Lure Coursing: Introduction to Lure Coursing

What is lure coursing?

Lure coursing is an entertaining sport for dogs, and it involves chasing an automatic lure. The competition is normally limited to dogs who are purebred sighthound, although there is Coursing Ability Test for all dogs to take to determine their eligibility for this game.

In lure coursing, the dogs chase the artificial lure through a field, and they follow a pattern which is intended to simulate live coursing. The lure course is roughly 600 and 1000 yards long. In Europe, the course length may be over 1000 meters. Sometimes, it may incorporate some jumps or obstacles. The course has to have a number of turns to simulate prey which is usually a jackrabbit or hare.

The fields may be fenced or not. When a dog is lure focused, it will follow the lure from the start to finish and won't run off the course. Canines with some lure experience, or who are "lure-wise," can try to expect or "cheat" by trying to remove the lure rather than trying to capture it using speed, follow, and agility. Sighthounds do not have any need to be enticed or trained to chase the lure as their desire to chase anything is instinctual. However, a few breeds may require the lure play while they are younger to encourage them to be able to follow this artificial object with eagerness.

The participant dogs must be one-year-old and above to compete since the hard fast turns may be tough on a pet's developing joints. Such intense and recurrent competitive lure coursing at a young age may cause severe joint problems when they get older.

Qualifying to compete

In the American Sighthound Field Association competitions, a dog has to be Certified to compete in an Open category. To certify, the dog must run clean (implying that they must not interfere with another hound while they follow the lure) with other dogs of similar moving style and be deemed certified by an ASFA judge. Dogs which are used for certification don't have to be certified, nor do they need to be a sighthound breed, and judges may certify 2 or 3 hounds simultaneously. In the American Kennel Club coursing, the body passed a new rule in early 2010, and it makes the certification process close to the ASFA process.

The dog has to run cleanly with other dogs of similar moving style to earn its QC title. In Europe, the competing dogs require a coursing license or perhaps a racing license for official international and national lure coursing trials, gotten through a coursing or racing club, and are mainly run in braces, or run solo.

 Levels of competition

The dogs are coursed by their breeds in braces (two) or sometimes in trios (three), depending on the available dogs for the run. Dogs may run alone when there are no dogs of a similar breed in the competition. However, their scores won't qualify towards the title unless they can defeat a hound. The running order is decided by a random draw. This is not based on the dog's size or comparable ability. Also, the dogs may compete in an open stake, as well as field champion stake.