The Trouble with Handicapping

In our league play what we’d like to do is make a comparison between dogs of different heights that compete against one another; giving a handicap advantage to dogs with shorter legs.

We’ll take a range of jump heights, 4″ through 26″ and establish a straight-forward handicap schedule like this:

Height	RoT	% HC
4	1.9	0.63
8	2.2	0.73
12	2.6	0.87
16	2.8	0.93
22-26	3	0

This table reflects a rational differential between jump heights. The columns are: Jump Height; Rate of Travel; and Percentage for Handicap.

Below I’ll show a time score (presuming a clean run) for each of the jump heights in a standard (numbered course):

Height	Time	HC Adjust	Place
4	74	46.62	1
8	68	49.64	3
12	62	53.94	5
16	55	51.15	4
22-26	47	47	2

This table plays with a variety of scores that could be expected from the different jump heights (in the Time column). Multiplying the dog’s time on course by the Percentage of Handicap in the previous table gets the Handicap Adjustment score and the Placement Results.

Now, the problem…

In a free-flowing and barely turning sequence like this, there might be only about one yard of difference between the 4″ and the 26″ dog. The handicap calculations are really based on this kind of flow.

On a more technical sequence with tight turns like this one, there will be about 8 or 10 yards of difference between the 4″ and the 26″ dog. And this is only a moderately technical sequence.

So the adjusted rates of travel should give less advantage to the small dog in the comparison of course time. So it looks like there needs to be a technical factor that softens the advantage given to smaller dogs.

I haven’t completely figured out the math. It looks like all of the handicap percentages need to be based on a ranked number 0-5 that will drop the handicap percentage based on a Rate of travel as much as .5 yps, stepping down through the jump heights; but probably no more than that.

A Further Complication

How do you handicap a points-based game? It strikes me that it should be the inverse of the numbered course logic. Traditionally small dogs are given more time in a points game. That means the small dog has to work longer than the big dog; a fact that doesn’t make terrible sense. It’s like saying that the small dog has greater stamina than the big dog.

Instead, what we might do is add a multiplier factor against points based solely on the rates of travel. So points earned by the 4″ (in the same QCT) would be multiplied by 1.37 to arrive at a score that can be compared to the performance of the 26″ dog.

It strikes me that a motivated Yorkshire Terrier could rule the agility world.

BLOG732

Bud’s Google-proof Trivia Contest

In the movie Grand Hotel John Barrymore carries a dog across the lobby of the hotel under his arm and gives the dog over to a bell-hop, telling the young man to walk the dog until he’s “completely worn out.” What was the breed of dog under his arm?

Questions comments & impassioned speeches to Bud Houston BudHouston@hughes.net. The Country Dream web store is up and running. www.dogagility.org/newstore.