Times flies when you're enjoying
yourself
 We
are all getting older - agility, too. Mary Ann Nester admits to no longer being the athletic
young girl who ran a twig-thin lurcher round the agility ring, but a little old lady pursued by
a pack of miniature poodles in the car park. Things are changing with each passing year and
just like the grey hairs she keep finding, each of her visits to Crufts reveals a new
development in our sport.
The first time I saw agility was at Earl’s Court and I can remember watching a
dog called Freddie the Dreamer in the Thames team. I thought that even I could run a dog better
than that! Agility is changing. This year I watched Toni Dawkins run her merle collie, Kite,
and wished that I could handle a dog as well as she does!
When I started taking an
interest in agility, the only event staged at Crufts was the Kennel Club standard dog team
finals. I believed that you had to have a big dog to compete in agility (and it had better be a
collie). Things have changed. The Kennel Club now holds Championship agility classes for
individual dogs for both standard and mini dogs and, hopefully, we will see Midi dogs
represented soon. And it is not only the Kennel Club events that are expanding and are growing.
You can watch 'rescue dog' agility with teams from Wood Green Animal Centre, the Blue Cross,
Battersea and others. There are agility displays by different breed societies and the Pedigree
ABC competition makes sure the non-collies get a look in.
 Thank
goodness
As a Mini dog handler, I have included Eukanuba in my prayers every night. Without their
sponsorship, Crufts would have been a big dog only club. With them, the minis are at Crufts
from beginning to end but it wasn’t always like that. Agility has become a sport that is open
to all dogs - large or small, pedigree or mutt - and those are the dogs I saw competing at
Crufts this year.
Once, only British dogs
competed at Crufts, but agility is global and, thanks to Pets Passports, Crufts now holds
international events in breed, obedience and agility. When I looked down on the agility ring at
Earls Court the very last thing I would have expected to see would have been a handler and her
collie from the United States. Why did I bother to move to England? I could have stayed at home
and trained my dogs without crossing Atlantic. Thank goodness the representative from the USA
didn’t win this year because I no longer remember any of the words to the national anthem. I
wonder how many countries will be competing at Crufts next year?
The next generation
It’s nice to see new faces at Crufts whether they are from abroad or down the
road. I remember seeing a little boy with big glasses running a Golden Retriever at Crufts in a
Young Kennel Club event long before I had even attended my first training class. It never
occurred to me that I would one day compete at Crufts against this lad’s mother, the legendary
Carol Hughes and Chockie.
And just to make sure I am
aware that time is flying, this year I had to cheer little Grace Rump, daughter of Sarah and
Keith Rump who ran the infamous Language Timothy, the fastest Jack Russell in agility
history. Why did I always have to be drawn against him in the Knock Outs? Those were the
days. Next, I’ll be clapping my agility friends’ great grandchildren. Am I alone in wishing
there was a veteran class for old farts like myself?
 Go
Poo-dells!
The Eukanuba Mini Knock-Out is my favourite Crufts Final. If there is a poodle on start
line, my shouts of encouragement can be heard in Wales. Two poodles on the line and my screams
can split icebergs in the Artic.
This year’s course was
exceptional asking the dogs for speed AND control. Who would have thought it would be so
difficult to run a circle? No wonder Ian Watts and his Staffordshire Bull Terrier Crossguns
Thong Song - say that five times fast - took home crystal. Not a poodle, but definitely a
handler who loves his dog and who has worked hard to arrive.
But what is most reassuring
to myself as a handler is that I see people making the same mistakes on the course year after
year. It’s nerves. The astro-turf carpet has made things easier for the dogs, and the judges
take care to design spectacular but handler-friendly courses. It’s the thrill of being at
Crufts that turns a conscientious handler into a bag of jellybeans. Contacts are missed and
poles are knocked. The ante is upped. Some competitors can take the pressure; others loose the
plot and crumble. You think it’s all over after one round? You’ve two more to go in the
Championship classes and Eukanuba Mini Challenge.
 My
congratulations to Priscilla Barratt and Gem for winning the Challenge and keeping their
cool. Well done to Lisa Bailey and Peg and Simon Peachy and Diesel for winning the Championship
Finals. You showed you can deliver the goodies under pressure.
Miss it? No way!
Watching performances by great handlers such as these keeps me coming back to Crufts year
after year. Yes, the car park is a nightmare. Yes, there is always a queue for the toilets. And
the crowds are thicker than ever. Every year I think I’ll give Crufts a miss, but end up
spending at least one out of four days there.
I don’t know what next year
or the year after that will be like. I anticipate a bigger international class and I’m hoping
that it will include minis and midis. How the new height regulations will affect Crufts finals
is open to speculation. Will there be a Medium Dog Championship class? Will the Smalls be
thrown out with the dish water? I’ll be a little older, but I will just have to wait till 2006!
 About
the author...
Mary Ann Nester
came to England from New York in the early 1970’s and
never went home. In 1997 she set up Aslan Dog Training, a dog training school named after her
first agility dog, a lurcher. She offers classes in obedience and agility in Northampton and
has conducted training days and workshops throughout Britain and Switzerland.
Her credentials are impressive. She is an Agility Club
Approved Instructor and an experienced competitor and judge. Her dogs have competed as
finalists at Crufts from 1997 to 2002 and have been members of the teams representing Great
Britain at the World Agility Championships in Portugal 2001, Germany 2002 and France 2003.
Mary Ann shares her knowledge of dogs as the guest
'expert' on BBC Radio Northampton answering listeners’ queries and is a regular contributor to
the agility magazines Agility Voice and Agility Eye.
When not chasing her own dogs round an agility course,
Mary Ann is a part-time receptionist at a local veterinary practice.
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