ADVANCED CLASS

Nigel Staines with Dragonheart Dark Destroyer (Zico)

Angela Williams with Dragonheart Pi

Mark Douglas with Cories Ruby Tuesday

SENIOR CLASS

Daphne Loveland with Dragonheart Tyke

Anna Braley with Woolstone Semi

The picture shows Sue Leech's Fint. Flint's very first show was the Worcester Agility Show on 21st May last year and since then he has gained 60 points toward his agility warrant. At only 22 months of age he qualified for the Adams Derby Final which is to be held at the Derby Show this year. Sue says he is a fantastic dog to own and work and she's really looking forward to working Flint this coming agility season.

Competing at Crufts this year in the ABC (Anthing but Collie) class was Daphne Loveland, from the Scottish Borders, with her red, four year old kelpie, Tyke.
Daphne has been competing in agility for eight years and Tyke is her first kelpie. She began her jumping career with two GSD crosses and - not being a collie lover -was toying with the idea of buying an Australian Cattle Dog when someone suggested: “Why not try a kelpie?”.Daphne had never heard of the breed before, but after a few enquires and a read of the Farmer’s Guardian she purchased a puppy from Will Evans of the Dragonheart Stud in Ceredigion, Wales.
Tyke is bred from some quality working dogs. His sire, Mad Max, was by Elfinvale Milton and Elfinvale Julia who were brought to the UK by Guy Mitchell , while Tyke’s dam, Owen (UK) Melbourne, has the well respected UK dog, Scoriochre Cracker as her sire. The two other kelpies to qualify for the Tatton Park final last summer - Nigel Staines’ Dragonheart Zico and Angela William’s Dragonheart Pi were from a repeat mating of Tyke’s litter.
Nigel ran a faster round at Tatton than Daphne but with one pole down, so it was Tyke - who finished in fourth place - who was invited to run at Crufts this year and Olympia in 2004 (the first 10 dogs at the Tatton final automatically qualifying for Olympia and Crufts). Daphne has qualified for the Tatton final three years running, including this summer's event.
Daphne hasn’t found Tyke to be the easiest dog to own. He has the kelpie love of barking and a very strong work instinct, which often makes him unsettled in the house, but he has a lot of character and a lovely temperament with both dogs and people.
As an agility dog Tyke proved very easy to train, which surprised Daphne who had been warned that kelpies could be difficult dogs to work with. He’s a very biddable dog that wants to please and is a real all-rounder on an agility course, not having any real difficulty with any of the obstacles. In fact Daphne, being left-handed, thinks her main problem in the ring is remembering her left from her right in time to catch the turns.
However, one big problem that has dogged Tyke’s agility career is as soon as Daphne gets in the queue at a competition Tyke becomes incredibly nervous. This is surprising considering Daphne doesn’t see herself as a particularly competitive person and says she doesn’t suffer from nerves herself, only having a desire to do a reasonable round. This nervousness began at the first two shows Tyke competed in and Daphne has no idea why as Tyke had been going to training club from the age of 16 weeks and had shown no signs of stress before this. Daphne finds Tyke runs better after a break so , for the moment, she has given up training completely and instead just works on keeping up Tyke’s fitness between shows.
Daphne found the two Crufts courses to be nice and flowing with enough difficulty to be make it a challenge and with the one really difficult obstacle being the tunnel on the second course where the dog had to pull away before going in the far end. Tyke coped with his nerves far better than Daphne had hoped in the ring on the day and came away with a very creditable seventh place on the first course and fourth on the second.
Daphne feels Tyke is calming down with age so hopefully a more relaxed, maturer Tyke will be flying the flag for the kelpie breed in the ring this summer.