Trends in AKC ISC
This week’s podcast episode is one worth listening to even if ISC is not on your radar. The AKC ISC program offers three levels of FCI-style courses and culminates in an annual International Sweepstakes Championship. The program launched mid-2023, so 2024 and 2025 represent the first two complete calendar years of data. Sarah pulled AKC ISC entry data from those two years, and what she found is very interesting.
Looking at 2024 and 2025 combined, there were 58,213 entries in ISC classes compared to 2,051,451 non-ISC entries, representing about 2.8% of all AKC agility entries over that two year span. ISC entries grew from 27,363 to 30,850 which is a 12.7% increase.
But the more interesting story is in who is running ISC. In non-ISC classes, 20″ and 24″ dogs account for roughly 50% of all entries. In ISC, those same height classes make up 67% of entries. That is a significant gap, and it raises a question: why are big dogs disproportionately drawn to ISC?
One possibility might be obstacle spacing. ISC courses generally follow FCI international standards, which means wider spacing between obstacles than you typically see in AKC standard courses. For large, fast dogs, that spacing can give them room to open up and run, rather than constantly decelerating and collecting. Large dog handlers may perceive ISC courses to be friendlier to big dogs.
Then there is the level data. ISC Level 1 entries actually declined from 2024 to 2025, dropping from 9,009 to 6,955. Meanwhile, Level 2 entries grew from 10,477 to 13,919, and Level 3 entries grew from 7,877 to 9,976. That suggests the competitor base is maturing. The handlers who showed up early to try ISC seem to be moving up, and the program is developing a core of serious participants rather than just curious first-timers.
Check out Episode 388 for the full discussion with Sarah, Jennifer, and me: Episode 388: What ISC Entry Data Tells Us
What We’re Watching
We are watching and loving Will Trent. I don’t know how this one flew under our radar for so long.
Will Trent is a detective show on ABC (we are watching it on Disney+), and we just discovered it recently. Four full seasons are available, a fifth is already on the way, and Sarah, Hannah, and I are completely hooked. We look forward to watching it together over dinner every night.
The main character is a Special Agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Brilliant, a little broken, deeply driven. If you ever loved the detective show Monk, you will feel that vibe immediately.
What really makes the show are the characters: Will Trent, his partner, the detectives, the GBI director, and others. Every one of them is well written, and the relationships between them are compelling. I feel like there has been a trend in many shows where everyone has flaws for the sake of having flaws, creating complexity without giving you anyone to identify with or root for. That is not my kind of show. On the other hand, Will Trent is about family, which is interesting because Will himself grew up in the foster system. As expected with this genre, there are plenty of murders, action, and some gore, but the relationships change and grow, and it is a pleasure to watch.
And then there is Betty.
Betty Maria White Trent is Will’s Chihuahua. She is an integral part of the show and has completely won over all of us. I don’t want to say anything more about her because I think it would decrease your enjoyment of the show. If you like police procedurals and murder investigations that have humor and will leave you emotionally invested in the next episode, give Will Trent a try. We highly recommend it.
One more thing I have to share. Sarah and Hannah figured out early on that each episode title is a line spoken by a character somewhere during the episode. Now, the moment that line comes up, they both say it out loud in unison. I had no idea this was even a thing because I never read the episode titles. It is the most adorable thing, and it has become its own little ritual that I look forward to as much as the show itself.
Smart Dog: Obstacle Run
Sarah here! A friend brought this over as a gift recently, and I just had to share it! Smart Dog: Obstacle Run is a single-player logic puzzle game by SmartGames, and you can find it on Amazon or at Walmart. The concept is simple: arrange the obstacles on the board so the dog has a clear path to get where it needs to go. It has nothing to do with handling or training. It’s a pure spatial reasoning puzzle. But the equipment is there, the dog is there, and it’s legitimately fun!
There are 60 challenges across five difficulty levels: Starter, Junior, Expert, Master, and Wizard. I’ve only worked through a few of the beginner puzzles so far, and I want to be clear: beginner does not mean easy. It’s a genuinely good brain teaser!
Now, I do have one complaint, and I say this as someone who has been in this sport a long time. The goal is to get the dog to the handler. I understand why they did it that way. It makes sense for a general audience. But it would have been so easy to put a finish line on the board instead, and that would have actually reflected how the sport works. The dog runs the course. The finish line is the finish line. The handler is not standing at the end waiting for their dog!
Small gripe. Moving on!
Because here’s the bigger picture: this is a random puzzle game being sold at Walmart with dog agility obstacles on it. I still remember telling people I did dog agility and watching their faces go completely blank. That was not very long ago. The fact that this sport is now mainstream enough to inspire a mass-market logic game is actually kind of a big deal, and it deserves a moment of appreciation! 🐾
Enjoyed the ISC data, the puzzle game, or Will Trent? Drop us a line at team@baddogagility.com!
Happy Training,
