Agility World on tour at Nedlo Agility Camp

Richard and I packed our van on Tuesday morning and made our way to Sherfield English, Near Romsey, Southampton for a fun-filled three-day agility camp at Nedlo Agility, hosted by Lesley Olden and Natasha Wise. As most of your know, these lovely ladies are very well known in the dog agility world for the successful agility careers they have established over the years.

Lesley Olden as been competing in agility since 1982 and was the first handler to achieve the agility champion status in the UK with her dog, Waggerland Whoosh of Nedlo. She has competed at the most prestigous events in the UK and abroad, and is well known for breeding border collies named Nedlo (which is Olden spelt backwards)

Natasha Wise has been in agility since she was 8 years old and has a Masters degree in Sports and Exercise Science. She has competed and been a regular competitor in the best competions in the UK and abroad, and her career boomed when she became World Agility Champion not once but 3 times with her blue merle border collie, Dizzy.

On Tuesday we started our camp, being split into three groups of six, depending on ability and grade. Once broken into our groups, we had a schedule to follow throughout the day for working and free time.

Breeze and I began with Tasha doing sequence handling. It was great! We first walked the course of 18 obstacles and discussed the possible options of handling, thinking of our feet position, body language and line of the dog. We then each had 10 minutess on the floor with our dogs, running the course and breaking it down to work on what needed tweaking.

To start I was nervous as I've only recently gone to Grade 7 and I've never worked with Natasha before, but I was in very safe hands. In all honesty I don't think I've met a more understanding and helpful person. As well as having the adrenaline to teach, Tasha certainly worked us all to the limit and shared our excitement on every part we worked.

We covered snakes, push out, pull through, and if our dogs can tell the difference sequence from the body language we are displaying...now think to yourself, does yours?

After all the hard work, we had a quick break before starting the afternoon session with Lesley. This session concentrated on driving to tunnels, decel and giving the correct information to your dog. It's great to see all the dogs working so hard, and being able to spectate my fellow team mates was just as rewarding and participating. Being able to watch a handler connect with their dog and run smoothly is really an art form in itself, and I never forget Lesley telling me to connect with my dog, connecting my cheek, shoulder and arm to keep my body correct for the dog.

But don't be fooled; we didn't all just work - at lunch we all broke off daily to have a lovely ploughman's lunch laid out in the mobile home by Nicky Warren, where we could met with the other groups and socialise. Many of these handlers I had never met or even seen around the rings, and what a lovely bunch of people they were, with the furthest member travelling from Aberdeen to participate.

Leslie Osborne travelled over for the evening to complete a seminar on games courses, and not only how to play them but how to look at the best way to achieve the highest success. It was really interesting and I certainly will not be shying away from attempting games classes at UKA anymore. After Tuesday had finished, we all headed off to the Hatchet Inn for a lovely evening pub meal, before heading home.

Wednesday started and again we trekked back down for day two. This day involved contacts and weaves, and this time we were very lucky to have Lorna Peachey step in for the absent Natasha (for anyone unfamilar with Lorna, she is Tasha's sister.) The barn was split down the centre: one side was divided into Dog Walk, Seesaw and obstacle discrimination and Lesley's side consisted of A-Frame, Weaves and jumps. I cannot rate these teachers enough, I learnt so much from each session: how to drive my Sheltie down the contacts better, and to not use a 'panic' word when I think I'm not 100 percent confident!

Having a fresh pair of eyes to study my handling and contacts was certainly what we both needed, and we left both sessions feeling on top of the world and excited to put this into practise from now on.

For our evening seminar this night, Ruth McGill joined us to provide a talk and some fun exercises on how to keep yourself fit and warm yourself up before each run to make your body and mind sharper. I will admit, before this session I was quite tired and wasn't really looking forward to this, but how wrong was I proved. We did some great team exercises that lifted our spirits high and made us forget we were exercising and enjoy warming up.

This consisted of passing a ball whilst others are on the move, using agility ladders, a wobble cushion and even trying 'planking', although I will admit that the competitive edge all us agility handlers have certainly rose to the surface on an agility ladder relay. I was last to run and we were neck to neck, but I ended up losing my head and falling flat on the floor - certainly wasn't my finest moment, but certainly a funny one!

And I have certainly gained that I spend so much time making sure my dogs are properly warmed up before each round, using Back on Track products, giving little massages, doing some circle work. I never really thought that getting myself ready and warmed up would improve my performance, and instead of being tired after this session I was raring to go! Certainly worth considering

After this we all cracked open our onesies and pyjamas for our evening BBQ and quiz night, and what a laugh that was. Rich did a fine job being chef on the BBQ (think he quite enjoyed feeding the team) followed by a great quiz organised by Marie Hembrow, and the quiz even had a TV section - brilliant!!! However, we still came last!

Thursday was our final day, and I was sad to think it was coming to an end, but excited to see what was planned. Natasha was back and concentrating on course walking and techniques, whilst Lesley focused on time trials.

I first started with Natasha, who had set a 23 set course in one half of the barn - certainly one to get you thinking - consisting of many sequences that could be handled in several different ways, even using European turns, which was great for viewing. I was thrilled with Breeze; she really held her own, and in her 10 minutes she did the course a couple of times and focused on certain weaker parts. Looking at lead-out, positional queues, handler position and the dogs line, it was very informative.  Even though it was hard work, it was probably the most rewarding session of the whole time, and I could do with Tasha shouting encouragement at me on each run! Really, she is one amazing lady.

Our last session with Lesley was on time trials and really an eye opener on what can look faster to what actually is faster for your dogs. We had 6 jumps with one layout which could be handled in approx 10 different ways from serps to front crosses, blind to ketschers, pivots and more.

WE studied how your dog jumps and what's the best line for your dog's style, timing each run for different sequence to find the fastest, and it certainly surprised me. I thought Breeze was quite tight at turning but it worked out she was faster at serps with the correct connection and she was completing the sequence in the same time as the collies, at approx 6.2 seconds. So next time you walk a course, really look at your dog's lines and work out what you think the faster line is; it could make all the difference between winning and a clear round.

To finish we celebrated our time with an scrumptious Nedlo agility chocolate cake made by Jacqui Watts, and believe me it really was tasty! Our final seminar was with Natasha on goal setting to achieve the best for you and your dogs, setting yourself achievable goals throughout the year to build your confidence and not just go - it's too difficult.

We all came away setting ourselves equipment goals, sequence goals and overall goals - she demonstrated her own goals with her dogs and stories which affected fails in her runs and her overall success, also learning that even Tash can feel the pressure from everyone wanting her to do well, but she has to connect with herself and her dogs to achieve the best goals.

It was a very interesting talk and something to reflect on and certainly start with my own dogs, rather than thinking I won't get round or, "Oh no, that person had a stonking clear, they will win!"

On overall reflection of this camp, I couldn't recommend it enough. Whether you're new to dog agility or at the high of your career, there is still so much to learn in this sport, and many different things to consider what's actually best for you and your dog. If you would like to know more, or get yourself on the next camp go to www.nedloagility.com - in fact get on the next camp, it's worth every penny and so much more.

Below is a photo featuring Nedlo Sisters, all from Toot (Nedlo Hello Ello) x Mint (Fuelled for life by Diesel) , from Left to right, Richard Britton and Whizzer (2013 Litter), Lesley Olden and Shout (2014 Litter) and Natasha Wise with Pebble (2013 litter)