Brave Blossoms at Crufts 2026!
Brave had to live up to his name at his very first Crufts appearance. Will is an old hand at this, having previously competed at Crufts with three other dogs and racked up 7 YKC titles with Rudi in the process.
However, for a young, inexperienced dog having to deal with the crowds, noise and atmosphere that is unique to this setting, it can be a daunting time.
Will and Brave had only entered one YKC qualifying event during the past year – Agility Dog of the Year – and had won it to make the semi final. One agility run in the medium dog 18-24 year old handler category. Only the top two would qualify for a place in the final in the main arena. So the requirement for Brave was a fast clear round in his very first run at Crufts:
Brave’s fantastic run gave our pair 2nd place, just behind the GB international pairing of Jamie Wright and Dexter. So, in his first year at Crufts, Brave would be running on the world famous green carpet in the Crufts main arena – something that some handlers don’t achieve in their entire career.
The ADOTY final combines all age groups and all heights. This does make it very difficult for small and medium dogs as they run the same course as larger dogs who, at the top level, tend to be quicker. All that Will and Brave could do was to go for it!
Two views of this run. The first with commentary from Jim Rosenthal and Graham Partridge (Click on picture to see video):
This view from the stands with arena commentary:
Another beautiful faultless run in front of an audience of around 7000! You can see just how much Brave loves his agility and Will. This lovely run put Will and Brave into the lead, but there were still 14 larger dogs to run.
Their final position of 5th place was a fantastic achievement and bettered any result that Will had gained in previous finals with Aston and Rudi and shows that, whatever the environment, Brave can deal with it.
He is rightly proud:
Scroll through the pages below to see more pictures and videos of Will, Rudi, Aston and Bossy competing at Crufts in other years.
willbacchus.com 