Lesley, Dewy and Tedi success

At the Strictly Canine HTM Competition on the last weekend in June, Lesley had a very busy and successful day.

 Lesley and Tedi placed second in his first Novice HTM Competition.

Then competing in his first Novice Freestyle Competition - Lesley and Tedi won the class! 

Not to be overshadowed by his younger brother - Dewy then won the Advanced Freestyle Competition! 

And to finish off Lesley's super results, she was placed second with Dewy in the Advanced HTM Competition.

What a great result!  CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Thank you Strictly for the photographs.

Crufts 2016

Lesley and Dewy had a great time at Crufts this year. On Thursday they competed in the Freestyle competition gaining an 7^th place despite Lesley having to do some nimble move adaptations in order to pick up a button which came off her jacket during the Chattanooga Choo Choo routine!

On Friday they competed in the Heelwork To Music Competition gaining the 10^th place.  This is the first time that Dewy has competed at Crufts in both disciplines and Lesley is very proud of the way he coped with all the hustle and bustle of the NEC environment.  At just 4 years old he is doing so well.

New Training Hall Floor

It is 10 years since the training hall was built and it was decided that the floor was now feeling a little more than springy - so a new floor was to be laid by the Top Lodge Team

 Whoops - it was time to replace some of the floor and lay a new floor on top.

 Roger and Lesley made a start looking for any damage the night before.

 More damage!!   Too much dancing on this part of the floor!

 And then the team came to work the next day.

 All the carpet tiles needed lifting and stacking - new floor panels brought in, screwed down .....

 and then the tiles had to be relaid!

 Time for lunch!

 The final corner of floor is screwed in place.

 Nearly all done - last piece to be cut to fit!

 Perfect!!!

Well if its OK for Spice - then its perfect for the rest of the team!!

Bonsall Carnival

A super Summer's Day in Bonsall, Derbyshire where Top Lodge Dancing Dogs entertained the huge crowd from the village and surrounding areas.

After a very rainy Friday, the team had doubts about the weather, however, the forecast was good and it stayed bright and sunny all day.

Lovely to see families enjoying the day and sitting out on the grass.

The Floats arrived into the arena, led by the one carrying the Carnival Queen for 2015

The very colourful Alice In Wonderland float - whoops someone should have proof read the banners!!

The Team assembled ready to be introduced

Lesley with Tedi, Dewy and Hamish

Kath with Spice, Denby and Amber

and Karen with Midge and Fly.

First to "dance" was Kath with Spice, now the oldest performing member of the group to Michael Jackson's "Rockin' Robin".   

This is when everyone appreciates the dry ground!!  What a very happy audience.

Well done Spice!!   Enjoying every minute of her time in the arena.

Following on was Karen and her youngster Midge.   This was Midge's first public performance and she did do well.

"Dancing" to 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' by Queen, they were obviously enjoying every minute.

The audience were captivated, No one wanting to leave their front row viewing point.

Now it was time for audience participation - four volunteers to work with four of the Team's dogs.  This lady chose to work with Hamish and she soon worked out how to get him weaving at top speed.

This young lady, Laura, chose to work with Spice, luckily Spice has been weaving a number of years so she taught Laura very well!

Midge was chosen by this lady, Emma - the two of them very elegantly moving!

And finally Amber was chosen by Richard.  Amber doesn't mess around - if Richard wasn't moving his legs - then she would just barge through!!

And the Winner of the Red Rosette - HAMISH!!!!   He has certainly won more weave races than any other dog on this team!

In second place was SPICE!!!   Her handler very proud to receive the blue rosette.

Third to cross the finish line was MIDGE - she is learning so well - she will soon be moving up the places in this race!

And in 4th place was AMBER - actually her handler coped very well on the first stretch but unfortunately, he couldn't get back into the rhythm after an about turn and he ran with Amber over the finish line forgetting that Amber should have been weaving through his legs! But he was happy with his 4th rosette and did a lap of honour!

To close the performances, it was the turn of Lesley with Dewy "dancing" to 'Puttin' On The Ritz'.

Once again, thanks to the good weather the ground was dry and safe for jumps and kept the handler's costumes in good order!

Well done Dewy making it through a super routine to the final pose.

There were one or two familiar faces in the audience!  Annette Lowe, fellow Heelwork To Music Competitor, had been invited by the Carnival Committee to judge the Dog Show taking part directly after Top Lodge finished their performance time.

And Joy Lowe also came to the Carnival to watch the proceedings!!

Three Classes for Annette to judge - Waggiest Tail, Best Behaved and Best Trick!

The Best Behaved class had a run off for second place between these brothers, very nice 15 week old Spaniels

And a super little Jack Russell performing his Best Trick!

A natural on hind legs - this little Chihuahua.

And this one year old Boxer performs a Roll Over - helped carefully by his owner.

Thank you Bonsall Carnival Organisers and Committee for inviting Top Lodge Dancing Dogs to entertain at the Bonsall Carnival 2015.