Where did the summer go ?

 

At the end of the last report I mentioned that I had a new canine guest for while in the form of a GBGV called Perle. She certainly made the summer an interesting experience and a challenge on the training side as well. I was lucky enough to have top GBGV breeder Jessica Holm entrust me with one her dogs.  Perle stayed with me for a few months and it was great to have a go teaching a breed not known for their trainability. At first it was a lot for year old Perle to take in as she had been brought up in the country and now had to get used to all the sights and sounds of town life. Also of course nearly every weekend of the summer I am doing my arena show somewhere so it proved to be a big socialisation experience for her.

I was lucky in that Perle loved to play which was quite unexpected as you don't associate a hound as a breed that loves to retrieve. In fact she often would turn her nose up at food when training and much prefer the toys.  As I only had her for a few months I concentrated on teaching her some moves. The clicker obviously helped to get her focused but there were some days where I would walk out the back door with her to do something but then realise she was just not in the mood so didn't even start to do anything. As she started to learn things I found her picking newer things up more quickly. Perle especially liked the jumping moves as she could jump very high naturally, not a move which I would have thought a basset type dog would be any good at but Perle proved me wrong. I had a great time experiencing a different breed and it really makes you appreciate the work and time that we have put into our own dogs. Also it showed me that any dog of any breed can with the right training do some of the moves. Perle went back to Jessica and we hope she will be able to carry on some of the training in between doing her day job which is being a show dog.

During July and August I was also invited onto a couple of different TV programmes. One was Animal Rescue Live on BBC 1 where I met up with a couple of presenters that I had worked with before. The first was Selina Scott who I had taught on the Underdogs programme and Matt Baker who I had taught on Blue peter. As usual they wanted a routine which sounds ok until you realise that the programme went out LIVE !! Well Disco behaved herself and performed a short country number. Then we were introduced to a the actor from Eastenders who plays Charlie and his dog. They asked me to train him some moves but in the time that we had it wasn't possible to do too much but we had a good time trying. The other programme that I was involved with was Richard and Judy on channel 4. They had decided to do a Strictly Doggy dancing section to their show and had asked people to write in if they wanted to take part. Each handler and dog was paired with a trainer which is where I came in. My handler was Sue and her Terveren X Collie called Merlin. They had done some basic training before but had not done much else so I quickly had to evaluate what the dog might be able to learn quickly. Merlin was not an easy dog he had an attention span of a gnat and had Sue wrapped around his finger. Taking all that in consideration I was very pleased they won their round and got through to the finals. The final was at the end of August and although they didn't win I think they enjoyed the experience.

During the summer my arena display has been entertaining the public with a combination of routines, training insights and freestyle fun. We had a lovely time in Guernsey at the North show where the dogs had daily runs on the beach. The only downside of this lovely place is that I had to go on a boat and I am certainly not the best on a boat ! There was not time to rest though as then it was the bank holiday and we were booked again at the Eye Show near Suffolk. A few more events later and it was the middle of September so it was time for me to pack my bags and go to Norway. There has been a small band of freestyle handlers promoting the sport in the country and it was two of these that were organising the workshop. Merete and Ellen have been at the forefront of developing the sport in Norway and have been ably assisted by their two handsome litter brother Terverens.

The first day of the workshop dawned and the weather was sunny and warm. The location for the workshop was a huge indoor riding school just outside Oslo. There were eighteen handlers on the workshop and unusually they each had a different breed of dog. The Border collie tends to dominate in most sports across the world so it was refreshing to have such a variety of breeds. One of the more unusual breeds was a Hungarian Pumi which is a small to medium sized dog which has a poodle like coat.

The second day dawned a lot colder and wetter than the previous day so I was glad that I had taken various layers of clothing with me. Both dogs and handlers had to be woken up and warmed up after the exertion of the first day but they all very quickly got into the swing of things. The day flew past with the whole group relaxing a bit more and dare I say moving out with the music in a more positive style. In the evening Merete invited me to her lovely home for a traditional Norwegian meal which of course was accompanied by a good glass of wine. There was a lot to chat about and I was delighted to be able to watch Merete’s new routine where she is playing the role of a troll.

