Goals of SSA:
To provide a venue where all dogs, even giant breeds can compete in agility and other sports and be successful because of positive training, course design and equipment modifications.
Why Agility For Big Dogs?
After reading an article on the internet about Giant Dogs and Agility which basically stated that if you have a big dog you can do agility if you want, but you will never be competitive. They went on to tell these owners to just resign themselves to the fact that they are only doing it for fun with their dog. They implied that big dogs could never qualify or title. The whole article just managed to make me mad. And the idea was born...we need a venue where big dogs can compete and be successful. One of the biggest obstacles in the way of the giant breeds is the jump height. No venue will let a 30 inch dog jump 12 inches….but a Saint Bernard might have a hard time repetitively jumping even 16 inches. So in SSA the handlers choose the jump height that they feel is the best height for their dog. The competition is not amongst Jump Heights as in other venues, but against levels, so you will compete against other dogs of your level no matter what height they jump. SSA uses some larger than standard sized obstacles, and Super Size courses are designed with a 30+ inch Saint Bernard in mind. All of these changes to the normal agility make SSA a great venue for the big dog, but it also makes SSA fun for dogs of all sizes.
Saturday April 10th, 2010 was the Super Size Agility "Maiden" trial at Rocky Creek Dog Agility. It was a great success, we have been holding about one trial each month since then. If you are interested in trying SSA look for our Trial Premiums and Entry forms on the Premium List page of this website. If you have questions contact Kim through the "Contact Us" page.