March 5, 2025 • 36 mins
Are you ready to experience the rush of participating in one of the world’s most prestigious dog agility competitions? Join us as we delve into the journey of Teri and her beloved dog, Jasper, who is stepping into the limelight at Crufts for the very first time. This episode captures the excitement, nerves, and valuable insights that come with preparing for such a significant event in the dog agility scene.
Teri shares her heartfelt story of how she has dreamt of competing at Crufts for as long as she can remember, inspired by childhood experiences spent watching the show with her grandmother. We’ll explore the unshakeable relationship between Teri and Jasper and what went into preparation for their big day.
You’ll hear practical advice on various aspects of preparing for the event—how to manage nerves, the importance of ensuring your dog’s comfort, and essential logistics for event day. The discussion highlights the significance of understanding the venue, navigating backstage experiences, and advocating for your dog’s needs amidst the competition pressure.
Moreover, we discuss how to balance the thrill of competition with the joy of simple moments spent together with your dog.
Whether you're a seasoned competitor or a newcomer to the agility world, this conversation will leave you inspired and informed about tackling the challenges and joys that come with competing at events like Crufts. Join us on this incredible journey, and don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave your thoughts!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to the Absolute Dog Sex in a Squirrel
podcast.
I'm Lauren Langman.
I'm one of the world's leadingdog trainers, and it's my
mission to help owners becometheir dog's top priority.
In each episode, you'lldiscover how to gain trust and
communicate with your dog likenever before, creating
unbreakable bonds that make youthe most exciting part of their
world.
So I'm joined by the wonderfulTerry.
(00:30):
Terry, it's your first time atCrufts this week.
It's your first time ever.
It's been a lifelong dream.
Tell me about it.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Oh, so I remember when I was little I used to
watch Crufts on the telly withmy gran back years ago and um,
and I just remember thinking Iwish I could do that, and I
always knew that when I grew updo we ever grow up that my, I
would always do agility with my,with my dogs.
So I got my first dog probablyabout 10 years ago now, so yeah,
(01:00):
and you're going to crafts.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
So tell us a little bit about who you're taking to
Crufts and why or how you gotthere.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yep, so I'm taking my most favourite dog we all have
them.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
I don't care what anyone says.
I definitely definitely havefavourites.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
So, mr Jasper, I got him about eight and a half years
ago from a pound.
He's from a rescue centre and,bless him, he didn't have very
long before they were going toput him to sleep.
So I got him about six monthsand we started our agility
journey and it's taken a bit oftime.
He's not the easiest dog totrain but he's absolutely
(01:39):
wonderful, he's keen and heloves it and I just want him to
have so much fun and he loves it.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
I love that and he loves it and I just want him to
have so much fun and he loves it.
And you've been practicing,haven't you?
So you've been on the greencarpet here a couple of times.
Yes, so you're used to the greencarpet yes, the green carpet,
although it is going to be a bigthing, because when you get
there you'll look around you andyou'll be like wow, I'm really
here.
You've actually practicedalready.
You've rehearsed a bit of thegreen carpet walk and the
swagger that you kind of getwhen you go in there, right?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
but yes, we've definitely been practicing and
we've been up here a few timesto train here, so we've been up
here more recently.
So, yeah, we've had thepractice.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
So yeah, and what are you excited about for you and
jasper?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
I'm excited at the fact of how far we've come
together like both of us, likeour, our little journey from
just being two little people whostarted together like just for
a bit of fun, and how far we'vecome Like we qualified last
April and then we went to thesemifinals at KCI.
That was my first ever KCI aswell, so that was also exciting
and terrifying at the same time.
(02:37):
And so, yeah, so here we are.
Here we are on our first ever.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
It's almost Christmas Eve, like it's almost there.
It's literally not quite there,but we're almost there.
Now I know that, being an eventlike this, there's lots to
think about.
In a minute I'll let you quizme on some questions, but what
have been some of the thingsthat have almost made you a
little bit fearful, a little bitscared, a little bit anxious,
maybe a little bit worried aboutgoing to Crufts?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
I think, even though I've been as a spectator, I
think for me it's just like theunknown, like the backstage
things.
So, um, you know, what time doI need to get there?
Like, where do I take toilet mydog?
