TDAA 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 from 15 months.

TDAA is open to any breed or mix measuring 20 inches or less at the withers, from 12 months old. All dogs that run at a TDAA trial have to be registered with TDAA, which costs $15, and that includes dogs running For Exhibition Only. Clubs that use larger equipment may also allow dogs of 20 to 22 inches that were registered before 2024, and those dogs are scored in their own 20-inch group.

AKC has four levels: Novice, Open, Excellent and Master. Standard, Jumpers With Weaves and FAST each have their own title ladder, and Time 2 Beat and Premier have titles of their own too.

TDAA has two kinds of titling classes. Standard runs at three levels, Beginner, Intermediate and Superior, and Games run at Games I, II and III. Beginner courses have no weave poles, Intermediate adds six, and a dog needs its Beginner title before it can enter Intermediate. Our dog agility levels chart shows where the AKC levels sit next to other organizations.

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.

A TDAA Standard run is scored 100 minus faults, and 95 qualifies. That means a single 5-fault mistake, like a missed contact, can still be a Q, but any time fault is an NQ. In Beginner, refusals on the way to an obstacle are not faulted. In Games classes, the judge sets what it takes to qualify.

AKC titles take 3 Qs at Novice, Open and Excellent, and 10 at Master: NA, OA, AX and MX in Standard, and NAJ, OAJ, AXJ and MXJ in Jumpers With Weaves. The full list is on the AKC agility titles page.

TDAA titles count Qs too, in a set order. Here they are with what each one takes.

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, and Preferred dogs earn the PACH the same way.

The TDAA TACh, Teacup Agile Dog Champion, counts Qs instead of points. It takes ten qualifying Superior Standard runs after the TSAD and ten qualifying Games III runs after the TG3. The TACh2 takes 15 of each, the TACh3 takes 20, and each one after that adds 5 more. Our agility championship titles compared page covers the MACH and the other organizations’ championships.

TDAA jumps are set at 2, 4, 8, 12 or 16 inches. A dog’s measured height comes from its height at the withers, and at a regular trial the handler can choose that height or a lower one and still earn Qs and titles. The 2-inch height is offered when a handler asks for it. Here’s where small dogs land in each.

AKC’s lower-height program is Preferred, which jumps 4 inches lower with 5 extra seconds in Standard and Jumpers With Weaves. TDAA gives veterans an exemption instead: from 7 years a dog can jump one measured height lower, from 10 years two heights lower, and veterans get extra course time. The dog jump height chart has the AKC heights for any size of dog.

TDAA is built around small dogs. Its clubs are encouraged to use teacup-sized equipment, and its courses are timed by measured height, so dogs of the same height run to the same course time whatever height they jump. AKC sets jumps from 8 to 24 inches by the dog’s height, with Preferred as the lower-height option.

Both have a national event with a winner at each height. AKC’s National Agility Championship crowns a winner at each jump height, and at the TDAA Petit Prix the dog with the highest overall score in its jump height earns the TNAC title. At the Petit Prix, dogs jump their measured height, adjusted for any exemption.

Yes. A small dog can run in both. AKC and TDAA 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.