No time to rest as when I got home as it was the Paws in the Park event the next weekend. This is a great show which has all the dog activities for owners to see and have a go at. I was busy with the Dogzone arena so didn't get to see much of the show but I know the HTM tent had to be seen to be believed, not many shows do you have material hanging from the ceiling and chandeliers hanging down for lighting ! I was an exhausting weekend but very enjoyable and I would like to thank Carolyn Mentieth who helped me out in the arena during both days. A few days later saw me driving to Rugby for a practice with Mary Ray. As you may of seen on the video clips we did a pairs routine together on the Underdogs show. It was this routine which we needed to brush up on as we are going to be performing it both days at Discover Dogs in November.

A rare and much needed weekend off followed but only a few days after that saw us travelling to Sheffield for another workshop and evening cabaret night. We had been here last year so we knew the event would be well organised by Yolande and we were not disappointed. So now its time to pack my bags once again as I have a couple of workshops to teach in the USA. So still lots to do this year and also some projects in the pipeline which might be very interesting. Of course at the top of the list is trying to get the dogs ready for the Crufts semi finals so if you see me walking around an airport to music you know what I will be doing !!

 

A wet but busy summer !

This year the K9Freestyle display has been busier than normal with many people and organisations booking the display for their event. Last year it was burning hot and you had to be careful that the dogs were as much as possible in the shade, not so this year !! at some events I am sure it would only start to bucket down with rain when I was in the ring! There is still all of August and September to go yet so I have my fingers crossed that there will be at least a few events where I won't get wet.

Back in June I went to Italy to teach a weekend workshop, where the sport is just starting to take off. We went met at the airport by our hosts for the weekend, Monica and Alberto who looked after us wonderfully during the weekend. The food and wine went down very well and as Monica and Alberto have their own vineyard it was all home produced. The workshop was held in Tuscany which is a very beautiful part of the country and prior to the workshop we were taken around some of the older parts of the area which really nice.

The workshop was held outside under a big open sided building so it was fingers crossed that the weather behaved it self which it did. Most of the handlers had not done much freestyle before so we worked through many of the moves and used some of the more experienceced handlers to show how to progress. When you are teaching a workshop abroad you often need a translator and for the weekend I was assisted by Monica who did a great job. On the Saturday night we went for a meal at a local restaurant where the food was great and the organisers presented me a plaque which was an honoury membership of their organisation. It was a lovely workshop to teach and in such super surroundings with all the handlers getting into the freestyle vibe !

This summer has also seen a temporary addition to the K9 Freestyle team. Back on the underdogs show I met up with Jessica Holm a well know top breeder of  Grand Basset Griffon Vendeen. I happened to mention that I would love to have a go at training a hound just for the experience. I believe to progress as a trainer and instructor it is important to know what it is like to train first hand many different breeds as each gives you a different set of challenges. After the Underdogs show finished Jessica contacted me and we had a chat about the possibility of me borrowing a dog for a while. After a trip down to her kennels we agreed that a one year old bitch called Perle might be a good candidate.

Perle has been home here a few weeks and its been a bit of a change for her coming from the country into a town atmosphere. Already she has presented some challenges but you can see that she doe have quite an intelligent brain there when she wants! over the next couple of months it will be interesting to see what we can get up to so I will write some more soon.

 

The Underdogs show

As I mentioned in an earlier report I had been invited to perform on the Underdogs show on BBC 2 with Disco. The first time we appeared the producers asked us to perform to Ring of fire by Johnny cash. This I thought would be the end of my involvement but after this routine they approached me to see if I would act as canine freestyle mentor to the celebrities and do some master classes with them. I had no problem doing this as I am teaching all the time so it wouldn't be much different....well so I thought!!! Anyway Discos first routine had gone down so well they asked me if I would return and do another routine so that they could tell people I would be acting as the mentor in the following week. I quickly had to think about what music I would use and of course they wanted the routine to have a different look than the previous routine. So I had the idea of using two dogs perhaps starting with Pogo ad then moving onto Disco. Finding music is hard at the best of times but to find something quickly that would suit both dogs was even harder. After many hours I came to the decision that I would do a piece that I performed with Jazz a few years ago. The track was Mission Impossible and I decided to use Discos box which I had used in her clown routine as the ending. The next thing was to make sure that the programme could clear the copyright of the music, no luck with the version that I had been using so they provided me with another which was not as good and was not in a useable format. This was given to me on the Thursday before the show so time was starting to run out as all these versions are never the same so the routine would have to be re choreographed. They tried to find another version but by the end of Friday they didn't have it so my best option was to edit the track they had given me into some sort of useable format. I then spent the next few days learning the routine and checking that the dogs were ok with the sequences. The day came for the performance and I could sense in the rehearsal that Disco was a little distracted but Pogo was working well. We started the actual routine in front of the audience later in the evening and it started ok but we ended up doing it again due to problems with Disco and also a camera failing. The second run through went really well as you can see for yourself on the video clips page of this website.

