The Agility European Open is an Agility competition which is officially recognized by the FCI and is based on the FCI-Agility Regulations of 2018. The competition is OPEN to all dogs, with or without pedigree.  All National Member Organizations of the FCI or National Organizations with a close relationship to the FCI are invited to participate in this event.

All competitors must be citizens of the country which they represent, or they must have their main residence there. For all participating dogs a record book or a license must be presented, issued by the sending National Member Organization of the FCI or a National Organization with a close relationship to the FCI. All dogs must be 24 months or older on the day of the competition. Each handler can compete with max. 4 dogs. All participating countries will receive an allocation of 28 dogs (max. 12 in any one category). The organizing country can send 1 team extra per category. All these allocations are valid for both the Team and the Individual Event. The EO-winners of 2019 (The Netherlands) in Individual are automatically qualified without imposing on their country’s number allocation.

Each National Organization has the right to nominate competitors to the extent of the available allocation and to send the entries to the organizer at the latest by May 31st. A list of reserve dogs and handlers can be attached to the entries (A country can send 1 reserve dog per 4 dogs, in each category). The reserve may take the place of an original entry, should the original competitor have to be replaced. The reserve may also be allocated an entry in case of an available spot after the closing of entries.
If countries choose to have a selection process, this must be open to all dogs (with or without pedigree).

All entries must be sent in by the respective National Organization or an appointed Team Leader. Any and all communication between the organizers and the countries will be done through the Team Leaders. The direct sending of entries to the organizer by single competitors is not possible. Countries in which the national qualifying results will only be available after the closing date, must let the organizers know before May 31st, how many entries they intend to send. In these cases, no late additional entries can be added. A complete list of all competitors needs to be handed in by latest end of June. All handlers entering this event must confirm that they agree to abide by the FCI rules. All S- and M-dogs which were not yet measured at previous FCI World Championships orEuropean Open will be measured at the EO to check the correct entry category.

Qualification for the Team Event

The qualification for the Team Event takes place on Friday and is held in the categories Large, Medium and Small. Teams in all height categories consist of a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 4 handler and dog teams. Mixed Country Teams may also compete (one Team composed of members from different countries).

In the Team Event one Agility round and one Jumping round will be run as qualification for the EO Team Final. For each round, competitors will be ranked according to faults and time. The first placed handler and dog will receive points according to the number of competitors in that round (= number ofTeams x 4), the second placed handler and dog team will receive one point less, the third placed team 2 points less and so on. A disqualification receives 0 points. The points of the 3 best runs of each Team will count towards the Team result for both rounds (= sum of points received). The 20 Teams with the highest point score after both round in the category Large and the 12 Teams with the highest point score after both rounds in the categories Medium and Small will be qualified for the EO Team Final. In the case of a tie, the points of the 4th Team member will be taken into consideration. In case of a further tie the highest individual score of a team member will count.

Qualification for the Individual Event

The qualification for the Individual Event takes place on Saturday and is held in the categories Large, Medium and Small. In the Individual qualification an Agility round and a Jumping round is run in all 3 height categories. Both rounds are scored separately for faults and time for all competitors. In the category Large the first 30 placed competitors in both the Agility as well as the Jumping round will have qualified for the Final, in the categories Small and Medium each time the first 18 placed competitors. Where a team qualifies for the Final in both the Agility as well as the Jumping round, the worse of the 2 scores will be scratched and the next ranking team in that class will move up until all 60 places in Large and all 36 places in Small and in Medium have been filled for the Finals. In case of a double qualification with the same score in both rounds the Jumping result is scratched. In addition, the competitors of every country will be ranked separately according to the total of faults and time of both runs in each height category. This ranking determines the internal, country-specific selection order for the EO final. If no team (handler + dog) of a country finished the qualification without elimination in one of the 2 runs, the lower number of faults in the other run decides. In the case of a tie (elimination in one run + same number of faults in the other run, no matter in which run the elimination happened) the better score in the overall result list of the run without elimination counts. In the case of a further tie the better Agility-run will break the tie, finally a draw will decide. A team with 2 eliminations will not qualify for the Final.

