Mailbag
From a dedicated reader:
Podcast: Hitting the Road
A listener wrote in asking how to plan their first long road trip to a major event, and Jennifer, Sarah, and I talked through it on the podcast. My honest answer is that almost every choice you make about a big trip depends on you and your dog and how well the two of you travel together. There isn’t a universal right answer about how many days to take or what to do along the way. What works for one team can be miserable for another.
I’ve driven from Texas to New York City for Westminster in three days, and I’ve made the same trip back in two when a generational snowstorm was bearing down and I wanted to stay ahead of it. Sometimes I want to get the drive done as quickly as possible. Other times I’ll break it up a little more and cap myself at eight hours or less behind the wheel. Younger me used to put in about twelve hours per day, or roughly 700 miles. That number has come down over the years, and I think it should for most people as they figure out what they can actually sustain without arriving completely fried.
The logistics matter a bit, but they’re not complicated. I feed the dog on the road rather than waiting until late at night after the driving is done. I bring my own water for both of us, and I always bring the dog’s food from home. Jennifer talks more about the raw diet angle in the podcast. I want the dog comfortable in the crate, so I size up a bit so they can move around and sprawl out instead of staying tucked in a tight travel position for hours on end.
Our podcast listener also asked whether or not they should train en route. My preference is to end on a good note at home, which means the next practice after my yard or practice field is the warm up jump at the event itself. Jennifer raised a good point on this in the podcast: what happens if something goes wrong at the training session on the road? Your dog starts flying off the contacts, or missing weave pole entries, and now you’re stuck. That said, there are exceptions. A dog with contact or weave issues, or one learning to threadle right before an international tryout, may benefit from some last minute work in a new environment for proofing. Very green dogs can also gain from getting on equipment in an unfamiliar environment before the pressure of the event itself.
Click here to listen to the full podcast.
Team USA for the FCI Agility World Championship
The AKC Agility World Team Tryouts wrapped up at the beginning of May at Premier Sports Center in Vincentown, New Jersey, and the 2026 AKC/USA Agility World Team is official. These are the dogs and handlers who will represent the United States at the FCI Agility World Championships in Turku, Finland this September.
We’re especially proud to share that BDA co-host Jennifer Crank was selected for an at-large spot in Medium with Bee, and a Reserve spot in Small with Sting. At World Team Tryouts, three spots in each height are earned automatically based on tryout placement. The remainder of the team, including at-large selections and Reserves, is chosen by the AKC. Reserves serve as alternates and do not compete at the event. We are excited for her and will be cheering them on in Turku!
Lastly, three handlers will run more than one dog at the event: Laura Dolan, Casey Keller, and Abbey Beasley.
Team Members
Small
- SuperStar & Abbey Beasley, Shetland Sheepdog
- Stash & Hayden Brown, Shetland Sheepdog
- Coos & Laura Dolan, Poodle
- Pre & Laura Dolan, Poodle
- Skye & Han Yu, Poodle
- Reserve: Sting & Jennifer Crank, Shetland Sheepdog
Medium
- Swindle & Abbey Beasley, Shetland Sheepdog
- Bee & Jennifer Crank, Shetland Sheepdog
- Tango & Darcy Ernat, English Cocker Spaniel
- Maui & Tammie Gigstad, Poodle
- Fidget & Casey Keller, English Cocker Spaniel
- Reserve: Nandi & Michelle Wnek, Poodle
Intermediate
- Maestro & Laurren Bastian, Border Collie
- Liri & Casey Keller, Border Collie
- Naavdanya & Kris Seiter, Border Collie
- Jammy & Dudley Shumate, Border Collie
- Reserve: Ember & Grace Heck, Border Collie
Large
- Seismic & Rachel Carlson, Border Collie
- Genuine & Perry DeWitt, Border Collie
- Steel & Marcy Mantell, Border Collie
- Please & Kaimen Miller, Border Collie
- Reserve: Middy & Rachel Hudson, Border Collie
Three handlers placed two dogs on the team. Laura Dolan earned two spots within the same height, placing both Coos and Pre on the Small team. Abbey Beasley and Casey Keller each qualified across two different heights: Abbey with SuperStar in Small and Swindle in Medium, and Casey with Fidget in Medium and Liri in Intermediate.
Congratulations to every handler and dog on this team. We are looking forward to September and to watching Jennifer and Bee compete on the world stage.
Netflix and Westminster Announce Partnership
Remember two months ago when we had a podcast about dog agility on Netflix? Well, today the Westminster Kennel Club announced that the 151st Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show will stream on Netflix starting in February 2027. Evening group judging and Best in Show will air live from Madison Square Garden on February 1 and 2. Daytime breed competitions at the Javits Center will stream simultaneously on Tudum.com and the Westminster website. Westminster’s Canine Celebration on January 30, which includes the Masters Agility Championship, will be taped and streamed at a later date.
Fox Sports’ ten-year run as the exclusive broadcaster, which began in 2017, is over. Before Fox, the show aired on USA Network for 32 years going back to 1984. Reporting from Variety today characterized this as the expiration of the Fox deal rather than an early termination.
What does this mean in practical terms? Netflix has a global subscriber base and has been investing aggressively in live event programming, with boxing, WWE Raw, and stand-up specials all part of that push. For breed competition, the reach implications are real. A casual viewer scrolling Netflix in February is going to see Westminster in a way that Fox Sports’ cable distribution did not deliver. For Westminster overall, this is a significant step up in potential audience.
For agility specifically, the picture is murkier. The press release is careful in how it describes the Masters Agility Championship. The breed competition language is explicit about Netflix and live streaming. The agility language says taped and streamed at a later date, with no platform named. Netflix’s own announcement on Tudum repeats the same language: the Masters Agility Championship is taped for a later broadcast, again without naming where.
This matters because this past January, the Masters Agility Championship aired live on FOX. The Netflix deal as currently described may be a downgrade in agility visibility from the immediately previous arrangement, at least until Westminster clarifies where and when the agility broadcast will land.
The big question for the agility community is whether the sport gets pulled along by Netflix’s reach or parked on a smaller platform. We will keep an eye on this and follow up as more details come out.
Got any good road trip advice for beginners or thoughts about dog agility on Netflix?
Email us at team@baddogagility.com!
Happy Training,
