Thank you for your help in prioritizing health research priorities for agility dogs!

We recently completed a survey of agility competitors in the United States in order to determine what you think are the most important health research priorities for agility dogs. We know that dogs participating in agility have some health needs and disease risks that differ from those of pet dogs that are not athletically active and don’t travel extensively. Our goals were:

(1) to identify the health concerns of most significance to individuals participating with their dogs in agility events; and, 

(2) to determine how agility handlers prefer to obtain veterinary health care information.

We are using the information derived from this survey to influence prioritization of research initiatives related to the health and well-being of dogs participating in agility events and to stimulate discussions with veterinary and canine organizations, including agility organizations, in an effort to develop strategic partnerships to advance canine agility health research and disseminate important health information.

You can download and read the first full text publication from this study by clicking this link.

Who: The research team for this project included Dr. Debra Sellon (Professor of Equine Medicine at Washington State University), Dr. Denis Marcellin-Little (Professor of Small Animal Orthopedic Surgery at University of California, Davis), Dr. Molly McCue (Professor of Equine Internal Medicine at University of Minnesota), and Dr. Dianne McFarlane (Professor of Equine Research at Oklahoma State University).