Where do I warm him up?
Like what, how is he gonna bein the atmosphere?
Speaker 1 (03:19):
so you want to quiz me a little on some of these
yeah, yeah, I mean so you knowwhen.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
When you get there, obviously, um, you, you go in
through the hall and then youwalk through to the main arena.
Like what happens when you getto the main arena?
Like when do you?
Speaker 1 (03:32):
get there.
Okay, so you've got these bigblack doors and they actually do
have a bodyguard on them.
So they have a bodyguard onthem and there's going to be
like definitely a couple ofpeople there that are going to
check your wristbands.
You must make sure you got yourwristbands and anyone coming
with you has got the wristbands.
Put them on properly.
Don't put them on too loose,because they think you're going
to share them with people.
They think you're going to dododgy things.
Put them on properly and showthem your wristband.
(03:54):
Give them a flash of thewristband.
They'll open those two doorsfor you and you'll get treated
like royalty because you have adog that should be in that main
arena.
So they really do open andclose.
It's a door service.
Now, behind there you've gotcoffee that is for like helpers,
but outside you've got coffeestation immediately there and
they've also got like a sawdustysort of toilet area.
Now, my dogs typically don'tlike that.
(04:15):
They want to wee outside orthey want to go to the toilet
outside.
So I always make sure I toiletthem really, really well
beforehand.
So they've been to the toilet.
Everything's fine when I bringthem in.
I try and bring them in as lateas possible.
I get my own myself ready, butI don't actually bring the dog
until I.
I need them, but you don't wantto be too far off.
So if you've got a dog that'slike an anxious weir or a dog
who does need to wee, then youprobably do need to either use a
(04:36):
sawdust or find quick exits.
But more boy dogs typicallywill be anywhere.
Yeah, I would say so.
You're probably fine on thesawdust, yeah.
Equally, if you need to get out, there are doorways fairly
close and people can help youout and in.
You've just got to make sureyou get out and in.
Okay, on the wristbands, becausesome wristbands don't let you
get in and out certain places.
They have to be secure atcrafts.
Why?
Because there have been dogsand potentially poisoned or
(04:56):
stolen or all of those things inthe past.
So they are cautious and I knowthat makes you go, oh my god.
But be aware it's the biggestdog show of the year in the
world and dogs are valuable andpeople are, at times, morons,
and so you kind of got thecombination of really valuable
(05:17):
sort of potentially for somepeople, assets, because some of
these dogs are like part oftheir lineage and part of much
bigger programs, and so I thinkit's worth knowing that.
And then you've got the policedogs there, and then you've got
some of the other sort of teams,flyball, and definitely the
breed world, which is just sodifferent, and so that's where I
think they come into play.
The breed world's a bitdifferent.
That makes a lot of sense, yeah.
And so, yeah, security is there.
Wristbands on when you come in.
(05:39):
I personally you'll bookyourself in, so you'll go and
speak to them.
You'll say hi, they'll give youa course map.
You're going to send me thecourse map.
I'm going to say to you this iswhat I would do, instead of
handle it.
And I've already said to youI'm very happy to walk the
course with you when we're outthere, because actually we're in
the same class, aren't we?
Yes, how cool is that we're inthe same class.
So I've got little wild there.
Uh, wild is a youngster in herhead.
(06:00):
Really she's a young dog.
She's sort of she is four, butshe's very immature four, and so
for her it's great class to bein.
Novice should be a fairly flowy,fluid, fast, enjoyable course.
But who knows, because thejudges make up their own sort of
decisions on this.
We can't influence that and forme, novice should be a kind
course, should be an open courseand, most of all, if I was
(06:22):
going out there, the number onething I want to know is my dog's
happy and I give themconfidence.
So I want to know that I canback them or I can look after
them if, for any reason,something goes wrong.
Maybe there's a loud bang or anoise or something upsets them.
My number one focus is dog, soI don't worry about crowds and
I'm really not there for anyoneelse.
I'm only there for myself, mydog.
The eight o'clock performanceno one's going to be there.
It'll be really quiet, sothat's quite nice.
(06:42):
Um, other than our friends.
I was going to say our friendsare supposed to be going but it
won't be a busy performance,whereas the lunchtime
performance will be much busierbecause you've got the crowds
coming in.
