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Working Hard at Wallingford (April 24)

With Will still noticeably suffering the effects of glandular fever, it was always going to be a challenge to complete a full programme of events at the brilliantly organised Wallingford Show. With 13 rings, 3 of which were dedicated to YKC, this was by far the biggest, busiest show that Brave had ever competed at in his short agility career.

Will had 3 aims:

Get his own mind and body used to competition again
Give Brave some experience of competing at a big outdoor show (their first outdoor competition as a pair since September last year)
Compete with Rudi as part of the preparations for the World Agility Open next month

Brave was competing in YKC classes that were qualifiers for Crufts while Rudi was down to run in regular classes at Grade 7. Rudi was not not running YKC classes as they were Crufts qualifiers and Rudi will have stepped down from competetive agility by the time the next Crufts comes around.

Brave showed his inexperience and maybe some apprehension in his first run (YKC Graduate ) and was eliminated. His second run, in the TKC Jumping Cup, was much more in keeping with his potential:

This clear round was good enough for 6th place in a big class. Brave, who only recently turned 2 years old, is showing lots of promise and, more importantly, is so happy when doing his agility.

Will and Rudi ran a Grade 6-7 agility course with the excellent Natalie Grace judging. She will be one of the judges at WAO, so the chance to run one of her courses was an absolute bonus.

Rudi looked really sharp, belying the fact that he is eleven and a half! With plenty of speed and his usual reliability, Rudi was only denied a podium place by leaving the see saw a fraction of a second too early. However, in terms of Will and Rudi pairing up in competition again in preparation for WAO, it was ideal:

After one more run with Brave, which resulted in an elimination, it was clear that Will would need to end his day early as fatigue due to his illness took its toll. Will can see progress towards, if not quite completion of, all three aims for today.

Many thanks to the organisers, helpers and judges at Wallingford. It really is a super show that maintains its friendliness and support despite its scale!

Meet the Team! (March 2024)

Will and Rudi made the very long trip north over the Easter weekend for their final meet up and training session with Team Scotland before the World Agility Open. The venue was Katrina Hands’ agility centre at Finavon – many thanks to her for hosting a fantastic day and to Katrina and Alan Short for a super lunch!

The training consisted of three runs – agility, speedstakes and snooker – all courses designed and judged by the brilliant Natalie Grace who will also be a judge at the WAO in May.

After a long period with very little training or competition due to illness, Will and Rudi gathered themselves and performed accurately and steadily:

When the training was done, it was time to hand out the team kit:

It was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend that needs a few thank yous. As well as being very grateful to Kat for the great venue and Natalie for the fab courses, many thanks to Alan, Rachael and Eilidh for their organisation and to Skinners and Glendarcy for their generous sponsorship of Team Scotland.

Last, but definitely not least, a special mention for the two overnight venues used for the long weekend both in beautiful settings and with extremely friendly hosts! The Auclishie Bunkhouse and Pathhead Farm. Well worth a visit if you are staying in the Kirriemuir area!

KST – Kathryn Secures Trophy – Brave goes Grade 3!

With Will suffering another bout of glandular fever, the decision was taken for him to rest and to give Rudi a break before his Scotland trip next week.

Brave was still as keen as ever to run so Will’s fab trainer, Kathryn Stickney, was given the responsibility of handling Brave around his two runs at the local KST show.

His first run was jumping and the RAW youngster’s slight apprehension at running with a new handler (despite knowing Kathryn really well) showed as he took a detour or two off course and was eliminated.

Brave’s second run was an agility run. He needed one agility win to progress to Grade 3. A really confident run meant a clear round that put Brave and Kathryn into the lead. The anxious wait then ensued to see if they could hang on to their first place to secure the promotion to Grade 3.

The wait was worth it:

Brave was delighted with his first place trophy and promotion!

The RAW team are very grateful to Kathryn for stepping into the breach and showing her expertise to guide Brave around an agility course in a super quick time. Brave is extremely proud of his new Grade 3 status!

