AKC Dog Agility

Make sure to watch the Eukanuba AKC Dog Agility Championship on Animal Planet this coming Saturday morning at 7 a.m. If you missed it in person (the actual event was in Long Beach in December), here’s your chance to see these agility dogs shine. These dogs are fast!

And, are you’re one of those sports nuts who loves to know tons of stats and trivia so you can impress and amuse your friends while watching the big game? We’ve got you covered – here are some “didja knows” you’re free to use in between agility trials.

• Dog Agility is the fastest growing dog sport in the U.S. and the fastest growing event at the AKC.
• All AKC registered breeds may compete – whether a tiny Yorkshire Terrier or a giant Irish Wolfhound.
• Dogs of all sizes run the same agility course with adjustments in the expected time and jump height.
• Originating in England in 1978, dog agility was designed to be half-time entertainment at the Crufts Dog Show.
• AKC held its first agility trials in 1994, staging 23 trials with 2,000 entries.
• In 2008, AKC sanctioned 2,147 agility trials (a 6.6% increase from 2007) with approximately 839,000 entries.
• The Springfield Agility Cluster is the largest dog agility trial in the country in November with over 1,800 entries per day for four days.
• The three types of AKC Dog Agility classes – The Standard Class and The Jumpers with Weaves Class and the Fifteen and Send Time (FAST) Class – offer increasing levels of difficulty to earn Novice, Open, Excellent and Master titles.
• The Standard Class includes contact objects such as an A-frame and a seesaw. Each contact obstacle has a “safety zone” in which the dog must place at least one paw to complete the obstacle.
• The Jumpers with Weaves Class has only jumps, tunnels and weave poles with no contact objects to slow the pace.
• The FAST Class is a class of strategy and speed to beat the clock and gain as many points as possible over a variety of agility obstacles.
• The highest honor an agility dog can receive is to achieve a Master Agility Championship title (MACH).
  MACH titles are awarded based on achieving 750 speed points (by running faster than Standard Course Time) and 20 Double Qualifying Points (by qualifying in the Standard Class and the Jumpers with Weaves Class on the same day).
• In 2000, Marquand Cheek and “Wyatt,” a Shetland Sheepdog, acquired the first MACH title.
• The highest number of MACH titles owned by a single agility dog and handler team is 21 – a record set by Robin Kletke and “Tigger,” a Papillion who is still competing.
• In 2000, the first Junior Handler to obtain a MACH was Katie Moureaux and “Heisey,” a Shetland Sheepdog.
• The first all-Junior (under 18) dog agility demo was held at the Land O’ Lakes Kennel Club in January 2003.
• To compete in the AKC Dog Agility Championship, dog and handler must have competed in the Excellent Standard and Jumpers with Weaves level, as well as obtained a specific number of double qualifying scores and speed points – determined annually by the American Kennel Club.
• To be considered for a coveted spot on the AKC/USA Agility World Team, dog and handler teams must have completed the Excellent level in both Standard and Jumpers with Weaves classes and have at least ten perfect scores (100).
• The AKC/USA World Agility Team competes annually in the World Agility Championship against dogs from over 30 countries and is represented at the Crufts Dog Show in March, along with six other countries.

Interested in dog agility training at the Zoom Room?

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