Saturday, August 02, 2014

A wonderful competitive career comes to an end.


After an amazing career in agility both in the UK and New Zealand I have decided to let Lemon be the dog that encourages and help my other up and coming stars.

Lemon is now nearly 12 years old and we have decided that really competitive agility is just a little bit too much for him now. Not that you would think so if you saw him run, he'll still out compete a 4 year old. Unfortunately the next few days are not the best for him. The mind may still be as alert as ever but the body needs more time to recover. So he is now going to run for fun with my wife. He may still enter the odd competition if she can make it but it will be a guest appearance.

Lemon has continued to thrill and motivate me in his agility career. We have had some of the best times in our lives with this little dog. He is a special one that's for sure.

Lemon will now be my training dog, helping me to teach other dogs how to do agility to the best of their ability as well as supporting my other up and coming little stars, Magic, Ginger and Fred.

Well done Mohican, you continue to be a huge star.

Friday, December 02, 2011


North Shore Dog Training Club, New Zealand. Starters Midi (20-11-2011).


Well after a long rest from agility due to illness Mohican and me hit the agility world again, but this time in New Zealand. Yes we shipped all our dogs over to New Zealand for a lifestyle change. The boy is now nearly 9 coming on 10 years of age, so I didn't want to do too much agility with him here, mainly just for exercise. Also as the sizing is different here he can run as a midi, so much lower jump heights.

Anyway I took him down to one of the agility shows in Auckland and he had a ball. He was up against some very fast and young dogs. So when he came in with a 1st place for agility it was a wonderful suprise. It just goes to show, skill wins out over speed in agility everytime.

So after originally thinking I was going to retire Lemon gracefully from agility, I have now decided that if he wants to carry on running then I'll run him. Also have to run my other collie now as she is really enjoying agility here too.

Welldone Mohican, you continue to be a little star.

Friday, August 21, 2009


UKA Agility, Wadebridge, Cornwall. Saturday 16th August 2009.

For one reason and another this was the first time Mohican and I had competed since Milton Keynes last year. I have to admit I was quite nervous as we had done very little training this year. Coupled with the fact that I had entered my other dog One in a Million for her first competition and the that we were on holiday, I wasn't sure what to expect. But true to Mohicans form the little boy pulled it of again. The first run of the day was a Novice jumping run and had some tricky sequences to negotiate. As a handler very much out of practice I was banking on Mohicans skill to get through. Needless to say the boy did good and pulled off a blinding round, taking 1st place with 3 seconds to spare.
Milton Keynes Dog Agility Show, Sunday 14 September 2008.

After making the decision not to compete this year and resting my body and Mohicans, I just couldn't resist the competition on my door step. So just for the hell of it I entered. Given the fact that we had done no practice throughtout the year I was there just for fun. Needless to say that wasn't how Mohican saw it. After and fun clear round on the grade 4 jumping, Mohican streamed around the agility course with perfect running contacts and excellent weave entrances. He came in 2nd overall, a fabulous result. And he was only 0.2secs off the leader a really experienced Grade 5 dog.

Welldone boy even without the practice your a star.

Thursday, May 31, 2007

SUPA Dogs 27-30th May 2007
Well this was our first trip to the SUPA Dogs competition down in Kent and well it was an adventure and a half. Apart from the terrible weather and the lack of provisions we had a great weeks worth of agility. Mohican was entering his first grade 4 competitions so we had a lot to think about. On Sunday we started carefully getting clear rounds in the 4-5 jumping and a 25th in the 4-5 Agility and a 13th in the 3-5 Jumping. The courses were very hard and a real challenge to run.
On the Monday unfortunately the rain came down and the agility rings were more of a mud ring. Needless to say we carried on, carefully, and pulled off a 3rd in the 3-5 Agility and a 15th in the 4-5 agility. On Tuesday a very tired Mohican and me put in a great effort in the rain once again and pulled off a 15th in the 4-5 agility and a clear round in the 4/5 jumping.

Overall this was a great test for Mohican and I. I always new that my dog could compete with the best of the agility world and at SUPA dogs he had a chance to show his true talent. Once again he was fantastic a really supa star.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Kernow K9 - Waddebridge, Cornwall. 6-7th April 2007

Well this was a really excellent competition, I would recommend it to anyone. We had everything, the sun, the sea and the agility. What more can you ask for. It was also a great opportunity for my family, down in Cornwall to see Mohican in action. And see him in action they did.

This was our first competition of the year and his first in Grade 3 (Graduate level). We had worked really hard on the contacts over the winter so I was really hoping to see excellent results. Well in true Mohican Madness style he shot around his first Agility course in 27.30secs with stunning contacts that even took my breath away. So his first Agility run of the year won him 1st prize. I think he was showing off to his Granny and Grandad personally. The weekend just got better and better. We finished with another 3rd place in Agility and a 5th in Jumping. After that we all went for a deserved swim in the Sea at Rock.

A fantastic start to the year. The Kukura magic is certainly working.

P.S. Watch out for 'One in a Million'... coming soon!!!

Saturday, November 11, 2006

What An End To The Season.

After a fantastic First year Mohican is having a well earned rest from competitions over the Winter months. But what a year; 8 first places, 4 second places, 1 third place , 1 fifth place and 1 seventh place. This dog is awesome and handsome as well. For the next few months we will be hard a work training for the next level of novice agility on our brand new equipment. Tighter turns, quicker sendaways, and perfect contacts.

Can't wait till next season. Keep it up Mohican.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Dogs in Need August 2006
This was what it was all about. All the competitions for us were a build up to the week long show in Ipswich. We had sorted out our caravan and our awning and now were ready to take on a full week of caravaning, nearly...

The show was everything we had hoped for. For Papia there were hot showers and electrics so she was very happy. For me there was the Kookabura Coffee Man, Grant and great agility. What more do you need? The event was more of a holiday than an agility show and the pace was, thankfully very slow. Great agility to watch and run during the day and good entertainment during the evening. Where else could you take your 4 dogs for a holiday for less than a £100 a week?

Lemon and myself had some fantastic runs during the week. We tried out lots of new stuff, I even ran one course pretty much standing in the same spot. His contact equipment was super fast and his weave entrances were just stunning. The work we have done with Maria of Crazy Maesy really showed through.

Inspired by the senior finals we ran the Starters Jumping event where Lemon went up another gear. Apparently so did I and I'm still suffering for it now. Needless to say he ran a fabulous round which was both fast and efficient. At the end we were both running so fast that we took the last jump and nearly ended up in the trade stand opposite by the time we stopped. I'm so pleased no-one was walking by at the time. It was brilliant to find out that his time had matched his enthusiasm and we took 1st place with a half a second to spare.

Lemon is a one in a million dog. To win Elementary Agility, Starters Agility and then Starters Jumping all at such high profile shows and within his first year of training is just a dream come true. But the best thing is to see his little face at the end of a run when he knows he's done well. No trophy or rosette can beat that, it's like Lemon himself - PRICELESS.