The North East has recently been identified as one of the most deprived areas in the country, a factor which has well established links with obesity. A growing problem in the UK, obesity can lead to a vast array of detrimental health problems, which is why the Kennel Club has launched the Fight the Flab with Fido campaign.

The campaign highlights how dog agility, a unique phenomenon in fitness that is sweeping the UK, is set to fight the flab, not only in humans but also in their four legged friends who are feeling the effects of our inactive lifestyles.

More fun than going to the gym and running on a treadmill, dog agility – a sport that involves see-saws, tunnels and jumps as well as man’s best friend – is being signed up to in record numbers as more and more people come to see the sport as a way to combat obesity in both dogs and themselves.

Local resident, Julie York, aged 44 from Bishop Auckland, County Durham, shed half her body weight – dropping 9 stone in 14 months - with the help of agility. She has dropped from a size 26 to a size 10.

She said: “There is a point in everybody’s life when you decide it is time to make a change and mine came in 2001, when my weight hit seventeen and a half stone.

“I had been dabbling in agility for a few years, which was keeping me fitter than I would otherwise have been, but I found that I was struggling to keep up with my Border Collie who had all the energy in the world as she sprinted around the course.

“So I decided to up my game and agility was my incentive for that, as I really wanted to succeed in it. I decided to go on a diet and to spend more time keeping active, and within fourteen months I had lost over half my body weight – dropping from seventeen and a half stone to a svelte eight and a half stone.

“Now I’m always out walking my dog - I train with my dog twice a week and I go to shows most weekends, where you often find that you will walk ten miles or more, just around the show and between the rings! Agility has completely turned my life around; not only was it my incentive to get fit, but all of the training and competing really helped me to get the weight off and keep it off. I would recommend the sport to anybody and in terms of its entertainment-value it certainly beats going to the gym!”

Caroline Kisko, speaking for the Kennel Club, said: “Dog agility is really growing in popularity and no wonder when it’s such a fantastic way to get fit – helping people to change their inactive lifestyles and giving the dogs the exercise they are often lacking as well.

“So many people have seen their lifestyle change completely as a result of taking up the sport and are reaping the benefits in terms of weight loss and improved health. There is no excuse not to get fit when you are being egged on by the eager eyes and wagging tail of your dog.”

Research has found that one in three dogs in Britain is overweight and that peoples’ lifestyles are affecting the health of our pets – with the areas with the most overweight people also seeing the highest levels of pet obesity.

However, dog agility – which is estimated to have 24,000 doggie followers in the UK – is a real answer to the problem. It is open and accessible to all dogs – from Chihuahuas to Great Danes – and to people, whatever their age, gender, or level of fitness.

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