So 8 30, you've got agilityfolk who are like cheering on
their friends.
At 12 30 you've got people whoare going to look and kind of go
, they want the dogs to go wrongbecause they find it funny.
So um 8 30, they get agility.
(07:03):
12 30 they don't get agility,they're just enjoying the ride.
Um, sorry, I mean agility as inthe game of agility, oh yeah,
yeah.
You've got people who just cometo watch, yeah, the fun of of
the sport, I suppose.
So that's lovely.
And then a couple of top tipsfor me.
I personally, um, don't give mydogs any heavy meal on the day
of an event.
I give them a lighter meal or asmaller meal or, um, definitely
(07:25):
not anything heavy.
And if I do give it to them,I'm way earlier.
Yeah, then they're going to beperforming because it's an eight
o'clock performance.
So for me I would give them alittle bit of something, but
nothing major on their tummies.
And again, for 12 30, my dogsearn a lot of their food anyway.
So because they earn a lot oftheir food, they're going to get
it throughout being in there.
So for the fact of I know,putting two feet on something or
doing a middle somewhere orhaving some photos and posing,
(07:46):
because they love all of thosethings, yeah, so I use some of
my food for that as well.
And another one I think this isreally important and you've got
your aok9 goodie bag that youcan take away with you later.
Thank you, um.
But another one that's a reallynice tip and I can see if I've
got any here for you, and Iannoyingly didn't order any, um,
I've only got my own here, butthe fresh drink.
So giving them a rehydrationdrink in between and making sure
(08:08):
they've had some electrolytedrink and for me electrolyte is
really important just to knowthat they're hydrated.
Well, because sometimes, whenthey're at competitions or
they're at a high stress event,they don't want to drink.
So actually preparing for that?
Yeah, because then they are, um, staying um and healthy.
So what's your next questionfor me?
If you've got any questions,and you can ask anything and
(08:29):
everything.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
No, I did come prepared with questions.
Definitely I love it she's gotquestions.
Yeah, I did.
I came prepared because I knewI had some things I wanted to
ask you.
So you touched on it reallybriefly earlier about people
being there to see the jumpingand agility.
So when you're actually in themain arena, like, what can you
see?
Speaker 1 (08:46):
like, can you see the audience?
Yeah, you can see everybodyaround.
You see, if you're in the arena, it's actually almost much
smaller.
When you're in the arena andyou look around, it's not nearly
as big as if you were on theoutside of it, almost.
So it's quite.
It is quite small.
You go through a tunnel always.
So you go through a tunnel,they'll tell you say you're
running first, they'll have youready, so you're running second,
third, which you are.
So when you're running a littlebit later, um, and I know
(09:06):
that's not late, but it iswithin a class of a smaller
class so they'll say, um, terry,they'll call you up and they'll
put you in your order so youknow when you're going in.
You cannot miss your runbecause they're there.
There is a practice jump.
So in the practice jump, okay,put the practice jump, just be
careful on not doing too many,and I'll give you an example
here.
So today, yesterday in fact, Ithought you know what I'm going
(09:28):
to get fit, and so this was mymind.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Two days before craft yeah, I thought I'm going to
get fit.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I'm like actually going to get fit.
I was like I've got some time.
I'm going to get on the pel myhead.
I had to actually have aconversation with myself why are
you getting fit two days beforethe event, lauren?
Because I've got time, I canreally get fit.
Right now I'm going to beastmyself.
No, let's not do that.
And I had to really talk myselfout of it as I was about to
jump on the bike and go with itfor like two hours.
Very, very funny, it's very,very busy today.
(10:01):
So I decided not to do that.
I talked myself out of it.
Similar to the practice jumpsome people do 20 of them.
Just one, two, three.
The other top tip and I lovethis tip if the practice jump is
there and say you've got like abackside or a check check or
you've got something on thecourse that you think I just
might need to prep that a little, just do one or two of them.
Yeah, so you prep that already.
Already.
(10:21):
Have your dog warm, yeah.
And in terms of warm-up, whenyou said, where can I warm up,
you can warm up behind there.
Walk trot, canter on lead.
