Coping with the Cold at Kernow (April 26)
Will, Brave and Bossy were in action in Cornwall – lovely to have a local show after the hours of travel in the past few weeks and to come in the next few.
Will was only running at Kernow on one day, primarily to compete in the RKC Stakes – a high profile competition with the final on TV at the International Horse Show.
Brave started with a G6-7 jumping course as a warm up. The weather was very cold and the conditions a little slippery, so Will went quickly, but not quite full speed!:
A nice, steady clear round was a good start and gave Will and Brave 3rd place.
Then, on to the RKC Stakes. A single agility round that would see the top five dogs qualify for the semi-final at KCI in August. After last week’s reunion, Will and Bossy were again running together. This week’s run was much more controlled and only a mistake before the weaves gave our pair an elimination. The rest of the run looked very good:
An E is always slightly disappointing, but the way the pair connected is very encouraging for Champ runs in coming weeks!
The final run of the day was in the Stakes with Brave. The wind had picked up and Brave followed the route of many other dogs in missing the dogwalk contact very early in the course. Other than that, Brave put in a sterling performance in difficult conditions.
The 5 faults meant a top 5 place was out of reach, but, again, Will and Brave looked very at home competing at the very highest level.
Next week, it’s back to Champ action in Wales!
Wyre Champ – Brave makes his first Champ final in style! (March 26)
Will travelled with Brave and, after a long break, Bossy, up to Preston for the Wyre Championship show.
A champ show consists of a jumping round and an agility round. The results are combined and a maximum of the top 20 dogs qualify for the agility final as long as neither round was an elimination. The winner of each qualifying round also gets a place in the final.
Bossy was her usual wonderful, speedy self but was drawn to take tunnels that were not supposed to be taken! The excitement of running again with Will did cause some lapses of concentration but also showed her range of skills.
The Champ jumping course showed this perfectly:
Hopefully, as the summer progresses and Will and Bossy get to know each other again, the consistency of previous seasons will return.
Brave was competing in only his second Champ show and excelled! His first run was the jumping round:
In a field of around 100 top grade dogs, Brave went clear and quick enough to finish in 3rd place.
So, if Will and Brave could avoid elimination in the agility round, there was an excellent chance they would qualify for the final.
Will’s speed of thought and Brave’s super reaction to follow the directions saved the run from an elimination. The pair got around the course with 5 faults and finished in 13th.
When the results were combined, our pair were in second place overall – a fantastic achievement!
Only 17 pairs made it through to the final round. The final is run in reverse order of the combined results meaning Will and Brave had a running order of 16 – the penultimate team to run.
After a stunning clear run by Liz Carpenter and Maggie earlier in the final, Will and Brave had to be very fast and clear:
This brilliant round was clear until the penultimate obstacle where Brave missed his dogwalk contact and picked up 5 faults. Without the faults, the time was quick enough for second place and a ‘reserve ticket’.
This was a long day for Brave with the final not being run until 7.30pm and he coped so well at the highest level. Will wasn’t disappointed with what could have been, but rather delighted with how Brave had performed and what is to come for the rest of this year.
KC Stakes next week and several more Champ shows in the coming months for Brave and Bossy.
Many thanks to judge Hannah Banks for some great courses, the team at Wyre for a high quality show and congratulations to Liz Carpenter for her win.
More traps than a Rentokil van…Team GB tryouts (March 26)
The final weekend of tryouts for Team GB saw Will & Brave take on 5 challenging courses over the weekend. Our pair performed better than the first weekend, but again were so close to a number of fantastic runs without getting the clear rounds they would have wanted.
Day 1 started with a jumping round, then an agility round:
The top 25% of finishers in each round gained a competitive entry into the final run of the day – the agility final. But, the round had to be clear. So, despite finishing 5th in the agility round with 5 faults, Will & Brave would be running ‘not for competition’ (NFC) in the final.
Such was the level of challenge of the courses, only one pairing were eligible for a competitive run in the final. Will and Brave put in their best run of the weekend on this agility course.