Brave blossoms and goes so close!

After the hullaballoo, noise and crowds of Crufts it was lovely for the RAW team to be back at a local show with South Devon DTC. Will was running Rudi and Brave today.

Rudi had two runs. After an uncharacteristic elimination in jumping, Rudi had an agility run that resulted in 10 faults due to errors entering and exiting the dogwalk early in the round.

He handled the rest of this challenging course beautifully. As the only pairing at Grade 7 to complete the course, Will & Rudi picked up the win! As always, he was pretty relaxed about his latest trophy:

Brave ran his agility course first. It was a superb round that saw the youngster complete the course in the fastest time. Just a slight timing issue on a tunnel entry denied Will and Brave the win and they had to settle for 5 faults and 3rd place. However, Will was delighted with the confidence and speed shown by Brave:

Brave also ran two jumping courses both of which resulted in 10 faults. Again, Will was so pleased by how much more confidence and speed Brave is showing with each competetive run. Here he is with a run that gave a 2nd place finish:

Many thanks to all at South Devon DTC, the judges and the ring parties for a really lovely show.

Brave is so close to making the step up to the next grade and is making progress every week. Will is quick to remember that, as a youngster, Rudi had many runs where he accrued 5 or 10 faults, then, when it did click, lots of clears, progression, trophies and titles followed. The RAW team is very hopeful that Brave can follow the same route!

Crufts 2024 – 3 Finals and another Team GB victory parade!

Day 1 (Thursday)

The first run that Will had qualified for this year was with Bossy in the YKC Jumping Cup. This was a new format where the top two in each age group in each height progress to the grand final in the main arena.

This was the first time that Bossy had appeared at Crufts and only the second time that she had set foot on an astroturf surface.

The worries that the atmosphere, the crowd or the occasion might be overwhelming for Bossy proved unfounded as she ran and listened beautifully and at speed. One error at the weaves meant 5 faults and no place in the top two.

The RAW team owe many thanks to the amazing Kate Prosser for allowing Will to run her wonderful spaniel at Crufts. Kate is also the breeder of Brave, so we have so much to thank her for!

Both Will and Kate were left with slightly mixed feelings – incredibly proud and pleased with how Bossy coped with her first run at Crufts and a little bit of ‘If only…’ but also aware that those emotions are shared by so many agility handlers on a pretty regular basis!

Huge congratulations to Amy Langman (a Team GB teammate of Will’s in 2023) and her spaniel Ollie who won the Jumping Cup after a fantastic run in the main arena.

Day 2 (Friday)

A rest day for the RAW team before Will and Rudi are back in action on Saturday and Sunday.

Day 3 (Saturday)

Will was back in action with his reliable pal, Rudi. Today was Rudi‘s last appearance in Agility Dog of the Year and Will was hoping that Rudi could go out in style with a clear round. As so often in the past, Rudi obliged. After a slightly hesitant start, Rudi completed the weaves and started to fly – he loves Crufts!

Yet another Crufts clear round was not quite quick enough for Rudi to reach the Grand Final in the main arena but maintained his fantastic record in the YKC ring – he now has 10 clear rounds in 11 runs here.

The Will & Rudi pairing have one more run in the YKC ring in the Pairs in tomorrow’s final.

The RAW pairing did have an appointment in the main arena though. After the incredible achievements of Team GB at the Junior Open Agility World Championships last year, they were rightly given a victory parade in the main arena to celebrate their record breaking medal haul.

A quick reminder of what this brilliant team achieved in 2023 (many thanks to Gavin Lyon’s for this musical montage):

Day 4 (Sunday)

The final day of Crufts 2024 marked the end of an era for the RAW Agility team. Rudi had his 14th and final agility run at the world famous show.

Today’s final was in the YKC Pairs event where Will & Rudi once again teamed up with Maryann Bayliss & Coral as they tried to defend the title they won last year.