If you need to do off lead,you're better outside there's
not a lot of off lead space buton lead space mine warm up doing
figures of eight and on leadwalk trot canter, I will do it
all in that space.
So take like a little hot waterbottle or a red light and I'll
(10:43):
put that down the muscle groups.
So I'll be putting that downthe muscle groups I love.
Just, a lot of people don't talkabout hot water bottles, but
main reason I think they don'tis that they're cheap and it
doesn't sell.
Like hot water bottles don'tsell.
They're not like a big, likeyou can sell this and people
can't make a lot of money out ofthem.
I think hot water bottlesfantastic thing for warm up, but
I think the reason that a lotof people don't tell you about
(11:03):
them is that actually they wantto sell you a tool and often
there is a tool for that.
Yeah, actually a hot waterbottle is one of the best ones.
Well, there's little small onesthat you can put down the back,
or a long one that you put downthe back.
I love a hot water bottle.
I heat it in the well, I heatit in the in the hotel
beforehand, or I bring a hotflask and then I, I have it
fresh, so it's not boiling, butit's hot enough to to keep you
(11:25):
want them warm?
Yes, yeah, and I always putthem in a coat, whether that's
back on track or uh, Ipersonally love back on track,
so I use back on track, butequally well, done you high five
, keep on it, keep ready.
No prep for you needed, um, andequally I will use any other
thermal sort of coats as well.
So, but do have them warm, Ithink that's really key.
And one or two practice jumps,and I do my one or two practice
(11:45):
jumps, I walk the course.
I'll do one or two practicejumps and I'll walk the course
again because that course willbe there until we start.
So that course will be setfairly early, so you'll have
time to walk it because there'snothing before us.
So actually you'll have time towalk it.
The second one will be slightlydifferent, there'll be more
timed, but the first one you'llhave enough time.
Second one you'll maybe once,twice, three times, and then
what they start to do is walkyou off the course, and they
(12:06):
walk you off the course.
Doing this, you have to get offthe course, but you don't
really want to be in there tillthey walk you off the course.
I could be, because I'm notrunning first height, yeah.
But because you're runningfirst height, you want to be
gone by then.
Yeah, by the time they'reclearing you off, you should
already have your dog and ready,yeah.
Whereas for me I would be thatin the next round, because I
think I go first in the secondround, potentially.
(12:26):
I think they put small firstthere, so they just do it in
high order.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
That makes sense.
Got any more questions?
Speaker 1 (12:38):
yeah, you've answered quite a lot of them already, so
, um, this is good, okay.
So what prep do you giveyourself before you go to class?
Really nice one.
So I did a podcast a couple ofweeks ago with a lovely lady
called linda.
You could definitely listen tothat podcast.
It's very much about mindsetand where your mindset is, and
I've also done a few with alovely, brilliant mental mindset
coach of mine uh, his name'sbill, and also justin.
They're all on sex and squirrel.
They're all completely free.
You can listen to them in thecar on the way up.
(13:01):
I love all of them and I've beena competitor for over 20 years
now, so a long time and Igenuinely don't get frazzled by
it and I'm really I'm good atbeing a competitor.
I'd much prefer being acompetitor than being a anything
else.
So if I had the choice judge orcompetitor or trainer or
anything else I love being acompetitor.
Those are my favourite things,like moments.
If I think about some of myfavourite moments, they were
(13:22):
winning Crufts with Blink orbeing on a podium with Venture,
or being on a podium with any ofour dogs.
It's so much fun to do thatcompetition round and then build
it and then win it too.
And I think it's worth sayingto you if you do win and it you,
you can come first, second,third, um, in that competition
and be brought in.
Sometimes they only bring infirst and second.
(13:43):
Sometimes they bring in first,second, third.
It depends on the class andwhat they're doing and how
they're presenting andeverything else.
But be ready and be with yourdog.
If your dog doesn't like otherdogs or photos, just be willing
to tell people that they don'tlike dogs.
And I think I'm fine to tellpeople this dog doesn't like
dogs.
Or I will sometimes say funnythings like um, yeah, she bites,
um.
Or she likes to give nosepiercings like she.
(14:04):
And so venture, is that doglike that?
She would like to pierceanother dog if she had a choice
because she will she will backinto a corner and then she
doesn't really have a choice, soshe will just go.
