Royal Kennel Club opens entries for 2026 agility festival at Rutland Showground

Entries are open for the Royal Kennel Club’s 2026 International Agility Festival, and if you have a dog that lives for tunnels, weaves and speed, this is the one to circle. The festival returns to Rutland Showground from August 6-9 with 18 rings and nearly 300 separate classes, a scale that still sets it apart as the world’s largest agility festival for dogs and their owners.

The headline appeal is simple: the event is open to all dogs, all agility grades and all sizes. That makes it useful for serious handlers chasing qualification as well as teams that want a big, properly run stage without getting boxed out by breed or background. The class list backs that up. It includes Crufts Large ABC, Intermediate ABC and Medium ABC qualifiers, the Crufts Singles Agility Competition, the Special International Class, the Novice Cup qualifier, the Starters Cup and the Royal Kennel Club Quarter and Semi-Final Agility Stakes.

For the dogs that can handle the pressure, this is more than a busy summer show. The club says some qualification paths from the festival can lead to a semi-final at the London International Horse Show and ultimately to Crufts 2027. That pipeline is exactly why the festival matters. It is not just a weekend for ribbons and fast clears; it is one of the clear routes into the top end of the sport, with the London International Horse Show Agility Stakes described by the club as one of the most important showcase events in the UK agility calendar.

The event’s commercial backing also tells its own story. Skinner’s is returning as a sponsor for the fourth year, while Antinol is coming in for the first time in 2026. Those names matter because the festival keeps attracting the kind of support that follows serious competition, not a throwaway fun run in a field.

Rutland Showground has already hosted this thing at massive scale. The 2024 festival drew thousands of dogs and handlers from across the UK and around the world, with 18 rings and 200 classes. In 2025, it expanded again to more than 250 classes. The 2026 entry opening shows the same pattern: this sport keeps growing, and the dogs that thrive on full-throttle work now have a bigger stage than ever.