Discover CAT

The Coursing Ability Test (CAT) is AKC's pass/fail field test where one dog at a time chases an artificial lure — a white plastic bag pulled by a continuous-loop machine through staked pulleys — around a 300- or 600-yard course. The course bends and turns to mimic the way a fleeing rabbit moves. Handlers do not run with the dog. You release at the start, the dog chases the lure alone, and you collect the dog at or near the finish when the lure stops. To pass, the dog has to chase continuously and with visible enthusiasm and finish inside the time limit — 1.5 minutes at 300 yards, 2 minutes at 600. CAT is non-competitive. There is no ranking, no head-to-head. Titles come from accumulating passes, not from being faster than another dog.

The sport rewards a specific dog: chase-driven, sound, and willing to commit to a moving object across a wide-open field without redirecting to handlers, scent, or other dogs. Terriers, herding breeds, retrievers, working breeds, and a long roster of mixed breeds make up the majority of CAT entries. The whole reason the test exists is that AKC's traditional lure coursing is restricted to sighthounds — CAT was the inclusive answer for everyone else. Reactive dogs can run because the single-dog format helps — there is no other dog on the course. The crating and staging environment is still busy, and CAT events share fields with Fast CAT and traditional sighthound coursing on stacked weekends. The physical demands are real: the 600-yard course is a sustained sprint with multiple turns at full speed, which loads shoulders, spine, and joints. Heavy-bodied, brachycephalic, and deconditioned dogs are at higher risk on the long course, especially in heat or humidity.

A CAT run is short, intense, and structurally simple. Five things define it.

AKC is the only registry that sanctions CAT. Eligibility is open: any breed and any mixed breed can enter as long as the dog is at least 12 months old and holds an AKC number through full registration, PAL, Canine Partners, FSS, or an AKC-recognized foreign registry. There is no separate per-test sport registration the way NACSW requires an ORT before NW1 or BHA requires its own dog registration — an AKC number is the entire prerequisite. Titles come from accumulated passes, not points or speed.

CAT is one of three AKC programs that share a lure machine, a pulley setup, and most of the same clubs. Newcomers routinely confuse CAT with Fast CAT and with traditional Lure Coursing — the formats look superficially similar from the sideline but ask different things of the dog and produce different titles. This hub treats Fast CAT and Lure Coursing as the structural context CAT lives inside.

The three AKC coursing programs share a lure but ask very different things. This is the table newcomers most often need on the way in.

Titles do not transfer between CAT, Fast CAT, and Lure Coursing. A CA does not produce a BCAT, and a BCAT does not produce a CA. The dog earns each title on its own terms. What does transfer is the dog: the same animal can hold CA, BCAT, and — if it's a sighthound — JC, all on the same pedigree. Cross-program entry across a stacked weekend is normal.

CAT is one of the lowest-prep entries in titled dog sports. Most dogs need no specialized training to understand chasing a moving bag. The prep work is fitness, recall, and exposure to field-day conditions — not technical handling.

A CAT day is mostly waiting punctuated by short bursts of intensity. The actual run is under 90 seconds for most dogs. Everything else is logistics, weather, and conversation in the staging area. The atmosphere is closer to a Fast CAT or Barn Hunt event than to an obedience trial — outdoor, casual, beginner-tolerant — but with the added load of unpredictable weather and the stacked schedule across CAT, Fast CAT, and traditional Lure Coursing.

CAT is on the cheaper end of titled AKC field sports if you stay regional. The cost curve steepens fast at the CAA and CAX levels, where the pass-count thresholds reward volume — and volume requires travel.