2009: Four Different Top 15 Rankings of AKC Agility Labradors

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Explanation of table

This is an abbreviated version of our more general Top 50s table.

Using this table, you can directly compare the 2009 Top 15 ExcB Labs using any one of four different ranking methods. To be considered for the YPS Ranking or for the Percentage of Dogs Defeated Ranking, a Lab must first have had at least 7 qualifying ExcB JWW runs and 7 qualifying ExcB Standard runs in Calendar 2009. A total of 130 ExcB Labs met these requirements. (We consider these lower bounds perhaps too low: in both % of dogs defeated and in average YPS bounds set too low may sometimes produce a bias either favoring or disfavoring Labs near these lower limits.)

For each of the four ranking systems the Top 15 were chosen for overall comparison; because of overlap in the four rankings, this resulted in a grand total of 28 Top Labs being chosen for direct comparison in our resulting table. Thus the rankings displayed for these 28 Labs are really Rankings of the larger population of 130 Labs from which these 28 Top 15 Labs were extracted.

The four different rating systems are:
1. AKC's traditional ranking using total MACH Points (including bonus points for 1st and 2nd placements) plus 10 points for each DQ.
2. The "NoBo" ranking: AKC's system but with no bonus points.
3. The "%Def" Ranking: Percentage of Dogs Defeated on all qualifying ExcB runs in 2009.
4. The "YPS" Ranking: Average YPS with the average taken across all qualifying ExcB runs in 2009.

Entries in both %DogsDefeated and in AveYPS that appear to be ties probably are technically not ties. The underlying calculations are carried to 20 decimal places but we show only two decimal places; in this case the Rankings reflect what is actually the correct order. Of course such small differences are not practically significant.

You can experiment by clicking once or twice on different column headings to sort the columns in various ways. For example, first click on the Average YPS heading to sort this list to increasing orderand then click on the JumpHeight heading to separate the YPS rankings of 20in and 24in Labs.

The heading "Comp Size" gives the number of competing dogs that the Lab has had in 2009. The higher this number, the more accurate the calculation of %DogsDefeated is likely to be.

Look below the table for more details about these rankings.

IF YOU FIND ERRORS OR OMISSIONS (including for any Call Names), we would appreciate hearing from you: please e-mail paul@limeceek.com.

