing dogs on the course that aren't ready: “I see a lot of partnerships whose skills aren't sufficient for the speed at which competition courses are performed. In class 1 the lines are so fluent that speed increases and some dogs can’t control their own bodies enough or, on the other hand, they don’t yet master the obstacle at that speed. And that’s dangerous. Everything becomes dangerous when skills don’t match speed. Those are the moments I don’t enjoy.”

“I wish people were a bit more patient when it comes to starting to compete. Let's take the weaves, for example; we all expect that the dog collects a bit to be able to perform them correctly. Similarly, on the A-frame, the dog needs to be skilled enough to perform the obstacle independently without flying crazily over the apex. The dog needs to master the technique by lowering his center of gravity, going over the apex closely and running down the ramp correctly - and he needs to be able to do so even at high speed and without help from the handler.”

The vision of a good course: easy for dog, requires skills and offers many handling options

Reetta’s courses offer competitors fast lines and interesting challenges: “I want to offer courses on which the dog's path is fluent and you don’t need to hold on to the dog - instead you can let the dog go and take care of his part. I’m not a runner so my agility is based on turning my dog’s nose in the right direction and they take care of the rest.”

However, the dog needs to have the skills to be able to master his part on Reetta’s courses: “Even though I want to be able to offer lines that enable high speed from the start to the finish line, clean runs require more than just running. I hope that neither the dog nor the handler does all the work; instead, it should be cooperation in which they both support each other with their own strengths.”

“I want there to be different handling possibilities and choosing the one for you requires that you know your dog and yourself, both of your strengths and weaknesses. With this knowledge, you can find the optimal way to handle each situation. If everyone handles the course in the same way, I think I have failed in the planning.”

Reetta says that her vision of a good course originates from the coaches she’s had during her agility career, mainly being Jaakko Suoknuuti and Elina Jänesniemi, who’s still her coach. “They as well as the coaches I visit abroad have helped me understand the dog’s point of view: What they see, what is easy and what is hard for them, canter exchanges and how they work etc”.

Course planning starts from something Reetta wants to test

Reetta often starts planning a course with something she wants to test: “I have a sequence or idea in my mind, which tests a skill, such as weaving, obstacle differentiation or dog walk exit. I need to plan the challenge carefully and consider both the handler and the dog in my plans: will the dog perform the challenge independently or not and so on. After that, the rest of the course builds up around all that.”

“If there are more judges in the event, the planning is often done so that the biggest obstacles don’t change places. Then, on those terms, I try to create a sequence of 5-6 obstacles that I want to have on the course.”

“I also want to be equal and fair to every competitor. That means that I need to plan courses that are easy to judge: I want to see every situation easily.”

Different challenges for different levels

Reetta builds different challenges for different levels: For class 1 she wants to give the handlers time to change sides, set the obstacles so that they are naturally on the dog’s line and make sure contact exits are straight, except for the seesaw. “Many think that they cannot favor running contacts, and I agree. I don’t want to favor any specific choices. However, most people train RC with their young dogs now, and I need to think about the future of the sport. I want people to be brave and start training and trying new things when they appear and not stick to what was great 5 years ago. I don’t want people to despair, give up and go back to the old things because the new things feel too hard. Because one thing is for sure: the development of agility as a sport has not stopped”

In her opinion, it is hard to plan class 1 courses which would be equally easy for everyone: “There are Sunday warriors who train once a week, and then those who aim at getting to AWC with their 5th agility dog and have built their puppy meticulously from day 1. And what is easy for a Sunday warrior can be very hard for the other, and vice versa.”

“But in class 3 there can be anything. The handler needs to consider if he is on that level with his dog. There, if something feels too difficult and you cannot clear that part, complaining is not the right choice. Instead, you just need to add that thing to your training list and make sure you master that situation in the future.”

The role of the contact area at the start of the dog walk

There’s a lot of discussion about the contact area on the upward ramp of the dog walk and whether it should or should not be judged. What is Reetta’s view?

“I’d like to give up judging the contact area at the start of the dog walk. It is so much easier to judge when you only need to take care of the end. I’ve judged some competitions in Sweden, where they don’t judge the upward ramp, and that has been so great from the judge’s point of view.”

But that is not the only reason Reetta wants to give up judging the contact area at the start of the DW: “I think it's a useless element and in some cases unfair. 90% of the dogs perform it without any need to train it, ever, and then there are those dogs that risk missing it because of their structure. It’s a bit stupid for those who otherwise have a good running contact at the end of the DW to need to teach a 2o2o for the start, if I exaggerate a bit.”

“Some say that if the contact area at the beginning of the DW was forgotten, it would make entrances to the dog walk dangerous, but I think it’s the judges’ task to plan the entrances so that they are straight and safe. In my opinion, there really is no point in hitting the contact area at the beginning of the DW.”

Focus from clean runs to giving your everything

Reetta thinks competitors in Finland often put too much weight on getting clean runs. So much that it can restrict them from taking risks and going at full speed. “This obviously affects times, which is not ideal. We should stop worrying about clean runs too much, let go and run as fast as we possibly can, despite the risk of disqualifying. This way we get better speed and an adrenaline burst that makes the feeling after the run, clean or not, something else!”

“You can be totally content with your run even if you don’t get a clear run. If you do the best you can and your dog goes as fast as he possibly can, and you don’t get a clean run, it just means there are some things that you still need to work on. And I bet there were still parts you can be very happy with. Competing requires the ability to accept that you are never totally ready and complaining about the difficult courses or standard course times won’t help you. Instead, you need to keep training and really making sure your dog moves at full speed in competitions, and you will get better and better.”

Reetta lives what she preaches: “It’s an amazing feeling to go on the edge, giving your dog responsibility and just letting go. I really hope that more and more people would move their focus further from the results and get to enjoy this feeling.”

Reetta’s greetings to agility people around the world

“Run at full speed, be brave and enjoy every run and every training session! You never know about tomorrow. Don’t wait until you get faster, older or thinner. My dogs have had their share of bad luck, which has taught me that at every competition I think that ' if this is our last run, we will run like never before'. This way there are no ifs and buts afterward.”

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