I don't like you.
Now.
I'd much prefer to be severewith someone and tell them this
dog doesn't like you.
She has never bitten a dog, shehas never pierced a dog's nose,
she has never done any of thosethings.
But I'd much prefer to tellsomeone than you've prepared.
(14:25):
So actually, although thatmight sound quite extreme.
I think that we should beadvocating for our dogs and then
by advocating for her, I'm alsoadvocating for you, because I'm
not then putting you and me ona podium together and having an
issue where he's going hi, lady,and she goes piss your nose,
and no one wants that.
No one wants that.
The owner of the dog doesn'twant that.
The owner of the other dogdoesn't want that.
None of the ring stewards orthe people at the event want
(14:46):
that.
Nobody wants it.
Nobody wants it.
It's just horrible.
So if your dog either likes ordoesn, dogs to yourself when
you're at the event, becauseultimately there's also probably
loads of disease going aroundbecause of things like kennel
cough and things like giardia,stuff like that, that's
everywhere so you just don'tevents like that.
You want to probably keep yourdog very much themselves.
(15:06):
I don't let them drink out ofpublic water bowls.
I don't let them drink out ofum all the stand bowls.
I definitely don't take themshopping.
A lot of people will take thedog shopping for me when I, when
I come in at eight o'clock.
They do their event, they gohome and then they come back
again and obviously my home isthe hotel room and then they
come back again.
Or if I'm not in a hotel room,they go back to the vehicle and
then they come back again.
And if I can't be in thatvehicle then I go back to
(15:26):
someone else's vehicle and thenthey come back again.
But I do give them their break.
I don't personally feel forlong.
It's a bit like a pressure pot.
So the arena is a pressure potand they just go pressure,
pressure, pressure, pressure andthey will explode at some point
.
A bit of a full bucket maybe.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Yeah, let's not give them a full bucket no, I'd
absolutely planned not to dothat with um with jasper
definitely take them out, givingthem a breather brilliant.
Um, what would you go back andtell your younger self for your
first time on the green carpet?
Speaker 1 (15:53):
enjoy every second.
It's really not that serious.
Don't take yourself tooseriously.
Tokyo would tell me this.
Right, don't take yourself soseriously, lauren.
Enjoy it all.
And the other one is breathe itin.
So sometimes when I love thisquestion, it's a lovely question
.
When I've got out there, I'verushed it, and that rush not
only compromises yourcompetition run but takes away
from your special moment.
But actually breathe it in,enjoy it.
(16:15):
There's lovely guys ring crewing, like my friend Nigel Rudd.
He ring crews there and Ialways see him and I always hope
I get him.
I'm always like I hope I gethim.
If you get the guy, nigel won'tmind me saying he's a shorter
guy and he's dark haired.
He's always got a beam on hisface.
He's called Nigel, I love him.
He's like one of my favouritepeople at the ring and it'll
(16:38):
always say follow me and off Igo.
And then I see um, the otherlovely guy who starts us off,
and then Rob, he, he gives youthe in your, in your own time or
when you're ready type thing.
For me I love seeing those guysbecause they kind of like
prepare your run.
But in all of those minutes orseconds, enjoy it.
Enjoy it.
We work really hard to getthere.
Our dogs are really precious.
You don't know when you'regonna have your last run.
You don't know where you'regonna have your last run.
(16:59):
You don't know what the futureholds for any of us.
Yeah, for me, savor it and sortof like almost taste.
It sounds odd, but like,breathe it in, look around, like
ground yourself a bit and, andyeah, enjoy that second and even
if it does go wrong, find, findthe joy in that moment.
Yeah, and also, don't talkyourself out of it.
Sometimes you talk yourself outof it accidentally by, like,
(17:22):
when you ask me about what doyou do for mindset?
Like, listen to upliftingpodcasts that talk about mindset
.
Um, talk myself into it.
Uh, explain all the positives.
If it's something I don't likeon the course, I find all the
things I do like on the courseand the bits I don't like, I
talk about how I can make itwork.
There's always a way around it.
It just might not be the wayyou planned.
There's always a way to do it.
Yeah, you just might not likethe way to do it.
(17:43):
And the other one, I think whatwould I tell my younger self
not to do so much shopping?