The next day I set off for the Dogs Trust at Harefield, Uxbridge to do a master class with the celebrities. It started off well with me and Sybil doing some demonstrations on how basic moves can be performed and developed. Then Anton du Beck took over and got the celebs moving to the beats of the music which was very interesting. After that I had a one to one with Julia and Selina to get them started on their routines. Selina was lovely and really tried even though she wasn't overly comfortable with dancing around with the dog. Chump a wolfhound mix is a lovely dog with a real fun attitude and we had a good time trying out moves. Then came Julia...........lets just say she wasn't keen on doing some of the things I asked and made it clear she was not going to do them under any circumstances. This was a shame as Cookie her staffie has been trained well and is going make a nice pet for someone. On the Friday I returned to teach not only the celebs but also the children who are taking part in the children's version of the show. These kids were great and tried everything with their dogs which was refreshing after the earlier training sessions with the celebs.  

Meanwhile the producers were discussing various ideas for a routine for the last show and they approached me and Mary Ray with the idea of doing a pairs routine. As always there was not a lot of time so we would have to meet up on the Sunday before the show to match the dogs and construct the routine. The track that had been chosen for us was Me and My Shadow and we spent most the morning putting the routine together with and without the dogs. Gradually towards the end of the day it came together and then all we had to do was learn it ! so I must have listened to that music 40 or 50 times that day to try and get it into my head. Turning up at the studios on Tuesday, Mary has already arrived so it was straight into walking the routine in the car park. Then it was onto the stage for the rehearsal which after a couple of goes to check that we had fitted the routine to the space we went and had a costume fitting. I had already discussed with Mary what I preferred to wear so I was pleased that we were just going to wear a glitzy waistcoat and bow tie. Then came the performance and after a shaky start mainly due to the music not being loud enough we got in synch and as you can see from the routine on the video clips page it went well. It was certainly a little more difficult doing a pairs as not only the dog you have to concentrate on but also synchronizing yourself with another person.

After the routine was shown the programme came to an end with Selina Scott and Chump winning which I was very pleased with as they had progressed really well over the last few weeks and were worthy winners. So now its a little rest before the show season starts with more displays than ever so watch out we might be at an event near you.

 

A busy start to 2007

Well 2007 started off with a nice rest over Christmas and the new year which was great as I really felt I needed to recharge the batteries. Even before the start of 2007 I could see from the diary that this year was going to be very busy with many weekends already booked out with displays, judging and workshops.

Only a few days into the new year saw me off to Coventry for the PNM show where I had entered Pogo in intermediate HTM. This show is always very well run and this year they had two halls going as they had such a large entry. It was great to see some of my pupils doing so well with one winning starters freestyle another novice freestyle and others gaining places in their classes. This turned the pressure on me a bit with Pogo when it came to my class. The routine lets say did not go quite to plan but we still managed to win giving ten points towards her qualifying into advanced. It was plain to see at this show that Pogo was maturing and her training needed to take a different twist as my shy little puppy was turning into a more confident bitch!!

