It is with thanks to Sheila Partridge back in 2006 that the UK has had the long involvement with the IMCA & PAWC event.

From talking to Rowena Beal at a UK show, Sheila heard about the PAWC event and whilst struggling with her knees (and knowing that at some point she may need knee replacements), decided to enter the PAWC championships for the first time and her husband Richard whilst going with Sheila entered into the IMCA competition and became the UK Team Leader – a role he held until 2014.

In the UK at the time there was a lady called Phillipa Armstong who suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, was struggling to complete a course herself and decided that she would train her dogs to compete with her in a wheelchair training her dog for distance handling to be able to attempt to compete on par with able bodied handlers as there were no classes for disabled handlers in the UK. Phillipa was the only wheelchair competitor in the UK at that time.

In 2014, the UK entered the biggest PAWC Team across all countries that the event had ever received to that date which was 6 handlers running 10 dogs! Our PAWC entry across Europe is a regular 20+ dogs (depending on the amount of travel required) but in 2026 is likely to be around the 50 – 60 dogs – one huge PAWC Team!

The IMCA Team has also grown and annually enters the maximum number of dogs a country is permitted to. It was initially 16 individual but this has now increased to 18 individual dogs with no more than 7 dogs in one height. Also the Team event which limits each country to one team in each height. Again the UK always enters a team in each height.