Agility started in England when John Varley, a member of the Crufts Dog Show Committee, approached Peter Meanwell, a successful Working Trials competitor, in late 1977 to develop an event in the main arena at Crufts to fill the spare time gap between the end of the Obedience Championships and the start of the Breed Judging. John Varley s idea was to create some kind of dog jumping competition similar to that which already existed in horse trials, that would be a fun event and provide spectator appeal. After the design and building of equipment, two teams of four dogs plus one reserve competed against each other at Crufts in February 1978, with three teams competing in 1979. Following Crufts, the first finals of the Pedigree Chum Agility Stakes for single dogs and handlers were held at Olympia in December 1979. The first agility test to be run under the newly developed Kennel Club regulations was held at Crufts in 1980 and the rest is a history of over 20 years of competition and developments.
Agility is similar to show jumping but on a smaller scale with dogs.
The dog and handler must negotiate a series of obstacles around a course which can include jumps, tunnels, tyre, table, long jump, weaving poles and contact equipment such as an A Frame, Dog Walk and See Saw. The fastest dog around the course of obstacles without fault in the course time set by the judge wins. Dogs in competition run without collars and leads for safety reasons and the handler may only give verbal commands, hand signals and encouragement. The sport is for young and old, male and female, all sizes and breeds of dogs, and is great fun. Within four weeks of registration by the Kennel Club in May 1997, a team from DDAC had won a Crufts Team Agility qualifier at the local Nottingham Show which took them through to compete at Crufts in March 1998.