The Parkes and District Kennel Club will host its annual Agility and Jumping Trial this weekend from Saturday 2 to Sunday, April 3, with over 670 runs expected.
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This will be the third time Parkes has hosted this April trial and the club is expecting the event to be another huge success.
Dog Agility is a dog sport in which a handler directs a dog through an obstacle course in a race for both time and accuracy. Dogs run off leash with no food or toys as incentives, and the handler cannot touch either the dogs or the obstacles. Consequently, the handler's controls are limited to voice, movement, and various body signals, requiring exceptional training of the animal and coordination of the handler.
The event is shaping up to be a popular trial for both entrants and spectators, with 70 competitors entered with 673 runs over the weekend.
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Kennel Club president, Denise Gersbach, is thrilled with the number of entries for the trial.
"Our Parkes events are becoming very popular on the NSW Agility calendar, and we have received great support from the agility community with competitors travelling from all over NSW and the ACT," she said.
The Parkes Club will be well represented with club members competing in the Novice, Excellent and Masters divisions, and Denise is looking foward to seeing competitors putting their best paw forward.
"We are expecting some great results over the weekend," she said.
"Lynn Madden has been in stellar form with her border collie, Rain, who is competing at the top Masters level in Jumping."
"Sharon Jeffries and her pug, Leilani, are always in consistent good form, while Fiona Watts and her border collie, Indie, have been hitting their straps in recent weeks," said Denise.
The weekend will provide great entertainment for the local community, with action commencing at the Kennel Club grounds in Victoria Street from 8.30am each day. There will also be a great raffle running over the weekend with plenty of wonderful prizes to be won.
Denise also thanked the council and Northparkes mine for their brilliant support of the volunteer-run group.
"We have received great support from Parkes Shire Council with the maintenance of our grounds and are very appreciative of their ongoing support of our club," she said.
"We were also fortunate to receive a Northparkes Community Investment Grant to go towards some of our costs of hosting the trial.
"The event brings plenty of visitors to town with the 2021 trial receiving an Australia Day Award for Community Event of the Year," said Denise.
It is such an exciting weekend in Parkes coming up, and the trial is not to be missed!
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