Sharp talk for serious agility handlers.
Bad Dog Agility Podcast treats dog agility like a serious sport without losing the warmth of a club conversation. Jennifer, Esteban, and Sarah compare notes on rules, handling, equipment, big events, and the human side of running fast with a dog.
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Bad Dog Agility Podcast is a long-running, panel-driven show about dog agility as both a training craft and a competitive sport. It knows the vocabulary and uses it freely. Jennifer, Esteban, and Sarah talk like people who have spent a lot of time around courses, dogs, handlers, rules, and post-run analysis. The result is brisk but grounded, with enough restatement that newer listeners can usually keep up. Recent episodes show the range. One discussion looks at AKC ISC entry data and the class's renewed importance after AKC created rules around it. Another examines video-assisted review in AKC and UKI settings, with Chris Durkee of Four-Legged Flicks joining after major national events used review systems. The show also spends time on equipment details that sound narrow until the panel starts pulling them apart. A question about four-foot and five-foot bars turns into a larger conversation about training, trialing, specialty jumps, dog perception, and handling choices. That is a typical move for the podcast. It starts with the practical question and then widens the frame. Competition coverage has the same feel. A National Agility Championship wrap-up with Peter Wirth, identified in the episode as the eight-inch national agility champion, begins with the win and then moves toward the dog, the handler, and the story around the performance. The panel is also willing to get reflective. An episode about puppies close in age becomes a conversation about comparison, frustration, pressure, and the difference between the training problem and the emotional problem. The show often uses other sports to clarify agility. Olympic swimming becomes a way to talk about tapering, short performance windows, rest, data, and the difficulty of translating a simple speed model into a sport built on communication between dog and handler. A Netflix thought experiment becomes an argument for showing the relationship behind the run, not just the clean thirty seconds in the ring. Bad Dog Agility Podcast works best for listeners who enjoy the sport's fine print. It is practical, but it is not merely instructional. It gives handlers a place to think about why choices matter, how competition structures shape behavior, and what the sport looks like when seen from inside the community.
Made for: For dog agility handlers, competitors, instructors, and committed hobbyists who enjoy detailed talk about courses, rules, equipment, event culture, and team development. It especially suits listeners who want practical judgment alongside broader sport analysis.
What sets it apart: The show connects tiny course-level questions to the larger machinery of agility: national events, review systems, media storytelling, dog development, and emotional pressure. Its panel format makes the analysis feel lived-in rather than abstract.
Dog agility training tips and discussions. We often interview agility instructors and competitors as well.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Jennifer, Esteban and Sarah make dog agility's training choices, competition rules and human pressures understandable without reducing the sport's complexity.
Bad Dog Agility Podcast treats agility as a sport with rules, institutions, training problems and human pressures worth examining. Jennifer, Esteban and Sarah use conversational discussion to move from course performance and major competitions to the relationships surrounding…
One minute you're counting clean runs; the next, you're reconsidering how you compare puppies.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Dog agility television gets a warmer, more personal pitch built around the lives behind each 30-second run.
Dog agility has speed and a spectator-friendly format, but the hosts see room for television to linger beyond each 30-second run. Their Netflix daydream would follow handlers and dogs away from competition, letting viewers understand the bond behind the performance instead of…
A practical, swimming-inspired look at whether planned rest can help sharpen a dog's agility performance.
Episode 382 draws a clear, useful line from swimming to dog agility by focusing on tapering before a high-stakes run. It begins with a daughter improving after extra rest, then turns that idea toward agility in practical terms: travel may already create some recovery, and a more…
A thoughtful look at similar-age puppy training and the pressure comparison can add.
Episode 381 looks at a familiar but delicate setup: littermates, or two puppies close in age, growing up around friends or family. Jennifer, Esteban, and Sarah keep the focus practical at first, working through what it means to teach dogs together, before moving into the more…
Jennifer's mixed-breed dog anchors a careful look at labels, registries, and belonging in agility.
Mixed-breed dogs frame a careful discussion of what breed labels do, and why their meaning shifts across everyday ownership, agility, and registry settings.
A clear guide to the championship format, from clean preliminary runs and cumulative scores to the challengers round.
Episode 337 gives the 2024 AKC National Agility Championship a clear frame, treating the format as part of the story rather than setup to hurry through.
A retirement conversation opens into a clear-eyed look at what international ambition asks of agility handlers.
Episode 359 uses a retirement conversation to press on a larger question: what actually keeps U.S. dog agility competitive. The discussion moves from the UK's strength at major international events into ISC and FCI training, world team trials, and the hope that interest in…
Serious dog sport talk, plainly handled.
Hosts Jennifer and Sarah preview the 2024 AKC National Agility Championship in Perry, Georgia from March 14-17.
An interview with AKC's Director of Agility, Carrie DeYoung, discussing new agility regulation proposals and the process behind them.
Jennifer Crank discusses her experience at the AKC National Agility Championships after winning a title.
Nancy Gyes, former coach of the AKC FCI Agility World Championship team, reflects on her retirement after nearly 20 years in the role.
Episode three of the Run Happy Live series lists eight habits of happy handlers, opening with reframing failure as data ("you either win or you learn") and focusing on process rather than results.
The hosts discuss the AKC International Sweepstakes class, its recent growth, and a listener question about it.
Bad Dog Agility Podcast episode 387 examines video-assisted review after the AKC National Agility Championship and UKI 1TDC Invitational used VAR prominently in North America.
Bad Dog Agility episode 386 starts with a listener email asking whether girl puppies are easier to train and more focused, and whether boys have a 'sweeter temperament.' In a yes/no round, all three hosts say boys are sweeter, while they split on training ease and focus.
Hosts interview Peter Wirth, the eight-inch national agility champion, about his win at the 2026 AKC National Agility Championship in California.
The hosts discuss whether bar width (4-foot vs 5-foot) matters in dog agility training and trialing, and explore other specialty jump situations.
Bad Dog Agility Podcast episode 383 asks what a dog-agility series on Netflix could look like and uses A Different Breed, Westminster, ESPN, Fox, and AKC.tv as reference points.
Bad Dog Agility Podcast episode 382 compares dog agility with Olympic swimming, using the hosts’ daughter’s high-school swim season as the main reference point.
Jen says comparison with littermates can go to one of two extremes: "fantastic" or a "huge problem."
Jennifer, Sarah, and Esteban use episode 380 of Bad Dog Agility Podcast to separate purpose-bred mixes, rescues, mutts, and purebreds.
Interview with Penny Leigh, director of the AKC Agility League, discussing the league's structure and benefits for dog agility enthusiasts.
Interview with Senior Open World Champion Dudley Shumate about the first Senior Open Agility World Championship.
Interview with Cynthia Hornor, two-time Westminster Masters Agility Champion, discussing her wins and the event.