USDAA is the original US venue- it’s very competitive, has high jump heights, fast course times, and difficult courses. If you go to a USDAA trial, you may be struck by how many border collies are present- not much breed diversity. It has always accepted dogs of any breed or lack thereof. They have standard courses, jumpers courses, and three games- pairs, gamblers and snooker. They also have tournaments, and if your dog is really fast and you are a great handler you can actually win cash prizes.
CPE is sort of a more recreational-less competitive, toned-down version of USDAA. Course times are longer, jump heights can be low (if desired by the handler), courses are easier. They’ve added a lot of games classes in addition to standard, jumpers, and snooker. You’ll see a lot of breed variety at CPE trials, also a lot of older dogs retired from USDAA, also a lot of young dogs just starting out. It’s a really good place to start a young dog out in. Or to stay in if your dog isn’t fast enough to be competitive in USDAA or grew a millimeter too tall and now is expected to jump at an insanely high height in USDAA.
NADAC split off from USDAA some time ago over concerns about how the obstacle requirements of USDAA were causing injuries. NADAC has been going its own way ever since. They’ve ditched several of the traditional obstacles and invented a few more that are unique to NADAC. They tend to focus on distance handling and speed. Usually the courses aren’t very technical at all, it’s all about flow and speed. They have always accepted dogs of any breed or lack thereof. They have a variety of courses, but no real “games”- most of their non-standard courses involve removing most of the other obstacles and using a lot of one particular obstacle, like weavers or tunnelers. It can be difficult to run a dog in both NADAC and other venues, because they use a very low A-frame, and because of their unique obstacles, like the hoops. They also don’t use a teeter or a table, so if your dog won’t do the teeter no way no how, they are an option. Course times are very fast, though, so if your dog is on the slow side you may never manage to qualify once you get out of novice.
DOCNA was invented as an attempt to re-create NADAC the way NADAC used to be before it started diverting into its very unique current form. DOCNA has been struggling to catch on in my area, and I’ve only ever attended one trial.
UKI is a recent innovation. I’ve never been to one and can’t say much about it.
ASCA has been around for awhile, but I know nothing about it.
AKC tends to have very technical, twisty courses and tends to be very competitive. Until recently only AKC-registered purebreds could compete. Until recently, they only had standard runs and jumper runs. They’ve started adding a few games-like classes recently, like FAST.
There’s also UKC, which has a lot of unique obstacles and rules, and I know nothing about it other than that.
TDAA is for small dogs. The obstacles are small, the spaces between obstacles short. I have heard that dogs trained for TDAA from the beginning have trouble crossing over to any of the regular venues.
