Fast CAT Records: How Fast Is Fast?

Every handler who's been to more than two Fast CAT trials has wondered: what's the fastest? What's the record? Whose name is on the leaderboard? The honest answers turn out to be more interesting than the question — Fast CAT doesn't formally track "records" the way track and field does, but the data AKC publishes paints a clear picture of the sport's speed ceilings.

There's no official Fast CAT world record

AKC publishes the annual top 20 by breed but doesn't designate any individual run as a "record." Their position is sensible: every trial uses the host club's timing equipment, conditions vary (wind, ground, temperature), and a head-to-head head against another dog's time from a different trial isn't apples-to-apples.

So when handlers swap "fastest dog" stories, they're talking about either: 1. The fastest single MPH any individual dog has been credited with, or 2. The career-points titles (FCAT2, FCAT3, … FCAT30+) that proxy for "most consistent."

Both are real, just unofficial.

The speed tiers across the sport

Several years of AKC top-20 data show a clear hierarchy of breed speed ceilings. From fastest to slowest at the top of each tier:

The 38–41 MPH club: Greyhounds

The top of the speed table belongs entirely to Greyhounds. The fastest individual dogs cross the 40 MPH line — the 100-yard time at 40 MPH is exactly 5.11 seconds. Most competitive Greyhounds run 36–39 MPH. There's no other AKC breed that produces speeds in this range.

The 35–37 MPH club: Whippets and elite Borzois / Salukis

Whippets are the dominant population in this tier. The breed's all-time top speeds sit just under 38 MPH, and the breed top 20 in any given year clusters around 34–37 MPH. Borzois and Salukis — at the elite end of their respective breeds — also reach this tier; the longer-striding Borzoi clears 36 MPH consistently in years when the breed has competitive entries.

The 32–34 MPH club: Other elite sighthounds + top non-sighthounds

Pharaoh Hounds, Ibizan Hounds, top Whippets that didn't quite hit the 35-MPH tier, and a small number of non-sighthounds (top Border Collies, Belgian Malinois, Vizslas) live here. The non-sighthound presence is the surprise — the sport rewards stride and motivation, not just lineage.

The 28–31 MPH club: Most fast sporting and working breeds

This is the densest tier on the leaderboard. Most field-bred Labs, Pointers, Vizslas, GSPs, Australian Shepherds, Border Collies, and Dobermans cluster here. Top dogs in these breeds occasionally cross into the 32+ tier, but the median competitive sporting breed lives in the high 20s.

The 24–28 MPH club: Most other breeds

Goldens, Huskies, Boxers, larger working breeds — the breeds where the breed top 20 cutoff is usually in the mid-20s. Don't read this as "slow" — these are still hard-won numbers, and a 25 MPH run on a 65-pound dog is athletically impressive.

Below 24 MPH: Toy and small breeds (where the handicap kicks in)

Min Pins, Papillons, Italian Greyhounds, Mini Schnauzers, Russell Terriers, Boston Terriers — the handicap multiplier (1.5× and 2.0×) means a 22 MPH run from a Min Pin earns the same per-run points as a 33 MPH run from a Whippet.

Why "fastest dog" depends on what you mean

Comparing a Greyhound's 41 MPH to a Min Pin's 22 MPH directly is an apples-to-oranges problem. AKC's handicap system makes the points comparison meaningful: the Greyhound's 41 MPH × 1.0 = 41 points; the Min Pin's 22 MPH × 2.0 = 44 points. Per-run, the Min Pin wins. Per absolute speed, the Greyhound wins.

The sport's design is intentionally non-comparative across breeds. The breed top 20 is the fairest unit of competition, and the FCAT-number titles are the cleanest measure of long-term commitment.

The FCAT ladder as a career record

If "world record" means "single fastest MPH, all time," the answer changes year to year and AKC doesn't publish it. If "career record" means "most points accumulated by an individual dog," the answer is captured by the title:

BCAT — 150 points. Most active dogs reach this in their first few months.

DCAT — 500 points. A real season's work.

FCAT — 1,000 points. The sport's first major title.

FCAT2 — 1,500. FCAT3 — 2,000. Every additional 500 adds another level.

FCAT10 — 5,500 points. The "decagon" club.

FCAT20 — 10,500 points. Now you're in elite-career territory.

FCAT30+ — 15,500+ points. The current outer edge of the sport.

A dog with FCAT30 has run roughly 400+ qualifying runs over their career. That's an average of one trial per week for eight years. The dogs with the highest FCAT numbers aren't usually the fastest single-run dogs — they're the dogs whose handlers committed to the long game. (Some of them happen to also be elite-speed dogs; the overlap is a fun bit of the sport's culture.)

Where the records live

Two places to follow the leaderboard:

1. AKC's official top 20 by breed — the canonical list, updated as new results post. 2. TallyCAT's leaderboard pages — same data, broken out by breed with year filtering, refreshed every six hours.

Records get broken every season. The Whippet leaderboard turns over substantially every two or three years; the Greyhound leaderboard moves slower because the elite dogs are a small population. The breed top 20 is the single most reliable place to spot record-tier performances as they happen.

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Related reading:
• Understanding Fast CAT Titles: BCAT to FCAT20+
• How to read your AKC Fast CAT results page
• What is Fast CAT? A complete guide
• Live AKC Fast CAT leaderboards by breed