[Guest]

The four people in this puzzle all competed in different classes of dog agility at a recent competition. The competitions all required the dogs to run over jumps, through tunnels and various other obstacles in as quicker time as possible. Each had a different result - one came first, one third, one fourth and one ninth. All four dogs were each of a different breed.

Can you work out who handled which dog, at what level each competed, the place each finished in and the breed of each dog?

1. If Tiff finished first then Terry finished fourth.

2. If Terry finished fourth then Jago is a collie otherwise Jago is not a collie.

3. If Jane competed in the Senior class then she finished third.

4. If Jane competed in Novice then she finished fourth.

5. The dog that finished ninth was an alsatian. This was either Jago, in which case Jago competed in the Elementary class, or this was Kelly, in which case Terry handled Kelly.

6. Mark won Starters.

7. If Mark's dog is called Patti then Patti is a labrador otherwise Patti is a collie.

8. Ruth's dog is called Jago.

9. If Jago finished fourth then she competed in the Novice class otherwise she competed in the Senior class.

10. If Patti finished first then Terry's dog is an alsatian otherwise Terry's dog is a collie.

11. If Jane's dog is a doberman then Jane finished fourth otherwise Jane finished third.

Handler's Names: Jane, Mark, Ruth and Terry

Dog's Names: Tiff, Patti, Jago and Kelly

Breed: Alsatian, Collie, Labrador and Doberman

Level: Starters, Elementary, Novice or Senior

[Guest]

Handler:..Dog:.....Breed:......Level:......Position:

Jane......Tiff.....Doberman....Novice......4........

Mark......Patti....Collie......Starters....1........

Ruth......Jago.....Labrador....Senior......3........

Terry.....Kelly....Altasian....Elementary..9........

Edited October 21, 2010 by Ianis G. Vasilev

[Guest]

Handler:..Dog:.....Breed:......Level:......Position:

Jane......Tiff.....Doberman....Novice......4........

Mark......Patti....Collie......Starters....1........

Ruth......Jago.....Labrador....Senior......3........

Terry.....Kelly....Altasian....Elementary..9........

close but no cigar.

[Guest]

Handler:..Dog:.....Breed:......Level:......Position:

Ruth......Jago.....Doberman....Novice......4........

Mark......Patti....Labrador....Starters....1........

Jane......Tiff.....Collie......Senior......3........

Terry.....Kelly....Altasian....Elementary..9........

[Guest]

Handler----Dog-----Breed------Level--------Result

Mark-------Patti---Labrador---Starters-----1

Ruth-------Jago----Doberman---Novice-------4

Jane-------Tiff----Collie-----Senior-------3

Terry------Kelly---Alsatian---Elementary---9

[araver]

From 9 we see that Jago is either Novice or Senior. In any case Jago is not in Elementary class. From 5 we see that since Jago did not compete in Elementary class, Jago cannot be Alsatian (truth always implies truth). Therefore the Alsatian is Kelly, which was handled by Terry.

We have (Terry, Kelly, Alsatian, ?, 9) and used up hint 5.

Assume Patti did not finish first, then according to 10. Terry's dog is a collie which we know is false. Therefore Patti finished first and was handled by Mark. According to 7, since Mark is handling Patti, Patti is a labrador.

We have (Mark, Patti, Labrador, Starters, 1) and used up hints 10,6,7.

Since Ruth handled Jago, the only remaining handler-dog pair is (Jane, Tiff).

We have (Ruth, Jago, ?, ?, ?) and (Jane, Tiff, ?, ?, ?) and used up hint 8.

Also, note that since Tiff cannot be first (since is not handled by Mark who won) hint 1 is useless (false statements can imply both true and false statements).

Since Terry finished 9, she did not finish fourth so according to 2. Jago is not a collie. Since Jago is neither a Labrador nor an Alsacian, it is surely a Doberman. Therefore Tiff is a collie, the only remaining possibility)

Update (Ruth, Jago, Doberman, ?, ?) and (Jane, Tiff, Collie, ?, ?) using up hint 2.

Since Jane's dog is not a doberman, from 11. we deduce that Jane and Tiff finished third.

Update (Jane, Tiff, Collie, ?, 3) using up hint 11.

Note that since Jane finished third, hint 3 is useless (both true and false statements can imply a true statement).

Since Kelly was 9th, Patti was 1st and Tiff was 3rd, it follows that Jago was 4th. From 9, since Jago did finish forth we deduce that Jago was in Novice class.

Update (Ruth, Jago, Doberman, Novice, 4) using up hint 9.

Note that since Jane did not compete in Novice class, hint 4 is useless since false statements can imply both true and false statements.

Well, we used up hints 2,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 and finding out that 1,3,4 are useless, we still have two distinct possibilities which do not contradict any information given:

(Mark, Patti, Labrador, Starters, 1)

(Ruth, Jago, Doberman, Novice, 4)

(Jane, Tiff, Collie, Senior / Elementary, 3)

(Terry, Kelly, Alsatian, Elementary / Senior, 9)

E.g. changing hint 3. to an "if and only if" statement?

[Guest]

Handler....Dog.....Breed....Level....Position

Jane......Patti...Doberman..Novice.....4th

Mark......Tiff....Collie....Starter....3rd

Ruth......Jago....Labrador..Senior.....1st

Terry.....Kelly...Alsatian..Elementary.9th