go to news index

World-class Canine Athletes Vying to be “Top Dog”!

10/7/2010

Coming to Louisville, Kentucky, October 12 – 17, CANIDAE Natural Pet Food Company is proud to be a sponsor of the United States Dog Agility Association’s Grand Prix of Dog Agility® World Championships and Cynosport® Games.

The USDAA/Cynosport World Games Dog Agility Championships will feature more than one thousand dog-handler teams from around the world, including a major presence by teams from Southeast Asia, representing Japan, Korea and China. Mexico, Canada, and of course the USA will be heavily represented. Other countries represented are from Australia, Bermuda, Colombia, Costa Rica, Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Spain, Switzerland. "It’s a great opportunity to see this amazing sport up close and personal with some of the world’s best," said USDAA president and founder Kenneth Tatsch.

For those unfamiliar with canine sports, Dog Agility is an exciting and visual sport pitting dog/handler teams against each other in a race against the clock.  Handlers navigate their dogs through an obstacle course consisting of an A-frame, see-saw, dog walk, hurdles of all kinds, tunnels and weave poles through which they must slalom – all this while pushing to turn in the fastest time and seeking to avoid faults along the way. The team with the fastest time and fewest faults in the tournament finals is crowned the world champion.

Competitors have been competing all year to qualify for entry to the World Championship through shows put on by one of USDAA’s more than 150 affiliated groups and associations around the world. “And this is their shot at earning the highly prized Grand Prix of Dog Agility® World Champion title,” said Tatsch. Competitors will also be seeking top dollars in the $10,000 Dog Agility Steeplechase®, bragging rights in the Dog Agility Masters Three-dog Team Championship, and USDAA’s three Performance Program tournament finals to be held during the weekend. “CYNOSPORT is the best agility event in the world," said Hisato Tanabe, agility director from the Organization for the Promotion of Dog Education & Sport (OPDES), USDAA’s affiliate in Japan. Japan always fields a highly competitive team and have sent as many as 50 competitors in one year to the USDAA championships.

For those who cannot make it to the show, you can catch the final rounds of all six of USDAA’s tournaments as they are streamed live over the Internet beginning with the Performance Grand Prix championships on Friday evening, October 15th, at 6:30pm Eastern U.S. time. The event concludes on Sunday with the Grand Prix of Dog Agility World Championship finals. For more information on USDAA and the sport of dog agility visit www.usdaa.com. For more information on the event, visit www.cynosport.com. Tickets are available in advance through Tickektmaster®.

Webcast Schedule
An open live stream will run most of the week from October 13 – 17, with full broadcast productions for the features below.