The next project was involving the TV programme on channel four called "Its me of the dog". I had been asked if I would be a guest trainer on a programme which would train someone to perform a short routine at Crufts. The first programme was to be shot at a local theatre which provided a great location for the first training session. The dog i was to be training was a food obsessed Dalmatian called Dally. Victoria Stillwell the programmes resident trainer had helped them out with Dallys food obsession which would take her into the cupboards and up onto the worktops just to get the food. The shoot started off with me performing with Disco on stage while Victoria and Dallys owners looked on and then she challenged the owners to do a routine at Crufts. When it came to the training session it was plain to see that Dally was food obsessed as she nearly took my hand off for the sausage i had. This though worked to my advantage as it was very easy to get her to do many of the moves. The only worry was that Dally seemed to had a bit of a wandering streak and would go off when she felt like it. Dallys owners have only had her for a year and they are her third home so the bond between them is still developing. Anyway we got Dally doing some good moves and she was a natural for the jumps and weaves. Leaving that day i was not sure what i was going to be able to achieve in a short amount of time we had so i prayed that the owners would put in the time training her.

No rest for the wicked and the next weekend saw me in Switzerland judging the international dog dance competition. This was a lovely event organised by Claudia Moser and her crew which was held alongside a sort of Discover dogs type event. We were looked after very well for all three days and saw some nice routines. A little star for me was a Jack Russell who's tail never stopped wagging while he performed to a song called "Susie snowflake" completed with sledge and snow!! There was also some innovative routines and as always it was nice to see a variety of breeds taking part.

After a few days being home i was teaching a workshop locally so had invited the Dalmatian from the TV programme to come along as i thought this would be good experience for them. The workshop was very busy but Dally coped very well and in fact all the dogs did well as none of them were worried about the cameras being about.

It was back to Coventry at the end of feb to take part in the annual htm show organised by Rugby dog club. I had entered Pogo again in intermediate htm as in the UK we have now got a point system which requires her to get 20 points before she goes into advanced. I had been doing extra training with her during the past couple of months and hoped with some different chorography she would pay attention better. I am glad to say that she won again which means she now will have to enter advanced but i felt there was still room for improvement in her routine. Its always hard to remember that she is only just two years old by a matter of days for this event and has done a lot in her short life, so fingers crossed with another year in my displays she will present a stronger performance at this event next year

Next was a unique event in London where i would be performing routines with the dogs while their tracks were being played by a live band. The dogs are all used to performing in a variety of venues but this was to prove like nothing they had quite had before!! The band had done a great job learning the tracks and although at times the volume was a little loud it sounded great. One of the problems i found was the spotlights they were using as if the dogs were facing the lights they seemed to not be able to see me. A different set of lights were being used behind the band these were multicoloured and would rotate at speed every now and again. Not being in the area that the dogs were working i didn't think that they would be a problem until i started with Sybil who took a sudden dislike to them and spooked a bit which is not like her. I got them turned off but i think she still had her eye on that end which was understandable as it didn't occur to me until we were driving home but it must have looked like a firework in the sky to her so a lesson was learnt there. The area that we were trying to perform in was a little tight but i was pleased with how well the dogs coped as the room was absolutely heaving with people.

The next event will of course be Crufts where Dally the Dalmatian should be performing her routine on the Sunday morning, fingers crossed it goes as well as the last practice session. As well as this i will be judging all the HTM/ Freestyle finals in the main ring which should be interesting. Also as usual i will be doing various demonstrations in the Good Citizen dog ring every day at various times so if you are about come and see us.

Update

Well back from Crufts and what a busy time it was especially now that the main ring was in the arena. Judging in the main arena for the first three days was a lovely experience although when the cameras who were filming the ring for the big tv screens that are around the ring did a close up of each judge, it was quite scary to see yourself so large above the ring. There was some nice routines throughout all the competitions and it was great to see some new competitors in the international competition on the Saturday.

I must also say a big thank you to all the handlers and dogs who helped me with the displays in the Good citizen ring. These took a different form to the usual ones I have done and they all seemed to go down very well. It was hard work some days doing two with the groups and two with my own dogs but after a while you get into a routine and I was very pleased with the way my younger two dogs worked throughout the show.

Then it came to the last day when Dally the Dalmatian was to be performing her routine we had been working on for the last six weeks. Im glad to say that the whole family and Dally did themselves proud and the routine went very well. At no time did Dally wander off, she remained focused on Debbie throughout the whole routine. The programme was then shown on the Tuesday following Crufts and the TV company did a nice job of showing Dally and some of her training. Fingers crossed Dally and her owners keep up her training as Debbie did comment that she had been better behaved since she had been doing more training with her.

