Agility Training began as an exhibition sport in Great Britain and was imported to the United States in 1977.  The sport was patterned after equestrian events and combines handler control, agility, and confidence.  Agility is a sport in which a dog demonstrates its agile nature and versatility by overcoming different obstacles. In this sport the handler is given a set amount of time to direct their dog off-leash around a course. Success in agility requires proper training, as it is a game of physical skill, control, patience and, most of all, teamwork between handler and dog. Agility is a race against the clock, but accuracy is the first requirement.

 

The sport of agility is comprised of a course set up of many different obstacles.  Agility is meant to be a fun, non-regimented sport, with a lot of spectator appeal.  Obstacles include jumps, tunnels, a dog walk, a see-saw or teeter, an A-frame, and weave poles.

 

Jumps can include winged or wingless hurdles, and a panel or wall jump. The spread jumps; include the double bar, triple bar, and broad jump. A suspended tire jump can also be found among the jumps on the course. Two types of tunnels can be found on an Agility course. Pipe, or rigid tunnels can be formed to make various shapes that the dogs run through or the Chute, a collapsed tunnel made up of two parts. Weave Poles are a series of upright poles that the dog weaves in and out, between them all. Dogs must enter with the first pole at their left shoulder and then proceed down the line of poles until there are no more. The number of poles can vary. This obstacle usually takes the longest to train well.

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The obstacles in agility have been designed with both safety and spectator appeal in mind. All jumps have easily displaced bars so that the dog should not experience injury should he misjudge and take down a jump bar. All obstacles that the dog must physically scale have ‘contact’ zones painted on the equipment: the contact zones enforce safe training techniques since handlers know that dogs will be faulted unless one or more feet are in the contact zone while ascending and descending.

 

Today, Agility remains a fast growing dog sport. It is a sport that finds dog and handler teams leaving the agility course celebrating, whether they have qualified in their run or not. It is also very popular among spectators, the action is fast and it is always entertaining whether the dog does as the handler asks or not. It's fun for everyone! 

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