Maryann and Coral were first to go on the agility course and they were super fast and paw perfect. This year’s pairs event featured a baton change which went equally smoothly. Rudi, after a quick start, did something that he has never previously done in all his years at Crufts – chalked up an elimination!

After missing the weave entry, Rudi was called back to have another go but took an extra jump on the way:

There was still a twist in the tale – in the pairs event, an elimination counts as 100 faults but does not rule the team out of the competition. Such was the speed that both Coral and Rudi got round the course, combined with the high number of other pairs receiving at least one elimination, Maryann and Will finished in 3rd place!

With a huge debt owed to the brilliant first leg of Maryann & Coral, Will & Rudi had scraped onto yet another Crufts podium.

So Rudi’s final Crufts is over and proved to be as enjoyable as ever. Maybe the fact that the RAW team did not not add any titles to their collection this year serves to emphasise what a fantastic record Will and Rudi have at Crufts overall in the face of quality competition:

In the YKC ring:

12 runs – 10 clear rounds, 1 round of 5 faults, 1 elimination

6 first places, 2 second places, 2 third places, 2 sixth places

Agility Dog of the Year (medium) winner, YKC jumping winner twice, YKC ABC winner, YKC Pairs winner twice and YKC Pairs overall winner

The pair also got to run in the main arena twice in the ADOTY Grand Final, once clear and once with 5 faults.

Crufts is a very special place for any dog and handler to compete – remembering that every run that Will and Rudi and all other agility pairs have there is the result of qualifying at one or multiple shows around the country during the previous 12 months.

It is always a chance for Will to catch up with many of the friends he has made in the agility community and to compete in a completely unique environment. The RAW team are very hopeful that some time in the future Will and another of his dogs have the chance to compete there again.

The Brave boy loves Lapford (Feb 24)

The RAW team were once again delighted to be able to run at the Lapford show – the last of their three indoor league meetings this winter. All three dogs, Rudi, Wizard and Brave were in action. Rudi continued his steady build up to Crufts but it was Wizard and Brave who really showed their speed particularly in the Steeplechase.

Wizard, despite crashing a pole at the second jump, still got round the course in under 20 seconds!:

In the same class, Brave managed to run even quicker! The pole cost Wizard some time, but even so this was a super run from the RAW youngster (still short of his second birthday) to win the class. The great thing is, the team feel that there is plenty of scope for Brave to go even quicker as his jumping style can be more efficient and his running style will mature:

Brave absolutely loves the Lapford trophies:

Thanks to all the team at Lapford for another lovely show and to the judges Chloe Brown and Colin Hill for lovely open, fast flowing courses.

Will works hard with the team and the Boss at Dartmoor (Feb 2024)

Will was once again in action running four dogs at Dartmoor. He had 12 runs in total and although there were no wins this week, the key was to keep building connections with Bossy, confidence and experience with Brave and preparation for Crufts with Rudi.

The highlights – Will and Bossy had 3 super quick runs. They all resulted in eliminations this week, but the partnership is bonding well in preparation for Crufts next month and the effort to move up grades in the coming months. An example of the speed and cohesion came in one of their jumping runs. The elimination came as Bossy took the wrong end of the tunnel, but the rest was very impressive:

Brave showed more confidence in the indoor arena and is deceptively quick. The highlight was probably his agility round where his only error was to miss the weaves on his first attempt – this was a tricky course for Grade 1-2 dogs and, even with 5 faults, Brave finished in 3rd place:

Rudi ran as reliably as ever – a steady jumping round was clear. A really nippy agility run was a second quicker than the winner and only a single pole denied Rudi a great win on a really challenging, cleverly designed course:

RAW 4 are loving it local at KST (Jan 2024)

All three of the RAW dogs at the January version of the show organised by Will’s trainer, Kathryn Stickney and Will was also able to team up with Bossy again for the first time since September.