No rest for the wicked and then I was off doing various classes and workshops and in between these I was asked to perform a routine on the Underdogs Show on BBC 2. This programme had been in contact earlier in the year and had asked me to be a trainer but unfortunately my schedule would not allow me to take part but they were keen to get me involved so I ended up agreeing to do a routine with Disco. They could not get clearance on my normal music so they asked me if I would perform to Ring of fire by Johnny Cash. I agreed which gave me about five days to out something together. I always try to use moves which the dogs enjoy doing and this is especially important with Disco as she is not as reliable as the collies. She did the rehearsal and it went really well and everyone commented on how good it looked but all I could think was has she peaked too early and what is she going to do on the main performance. Although the programme was live, they shot the freestyle routines during the break so that if things went a bit wrong then you could have a go again. The TV crew were great and let me allow Disco a chance to look around when she first went on stage and then set up in my own time. The performance went well and looking back at it on the TV I think Disco looked her normal happy self and enjoyed the whole experience. You can have a look for yourself by going to the video clips page and watching the routine.

So that’s the first three months of the year gone and looking at the diary the rest of the year will be just as busy.

 

Canine freestyle down under

 

Freestyle has always presented me with many opportunities and when the invitation arrived to teach a couple of seminars in Australia it was with some trepidation that I accepted. My main worries were that I would have to leave my dogs which I never do lightly and I often refuse to teach abroad as I would rather be with my own dogs in the UK. Also there was the little matter of the twenty three hour plane trip to get my head around before I accepted the invitation.

At present canine freestyle or dances with dogs as they call it is a very new sport. In some places there are groups of freestylers who get together regularly but most the time the handlers are forced to train on their own as they would have to drive many hours to attend a group session. The good thing about the sport being new in Australia is that they can take advice from the many countries that have already started freestyle and can find out what has worked for them.

My Australian adventure started with a long flight to Melbourne where we were met by our host for the event Sue. I had arrived a few days early so that hopefully I could get over the jet lag a bit and if you are going all that way you might as well do some sightseeing. On the Thursday we went on a steam train called puffing billy and had our lunch which was quite a feat keeping your glass and plate on the table while the train climbed up the side of the steep mountain. The next day we went to the Healsville wildlife reserve which had all the native animals that you would see in Australia. I had fully expected for it to be hot but it seems we brought the UK weather with us as some of the days were im sure colder than the UK. With the sightseeing over it was now the time I needed to knuckle down and concentrate on the reason that I was here as the next day the workshops started.

The first workshop was hosted by the Melbourne canine freestyle group although many people had travelled from outside the area to attend. I’m not quite sure what they thought of this energetic Englishman at the start but by the end they were having great fun whilst learning about the many areas of freestyle. All the dogs had a good standard of control and although for some, this was the first time that they had been to a freestyle workshop they all performed well and with some more training put together some very nice routines. A wide range of breeds attended with a new breed to me a Koolie which although not recognised by the Australian kennel club is gaining in popularity. There was also some more unusual breeds such as a Chinese crested powder-puff who could do some stunning heelwork with full attention and also there was a high drive Old English sheepdog which I could have easily smuggled home! On the second day the group was a little tired so I had to wake them up with my freestyle wake up session which got them back on track, full of energy and raring to go. By the end of the second day afternoon they were each performing short routines and had gained the confidence to move around the ring rather than get rooted on one spot. It was a shame the workshop had to finish really as it had been such an enjoyable workshop to teach and the hospitality had been superb.

The next day it was another plane flight this time to get to Sydney as I had arranged a couple of days in the centre on the capital to do some more sightseeing. As we started to walk around Sydney it was obvious that I was certainly warmer and over the next few days as we moved around it started to get warmer and warmer. The first day was taken up with going to Taronga zoo and then we did the predictable sightseeing of the opera house and bridge but if you find yourself in oz make sure you go to the botanical gardens as they are extremely well cared for and impressive.

The next day we were picked up by our host Joan from the Sydney group and taken to the outskirts of city near to the workshop venue. We had a days rest before the workshop so Joan kindly took us around some of the local attractions one of which was the amazing Blue Mountains. The view across was magnificent and although I have never seen the grand canyon it reminded us of the classic view you see in the brochures.

