Keeping Track of Titles

When we started in agility, there was so many things we not only had to learn, but also to keep track of!

Titles are a big part of competing in agility. Most competitors will tell you how excited they were when they earned their first title with a dog.

For those of you who might not know much about agility (yet!), a "title" is a certification of sorts - It says that you have completed all the requirements set forth by an organization. After completing all the requirements, the dog is awarded the title. Usually titles have a 2-4 letter abbreviation. Dogs earning titles like USDAA's ADCh (and the Performance equivalent APD)  and AKC's "MACH" are highly regarded and respected in the agility community, as the road to earning those titles is long and hard. When a dog earns a title, it is proudly appended to that dogs name. For example, our dog Harley's full name is currently "Harley Davis PJ3 PK2 PR2 PG2 PS1 PD1."

While you're racking up the Q's, it does become hard to keep track of all that information, especially when you have more than one dog! Here are several recommendations:

• Agility Record Book is a free, open source software product that keeps track of pretty much anything you can think of with agility. It supports requirements from most agility organizations (USDAA, AKC, NADAC, CPE, etc) and helps organize your future trials as well.
• If software is not for you, then consider the old fashion way: Pen and Paper. Many trial vendors offer agility record keeping binders. They're relatively cheap, but not as cheap as free. You also have to be diligent about keeping track of your runs - it's easy to fall behind and lose track!
• Make a cheat sheet. I wrote my own spreadsheet that's printer-friendly so I can take it to trials and quickly mark off Q's I earn during the weekend. I made mine to be quick to update, and SIMPLE. Here's a link of my USDAA cheat sheet on google docs. It doesn't keep track of course times or placements, but it doesn't need to. It's just a quick cheat sheet, and to be usable, it needed to be simple. Note: I hastily converted the link above from an ODS file, so it's not as pretty on google docs as the original on my computer.
• As a reader added, some organizations have online portals to access your dog's information online. As far as I know, AKC and USDAA both offer this feature. USDAA charges a $20 subscription fee for 2 years of access. I gladly pay that much for access, and to support my organization of choice.

User Suggestions:

• From Elizabeth Z:
  

  I use the "Manage my Dogs" feature on www.akc.org and this way I can verify (after about a 3 week period following a trial) my dogs titles and Q's earned. I always check the site before I enter the next trial so I know for sure what we are striving for as far as titles go. I then have the green Q ribbons to know what we got for that particular trial.
  You can also follow your friends dogs too, who are registered with the AKC, with their online record keeper.
  I used to go by the ribbons on the wall. I would drape them in the orders recieved and then I could see when there was a new title ribbon or notice when a Q was needed. This got to be too long.....it circled my ceiling and soon needed another room! I had to box up the ribbon idea and look for something easier.

• Comments: I did the same thing when I started. Keeping track of so many ribbons is tedious, and not a very good record keeping practice.

If you have any suggestions on how you manage your dog's information, post a comment and I'll add it to be above list!