Not counting the time-out during the pandemic, this year’s edition of the B.C./Yukon regional dog agility championships marked the 20th anniversary of the Langley-based event, according to Joanie-Leigh Elliot, chair and organizer of the competition.
“We stopped for two years for COVID,” Elliot told the Langley Advance Times on Sunday, June 19, as the three-day event at Thunderbird Show Park was drawing to a close.
“We just felt it was not safe enough, given the number of people who usually try out for this event, and we have to congregate quite close to each other,” Elliot explained.
It was the first regional championship since 2019.
About 280 competitors attended the event, “significantly” less than the usual 400, Elliot estimated.
“A lot of the mature dogs aged out, and the younger ones weren’t ready.”
Winners of the regional contest will go on to compete at the national championships in August.
Detailed results from the Langley event can be viewed online at www.facebook.com/BCYRegionals.
Dog agility is a sport in which a handler directs a dog through an obstacle course in a race for both time and accuracy.
Dogs run competitively, against others of similar age and height, off-leash with no food or toys as incentives, and the handler cannot touch their dog or the obstacles.
Handlers’ controls are limited to voice, movement, and various body signals, requiring exceptional training of the animal and co-ordination of the handler.
The history of the sport can be traced back to a 1970s demonstration at the Crufts Dog Show in the U.K.
Since then, the sport has grown exponentially worldwide as a positive method to train and grow bonds between dogs and handlers, as well as being very popular with spectators.
More photo from the B.C./Yukon event can be viewed online at the Langley Advance Times Facebook page.
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