Agility for Dogs

Dog agility is a sport which came to the UK some thirty years ago, in the 1970’s. The aim of the sport is to direct your dog around a course consisting of various types of obstacles without incurring any penalty faults. The obstacles in general use include jumps of various types, tunnels, tyres (or hoops), weave poles, seesaw, A frame and walkway, amongst others. Agility has grown immensely in popularity and is now a worldwide sport. One of the beauties of agility is that any size, shape or breed of dog (and handler!) can take part and enjoy the sport for what it is without the need to have to compete.

Agility first featured at Crufts in 1978 when it was used to entertain onlookers between main events – but it is a main event now in its own right. Invitation to the finals at the Crufts Dog Show each year is gained by winning at one of the qualifiers during the preceding year. In 2006, our young handlers qualified for the YKC team event at the 2007 Crufts Show – and won a very good 7th place in the competition.

Springers Club Agility
Our club was first set up to enable anyone to introduce their pet dog to the sport just for the fun of it – and this is still our main purpose. The vast majority of dogs in our club are rescue dogs – all sizes, shapes and breeds from many different backgrounds. We do have a wide range of abilities and experience within the club and each year we attend a number of local shows and galas to show that any dog can enjoy the sport.

We also have a number of members in the club who regularly compete at agility competitions with great success – but the main aim of our club is to have fun in the sport, whether we compete or not!