Staffordshire Terrier Club of America

Official Web Site

Performance Committee

Chairperson: Denise Wedel

STCA Performance Awards
Versatility Award to be introduced in 2008

By Denise Wedel

There are more performance venues than ever before in the AKC history. In addition to obedience events, agility and rally offer titles at beginning, intermediate and expert levels. Our naturally athletic dogs enjoy these activities as well as tracking. While herding is not open to our breed, the AKC is presently considering approving drafting for am staffs and several other breeds. There is no question that, in an atmosphere of increasing irrational public hostility toward our breed, the presence of our dogs in performance venues is a strongly positive example of their stable temperaments. Quite often their comic personalities entertain onlookers during these events as well!

There is presently one performance award in the STCA. The Register of Honor (ROH) is a highly coveted award to American Staffordshire Terriers that have earned a CH (AKC Champion title), CD (Companion Dog Obedience) and CGC equivalent and are owned by STCA members. Since 2004 when the Performance Committee was first formed, the need to recognize champion dogs that exceed the CD level of obedience, performance dogs that are not champions, and dogs (champions or not) that exceed in several areas of performance has been discussed. Several options were weighed including several award systems used by other breed clubs. While changing the basic ROH was not felt to be desirable, awarding higher levels of ROH to those champions who continue on to achieve higher obedience titles was felt to be important. From those discussions, the recommendation to award an ROH Silver, ROH Gold and ROH Platinum to those dogs achieving the titles of CDX, UD and UDX respectively, as described in detail below, was recommended. This change was approved by the STCA Board at the recent meetings in Hutto, TX.

The STCA Versatility Award will reward those am staffs that perform in several performance venues and/or achieve very high levels in a single venue. It will be awarded to American Staffordshire Terriers (including ILP am staffs) that have earned enough points in any AKC-recognized performance event to achieve the stated point total (see below for specifics). This award will also recognize dogs that continue to earn higher performance titles (Silver, Gold and Platinum as defined above). Similar to the ROH, a CD and CGC or equivalent are required and owners must be STCA members. Unlike the ROH, this award does not require a championship, and it encourages and rewards titles in multiple venues.

These titles will be awarded retroactively to any living dog in 2008. From this date forward, the awards will be presented yearly at the STCA National Specialty. The Performance Committee and Board of Directors hope that this recognition will encourage Am Staff owners to train and show their dogs in performance events. The challenge is on - let's show them all what our dogs can do!

STCA ROH Award

Requirement for Basic ROH = CH, CD and CGC (or TT)
ROH Silver = Basic + CDX
ROH Gold = Basic + UD
ROH Platinum = Basic + UDX
OTCH - special award presentation

STCA Versatility Award

Requirement for basic Versatility award = CD, CGC (or TT) and other performance titles in obedience, rally, agility and tracking to reach 25-49 point total (e.g. CD RN NA NAJ = 25 pts (see attached worksheet and examples))

Versatility Silver = Basic plus additional titles to reach 50-99 point total

Versatility Gold = Silver plus additional titles to reach 100-149 points

Versatility Platinum = Gold plus additional titles to reach 150 or more points

Point Schedule for Versatility Award

Obedience

CD (Companion Dog) = 5 pts
CDX (Companion Dog Excellent) = 10 pts
UD (Utility Dog) = 25 pts
UDX (Utility Dog Excellent) = 50 pts (each)
OTCH (Obedience Trial Champion) = 75 pts (each)

Agility

NA NAJ (Novice Agility/ Novice Agility Jumpers) = 5 pts each
OA OAJ (Open Agility/Open Agility Jumpers) = 10 pts each
AX AXJ (Excellent Agility/Excellent Agility Jumpers) = 15 pts each
MX MXJ (Masters Agility/Masters Agility Jumpers) = 25 pts each
MACH (Masters Agility Champion) = 50 pts each

Rally

RN (Rally Novice) = 5pts
RA (Rally Advanced) = 10 pts
RE (Rally Excellent) = 10 pts
RAE (Rally Advanced Excellent) = 15 pts

Tracking

TD (Tracking Dog) = 10 pts
TDX (Tracking Dog Excellent) = 25 pts
VST (Variable Surface Tracking Dog) = 50 pts

CGC or Equivalent (TT) = 5 pts
Therapy Dog Award (any system) = 10 pts

Only AKC Titles (except therapy dog) will be recognized.
Preferred or regular agility titles will be counted, but not both.
Points will be cumulative in each category (e.g. CD + CDX = 5 + 10 = 15 pts.
Carting (and other performance events) will be added when approved by the AKC.
Multiples of titles allowed by AKC (e.g. MACH, OTCH, UDX) will be counted separately (e.g. UDX2 = 100 pts, MACH3 = 100 pts, etc.)

Versatility Title Worksheet
Circle all Titles Earned by Dog

Note: may substitute preferred titles in agility, but not both regular and preferred

Examples:

1. MACH She’s done it all UDX RAE TD = Versatility Platinum