A highly technical course presented the highest level of challenge and only a fault on the A Frame prevented our pair from completing a perfect run and winning the class. Still, a second place finish on this course in this competition represents a huge achievement:
Just two runs on Day 2. A jumping round, where the team picked up 5 faults on a missed weave entry and then an agonizing elimination in the agility final towards the very end of the course when Will inadvertently guided Brave round the wrong side of a jump:
So, a weekend of the highest quality of speed and agility from Will and Brave but no clear rounds. The tiniest of errors in each round proved costly, but this is the nature of agility at the very highest level.
Will and Brave dealt with the most challenging of courses so well and did not look out of place in such exalted company. The next few months give our pair the chance to continue competing at the highest level in Championship classes and Crufts qualifiers – so much to look forward to!
Many thanks to Greg Derrett and his team for a superbly organised and efficiently run event and to the brilliant helpers at Dog Sports Derby.
Finally, huge congratulations to all those that made it onto Team GB for this year.
Brave’s Champ debut at Tunbridge Wells (March 26)
Will and Brave left the excitement of their Crufts exploits and the noise of the main arena to travel down to Kent ready for Brave’s first ever appearance at Championship level at the Tunbridge Wells DTC Show.
Champ shows are only open to dogs competing at the highest grade (Grade 7) and always consist of two qualifying rounds – one jumping and one agility. The winners of each round and the top 20 pairs without an elimination qualify for the Champ final. The winners of the final get a Championship ‘ticket’ which gives them a place in the Crufts championship for 2027. Three tickets (earned under three different judges) and the dog is awarded ‘Agility Champion’ status – the ultimate domestic accolade.
So, the competition is extremely tough. The main aim of today was to see if Brave would be able to deal with the level of difficulty in this and future championship events.
The first run was jumping:
Just one pole down from Brave in an otherwise lovely run. But Will made an error right at the end, guiding Brave over the last jump before he had had taken the penultimate jump meaning an elimination.
Will can be forgiven this mistake – he handled perfectly yesterday at Crufts and for all bar the very end of this course.
That elimination meant Will and Brave had to go all out to win the agility round as the only way to progress to the final. The real push the pair gave the course meant Brave missed his dog walk contact so could not win the round to qualify.
Will was kicking himself as, without his error in the first run, the pair would have qualified for the final where all previous faults and times are discarded for a one round run off.
Two important aspects were learnt at Tunbridge:
i) Even the very best handlers can make a mistake! Will has been so consistent over the years from the smallest domestic show, to the main arena at Crufts to representing Team GB. He is even more determined to work to get Brave into champ finals in the future. To even be competing at this level is a huge achievement for this young team.
ii) Brave can clearly cope at this level and will reach Champ finals this year and, hopefully, for years to come
Next week – the final Team GB tryouts in Derby!
Brave Blossoms at Crufts! (March 26)
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:
It’s nearly time…!
Just a few hours before Crufts 2026 opens its doors.
Will is an old hand after his very successful NEC exploits with Rudi and Aston over the last 10 years but Crufts 2026 will be Brave’s very first appearance at Crufts.
Shirt ready (many thanks again to Young Guns Sports for their shirt design) and tickets ready:
Brave seems pretty chilled at the moment!
Super Slovakia – Game of Judges (Feb 26)
An exciting month was rounded off in the best way as Will travelled out to Slovakia to attend the international agility judging seminar ‘Game of Judges’ in Bratislava.
A whole host of international judges met to discuss the latest knowledge, trends, possible rule amendments and share outstanding practice on course design.
Following a day of discussion and getting to know international colleagues, the attendees then had the pleasure of judging and helping at an agility competition where some of their course plans could be tried out.
Just as importantly, it was a chance for Will to catch up with friends in Slovakia that he had got to know through a number of international competitions – Junior Open Agility World Championships and World Agility Open over multiple years.
Special thanks to Eliška Ondrašova and her brilliant family for providing Will with accommodation and entertainment during his stay. They are welcome on a return visit at any time!
As a fantastic bonus, Eliska and Tinka secured overall 3rd place at the competition:
A final thanks to the organisers of this brilliant event and to Jonathan Hallam who provided support as the other British judge at the event.
An all round fantastic experience for Will to visit a new country, attend his first ice hockey match and develop his knowledge of agility judging and course design in the company of some of the world’s best.