The top team from a country qualifies in each height category for the EO Final, as long as no dog from this country has already qualified directly for the EO Final as “Top 30” (L) resp. “Top 18” (S/M) in this height category. The qualification for the Final is not transferable to another team. Furthermore, the EO Individual Winners of the previous year in all 3 height have qualified for the EO Finals, without imposing on their country’s number allocation:

• Tereza Kralova with Say (large)
• Werner Goltz with Ixi (medium)
• Tobias Wüst with Dörte (small)

Finals

All Finals of the Agility European Open are held on Sunday, first the EO Team Finals and then the EO Individual Finals. The EO Team Final is a relay race where 4 separate courses are built in one (extended) Agility ring, partly using shared obstacles. The time is started when the dog of the 1st Team member passes, his starting line and stopped when the dog of the 4th Team member passes his finish line. Eliminations of Team members are counted with 100 faults for the respective part, and the time for the whole Team is in this case automatically the fixed maximum time. The 20 (Large) resp. 12 (Small and Medium) qualified Teams start in reverse order of the qualification score, so the best Team in the qualification will run last at the Final. All Teams must start in the Final with all the team members who were running the qualification before. If a Team, which was running with only 3 members in the qualification, reaches the Final, one member of this Team must run twice. The winners of the Team Final will be the “Agility European Open – Team Champion 20xx” in the categories Large, Medium and Small.

The EO Individual Final is an Agility round at A3 level. The running order in the Individual Final is determined as follows:

• First the qualified teams from the country qualifiers. They will start in reverse order of their time in the Individual Agility round. That is the fastest qualified team will run last, irrespective of the number of faults they had. Qualifiers to the Final without a valid time from the Individual Agility round will run first.
• The 60 (L) / 36 (M) / 36 (S) qualified teams from both Jumping and Agility in reverse order and alternating (i.e. second to last will be the winner of the Jumping round, and last the winner of the Agility round)
• The EO winner of the previous year will run last at the Final.

The winners of the Final will be the “Agility European Open – Individual Champion 2022” in their respective height category.

Prize Giving Ceremony

The prize giving for the EO-Qualification runs will be held on Saturday, after the completion of all individual qualification runs. First the 3 top placed teams of the qualification for the Team Final in all categories (S, M and L) will be announced as “1st/2nd/3rd of the EO-qualification for the Team Event 20xx” (without national anthems). Then the 3 first places of both the Agility and the Jumping rounds in all categories (S, M and L) will be announced as “1st/2nd/3rd of the EO-qualification for the Individual Event 20xx” (without national anthems).

The prize giving for the EO-Finals will be held on Sunday, after the completion of all final runs. First the top 3 placed Teams of the EO-Team Finals in all categories (S, M and L) will be announced, the anthem of the winning country will be played. Should the winner be a „Mixed Country Team “, then the European Anthem will be played. Thereafter the prize giving for the EOIndividual Finals will take place. The top 3 places of the Final round in all categories (S, M, L) will be announced, the national anthem of each winning country will be played. Finally, the EO-flag will be handed over to the organizing country for the following year.

These regulations were approved by the FCI General Committee in March 2019 and Como (Italy), September 2019.

Vaccination, in addition to a valid European passport, identification by microchip and the proof of a correct immunization of the dog, cat or ferret against rabies, is still mandatory to leave the country, and even enter a rabies-free Member State of the EU. The same rules apply for every dog, cat or ferret crossing Belgian borders. The validity of the vaccination is calculated according to the instructions in the leaflet of the vaccine and is registered in the European passport. For an initial or so-called primo-vaccination this period starts at the earliest 21 days after the vaccination. Re-vaccination within the validity period is effective immediately; outside the validity period re-vaccination will be considered as a primo-vaccination.

More aditional information, you can find here :

https://www.fasfc.be/animalsanimal-healthanimal-diseases/all-mammal-species