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Lure Coursing is a dog sport that involves a dog chasing an artificial lure in an open field, with the course pattern being irregular to simulate a prey animal changing directions as it runs away.
Lure Coursing
The lure itself is strips of plastic bags tied to a nylon cord which is pulled around on pulleys by a specifically designed operated motor. A normal course is between approx. 650 metres to 1000 metres long; however course lengths can vary dependent on field conditions on the day.
Who can do it?
Now that the sport has been extended to all ANKC breeds anyone can who is a member of their state body. All other breeds compete in different classes to the sight hounds, known as the Coursing Ability Test (CAT) stream.
All dogs must be at least 15 months of age to compete and any breed can compete within the two streams available.
What happens at a trial/event?
Every Trial will have a judge, gate steward, lure driver and hunt master. A Judge is responsible for scoring each dogs run based on 5 categories; Enthusiasm, Follow, Speed, Agility & Endurance.
A Gate steward is the intermediary between those competing on the field, and those waiting to enter on the field.
A Lure driver is responsible for operating the lure machine which operates the lure around the field.
A Hunt master is responsible for controlling the proceedings on the field and giving the command to release the dog on the T of “Tally-Ho” and to retrieve your dog at the end.
All dogs are required to complete the course twice at the one event, with the points from both runs combined for the final score.
Dogs registered with their Member Body may earn ANKC lure coursing titles of;
JC – Junior Courser
CA – Coursing Ability
CAA – Coursing Ability Advanced
CAX – Coursing Ability Excellent
CAM – Coursing Ability Master
To qualify for titles in lure coursing, all dogs must first pass 2 qualifying events to gain their Junior Courser title, and then meet the requirements to qualify for each of the consecutive titles.
A complete List of the Rules & requirements for each title can be found on
https://ankc.org.au/media/9398/8-lure-coursing_2020.pdf
Where can I find more info & how can I get involved?
Please join the Victorian Lure Coursing & Racing Clubs FB page as many Victorian clubs involved will use this format for advice and tell you about future training days and trials.
Also the Rhodesian Ridgeback Club runs fun days once a month most months of the year, please check their FB page to confirm events are going ahead.
There is also the Dalmatian Show & Performance FB page where you can see and hear about other Dalmatians participating in Lure Coursing.