[Michael Romanos]

The world agility champs in the Netherlands had a very selective entry with naturally only the best from the competing countries represented. Most success came from the Americans followed by the Russians. In the midi class Border Collies were dominant and bigger Borders were also prominent in the maxi class. Pappillions were the most prominent breed in the micro class. MOst of the Pembroke Corgis appeared to have come from the USA and my informants tell me that one could quite easily see their ribs. Let's face it, every dog at that level of agility must be skinny.

Neither Australia nor New Zealand were represented largely because of our dog restriction laws through not having any rabies problems. We can get dogs to the world champs without a hitch and no quarantine - but to get our dogs back into NZ or Australia, they would need to go into quarantine in their own countries for some time due to the fact that they have been in other countries and among dogs where rabies is still a curse. Its a catch 22. We're clean, others are not, so our dogs and owners suffer the consequences. There's got to be a way round this and I've written an article which takes into consideration this very problem. I've been told that the leading New Zealand dogs in agility could hold their own at the world champs.

By the way, these world champs were the unrestricted version ie open to pure and mixed breeds - but very few of the entrants were a mixed breed. It probably proves that handlers will go for what they know as a breed as a pointer to certainty. It helps cement the true importance of conformation showing where excellence in conformation is the target. From good conformation comes great agility exponents.