The location of this workshop was going to be at a facility owned by the Australian kennel club which is the venue for many dog events in the state and it would be brilliant if we had something like this in the UK. The area was originally a horse stud and it has been developed into a showground with enough buildings to hold championship breed shows and all other dog sports and even has its own resident flock of sheep for the herding tests. One of the differences between the shows in Australia and the UK is that many of the shows there are held in the evening as the temperature can get too hot during the day. Some of the sports are also restricted to certain times of the year one being the endurance test which I had not heard of. This test consisted of a handler riding a bike for a total of 20km whilst their dog ran beside them. The dog is regularly checked by a vet during the test so that any problems can be addressed. It occurred to me that this was a very good discipline for any of the working dogs sports as with freestyle the dog performs many jumps and flexible moves that require it to be at the peak of fitness on order not to gain injuries. The workshop was located in the original round riding school called the rotunda.

The first day started well with all the teams getting into the swing of things very quickly. Unlike the Melbourne group the Sydney dances with dogs group have been holding a competition for the last few years. Interest in the freestyle has been slow but there is now a small band of dedicated freestylers who are developing the sport. The workshop had also attracted some spectators from outside of Australia with a group making the trip over from new Zealand and one lady even came all the way from Hong Kong!. The group was of mixed ability with some people having their first taste of what the sport was about while others that had been competing were looking for new ideas and methods.

The temperature in Sydney was very much higher than in Sydney and as the venue was inland the rotunda became very warm during the day. At one stage a mini whirlwind came across the venue with people scrambling to shut doors and grab anything that was flying around outside. By the second day the handlers were starting to get very creative which was great especially during the concept exercise. This is designed to get their creative juices flowing by giving them a idea for a routine rather than a piece of music and they have to brainstorm about what music they could use but more importantly what moves that could use and props etc.

One of the little stars of the workshop was a four month old puppy border collie called Muffin. She was owned by Joan who I was staying with and from the time I had arrived I had been playing with her so to give the handlers a rest I used Muffin to show some puppy training. This puppy had endless amounts of energy and soon was running around with the toys showing how easy it is to train the puppy without it even knowing that it is working. Although Muffin was a sweet little thing if I am right from reading her body language she could become quite a handful in the months to come.

As usual the two day workshop was very tiring even more so with the heat inside the venue but everyone seemed to have great fun and pick up some different ideas. The aim is now to build on the interest that this workshop has created in both places and hopefully more competitions and events will start to be organised. At both seminars there were some promising teams who with some help should develop into some accomplished performers. All that was left for me was to make the long trip home which always feels longer as I am always looking forward to seeing my dogs.

The next couple of months will be busy with many workshops and of course Discover Dogs where I have been invited to perform a routine and give a training display in the Main Ring. As well as these displays I will also be organising the HTM training displays in the Kennel club training ring. 2007 already is getting busy with exciting events and workshops at home and abroad.

Pogo wins !!

Pogo has been gradually increasing in confidence over the summer and has been starting to take a larger part in the arena show. As I feel obedience is a very important component of a HTM dog I always aim to get their novice wins in obedience before i enter them in heelwork to music. This meant that during the summer i needed to attend as many obedience shows as I could in between the busy schedule of displays. Pogo started off well with a couple of top three places then after attending about four shows she won her first novice obedience class in June followed by a further win in July. I was very pleased to get these wins which means that all my dogs are "A" only or higher in obedience. Unfortunately due to my busy schedule I don't often get a chance to take the dogs onto the higher classes but at least these wins mean you know she is capable.

Now that the obedience was out the way we could focus on her HTM routine which I had been planning. I decided to aim her at the September show at Coventry and although I would normally wait until she was a bit older to bring her out in competition I felt that she was more than capable of doing a good routine. Being as she was entered in HTM that meant we could focus on the different heel positions rather than numerous freestyle moves. The track I choose was the Great Escape theme which I had used with Jazz many years ago but I felt it would be a nice first routine for Pogo so reinvented into a heelwork routine.

