AKC adds Top Two Preferred invites to 2026 Agility Invitational

The American Kennel Club changed the opening round of the 2026 Agility Invitational in a way that can reshape who gets the first wave of calls. For the 21st annual event, set for December 11-13 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, AKC said Round 1 will now include the Top Two Preferred dogs, giving those teams a faster route into one of agility’s biggest year-end stages.

The timing matters as much as the rule itself. AKC updated the event page on April 15, and the eligibility period for the 2026 Invitational closes on June 30. Round 1 Top 5 invites are scheduled to go out in mid-July, leaving summer runs and final score-chasing squarely in the qualification window for handlers still trying to secure a spot. The qualifying period for the December event runs from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026.

Under the revised structure, the top five dogs in each breed still receive invitations at the end of the qualification period. But AKC has added a Preferred-class pathway into that first round of invitations. If the Top 5 in a breed are all Regular class dogs, the next two invitations go to the Top Two Preferred dogs. If there are fewer than five Regular dogs in a breed, AKC said at least two invites will still go to the Top Two Preferred dogs, with a maximum of six invites for that breed.

That shift changes the shape of the campaign. A breed that would once have been locked up by five Regular-class teams can now send a sixth dog from the Preferred side into the Invitational conversation right away. And if inviting Preferred dogs leaves open slots inside the Top 5, AKC will keep sending invites until the Top 5 is filled, which means declinations can still move the line deeper into the breed standings.

The Invitational has become a national benchmark for elite dog-and-handler teams, and the numbers from last year show how much is at stake. The 2025 AKC Agility Invitational, the 20th annual event, brought together 718 dogs from across the country. AKC also said junior-handler agility was held for the 15th consecutive year, underscoring how the event continues to serve both the top adult competitors and the next generation coming up behind them. This year’s invitation rule gives Preferred dogs a more visible place in that picture, and it does so before the summer qualification rush really hits its peak.