Denby wins at Rugby DTC

It was Starters and Novice level competition at Rugby Dog Training Club's show - and Denby's second try at competing.  

Didn't he do well!!!  
A Second place in Novice HTM which with his win from 2 weeks ago now promotes him in the Intermediate HTM Class.  
And a WIN in Novice Freestyle on his first try competing in that division!!!

His first piece of crystal - just checking if there is anything in there!!!

What a very enthusiastic boy and a very happy owner and "dance partner" Kath.

Top Lodge Dancing Dogs invited to Chatsworth, Derbyshire

A weekend in Chatsworth Park - home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire at a Collectors Fair
The queues started to line up well before the fair was open

 - and once the gate opened  3,000 collectors were searching the huge marquees for the special collectors items of Lilliput, Border Fine Arts and Beatrix Potter

T shirts were on sales marking this date, the 30th Annual Fair

After choosing pieces from the samples on show - the collectors then queued again to make their purchases

Border Fine Arts

Very limited editions!

Thousands of Beatrix Potter Teddies

The collectors were soon laden with products

All round entertainment

Chatsworth House with visitors drawn between the Collector's Fair and visiting the wonderful gardens

A super display of Birds of Prey

And of course - Top Lodge Dancing Dogs were very involved

All  the dogs were introduced to the audience

And Kes opened the "dancing" with Karen

followed by Lesley and pup Dewy demonstrating positive training

And young Denby with Kath

The very popular weave race

And the winner on this occasion was Amber - with her lady handler!

Whilst the other "racers" were trying to master the art of hand/leg/dog co-ordination!

Spice concluded the first set with Kath and "Flying Machine"

The sun was glorious when Karen and Fly with Kath and Amber took to the "stage" with their pairs routine

Happy and bouncing Beardie Hamish with Lesley

His performance was well worth the reward of a game with his rubber stick!!!

Karen dancing with Erin - gosh the grass was almost too long!!!

A great game of "Beat Fly" with the children

Kath and Spice trying very hard to skip in the field!!!

More weaving on the second day - this time for Denby

The second race gave new challenges to the dogs and the Top Lodge handlers!!

Ready steady goooooooooooooo

Only one winning team in this race!!!  Well done Hamish and his weaving partner

But they don't give up trying!!!

Rosette time!!!!

Back to more routines - Lesley and Hamish

And another display with the birds of prey

Looks like the breeze was getting a little stronger!

And Karen with Fly "Singing In The Rain" with the breeze catching the brolly!!!

Thank you to everyone for the fabulous feedback given to all the Top Lodge Team at this wonderful event!

Kath, Spice, Amber and Denby at Little Eaton WI

Earlier this year, Kath received an invitation to talk at the Little Eaton Women's Institute Meeting on 12th September 2012.

Along with her three dogs, Spice, Amber and Spice - and with the help of her husband David, Kath "entertained" the ladies to a display of dog training.

The dogs behaved very nicely - except when Amber caught the scent of freshly made cakes!  Whoops!!!!!

But control was resumed and after a routine from Spice both Kath and David were privileged to taste a vast selection of their home made produce.

Thank you for letting Kath explain a very kind method of dog training and of course for the delicious cakes!

The Top Lodge Team at Tomlinson's

The Top Lodge Trio and their partners are also the Committee of a National HTM Club called Canine Freestyle GB - so along with promoting the sport through education and displays they also run two hugely successful and popular competitions each year at Tomlinson's Canine Centre in Markfield, Leicestershire.

Saturday was the day for all the Heelwork To Music Classes and Lesley and Hamish's first competition in Advanced Heelwork To Music class.  Well Done to both of them for a very enthusiastic performance. 

The routines are around 4 minutes long and Lesley and Hamish performed some lovely heelwork to "A Night Like This" by Cara Emerald.

Karen and Erin took part in the Intermediate Heelwork To Music Class - 

 performing with attitude to "I Was Born To Love You" by Freddie Mercury

Kath and her youngster, Denby competed for the first time in the Novice Heelwork To Music Class.  Dogs need to be 12 months of age to compete in this class.

Not always easy to decide when a dog is ready to compete, but in the last class of the day, in heat of 36 degrees, Denby worked really well and won his class performing to "Octave Stomp".

The Sunday was a day of Freestyle Classes - and Erin has recently progressed into the Advanced Class - Karen is training her in these classes until she feels the time is right to compete and maybe when Erin doesn't feel the need to kiss her so much!!  :-)

 And yes - here is the proof, Erin can work really nicely even with her feet on the floor!!

In GB dogs can be entered into the Freestyle Classes from 18 months of age.  So with Denby being 18 months and6 days old - Kath decided to gain more "ring experience" with him by training his new Freestyle routine.

 He seemed nicely focussed and eager to please.

And then it was time for Lesley and Hamish to go through their Freestyle routine - again Lesley decided to train this in the competitive atmosphere!!

Well done to the Trio of handlers - having already qualified Spice, Fly, Angus and Amber for the Crufts Semi Finals to be held in January 2013, it was good that they could put most of their efforts into having fun at this show.  Over 155 routines to get through over two days - and fabulous weather!!  Allan on camera, David on Scoreboard and Roger overseeing the Cars and Dogs outside the arena - it was a busy but well run event for all Top Lodge.