Cat Agility
Cat Agility (English cat - cat, agility [ ədʒɪlɪti ] - agility, maneuverability ) is a sport, are lured into the trained cats by their owners / trainers through an obstacle course or guided. This is necessary to provide as quickly and error-free.
Cat Agility competitions are similar to the well-known dog sport "Dog Agility" or "Agility" and jumping are modeled in equestrian sports. The cats must deny a course in less than 270 seconds, and it traverses all the obstacles in the correct ( prescribed ) order. Laser pointers, toy on a string or cats game fishing are allowed, but any kind of food is not permitted. There are about 6 to 14 obstacles in a competition. The best cats to complete a course in about 10 seconds. The obstacles are all arranged in a circle and there are many different such as tunnels, ladders, slalom, tires, etc. (see obstacles ).
The first known Cat Agility Competition took place in 2003 in Albuquerque, New Mexico instead. Cat Agility eventually became known worldwide. It was held annually at the 40 contests, all. Related to cat shows
The ring
The Basic course is 6 meters wide and 3 meters long and is backed by a network. Even if a cat is afraid or should panic, so they can not escape.
Obstacles
Tunnel
When the tunnel is a usually made of cloth or the like. manufactured tube should be firmly on the ground. The cat must pass and must not run into it from the wrong end. The length of the tunnel is different - from 50cm to longer variants ( in this case there is no limit, but the longer the tunnel, the faster the cat is tempted to lie down )
Conductor
This is a conductor having 4 or 5 bars, which is placed on the ground. The cat always has to jump into the interstices.
Slalom
It consists of several bars ( usually 3 or 4), 1 to 1.20 m high and are mounted at intervals of about 60 cm at the bottom. The slalom should normally be threaded from the right, ie the first bar should be left by the cat. However, it may happen that the threading of law is not a requirement.
Tire
The cat has to jump through a hoop here. This is especially difficult when the cat with a toy fishing lures, because you have to either quickly pull through the hoop or lift away about it. This led the cat to run past the obstacle.
Hurdles
In the normal hurdles there are different sizes. The cat has to jump over the obstacle and you have to pay attention again to come from the right side. If you build yourself at home hurdles, you have to be careful to make sure they are not too high so as not to damage the joints of cats. In a full-grown domestic cat has a height of 40cm is about the upper limit, even if the cat could jump even higher.
Levels
This hurdle is upwards of 3 small steps and back down 3 steps. The cat has to walk over and must not jump down on the page. Should this happen, the obstacle must be repeated.
Exercise
There are already many Cat Agility clubs, but you can of course also operate at home. It is a good change or movement option for cats that are kept exclusively in the apartment, and obstacles to be mostly tinkered himself. For the production of obstructions to PVC pipes are very well suited with 2 -3cm diameter, wood is also used often. It is also possible to just let the cat jump over a wooden bar resting on two chairs. When creating an obstacle course you have to just make sure that there is no risk of injury to the cat.