By Hilary Holley
CSJ jointly sponsored the South and South West Inter Regional Obedience team competing at Crufts by supplying bags of All Rounder to the dogs.
The competition is made up of 7 teams from all over the UK. The individual teams are made up of 1 Beginner 2 Novice 2 ‘A’ 1’B’ 1’C’ and a reserve dog, you are only allowed 2 Border collies in the team so it showcases how other breeds can compete in obedience.
Our team was made up of 2 collies 1 labrador 1 schnauzer 1 cocker 1 retriever 1 jack russell x and a pom.
We have a try out day where you come along and work your dog in whichever class they are eligible for and you are selected on how you and the dog cope on the day and also your results throughout the obedience season. My black lab was lucky enough to be selected to work A, it’s his 3rd time competing at Crufts in the team.
Crufts day started at 3.30am when the alarm went off, we left at 4.30 as we needed to be in Crufts by 7am.
It is quite different from showing as we all have our benches decorated with toys good luck cards comfy beds etc. There is also a fabulous atmosphere around the benches and a real team spirit
It is the most amazing day and from my own experience I was very proud to be selected. Another achievement was the C dog Lucy. I bred her so was very proud of her as well.
It starts with a parade where the whole team walk around the arena showing off our dogs, we all looked very smart with matching jackets for us coats dog toys and leads for the dogs.
The competition starts at 9am with the Beginners, it is quite a difficult atmosphere for dogs to work in it’s very noisy but most of the dogs coped well.
The only dogs placed in our team was my Labrador Darcy who came 2nd in A and Harvey the schnauzer who was joint 4th. At lot of our dogs came 5th but places at Crufts only go to 4th.
My boy was so tired we arrived home at 8.15pm such a long day for him (and me)
Thank you very much to Ceri for giving us the bags of dog food – a lovely gesture.
