Agility – May the course be with you!

What is Agility?

Agility is a relatively new dog sport that has been sweeping the nation since the mid 1980s. Originally presented as an entertainment exhibition at the Crufts dog show in England in 1978 between the obedience and confirmation class, the creators of the sport were looking for a way to hold the audience’s attention. Well hold their attention it did, and soon newly formed agility organizations began popping up all over the world at the speed of a fox terrier in hot pursuit. Agility got its start in the US in 1986 when Kenneth Tasch came back from England and formed the United States Dog Agility Association. Since then, organizations promoting agility have emerged, each with its own spin on this exciting sport.

Agility is designed to display the speed and athletic ability of the dog, along with the handling skills of the person. Agility taps into the dog’s natural desire to run, jump, climb, and dive. Sounds like a perfect fit for an active terrier!

A team is composed of a handler and a dog, showcasing the bond between human and canine. The goal of each team is to get around the course as fast as possible with the least amount of faults. At the more advanced levels, only runs with no faults, or clean runs are given a qualifying score. Qualifying scores are accumulated in order to earn titles. Each agility organization has it’s own rules and competition levels for earning titles.

Each agility course is different, designed by the judge for the event. Course maps are made available during the day of the trial, and handlers are allowed to walk the course to plan their strategy several minutes before the class begins. It’s always good to have a plan B in case plan A goes awry, especially when running a fox terrier! Foxies are great at providing a little comedy relief when tension begins to mount.

In agility, all dogs run the same course according to skill level and titles earned. The only difference is in how high the dogs are expected to jump. Jumps are set at different heights, depending upon how tall the dog is at the withers, or top of the shoulder.

The course consists of jumps, spread, broad, panel, wings and bar jumps. You will also find tunnels, chutes, weave poles, and contact obstacles such as the seesaw, A frame and dogwalk.

Now lets talk about the different obstacles.

The jumps are usually the favorite of the fox terriers.