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.
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 