Due to COVID-19, the 2020 National Agility Championship has been canceled.
The 2020 National Agility Championship will not be happening this year, as the American Kennel Club has decided to cancel the event because of the coronavirus pandemic.
This news was announced Thursday afternoon, April 16, on the AKC’s Facebook page.
All teams who qualified for the 2020 National Agility Championship will be automatically eligible for the 2021 National Agility Championship, which will take place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at the River Spirit Expo Center on March 26 through March 28, 2021. For those interested in doing so, email Steve Herwig at Steve.Herwig@AKC.org.
The 2020 NAC was originally scheduled to take place from March 27-29 in Perry, Georgia.
The 2020 Rally National Championship and the 2020 National Obedience Championship, originally scheduled for June 26 and June 27-28, respectively, will now take place December 11 and December 12-13, respectively, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. For more information on those events, email RNC@AKC.org or NOC@AKC.org.
Elsewhere in the world of dog sports, NAFA (North American Flyball Association), the leading governing body of the sport in the US and Canada, has suspended all tournaments through the end of May. This news was announced on March 28 on the NAFA Facebook page.
“While we would all prefer to be out playing flyball in a safe and healthy manner, our first priority is the health and welfare of our members and the communities that we all live in,” NAFA Executive Director Neil Flood said in the post.
The Summer Canine Olympics presented by CANIDAE, a cluster of dog shows and other canine events hosted by clubs from mostly around the Oklahoma City area, has been postponed to take place for now around Halloween, October 28 to November 1, to be exact. They were originally scheduled to take place from Wednesday, June 24 through Sunday, June 28.
While it’s a huge frustration for all these events to be canceled, we hope to be able to have Dog O’Day staff at a few of these events to cover them in person, and it will all the better when everyone can gather and celebrate all things dog-related again.