Healthy attendance at the Kennel Club's International Agility Festival

21
Aug
2009

Healthy attendance at the Kennel Club's International Agility Festival

A Manchester Terrier was a winner at the International Agility Festival

From Poodles to Papillons and Manchester Terriers to Border Terriers, all types of dogs scooped prizes at the Kennel Club’s fifth International Agility Festival that took place at Kelmarsh Hall, Northampton on 14 to 16 August.

The event is the biggest agility event in the world and this year welcomed a record number of 2,600 dogs from 24 different countries. This is a 203 per cent increase since the first year that the Festival ran, and is testament to the ever-growing popularity of agility as a sport.

For the first time a Companion Dog Show was held at the Festival, so that dogs and their owners could try their hands and paws at showing. There was also a ‘Have a Go’ ring where visitors could experience agility first hand for themselves.

The Kennel Club also hosted the Fight the Flab with Fido challenge at the event, which aims to get people and their dogs fitter and healthier through taking part in dog events and activities such as agility. This is particularly important as shocking research recently found that 52 per cent of dog owners are too lazy to take their four-legged friends out for a regular walk, amidst a burgeoning obesity epidemic.

Agility can burn up to 270 human calories in a one hour training session. This can amount to 1,000 calories over the course of a weekend competition. And this is also good news for Fido – as one third of our pets are estimated to be overweight as a result of our increasingly sedentary lifestyles.

Those who were not competing or trying out agility and showing for the first time were simply soaking up the atmosphere and the sunshine, while watching thousands of dogs of all shapes and sizes run, jump and bark their way around the courses.

Winners included a Manchester Terrier, a breed which is on the Kennel Club’s Vulnerable Breeds list, and who won the KC Novice Cup for medium dogs. Sophie Balchin also picked up a prize at the tender age of ten – one year younger than her winning Working Sheepdog, who was having her final competitive run before heading into retirement. Dawn Weaver’s Papillon, who was part of the winning England team in the Nations Cup for small dogs, was the first within the breed to ever become an agility champion.

Competitors came from all over the world, including Australia, USA, South Africa, Russia and Malaysia. The Festival attracted a wide variety of pedigree dogs, from Border Collies and Rhodesian Ridgebacks to Yorkshire Terriers and Pomeranians.

The special attraction of the annual festival is that it is open to any dog, as long as the dog is registered on one of the Kennel Club’s registers (Breed or Activity) - making it the only world-class agility competition to be open to pedigrees and crossbreeds alike. Everyone gets a chance to compete, as well as the opportunity of securing a place at Crufts, making it possible for overseas competitors to qualify for the ultimate dog show for the first time.