Speed, Near Misses and Crash Drama at Team GB Tryouts! (Feb 26)
Will & Brave were competing for the first time at the Team GB Final tryouts. The tryouts are over two weekends with a total of 10 runs to make a positive impression.
Day 1 saw a jumping round and an agility round, the results of which were combined to produce the running order for the agility final:
The courses were really cleverly designed to produces challenges at every obstacle – the slightest loss of connection or mistiming of a cue (or spaniel tunnel magnetism) can lead to faults or elimination. The weekend certainly provided the hardest set of courses that Brave has ever run and his inexperience and excitement in the tense atmosphere led to small errors on each course.
Day 2 was no less daunting. A jumping run and an agility run with results combined for an overall winner:
The spectacular dogwalk crash caused no harm to Brave – after slipping on the up-plank from a difficult entry line, Brave took the option to jump and land safely rather than fall and the repeated dogwalk and rest of the course showed he was ok and happy!
So, in terms the results on incredibly difficult courses, not the best weekend our pair have ever had, but their level of performance and speed is a real positive. One or two slight errors on each course prove absolutely crucial at this level.
Will & Brave will be back at the second weekend of tryouts in the middle of March with the chance to reflect on this experience after more training, a Crufts experience and Will and Brave’s first Championship show – the top level has well and truly arrived for RAW Agility’s youngest spaniel!
Many thanks to Greg Derrett, judge Jason Bartram and all the team of helpers at Dog Sports Derby for another superbly organised event with exciting and challenging courses all weekend.
Pair qualify for final Team GB Tryouts! (Jan 26)
After a mammoth nine and a half hour journey (thanks to a major incident on the M5) the team got to Dog Sports Derby for the Team GB Open Showcase – the first stage of qualification to try to win a place in the team for this year’s European Open (EO) and Agility World Championships (AWC)
The EO will be held in Fontainebleau, France and the AWC in Turku, Finland.
The day gave our pair just two runs – one jumping and one agility. Winning a class does not guarantee a place in the next stage as there was also the need for speed – at least 6 m/s in Jumping and 5.85 m/s in Agility. Lots of other factors came into play for the manager Greg Derrett to make a decision on who went through.
First up was the jumping round. One tiny lack of connection led to an elimination for Will and Brave, but lots of speed and skills were in evidence:
The courses here also had a halfway split and Brave’s split time, before the elimination, gave an average speed to that point of 6.53 m/s – so certainly quick enough.
The final run for the RAW pair was the agility round. Again, it was quick with lots of skills on display but with one small error – Brave took the wrong side of the jump after the A-Frame – leading to a second elimination:
So Will had to contend with the mixed emotions of the disappointment of two ‘nearly’ rounds but the delight in how well his young dog had coped with such challenging courses at high speed.
Such was the difficulty of the courses that only one dog got around the jumping course, and only three completed the agility course without elimination and in all cases, were below the speed required to automatically go through.
It was then a waiting game for Will and Brave to see if they had shown enough in their runs to be considered for the next stage. Two days later, they received an email:
They had made it through to the final stages! In mid February and again in mid March they will be heading back to Derby for the final tryouts. This is a huge achievement already for a young handler and young dog to be competing for a place in Team GB with the very best pairings in the country.
Thanks to Greg Derrett, judge Natalie Webb and all the team of helpers for a high quality, smoothly run event.
Brave wins at KST (Jan 26)
The day after their exploits at Agility Base, Will and Brave were competing much closer to home at the January KST show. The pair managed to rack up a win with a nice steady clear in the jumping round:
As always, a big thank you to the judges and the ring party at this lovely, friendly local show.
Continental Chaos at Agility Base (Jan 26)
Will and Brave took part in a Run Continental! event at Agility Base to get the chance to experience international style course running judged under FCI rules as more preparation for the Team GB showcase event – the first stage of tryouts – next week.
The courses were designed by 2026 AWC judge Cedric Bargoin and judged by Ian Law.
