[continued]

Entries for the National Agility Championship, run as part of the 2005 AKC/Eukanuba National Championship, closed in October with a waiting list of 133. The event was taped by Animal Planet for a February 2005 broadcast. The AKC/USA World Agility Team went to Montichiari, Italy, in September to compete in the annual World Agility Championships. Clean Run magazine joined K9 Advantix and Iams in the family of AKC Agility sponsors.

Companion Events reports 2,402 AKC Obedience events and 137,281 entries in 2004. Several events were cancelled because of hurricanes throughout the South, but the number of events showed an annual increase and entries showed only a slight decline.

Preparations were made for the National Obedience Invitational, run as part of the 2005 AKC/Eukanuba National Championship. A record entry of America’s 140 top OTCH-pointed dogs represented 59 breeds from 41 states.

History was made in March with the running of the first-ever Obedience World Cup competition, held in Birmingham, England, at the Crufts dog show. The AKC/USA World Cup team mastered international-style obedience regulations and exercises in a matter of months and turned in a respectable fourth-place finish at this milestone event.

AKC sanctioned 347 tracking events, with 1,624 entries. The Champion Tracker title was earned by 12 dogs. In 2004, preparations began for the 2005 AKC National Tracking Invitational at the spectacular 8,000-acre Biltmore estate in Asheville, North Carolina.

The Versatile Companion Dog title recognizes dogs that earn a combination of titles in obedience, agility, and tracking. In 2004, VCD titles were earned by 296 dogs, representing 59 breeds; 1,077 dogs from 93 different breeds have earned VCDs since the title’s inception in 2001.