We don't have Hoopers classes in the UK - can you tell me a little about the class? Is it for young dogs? What are the rules?

Thanks :-)

It is a new game in NADAC for all dogs.  It is designed to test handling and directional skills without all the repetitive jumping on the dog.  Basically it is a jumpers course with hoops to run through instead of jumps to go over.  It is a brand new class and right now it is all Novice level but there will be Open and Elite courses pretty soon.  There are a lot of people who haven't gotten to try it out yet which is why I wanted to share our video.  I'm not sure on the rules and the NADAC rulebook is being updated so it isn't accessible right now.  I'm afraid I didn't pay that much attention at the trial.  I think it is scored time plus faults.  I know Ashi's run was a q but our other dog took some hoops in the wrong order and ran over time so he didn't q. 

what I haven't figured out yet is why it matters to do this using hoops, rather than just jumping a dog at 4" or 8" in the Skilled division (similar to USDAA Performance or AKC Preferred divisions) since in the upcoming revision of the NADAC Regs, no Skilled dogs will need to be measured any longer anyway.  As it is, right now it's easy to enter a 24" dog in 12" if you wanted to.  Not exactly a "jump" at that height any longer. 

Plus, there's always the Tunnelers class already - no jumping in that either!

Seems like just more dilution of classes, to the point of silliness.  There's already Regular, Jumpers, Chances, Tunnelers, Touch-and-Go, and Weavers, which all require substantially different skillsets.  Hoopers (and Gaters, which truly sounds redundant to Hoopers in addition to Tunnelers) don't seem to offer or require anything new...

 just wondering how this will be any benefit to NADAC rials and to the sport?