History of Dog Agility

I decided to take a little time out tonight and do a little research. I was wandering, where did the great sport that me and my fellow canine companions participate in originate, why, and when? Turns out that Dog Agility is a fairly new sport and originated in the 1970s in the UK. It was first demonstrated as an entertainment demonstration and and then developed into a national dog lovers sport.

How did it all start? A member of the Crufts Dog Show Committee by the name of John Varley approached Peter Meanwell. John was in charge of entertainment between the end of the Obedience Championships and the commencement of the group breed judging. Varley's idea was a jumping competition. John Varley had the type of event in mind, but he needed a dog training person to supply the answers and that is when he apprached Peter Meanwell. Peter Meanwell was to device the test and the appropriate equipment. "Peter's vast practical dog training knowledge plus many years spent as a successful Working Trials competitor soon enabled him to plan the basic principle. The main factors he always kept in mind were it should be a fun event without being dangerous and that it would provide spectator appeal." With the help of several of Peter's friends, he was able to successfully build the equipment. To add more interest, Peter realized he would have to involve another club. He contacted Trevor Jones of the Yorkshire Working Trials Training society to produce a team of four dogs. Everyone involved worked together and helped eachother with training ideas and modifications to the equipment where improvements were felt needed to be made. Eventually the two teams of four dogs plus one reserve each arrived at Crufts Dog Show 1978 . They consisted of Peter Meanwell's team from Lincolnshire Alsatian Association & All Breeds Training Society including: Stuart Gilliam with Vandepere Inka, Gerald Fox Vandepere with Bess, Kevin Foster with Mississippi Gambler, Peter Meanwell with WT Ch. Jamie of Petricas, Reserve: Bernard Bradley with Kings Jester.

Trevor Jones' team was selected from Yorkshire Working Trials Training Society and included: Don Horsfall with Rosedene Brigand, Liz Hancock with Taffy of Firthwood, Brenda Lambert with Cuddle Bug Jet, Trevor Jones with WT Ch. Ashwood Ben, Reserve: Jane Aldred with Mountholme Don Quixote. Reported in The Kennel Club Gazette, February 10, 1978 was the first agility demonstration which actually took place on the first day of the show in the "big ring" before group judging. 

"The following year of 1979, after qualifying rounds, three teams appeared, and these were the Pontefract Dog Training Club, The Rugby Dog Training Club and The Yorkshire Working Trials Society. A further Agility milestone was reached when the finals of the Pedigree Chum Agility Stakes were held at the International Horse Show at Olympia during December 1979.

The first Agility Test to be run under the new Kennel Club Regulations was the event staged at Crufts 1980. The three teams to qualify at an eliminating round to compete in this event were Pontefract DTC, Yorkshire WTS and the Waldridge Fell TC.

Appropriately it was judged by Peter Meanwell, who having been mainly responsible for the sport's development, had the onerous task of being the first judge to interpret the regulations. Without doubt this was a wise choice, for who could be better than the sport's innovator to handle the first official test. Knowing his enthusiasm, he asked Peter Lewis to act as his score steward which he willingly accepted as he wished to play a full role in helping to establish what he had started. In the very brief time they were in the main Crufts arena, it was apparent that this sport was a winner with the spectators."

With the reaction of the spectators, it was obvious, that for the first time the Kennel Club had a spectator sport on their hands. Each dog completed a round in under one minute so no spectator had to concentrate on a particular dog for long periods of time. The way a dog was faulted, whilst inevitably not being quite so simple as Show Jumping, was so much easier for the spectator to understand than other forms of dog competition. The fact that the dogs competed against the clock injected a speed element and with all these facts thrown together the result was an all action event that pleased the crowds.

" All these points plus the fact that the wagging tails indicated a high measure of canine enjoyment told us that this now official dog sport would not die. 'I am proud to have been instrumental in starting what has become a world-wide dogging activity enjoyed by dogs and their owners in the thousands,' says Peter Meanwell 20 years later, 'and I'm maybe somewhat self-satisfied that the obstacles, working systems and judging system are virtually unchanged since that first event at Crufts 1978.'"

 In 1980, The Kennel Club became the first organisation to recognize agility as an official sport with a sanctioned set of rules, and the first agility test to be held under the new regulations was the team event at Crufts that year. The event was judged by Peter Meanwell, with Peter Lewis as his scribe. Peter Lewis and John Gilbert (one of the few original 1978 competitors who continues to participate in agility competition, training, and judging) went on to play a major part in spreading the sport of dog agility across Europe and around the world. 1983 saw the founding of the Agility Club, the first national agility club in the UK publishing the Agility Voice, the first agility magazine.

http://www.agilitynet.co.uk/history/foundinghistory.HTML