ASCA vs AKC Agility

AKC agility is open to registered purebreds, and to mixed breeds through Canine Partners, which asks that the dog be spayed or neutered before it competes. Dogs can enter AKC agility from 15 months.

ASCA is the club for the Australian Shepherd, but its agility is open to any breed or mix from 18 months old. A dog that isn’t an ASCA-registered Australian Shepherd needs an ASCA tracking number, called a QTracker number, before its points count toward titles.

AKC has four levels: Novice, Open, Excellent and Master. Standard, Jumpers With Weaves and FAST each have their own title ladder, so a dog can be in Master Standard and Open FAST at the same time. Time 2 Beat and Premier have titles of their own too.

ASCA has three levels, Novice, Open and Elite, and three titling classes: Regular, Jumpers and Gamblers. Each class has its own ladder through the three levels. Our dog agility levels chart shows how these levels sit next to each other.

In AKC Standard and Jumpers With Weaves, a Q at Novice and Open is a score of 85 or more. At Excellent the score still needs to be 85, but any refusal, run-out or wrong course is an NQ. At Master it has to be a perfect 100. Each Q counts as one toward the title at that level.

In ASCA, a qualifying run earns points. A clean run earns 10 in any class. In Regular, a run with 5 faults or fewer still qualifies and earns 5, with time faults counted at 1 for each second or part of a second over. Jumpers needs a clean run with no course or time faults. Gamblers needs enough opening points (15 in Novice, 18 in Open, 21 in Elite) and at least 20 points in the gamble.

AKC titles take 3 Qs at Novice, Open and Excellent, and 10 at Master. After that, Master runs keep counting toward the Master metal titles, one for every 25 Qs in a class.

ASCA Regular titles take 30 points, and Jumpers and Gamblers titles take 20, at each level. The letters spell out the class, the division and the level, so RS-N is Regular Standard Novice.

The full lists, including the ASCA division letters and the AKC FAST, Time 2 Beat and Premier titles, are on the ASCA agility titles list and the AKC agility titles page.

The AKC MACH takes 750 points and 20 double Qs. A MACH point is one full second under course time on a qualifying run, and a double Q is a Q in Master Standard and Master Jumpers With Weaves on the same day. MACH2 comes at 1,500 points and 40 double Qs. Preferred dogs earn the PACH the same way, from the Preferred Master classes.

The ASCA ATCH takes 200 points in Elite Regular, 100 in Elite Gamblers and 100 in Elite Jumpers, counted after your dog earns the Elite title in each class. Points start counting in a class as soon as that class’s Elite title is done, and the next set of the same totals earns ATCH-II. The ACE is the same idea in the ACE program, with the same 200, 100 and 100 points. Our agility championship titles compared page has both next to the other organizations’ championships.

The two organizations draw their height lines in much the same place for a mid-size dog. Here’s where a 17-inch dog ends up in each.

AKC Preferred dogs jump 4 inches lower and get 5 extra seconds in Standard and Jumpers With Weaves. ASCA ACE dogs jump 4 inches lower than Championship and get 10% more time. ASCA also has divisions for dogs 7 and older, where a 17-inch dog jumps 12 as a Championship Veteran or 8 as an ACE Senior Dog, and a Junior Handler division for handlers 17 or younger.

For bigger dogs the two differ a little. AKC’s top height is 24 inches, and any dog 22 inches or under can choose 24C instead. In ASCA, dogs over 20 inches run in their own 20+ class, and in the Championship program they can choose 24. The dog jump height chart works it out for any height.

In AKC, a run either is a Q or it isn’t, and the title counts Qs. In ASCA, a Regular run with a few faults can still count for half the points of a clean run, and Gamblers is one of the three main titling classes. AKC has more classes with their own titles, like FAST, Time 2 Beat and Premier.

The two lower-height programs work in a similar way. AKC lets you move a dog’s unused MACH points and double Qs to its PACH once, after the dog is entered in Preferred Master. ASCA lets unused Championship points move to ACE once, and ACE points never move back.

Yes. Plenty of dogs run in both, often because of which trials are close to home. AKC and ASCA each keep their own titles and record, so your dog climbs a separate ladder in each, and a run counts only in the organization that held the trial. That means two sets of records: Qs and MACH points for AKC, and class points for ASCA.