On the day of the show I was nervous to say the least as you never quite know what a young dog is going to do. Although she has been to many different venues and regularly performs in front of large audiences you never quite know what you have got until you are in the ring. Well I should not have worried, she gave lovely attention and wagged her tail throughout the performance and managed to hit the ending on time. There was about fourteen dogs in the class and Pogo scored a brilliant 29.2 out of 30 which resulted in her WINNING the novice heelwork to music.

Crufts 2006

 Well back home and recovering from a very memorable Crufts 2006 where Disco WON the Crufts freestyle competition.

It all started on the first day when i had to get to the NEC for 7am because the BBC radio Solent, who i have been involved with for the last few months were doing their breakfast show from Crufts. A few months ago the radio station held their "chance in a lifetime" competition which was held in conjunction with the Kennel Club, to find a person and dog from the south who would be trained by me to perform a Heelwork to music routine at Crufts 2006. For the last few months i have been training the chosen team, Tara and Buster a charismatic terrier x collie. Training had gone well in the last few weeks and my fingers were crossed that they would perform as they had done in the previous weeks. After the two hour breakfast show had finished i went quickly to the Good Citizen dog ring for the first of the demonstrations of the day. Each day I had been give three display slots to show how to train HTM. It's always nice to get such positive feedback after we come out the ring from the public and the interest in HTM certainly seems to be increasing every year.

The second display of the day was when Tara and Buster were to perform their routine. They started off by joining my team in the ring for a bit of a training session and then returned at the end of the display to perform their routine to a Shania Twain track. I was watching from the sideline as they strutted their stuff whilst trying to give a commentary to the radio station. The routine went well considering the time that they have had to train.

The next day started with another display in the GCD ring and then it was a quick dash to the special events ring to take part in the final of the Freestyle competition which Disco had qualified for. I had decided to revert back to doing the clown routine but made it a bit different by placing some different music at the start. Having a late running order this time I tried to keep myself occupied while the other competitors did their routines. Disco is not an easy dog to work as she can get quite distracted and is a bit nosey! As we progressed through the routine it was apparent that, what with the music and the huge crowd Disco was having trouble hearing me, so at some stages I ended up shouting the commands just so she would do it. The routine went ok and i was delighted with the scores which eventually meant that Disco had won!!!!!!

This meant that Disco was the first "other breed" to win at this level and shows that you don't need a collie to get to the higher levels in this sport. Writing this I am still feeling on a bit of a high remembering what that day was like. I have to say a big thank you to my team (Penny, Jean, Andy and Renee) who tried hard to keep me in check and not let me panic and also congratulations to the other competitors who did well.

The rest of my time at Crufts was spent doing more demos and special thanks to my teams of handlers who did such excellent displays.

Since returning home I would like to thank everyone who has sent cards and emails congratulating us on the win, they are most appreciated.

 

Finland workshops

Having met Reija when we were staying at Carolyn Scotts place in the USA i was looking forward to meeting her again in her home country. After a short plane flight compared with flying to the USA i arrived on the Thursday in Finland. On the Friday i had a few private lessons in the evening so that gave me a chance to see some of the local area. I think most of us would jealous of where Reija lives as to wake up with such stunning views of the lake and forest is great. Even at this time of the year it was beautiful but i imagine in the summer it is spectacular and rather than walking on the ice on the lake you could take a swim.

The first heelwork to music workshop on the Saturday was very busy with eighteen handlers and many spectators. I was assisted in the seminar by two members that translated what i said but sometimes i got a little carried away and spoke too much!!!! nothing unusual there i hear some people say !!

There was a wide variety of breeds, small and large plus some breeds i had not see before like the Icelandic sheepdog and the Mudi. All the dogs worked well on the first day considering for many it was there first time training their dog in this type of environment. As is normal on workshops on freestyle there was very few men the only one was a young man with a potentially talented Labrador which would have easily come home with me in my luggage!

The second day was for the more advanced dogs and the standard proved to be just that. I was very impressed with the attention and moves that were performed by the teams. This meant that i was able to push them a little bit more in their work which got me working as well!!

I had a great time in Finland and met some lovely people and thank Reija for inviting me and looking after me so fabulously while i was there. Special thanks must got to Reijas sister and Timo her husband for letting me stay in their super house in such a brilliant location. Also thanks to the interpreters on each day who worked very hard and did a fantastic job and finally of course thanks to everyone who took the time to attend the workshop