The pair’s first two runs showed they are up for the challenge of fast flowing courses. Starting with a clear jumping round that remained faultless despite Will’s laces coming undone as he reached top speed around the course:
The pair then took on an agility course without any dramas and absolutely nailed it!:
Despite picking up an elimination in their third and final run, the purpose of the day had been served – a super experience to try out World Championship level and style of courses and with some level of success.
Thanks to the team, judges and helpers at Agility Base for a really useful, enjoyable day!
Brave flies at Iconix (Jan 26)
Will and Brave headed to the Dog Sports Derby arena for the Iconix Zero Degrees weekend. They wanted to test themselves on high quality courses from top European judges to see if they were ready to have a go at the Team GB Showcase in two weeks.
The tryouts will be at the same venue, same astro surface on similar courses. There was only one way to run these courses – attack at speed at the highest level!
The first day consisted of three runs – an agility, a jumping and a final. Every pairing got to run in the final, but their final run would only be marked as a competitive run if they had avoided an elimination in at least one of the first two.
Will and Brave picked up two eliminations so their final run could not be a winning run, but the point of the weekend was to see how well they could compete at this level so they absolutely went for it:
A leap on the dog walk denied our pair a clear round, but just 5 faults was enough to be the best run of the final. The only other pair to get round this extremely challenging course had more faults and a slower time, but had one qualifying run earlier in the day meaning they took the title.
In recognition of their final run, Will and Brave were awarded 2nd place – many thanks to Neil Ellis and the team for this kind gesture!
Day 2 worked differently. The first run, a jumping round, was to be used as a warm up run. They were followed by a second jumping run and an agility run that would be combined to give the overall placings.
The best run of the weekend was this stunning clear round:
Incredibly, given the quality of the field, Will and Brave were the only pair to get around the course, and they were fast and clear!
With more than half an eye on the tryouts in a fortnight, clear rounds are great, but they also have to be achieved at a good speed. Brave completed the course at an average speed of 6.2 metres per second.
Winning this round meant two things; Will and Brave would run last in the final round as it would be run in reverse order of placings from the first run and they were the only pair that could win the medium height competition if they could get round the last course without an elimination.
The challenging agility course could only be attacked at speed. Trying to play it safe was not an option!:
The RAW pair showed no sign of nerves despite having to wait to the very end and they sped through the first three-quarters of the course in control. The slight mistake put an end to their hopes of a clear round as Brave took the wrong side of 17 and was eliminated.
You can see from Will’s reaction that despite the ‘E’, he is so happy with Brave’s performance this weekend. As for Brave, he always looks happy doing agility!
The outcome of the weekend is that Will and Brave are able to compete at this level of difficulty with more than enough speed to at least give the Team GB tryouts a go. Brave is still very young, so the experience of the tryouts, without expectations, means it is worth having a go.
Many thanks to Neil, judges and the support team for a fantastic weekend on some the best courses!
Brave prepares for the year at BAC ABC (Jan 26)
Will and Brave travelled once again up to Warwickshire for the British Agility ABC (Anything But Collies) Challenge.
The event consisted of three classes – steeplechase, agility and jumping rounds – with the overall winner being decided by combining all three runs.
After a disappointing elimination in the steeplechase round, Brave really upped his game in his agility run:
This speedy clear was enough to give the RAW pair a 3rd place finish. The slight deviation to the see-saw cost the time that would have seen them finish even higher given how close the timings were:
Will took heart from this – Brave is consistently showing he has the speed and skills to compete at the highest level.
The team’s last run was also up with the quickest, but just 5 faults due to a refusal meant Will & Brave finished just outside the top 10.
A great opening to the year – many thanks to the team and the judges at BAC!
Hall of Famers! (Dec 25)
The brilliant Agility Net publishes its Hall of Fame at the end of every year to celebrate all those agility dogs that have ‘graded up’.
Will and Brave were present and the simple listing of Grade 5, Grade 6 and Grade 7 gives a small hint as to how much progress the RAW pair have made in the last 12 months:
For a full story of everything RAW Agility achieved in 2025 you can visit the 2025 Highlights page.
Brave finishes the year on top at KST (Dec 25)
The last competition of the year for Will and Brave was at the local KST show organised by Will’s trainer, Kathryn Stickney.
