A New Docuseries — InkBlot Narratives

Best In Whoa!

A race lasts just

30
Seconds.

But 1 mistake could last a lifetime.

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Best In Whoa!

Every year the fastest dog and handler teams in America chase a singular dream: the chance to represent Team USA at the Agility World Championship. Best in Whoa is a docuseries with unprecedented access into the wild and wonderful world of dog sports, a rapidly growing subculture where competitors ranging from 20-to-60 years old pour every minute, cent, and ounce of passion into their pets… all for a shot at Olympic-style glory.

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The World

A Sport You've
Never Seen

Dog agility is one of the fastest and most visually electric sports you've probably never seen.

Handlers sprint beside their dogs, guiding them only by voice commands and body language, through a complex obstacle course featuring jumps, tunnels, weave poles, seesaws and contact obstacles… all while the dogs reach speeds of 20+ miles per hour.

Since the 1970's the sport has grown more than 50%. In the US alone, there were more than 1,000 dog agility events held last year and 1.2 million entries into American Kennel Club sponsored shows.

At the top level, most handlers devote 5-7 years of training to their dogs as they build toward a peak competitive window that may only last 3-4 seasons.

The FCI Agility World Championship is the absolute pinnacle of the sport.

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Agility events in the US last year

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AKC show entries annually

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Sport growth since the 1970s

Amber McCune — New England

The Stakes

One Weekend.
Sixteen Spots.

Every spring, 100 of the best agility teams in the nation converge on the Team USA World Agility Tryouts at Premier Sports Center in Southampton, New Jersey. Over the course of a brutal weekend of competition, just 16–20 teams will walk away wearing the coveted Team USA jacket. For everyone else, the dream is over.

Those who make the team go on to represent the United States at the Agility World Championship, held each year in a different international city. The event brings together 35–45 countries, 200–300 of the fastest agility dogs in the world, up to 6,000 spectators in person, and thousands more watching online.

Just getting a competition dog overseas is an expensive and complicated logistical challenge involving special paperwork, climate-controlled aircraft cabins, and a post-arrival acclimation period.

A multi-day competition crowns an individual winner in each of the dogs' size classes: small (dominated by the Papillon breed), medium (Shetland Sheepdogs and Australian Shepherds), and large (almost exclusively Border Collies and the occasional Belgian Malinois). Team scoring works similar to figure skating at the Olympics, with the top 3 fastest individual times aggregated into a total team score.

European teams — France, Belgium, Germany, Italy — dominate the world stage. But year after year, the US team has been closing the gap.

Making a world team, and especially contributing to a winning one, opens up a world of sponsorship and financial opportunities within the world of dog training.

100
Teams Enter Nation's best arrive in Southampton, NJ
16
Make Team USA The coveted jacket. A lifetime of work.
1
World Championship Represent the United States on the world stage
45

Nations Competing

300+

Elite Dogs

6,000

Live Spectators

3

Size Classes

Global Competition

The Best in
the World.

The 2026 FCI Agility World Championship in Turku, Finland draws competitors from 45 nations — the absolute pinnacle of the sport.

🇫🇮 🇺🇸 🇨🇦 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 🇨🇿 🇯🇵 🇦🇺 🇧🇷 🇿🇦 TURKU, FINLAND 2026 FCI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP NEW JERSEY, USA CANADA GREAT BRITAIN JAPAN AUSTRALIA BRAZIL S. AFRICA EUROPE

45 nations  ·  400+ athletes  ·  1 world champion

The Characters

Meet the Competitors

Though many are veterinarians, or run dog training and boarding facilities, agility is among the only major sports where top competitors can also be full-time teachers, software engineers, accountants, doctors, and lawyers.

But regardless of their day job, handlers at this level train daily, spend most of the year traveling to events in specially dog-modified vans and RVs, and completely structure their lives around competition schedules. Some even design their homes more for dog than human comfort.

On-camera, these are quirky personalities with varying degrees of self-awareness about their obsessive lifestyles. But agility also tends to draw TV-friendly Type A competitive personalities with fascinating backstories.

& Howie + Typo — Border Collies

Amber McCune

New England's Amber McCune is a trash-talking, fiery perfectionist with a pack of pageant-ready Border Collies. The most feared — and the most compelling — competitor on the circuit.

& Ripple — Boston Terrier (9th generation)

Dan Haddy

A gentle Deadhead from South Carolina who runs a 9th-generation Boston Terrier descended from his beloved grandmother's favorite dog. Every run is a love letter.

& Spider — Australian Shepherd

Madelyn Rhode

Arizonan Maddie Rhode was orphaned before high school but found her identity within the agility community while raising her son in the sport. This is her home. These are her people.

& Fizz — Mixed Breed

Rowen Lyon

A Georgia high schooler — an ascending junior handler who has to constantly tell her friends she can't do "normal teenager stuff" because she has a dog show. She might be the future of this sport.

The Dogs

The Real Stars

Then there's the dogs themselves — with personalities that rival the camera appeal of their unbelievable athletic abilities.

There are rescues: one competitor found her champion agility mutt in a downtown parking lot. Another handler rescued his behaviorally-challenged Australian Shepherd from euthanasia when she wound up back at the shelter after two failed adoptions.

There are purebred dogs that come from championship lineages — and true underdogs working their way back from devastating injuries.

Rowen with USA flag
World Agility Championship action

Life on the road — the agility circuit never stops

The Season

8 Episodes.
One Dream.

Episodes 1–3

The Crucible

The crucible of the World Team Tryouts. 100 hopefuls become 16 members of Team USA.

The Crucible

Episodes 4–5

Becoming a Team

Becoming a team. Team dynamics emerge as the handlers and dogs train together and make the journey to Europe.

Becoming a Team

Episodes 6–8

The World Stage

The drama of the Agility World Championship on and off the field.

Jennifer and Swift with flag
Unprecedented Access

We Already
Know This World

Through our Prime Video series A Different Breed, InkBlot Narratives has built deep relationships with some of the most recognizable athletes in the agility world, giving Best in Whoa! unprecedented access to this passionate but little-known subculture.

Our cameras will go beyond the competition floor: into competitors' homes and daily training routines, behind the scenes at the World Team Tryouts, and inside everything that impacts Team USA's performance on the world stage.

We have unrivaled credibility within this world and know how to exploit the full cinematic potential of canine athletes in action.

🎬
A Different Breed — Amazon Prime Video InkBlot's landmark canine athletics docuseries. This is that world, elevated to world-championship scale.
🤝
Trusted Within the Community Years of embedded relationships with the athletes, coaches, and organizations at the heart of competitive agility.
🏆
Emmy Award-Winning Production Team Lauren Bernstein (Post Supervisor), Bryn Vytlacil (Editor). Netflix, Showtime, Discovery. 15–20+ years each.

Format

6–8 Episode
Docuseries

Renewable Series

Target

Premium
Streamers &
Brand Partners

Multiple platform & brand opportunities

Franchise

Annual
Series

New World Championship city every year