Dog Sports New England is a local club, which formed more than three years ago, but earlier this year it became affiliated club with the Agility Dog Association of Australia. 

“We will be holding our inaugural agility trial at the Armidale Tourist Park,” the club’s secretary, Lorna Patton, said.

It has been organised to coincide with last weekend’s National Agility Dog Grand Prix, which was held at Tamworth’s Australian Equine & Livestock Events Centre over the long weekend.

Triallers came from Queensland and across NSW to take part in the Tamworth event and Mrs Patton said many have stayed and will head to Armidale this weekend to take part in the local club’s trial.

Hundreds of Australia’s most agile canine athletes were put through their paces at Tamworth over the weekend, running, stepping and jumping through world standard courses, in front of an international judging panel from the USA.

Agility Dogs Association of Australia spokesperson Rachel Devenish-Meare said that agility dogs is the ultimate in team dog sports.

“(It involves) the dogs leaping over hurdles, powering through tunnels, zipping through slaloms of upright poles and scaling ramps of different sizes,” she said. 

About 100 dogs have been entered in next weekend’s event, with the trial starting at 8.30am on both days and continuing until mid afternoon.