I started agility in 2009 when I was 14 years old with my nan’s jack russel terrier Maude, she was not the most enthusiastic of dogs but she did great for a lap dog come agility dog! She taught me a lot of patience and persistence however Maude’s main lesson to me was the importance of reward based training an structure!
Then 2010 in comes Sassy! My most amazing girl! My first proper agility dog and what a first proper dog she was to! Words cannot describe how proud I am of what me and Sassy achieved together in agility and the bond we have at home, Sassy was bought from a breed/show ring line with working trails dogs in the pedigree too, I was always planning to breed show Sassy but when her ears never left to top of her head we had to find another full time game to play together and that’s really how the agility addiction started!
Then along came little Flair in 2014 the most beautiful yet strangest of puppies my first dog ‘bred for agility’. Flair was a massive learning curve for me, very highly strung brain, very unconfident and so many little mental quirks which made our relationship quite difficult for some time, as soon as I learnt to understand how her brain worked and ticked we began to progress very quickly together and started creating that bond I had always wanted in and out of agility.
Unfortunately although Flair was doing amazing and her confidence was going from strength to strength I was very unhappy with the way she was jumping still, until this time we were putting her slightly odd style down to lack of confidence and understanding but when it wasn’t getting any better I decided to take Flairy out of agility and have some investigations done on her, this showed some dehydration in the spine and that was that for agility now Flairy enjoys a great life being a ‘normal’ dog with her best friend Flashy (Martins eldest boy).
Lemon is 6 years old and yet again I have been blessed with another heart dog, I knew from the moment I planned her and then saw her for the first time that she would be perfect and she really is perfect to me.
“As soon as I saw you, I knew an adventure was about to happen” – Winnie the Pooh
Lemon has been an incredible dog so far in her short time competing, she is an Agility Champion, she has won the British Open event at Crufts 2020, she's the youngest ever large dog to win a Champion certificate at 2 years and 4 months, at just 3 years old she was selected to represent Great Britain at the European Open Championships where she gained a 4th place, she also competed at the FCI World Championships where she was part of the Bronze medal winning team .
And now little Banana, the baby of the group she is now 2 years old at the time of writing this, another that I feel truly lucky to own <3 She has recently won into Grade 5 here in the UK and we have qualified for the Novice Crufts Semi Final at the Kennel Club International Festival, we continue to work hard and have fun on the long climb to Grade 7.
List of achievements -
8 Championship Ticket Wins.
Qualified for and competed at Olympia 5 times.
Qualified for and competed at Crufts 7 times.
Winner of Crufts singles event 2016 - Sassy.
Winner of the British Open event at Crufts 2020 - Lemon.
3rd place Crufts Championship Final 2019 - Lemon.
Winner of the morning semi final at Olympia Novice 2018 - Lemon.
5th place at the FCI World Championships Italy 2015 - Sassy.
4th place at European Open Championships agility round Netherlands 2019 - Lemon.
Team Bronze medal at the FCI World Championships Finland 2019 - Lemon.
Team Great Britain squad member 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022.
Represented Great Britain at the FCI agility World Championships in Italy 2015, Spain 2016, Czech Republic 2017 and Finland 2019.
Represented Great Britain at the European Open Championships in Germany 2015, Italy 2017, Netherlands 2019.
Represented England at the World Agility Open Championships in Holland 2015.
Winner of the Agility Stakes Semi-Final and Final 2021 held at London International Horse Show - Lemon.
3rd place in the Crufts Singles Final 2022 - Lemon.
2nd place in the International Final at Crufts 2022 - Lemon.
3rd place in the Championship Final at Crufts 2022 - Lemon.