Just two runs today, one jumping, one agility. After a couple of refusals in their jumping round (that was still good enough to finish second), our pair finished 2025 with a smooth clear round in an agility course set by championship judge Hilary Poole:
This was good enough to give our pair a deserved win in their last competitive run of 2025:
Brave was rightly proud of his achievements!:
Many thanks to Kathryn, the judges Hilary Poole and Heidi Vague and all of the organisers and helpers for making the show run so smoothly.
Training with Dalton Meredith – Brave is flying! (Dec 25)
Will and Brave had the pleasure of taking part in a training session run by World and European championship winner Dalton Meredith.
Dalton set a monster 24 obstacle course and after working through options for each stage of the course, our pair were ready to give it a go. Little Brave was fully up to take on every challenge the course presented at top speed:
Last judging of 2025 – Lovely Lapford (Dec 25)
Will’s final judging appointment of the year was at the first of the Lapford League shows. As always, this lovely local show proved to be a lot of fun, super friendly with some high quality handling skills on display.
As always, Will designed fast, flowing courses that provided some interesting challenges!
First up was G1-3 Jumping:
This was followed by G4-7 jumping which provided lots of crowd noises and ‘ooh-ah’ moments!:
Will’s judging was rounded off with a super fast G1-3 steeplechase:
Thanks to everyone at Lapford Dog Club for their help and kindness and ring support – what a super show!
Will & Brave up with the best at British Agility Championships (Nov 25)
What a weekend for Will and Brave. They were competing for the first time at the British Agility Championships at the magnificent Onley Grounds Equestrian Centre.
Brave normally competes as a medium dog jumping over poles set at 400mm height. As this was being run under rules of the World Agility Open, he is small enough to be allowed to jump at 300mm height. The competition was still incredibly tough with really enjoyable, challenging courses being set by excellent judges including Roman Lukac (Slovakia), Pau Serrano Ciratusa (Spain) and Simon Brenca (Switzerland).
The Championships consist initially of 4 rounds – two jumping and two agility. Points are awarded according to position and after 4 rounds, the top 15 pairings in the league qualify for the grand final (as long as they have no more than one elimination over the four rounds).
For a dog brand new to Grade 7 in an imposing indoor venue and top-level courses, this was going to be a challenge for Brave. The first run was a jumping round:
This was the perfect start with the pair fast, in sync and happy. This gave the pair second place in very exalted company. They were only bettered in this class by Louise Godwin and Drift. To put this in context, Louise and Drift are the current World and European Champions!
The next run was an agility round in the main arena:
Another rapid round with just 5 faults for the weave entry gave Will and Brave 5th place – two top 5 finishes in such exalted company!
The next run was their second jumping round. Again it was quick and exciting:
Another clear round gave our pair a fourth place finish and (amazingly!) guaranteed them a place in the Grand Final before they had even run the final qualifying round. But, Will was determined to maintain the high standards he and Brave had set so far and gave it everything in the fourth run – an agility round:
Another clear round with some last second saves by both Will and Brave (which also fooled the camera operator at one point!). This time an 8th place finish meant the RAW pair had finished in the top 8 in every round, qualified for the Grand Final and most impressively topped the league table:
Will and Brave, over four rounds at the highest level had shown super consistency and finished ahead of the current world and European champion and a host of experienced international pairings. This wonderful qualifying series of runs meant Will and Brave would run last in the Grand Final.
Such was the difficulty of the courses, only 12 pairs qualified for the final, the rest having more than one elimination. The pressure of the occasion and having to wait to the very end didn’t seem to affect Will or Brave who absolutely rose to the occasion.
Louise and Drift ran directly before our pair and put in a stunning clear round befitting their World Champion status, so Will and Brave had to go for it at top speed, taking risks as they went – they were not going to settle for a comfortable top 5 finish, they wanted the win!:
With an elimination close to the end, the final win eluded Will and Brave but they were far from downhearted. Brave had an absolute ball and seemed to enjoy every second of every run. Will was delighted with the performance of his little spaniel that showed the pair can absolutely compete at the very highest level with the best in the country in the coming year. So much to look forward to!
willbacchus.com 