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Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Westminster Kennel Club Announces Masters Agility Championship Event


Samurai's father, Dylan (GRCH Wingssong Rock Star) at Westminster

The Westminster Kennel Club announced today that it will be hosting a Masters Agility Championship at the 2014 event. It's a historic move for two reasons:

- it's the first time agility has ever been offered as part of a Westminster event
- mixed breeds will be welcomed, also a first for Westminster

This announcement is further recognition of agility's rise in prominence on the national and international show scene. It's a bright spot for AKC and one of the few areas that is experiencing rapid growth. 

The event will also feature an English judge and that combined with the Masters name suggests that the courses might have International features. 

The Time 2 Beat style formatting will no doubt put more of an emphasis on all out speed than the AKC National Agility Championships, where speed is to some degree balanced by consistency. 

Participating dogs need to be running in Excellent or Master's level and no other qualification standards have been announced at this time.

It is also unclear whether it will be televised along with the traditional conformation proceedings.

Bottom line, it is definitely an exciting announcement and it will be interesting to see how this unfolds.





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