2026 AKC Agility Premier Cup 8-Inch Dogs | Full Competition | USA 250

A Border Collie named Kit won the 24-inch class. Next, the Bars come all the way down to 8 inches. Five of the top dogs at 8 inches are Papillons, including Finn with Jesse Westover. And Finn, unfortunately, started with the wrong course at obstacle number two, so they've already got five faults on their run. Let's see if they can regroup and push through the rest of this. Finn's got great ground speed. Look at this. Beautiful job on the dog walk. As they come out of that tunnel, they've got to do this forced layer. Beautiful job staying off of that extra jump. And hang on, hang on to the teeter. That's the toughie for the small dogs. No, don't go that way. It's the first time we've seen that mistake today. Took the tunnel prematurely, so Carrie, two faults for Finn, one at the very beginning of the course and one at the very end. There were so many good parts to this run. This was a great way to start the eight-inch class. Look at their turn there. And again, this teeter, really well executed. And so was the tunnel, just not in the right order. Papillon, by the way, is French for butterfly. This is Sunday showing off the Paps' signature ears in the shape of a butterfly. Stay. Sunday is out onto the course with handler Jay Elizabeth. Oh, missed the entry to the weeps. Again, no fault, but they've got to get them done. And there they did it. So now they can move on. Let's see how much ground speed they have. That's right, Carrie, you skip an obstacle and that's an elimination. It is, so they need to get it done. Look at that dog walk, really explosive off the back end of the dog walk. She stayed back and was able to manage that dummy jump with no problems. Again, a great teeter. Dog went all the way out to the end to hold that spot until it hit the ground. And on through this finish. Sunday lost some time at the weeps, but otherwise mistake-free. And that is our first clean run at eight inches. So we have a new leader. Good girl, buddy. Good girl. And there is Sunday getting some good girls on the hot seat. There's a Saga on the line, followed by Violet. Opportunity and a height change for Falcor. Next to this daughter's line goes Saga, a Swedish Valhound. The little Viking dogs are known for their zest for life. And in tandem with Madison Leroy, watch this little guy go. This is a breed we don't see a lot. And you think with these short legs, maybe this dog isn't athletic. But absolutely is. And they need to be to be a farm dog. They've got a lot of work to do. That's true. You hit it. Tidal. Oh, but that's a kicked bar at the 12th obstacle. And then the off course. So while the dog walk was beautiful, the air is going to cost them. Bang, and you stay. Around. Falcor starting to snowball now. Yeah, to get a score, though, she had to get it done correctly. So Saga racked up the faults, but enjoyed his 50 seconds in the spotlight. Shetland sheepdogs are the standard at 12 inches, but you'll see some smaller Shelties competing in the 8-inch class, like Violet with Sophia Weaver, a junior handler. And Sophia is going to keep making sure those pulls get done. This is a very competitive team, as you can tell watching the two of them together, even with the errors. You can see the speed Violet has. Which makes it very challenging to handle a dog like this. Everything is a split second decision or call. She's done a good job getting her settled down on this course. Yeah, you just don't have time to react to what your dog is doing. So you can't react. You need to be managing the run. And that's what she's doing at this point. Unwind from the very beginning, but to echo what you said, they carry so much potential in that team. As we take a look at Sunday on the hot seat. The breeze blowing through Sunday's hair. And that last team obviously had a great day because they were in the finals. And now into the arena. Decorated handler Han Yu. She won a national championship this spring with her 12-inch poodle Sky, who we'll see later. But this is her younger poodle opportunity. What a good job. What a good baby. Got that one sneeze. Oh, second sneeze before the start of the run. Jump, jump. Oh, interesting. Carry. Let's see how that works for her. And they're off to a blazing start. Opportunity's time is miles ahead at the moment. And Han is very vocal out on this course. Patiently takes the teeter down. She's making sure she's supporting opportunity every step of the way. Oh my gosh. That run was slick. Look at that time. Han Yu has never won the Premier Cup, but she's got the opportunity now. What an effort. Opportunity goes sub 40. They have posted a number. And just look at the speed in that final line. What a good baby. Was that fun? I thought it was fun. So that's your new dog on top. If Marshall from Paw Patrol was running, it would be at eight inches. He didn't qualify, but our five fastest qualifiers will take their best shot at opportunity. When action from Philadelphia continues, this is the 2026 AKC Premier Cup. Five dogs still to run at eight inches. Shirley does a great job encouraging this dog along. This is not a breed. We see a lot in agility. And he is looking great. Alcor the Brussels Griffon is putting on a show. Getting encouraged every step of the way. He is definitely enjoying his time out there in front of the crowd. He's a heavier eight-inch dog. We saw that teeter-tip quicker for him than it did for the Papillons, our opportunity. It's a clean run for Falcor and maybe a new fan favorites. Kerry, we're in the eight-inch class, but the bar for Falcor was set at four inches and that's true for Piper, our next dog as well. Correct. They're both running their preferred heights. The handlers have decided that the four inches lower works for their dog and they're allowed to make that decision. It's a great start for this team. Again, we've seen so many dogs coming out of those weave pulls up over the A-frame very well. Let's see how they tighten down that turn. Definitely with a small dog, you want to conserve some steps for them. And as we saw before, the tighter the turn, the faster the time will be. She's going through those jumps to avoid the layer jump. A little slower