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Dog Agility History at AthleticDogs.com

How all the Agility Organizations Came About...

NCDA/UKC

The NCDA was founded by Charles “Bud” Kramer several years after he read about the sport through English agility publications. He conducted his own research, experimenting with a variety of equipment through the winter of 1984-85, and published a series of articles on the sport. These articles later became the book Agility Training for All Breeds, published in 1987. That same year, Mr. Kramer organized the NCDA in Kansas with the goal of convincing the AKC to recognize agility as an official sport. Though the NCDA was briefly affiliated with the AKC in the early 90s, the relationship did not last long. By 1991, Kramer’s NCDA was on its own again, and eventually merged with the UKC in 1994.

The UKC follows Kramer’s original vision and rules for the sport, focusing more on control of the dog over complicated obstacles rather than the focus on speed and accuracy over simple obstacles found with the AKC, USDAA, and international agility organizations.

USDAA

In 1987, Kenneth Tatsch founded the United States Dog Agility Association in Texas. Mr. Tatsch had been putting on agility exhibitions for some time, and managed to convince Pedigree Dog Food to sponsor the first national championship tournament series in North America, called the Grand Prix of Dog Agility. The show was held in 1988 at the Astro World Series of Dog Shows in Houston.

The next year, the Grand Prix show was filmed for television and boasted over 2,000 spectators on site! That number doubled the following year. As agility’s popularity grew, the USDAA expanded the tournament to include local qualifying events leading up to the Grand Prix. Starting with 8 events in 1989, there were more than 150 local and regional events, in five countries, in 2004 that culminated in a World Championship trial.

The equipment and rules used by the USDAA are very similar to the British standards. The early USDAA competitions awarded only placement ribbons, but in 1990 they began offering agility titles – earned by achieving certain scores over several competitions to reach each title. The initial title levels were Agility Dog (AD), Advanced Agility Dog (AAD), and Master Agility Dog (MAD). This change opened the door for more dogs – you didn’t have to be the best in attendance to succeed! Rather, the title programs allowed dogs to compete for themselves, working toward personal goals rather than keeping up with the ridiculously skilled Australian Shepherds among them!

In 1994, the USDAA introduced an expanded title program that includes four nonstandard agility classes – gamblers, jumpers, snooker, and relay.

ASCA & NADAC

In the early 1990s, the Australian Shepherd Club of America set out to develop its own sanctioning rules for agility. It took a few years to settle on how to proceed, and a frustrated Sharon Nelson abandoned the effort to launch her own organization, the North American Dog Agility Council, in 1993. NADAC used the rules that Ms. Nelson had helped develop for the ASCA, and in 1994, ASCA approved working with NADAC to offer dual-sanctioned events, following the same rules and regulations.

At that time, NADAC and USDAA used similar equipment and rules for the standard agility and jumpers courses, but NADAC included the gamblers event as well. Eventually, NADAC began to move away from the international standards in favor of a focus on a faster and safer agility environment. Now, the rules, obstacles, and their specifications used by NADAC are very different from those used by the USDAA, AKC, or FCI. However, some NADAC ideas have been adopted by the more common agility associations, including lower jump heights and better surfacing on contact areas.

In 2006, ASCA and NADAC ceased their dual sanctioned trials, and ASCA has taken steps to align their programs more closely to the standards of the rest of the agility organizations.

AKC

The AKC was long the standard in sanctioned conformation shows, obedience trials, and other dog sports, was a bit late coming to the table with agility. Still, their widespread influence created an explosion in interest in the sport once they began to recognize agility as an official dog sport.

The AKC’s first agility advisory committee met in 1993 to begin development on its own rules and regulations. The early AKC trials had only one standard course, but their own version of the jumpers course was added within a few years. The AKC jumpers course included weave poles like the international rules, while NADAC and USDAA did not.

AAC

Agility in Canada was established by Art Newman when the Agility Dog Association of Canada (ADAC) was formed in 1988. Now known as the Agility Association of Canada (AAC), it is the major trial sanctioning body across Canada. However, in Western Canada it is common to find NADAC sanctioned trials. The CKC (Canadian Kennel Club) involvement in agility is limited mostly to specialty shows for purebreds in conjunction with other events at this time.

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