Will and Bossy had two runs together as they looked to reform the bond that saw them do so well as a partnership through the summer of last year. The pair were eliminated in both runs but there was plenty of promise given how long since they last worked together. The pair have plans for more competition and plenty of training to get the timing and cohesion back in sync for their Crufts appearance in under 6 weeks.

Rudi continued his own build up to Crufts with a lovely clear round in agility that was good enough for second place, just 0.6 seconds behind the winner:

Wizard again showed he is becoming more relaxed and less anxious in competition. The clear round still eludes the RAW speedster but his enjoyment and pace are evident. In the jumping round, despite a refusal at the weaves and time lost running past a jump (meaning 10 faults) his time was still 2 seconds ahead of the winner:

Will and Brave’s partnership continues to develop and their two runs showed how the RAW youngster is growing in confidence. Brave’s remaining anxiety seems to be with weaves, especially at indoor venues. As he gains more experience both in competition and training, we hope it is only a matter of time before Brave puts in perfect rounds in indoor competition.

The increase in his speed and general enjoyment in what he does was clear in his two runs – 5 faults in jumping (weaves) and 10 faults in agility (weaves and running past the dog walk):

Many thanks to Kathryn for a really well organised, friendly show and all the helpers. Thanks too to the judges, Pete Kelland and Kate Ross-Smith for lovely open, flowing courses in both rings all day.

Consistency, a bit of magic and monkeys at Lapford (Jan 2024)

All three of the RAW dogs were in action at one of the team’s local shows hosted by Lapford DAC, with Rudi, Wizard and Brave all running Agility, Jumping and Steeplechase courses.

We’ll start with Wizard. Even though he didn’t get a clear round, he deserves so much praise. He ran with confidence, yipping as he went, and even barked with excitement while waiting to run. This is a new side to Wizard whose anxieties at shows have probably stopped him achieving what his speed and skills deserve. Here are two of his runs – 10 faults in agility and an elimination in steeplechase right near the end:

The whole team are hopeful that this is a sign that Wizard is turning a corner and can develop enough confidence to start to fulfil his undoubted potential.

Brave had a mixed day that finished on a high. After two eliminations where he again showed some nerves about running indoors, his last run was in the steeplechase. After being coaxed into the ring, Brave took off and ran a nice clear to take first place:

Brave was delighted that the trophy was a cuddly monkey that was an instant favourite for the RAW team’s own little monkey:

Rudi showed how consistent he is in all circumstances. Will and Rudi were running together in competition for the first time this year and had only had two competetive runs as a pair in the last couple of months.

Rudi was slightly distracted by horsey smells in one ring, but still managed to run three clear rounds out of three which included a second place in agility and third place in jumping:

In the last three years Will and Rudi have used the January Lapford show as the start of their preparations for Crufts, so today’s show was a great start to that build up. The focus at Lapford was on clear rounds, with a view to building up speed in the coming weeks.

Brave continues to improve at Pawsability (Jan 2024)

With no Grade 7 classes available at the super Pawsability show, the focus was very much on Brave and Wizard. Brave continued to show fantastic progress in another new environment and achieved two podium places in his four runs.

In Grade 1-3 Jumping he went clear despite something distracting him part way through the run – we think it may have been a large mirror that appealed to his vanity!

Brave was only beaten by good friends in Kim Holness and Bee and they were happy to pose on the podium together!

Brave’s last run of the day was in the Grade 1-3 Agility and, despite the RAW youngster showing some signs of tiredness at the end of a long weekend, Brave put in a super clear round:

This was good enough for 3rd place in a class of over 60 entries. Brave is still a couple of months short of his second birthday so Will is really excited about Brave’s undoubted potential.

Must be close to Crufts now…put your shirt on it!

It’s that time of year when the RAW team start to think about Crufts and this is usually prompted when the shirts arrive! Many thanks to Young Guns Sports for their help in designing and producing this year’s shirts.

It must have been the week for new kits as the day after, Will got the first peek at the Scotland kit for The FitPaws World Agility Open Championships 2024! Thank you to Skinners for supporting Team Scotland again