One person's trash...

This is the story of a little Cockerpoo called Neva, who was thrown away at 14 weeks old and dumped into rescue at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home. She was a little bundle of energy just looking for someone to love. She went into foster with a very kind lady called Ali Taylor who showed her love and care. Neva, who was known as Daisy back then, only spent a short time with Ali before she met Amy Bennett and her family. Now Neva is two times IFCS World Champion.

When we first enquired about Daisy, we were looking for a medium-sized crossed breed to give a home. From the moment we saw her, we fell in love. This tiny, crazy, happy, full of life and love puppy stole our hearts, and we have never looked back.

Within a few hours of having her, we decided that Daisy just wasn't the name for her. She needed a bolder, more unique name to suit her crazily cute personality. The name Nevaeh came to mind which is heaven spelled backwards. It was quickly shortened to Neva for easy recalls.

As Neva grew up and started training, it quickly came to light that she was 1) going to stay small and 2) be quite fast. Training her wasn't easy as she just wanted to run as fast as she could and listening to turns wasn't really in her vocabulary. But she was having the time of life learning to run fast over jumps and into tunnels.

As her training progressed, we moved onto contacts. She showed great understanding of the dogwalk and A-frame, but she was petrified of the seesaw. Even a millimetre of movement would set us back months. I wasn't sure if I was ever going to get her to do a seesaw but, with encouragement and help from friends, I tried different methods and we finally managed to train a full seesaw as she reached two years old. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to teach any dog.

Moving up
Neva competed in her first agility class in July 2018. By August 2018, she had quickly won out of G3 and in 2019 she won out of Grade 4 and 5. She finished the year in Grade 6, making her way on to Team England for World Agility Open Championship in 2020 which unfortunately was cancelled due to Covid 19. We managed a few shows in 2020 where she achieved four Grade 6 wins. Her final Grade 6 win was in early spring of 2021. She ran in a few Championship classes in 2021 and won a place on the 2022 IFCS World Championship Team for Great Britain.

She got to meet with her foster mum again at Crufts 2022 where she had a ball racing around the Main Ring, doing the rescue dog display and getting used to the atmosphere hopefully for future years competing. She loved all the attention and stole the heart of every single person she met including Clare Balding. She even managed to get an interview on Channel 4.

What a week it was!
Now Neva is five years old, and we have recently returned from her first international trip representing Team GB at the IFCS World Agility Championships in The Netherlands We competed against nine different countries over five days. She was incredible in every run. She did some big and incredibly testing courses, winning three rounds, with Gold in individual Agility. She also won both the Jumping and Agility rounds of the Biathlon, giving her Gold Overall and making her two times World Champion.

With the passing of The Queen, I've felt even more emotional, proud and honoured to have been able to sing the national anthem whilst standing on the podium with my little Neva, representing our country.

Neva, I am so so lucky to have you in my life. You are the most amazing, crazy little thing. You started life as one person's trash and are now one family's treasure.

About the author...
Amy Bennett has been training dogs since she was six years old when she started to train her mum's Border Collie in obedience. She started to compete at the age of seven years old and went to Crufts for the first time in 1999 when she was 12 years old in the KCJO (now YKC.)

She got her very first Border Collie when she was 12 year, a little bitch called Gypsy. She wasn't the easiest of dogs to train and didn't really like obedience so Amy tried agility with her which she enjoyed a lot more. She won out of Elementary and Starters before the classes were changed into grades and finished her career in Grade 5. She also enjoyed flyball and trick training. She competed at Crufts in the YKC for several years in obedience, agility and flyball and won the very last triathlon.

Amy got her second dog when she was 16 years old, a Shetland Sheepdog called Tarot who took her all the way to Medium Grade 7 and a Reserve Ticket. He also competed in obedience and won from Beginners to B as well as doing a little showing in the Breed Ring and gaining a Best of Breed. He competed several times at Crufts in the YKC and in the Main Ring in obedience and agility in addition to qualifying for Olympia finals.

Since then, she has trained three more Border Collies, another Shetland Sheepdog and a Cockerpoo, all of whom have reached Grade 7 in Agility. Air, her collie made her way into Team England for the World Agility Open Championships in 2019 and the IFCS World Agility Championships also held in 2019 as well as winning the final team event at Crufts in 2020.

Her Border Collie Tame, who currently competes in Large Grade 7 agility, made the IFCS team GB for 2020 and the WAO team England 2020 which both unfortunately were cancelled due to Covid 19. She also made the 2021 IFCS team for GB which was also cancelled. They made the 2022 IFCS GB Team where where competed this year in The Netherlands.

Amy now runs her own dog training business, Wildthing Dog Training, in Aylesbury (Bucks), focusing mainly on agility training. She loves training her own dogs and setting goals for the future as well as helping others to set their own goals and achieving them. Currently, she is making plans for next year as well as training her young dog Nutella and hoping for big things in the years to come.

First published 21st October 2022

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