getting the Yorkshire Terrier to get that teeter to the bottom versus the Brussels Griffon. Yep, being a little bit lighter dog. And Piper pops off a clean run, 58.02. Remember the time to beat turned in by opportunity, 39.66 to just put into perspective how magnificent that run was for Han and the Poodle. So now that we've seen our largest dogs at 24 inches and a handful of our smaller dogs at 8 inches, it's a great opportunity to compare and contrast how different size dogs maneuver this course. So in AKC performance, let's put side-by-side the standard Poodle Birdie on the right. We see Piper, the Yorkshire Terrier on the left, carry both of these dogs clocked to time right around 57, 58 seconds, but how they manage this course was very different. Yes, the beginning of this course is a little bit more technical so it works well for the small dogs. They've already got a shorter line. Then as they come across the dog walk, this course really opens up and this is where we can see the larger dogs take advantage of the design of the course. We see both dogs moving at about seven and a half miles an hour, but where they pick up speed and where they lose speed different depending on the course as you illustrated, Carrie. Very interesting. As we look back at opportunity on the high seat, who can barely look as the tension ratchets up. We have just a few dogs left to run at eight inches. All three Papillons left. In fact, Carrie, every winner of the Premier Cup at eight inches has always been a Papillon. Oh, that's an exciting stat. Let's see how these three Papillons do. And Andrea has a wonderful start to her dog. She's such a seasoned competitor. She knows what she needs to do to get up on that podium. Go, Andrea, go. And look at that as she's trying to tighten down that turn. We've seen that turn make a difference for dogs. Andrea won this event in 2023 with Fortune then came back to win the next year with a different Papillon. It was Gabby in 2024. He saw her step in front of that teeter. She wanted to make sure her dog did not come off till it was on the ground. Yeah, okay. Nice job, Andrea. They stopped the clock at 45 seconds. So again, Carrie, this is a duo that has won this championship before a clean run, but still six seconds behind the time of Han Yu and Opportunity. That's an amazing spread, especially for a team as good as Andrea and Fortune. Okay, ready? Go, go, go, go. Over, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, Our second to last runner at eight inches. Go, go, go. This is Kiwi with Michael Fitch. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Yeah, over. Right. Again, we could see where they had those nice tight turns being the smaller dog makes a little bit easier in that opening section to tighten. Let's see how they do on this one. Right, right, right, right, right here. Push. Go over. Walk it, baby. Go. Over. Kiwi come. Tunnel, tunnel. Tunnel, tunnel, tunnel. That's okay, baby. Oh, went wide. And that was a mistake that we saw back at 24 inches with Amber and Motive. Good girl. Push. It felt like he took his attention off the dog, maybe for just a split split second and just went wide. The rest of this run has been absolutely beautiful. 48 seconds, the one fault, but the time still 10 seconds slower than Opportunity. It's making it look easy. So this is our top qualifier at 8 inches. As we mentioned, another papillon. This is Digger with Brenda Kautz. Wow, and those may have been the fastest we've seen. Flew over the top of the A-frame. Oh, they had to be perfect to carry a bar down. And that's five faults. That's going to take them out of that placement. Meaning no matter the time, Han Yu and Opportunity will be our winners at 8 inches. Dig, dig, dig, dig, go, left, teeter, teeter. Touch, push, push. Go, which way do I go? Yeah, coming off the tier, she stepped in front of the dog. The dog didn't know which way to go at that point. Every handler will tell you in a situation like that. It was my mistake and not the dog's, but the spotlight, the sunshine belongs to Han Yu and Opportunity. She was a national champion in the spring. This summer, she wins her first Premier Cup. And I know she is thrilled with this young dog to be at the top of the podium for today. Also a previous invitational winner as well. Only five handlers in AKC Agility history have won all three. Look at this run again. She decided to come to the top of the polls and that may have made the difference for her because again, she knows how fast her dog is. And where she can really gain those extra seconds. And that's what has put them at the top of the podium. She knows her dog. She's a fabulous handler. Kerry, we say it all the time. It's a team sport. It's the dog and the handler. They're both working equally hard. Han had to cover 127 yards. She was running at almost seven miles an hour when you saw her out of breath on the hot seat. Anybody else going to try and do what Han Yu just did? Yeah, we talked so much about what the dogs do, but we forget how hard the handlers have to work out there. Those stats certainly showed what Han needed to do to be the right teammate for her dog. As we take a look at the final results at eight inches for the first time ever. A Papillon isn't a winner. It was a poodle and it wasn't even close. A six-second difference. Han is with Carolyn. Han, congratulations to you. Such a big win for Opportunity. Let's start with the decision on the bi-directional weave poles. You took them from the top, which is something we haven't seen a lot of. What was behind the decision to do that? I feel like that's faster. I mean, obviously, I haven't run the other way. If I do it the other way, I'm wrapping her once. I'm kind of wrapping her twice. It seemed to pay off today and being right in the middle of the pack in terms of strategy. A number of competitors still remaining with where you were situated. What were you thinking about going in in terms of executing your strategy? I just think of a plan that I think it's best for me and my dog that I feel like I have the confidence to execute and I just go out there and try to do the best I can. We have two winners down, three classes still to go. You're watching the AKC on ESPN.