By Mark Laker
The Agility Team GB Coaching Team have just held this years Performance Weekend, the final part of the process we go through to identify the top dogs and handlers for this years international competitions. I’m pleased to say it all went very well.
This competition attracted over 100 agility competitors and the 50+ handlers in this years squad. These were all handlers interested in Team GB and wanted to compete on a typical international course designed and judged by an European judge. This year Ander Virtanen from Finland judged for us. Anders set some fantastic courses all designed to test the speed and accuracy of the dogs & handlers. This is essential for us as these are the type of courses we can expect in Europe the year.
The 2016 teams have now been selected
This can be both one of the most enjoyable parts of my role as Team Manager and one of the most challenging; thankfully the selection process involves all seven of the coaching team so the workload is shared.The work now begins to prepare these handlers for their competitions later in the year.
Meanwhile at home our dogs are all looking fit and ready for the agility season ahead. Karen has been very disciplined about implementing our daily fitness routine for both dogs and us! And while this is not too onerous, doing it daily makes steady incremental improvements. I firmly believe that a good exercise routine, a healthy diet (especially the dogs) and plenty of rest and recovery time is a well proven recipe for performance improvements.