AKC Registered Name JH AKC
Rank 		NoBo
Rank 		%Def
Rank 		YPS
Rank 		AKC
Pts 		NoBo
Pts 		%
Def 		Ave
YPS 		Std
Qs 		JWW
Qs 		Comp
Size 		Call
Name
Sadie's Black Satin 20 1 1 27 23 2665 2502 87.17% 4.61 67 79 5192 Sadie
The Captain's Frequent Flyer 20 2 2 5 4 2355 1930 94.81% 5.14 43 47 4375 Ranger
Abby Jo Kickass 26 3 4 10 22 2238 1525 92.76% 4.65 43 44 1546 Abby
Hirsch's Gone With The Wind 20 4 8 4 2 1993 1425 95.63% 5.19 34 35 2447 Scarlett
Lime Creek's Black Taffy 20 5 7 11 7 1866 1428 92.70% 5.05 36 36 2796 Taffy
Princess Lily Belle III 24 6 15 7 20 1689 1102 93.44% 4.73 28 34 1174 Belle
Lime Creek's Mie Black Beamer 20 7 3 49 35 1683 1578 79.44% 4.50 45 48 3415 Cooper
Stnehvn Outlaw Josie Wells 24 8 21 2 10 1608 937 97.59% 4.91 22 27 789 Josie
Lakewood's Chaos 20 9 5 40 33 1592 1475 82.02% 4.50 41 51 3342 Chaos
Lime Creek's Little Bit 20 10 13 6 8 1520 1160 93.91% 5.01 28 33 2101 Bit
Black Berry Brandy (Raven) 20 11 6 42 30 1511 1444 81.53% 4.51 42 44 2415 Raven
Kj's Blackwater Keep On Rolln 24 12 10 31 47 1507 1347 85.20% 4.33 45 43 2074 Coalby
AM Star's Tell It LIke It Is 20 13 18 3 1 1489 1041 95.90% 5.27 24 24 1780 True
Canebrake Miss Bunny May 20 14 9 57 54 1437 1379 77.87% 4.22 45 49 3018 Bunny
J Mark's Aiming High 20 15 11 17 11 1363 1255 89.66% 4.91 32 29 2843 Amy
Paka-Lolo 20 16 17 18 6 1286 1050 89.61% 5.07 12 52 2349 Paka
Bk's Riparian River Of Dreams 20 18 12 44 29 1245 1187 81.33% 4.51 37 35 2689 Kylie
Folklaur Command Performance 20 19 14 118 103 1143 1141 64.13% 3.85 51 62 5032 Pilot
Rhumbline's High Grade 24 22 28 9 5 1006 742 92.84% 5.11 23 14 992 Grady
Morning Star's Hell On Wheels 20 24 27 8 3 945 750 93.24% 5.15 17 21 1730 Minx
River Run Jasper Jax 24 32 35 13 36 807 626 91.08% 4.49 20 20 1110  
Morning Star's American Girl 24 38 56 12 16 663 431 91.33% 4.81 11 15 300 Emmy
Joemac's Pale Rider 24 42 65 1 9 635 395 97.75% 4.91 12 7 489 Preacher
Bigwater Aint Miss Beahavin 20 45 40 15 12 610 577 90.06% 4.90 16 16 1268 Bea
Epples Macy Day Show Girl 20 51 51 14 17 551 493 90.19% 4.75 11 20 1132 Macy
Wetland's Bluegrass Chick 20 62 58 29 14 456 420 86.73% 4.85 12 12 1311  
Courtneys Madison Girl 20 63 62 32 15 448 401 85.06% 4.84 13 10 616  
Troublesome We Be Jammin' 20 69 71 30 13 385 355 85.33% 4.87 7 13 852  

AKC's normal rankings have two major flaws:

1. The use of bonus points strongly favors dogs that mostly trial in parts of the country where trials are small. Bonus points also distort the rankings by encouraging some 24in Labs to jump 26in, where bonus points are often easier to acquire. The data also shows that bonus points are a little easier to get for 24in Labs than for 20in Labs. Eliminating bonus points, which is what our NoBo Ranking does, eliminates these problems.

2. But both AKC's normal ranking system and the "no bonus points" ranking still have another major flaw: Both hugely reward dogs that trial a lot vs those that trial maybe once a month or less. Showing up for lots of trials does nothing to prove that a dog is better at agility than a dog that trials less often. Both our "Percentage of Dogs Defeated" ranking and our "Average YPS" ranking eliminate the problem with bonus points and the problem of rewarding entering lots of trials. The first of these two alternative rankings is obtained by dividing the total number of dogs defeated in all of the dog's qualifying runs in 2009 by the total number of (other) dogs entered in these same runs. Similarly, the "Average YPS" ranking is obtained by first averaging the YPSs for all standard qualifying runs in 2008, next averaging the YPSs for all of the dog's JWW qualifying runs in 2009, and then taking the average of these two numbers.

By taking these percentages and averages for the entire year, we have eliminated both using bonus points and rewarding the pressure to trial "every other" weekend.

3. A given yps tends to produce a higher percentage of dogs defeated for 24in Labs than for 20in Labs; this suggests that perhaps the ranking by average yps is the "purer", and hence the better ranking.

4. Finally, none of these rankings (except very slightly AKC's bonus points) directly reward dogs that have a high qualifying rate. On the other hand, both AKC based methods do reward consistency in the following sense: Qing definitely increases total points so it always helps. On the other hand, for both Ave YPS and for %DD, each Q increases the accuracy of your score but Qing may either help or hurt your actual score. NQing does not result in a clear reduction of your score.