I'm not there for the shopping,like, you don't need the tack,
lauren, you really don't need tohave, you've got enough dog
coats.
Seriously, like, go and bethere for the event.
And I remember being a big event, olympia and I had two
Proseccos and a pizza and thenin the next run I fell.
It fell over because the dogran into my leg and my timing
was off.
Sparky, my timing was off.
I fell over, face planted intothe arena, head in the dust, my
(18:07):
bum was in the air.
The crowd was like squealingwith laughter and all I was
hoping for was someone wouldcome and cordon me off and take
me off like one of the ponies tosee a vet or something.
And I couldn't go and see a vet, obviously, because I was had
my head face there and I'm aperson, not a dog.
Um, but it was so embarrassing.
I was so embarrassed, but itwas all because I didn't really.
I was almost the other way.
I was taking it, I was nottaking it seriously enough.
(18:28):
I was enjoying pizza, I wasenjoying prosecco, I was having
a lovely time and suddenly myface was in the sand.
Um, because my timing was off,because ultimately, I really
wasn't concentrating, and so I'dsay there's a fine balance
between enjoying it, having abrilliant time, but also taking
it seriously enough, but nottaking it too seriously.
And and one of my, my bigtakeaways from owning um or
(18:50):
being owned by Tokyo was don'ttake yourself too seriously.
And I think there are momentsthat when you're younger, you
take it all so seriously, likeit's all so important and it is
and it's also there to enjoy,definitely.
And when you live through hardmoments like watching my dad or
losing my best friend, my dog I,you kind of those are the
(19:11):
moments you look back and reallycherish.
So don't rush them.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Don't rush them definitely breathe them in.
I think definitely.
What I'm taking away is um, youknow, we worked hard to get
there, we deserve to be thereand we're gonna enjoy it we are
not gonna worry too much aboutwhat happens on the day.
We're just gonna go and haveour give it our best shot.
But I also think.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
I also think tactics I was about to get your notes
back tactics.
I also think tactics.
Whilst you are going to giveyou best shot, I also think that
we can play tactics here.
Like there are tactics to behad and the tactics are you're
going for not getting eliminated, so you're going for a clear
round at best, but at worst youmight have 20 faults.
(19:50):
You can still, overall, placefor 20 faults and I think that's
important to know because ifyou get a pig of a course and
there's only sort of six dogs,four get eliminated and there's
two of you.
One gets 20 faults, one gets 25faults.
The one with 20 faults will win.
Yeah, I think that's importantto know because you're going to
get placed overall in thejumping, you're going to get
(20:11):
placed overall in the agilityand then the combined result is
your result.
So you get three chances ofwinning here or coming second
right.
Three chances and it's in six.
So actually you stand a reallygood chance of getting one of
those chances.
Play for the clear round.
If the clear round isn'tworking, as in something goes
wrong like a pole drops stillplay for the best time with the
(20:33):
pole dropped.
Yeah, as long as you're noteliminated, you still stand a
very good chance.
If you do get eliminated, okay,what's the next tactic?
Play for the next round andplay for the clear round.
The next round, because youstill stand a chance of a trophy
in that round, because you canstill stand a chance of first
and second.
If you've got faults in thatround, play for the clear here,
and a safe clear is still betterthan a faulted run and a
(20:54):
faulted run is still better thanme.
So you've always got your levelof sliding scale and you've
also got that level of whattactic am I playing?
That makes sense, yeah, no,yeah.
So you've got.
You've got tactics, so don't I?
I love the saying you were justout there to have fun, but for
me, you have way more fun whenyou win right, like it's so much
, don't get me wrong.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Like, isn't that everyone's dream?
Speaker 1 (21:14):
just to go there and win and yeah, and yet in a
minute we'll go and have a lookat some of the trophies and I'll
show you.
Like classic went there and didfirst in one round.
I think she won, I think shedid base, I think she did first,
first and first and hers wasabc um same thing, medium, abc
one, seven.
Same type of class.
It's a.
It's a combination class.
So you win one round, you winthe other round and then you're
over a winner, or you wouldn't.
(21:34):
You win the other round andthen you're over a winner.
Or you win one round, you'resecond in the other round,
you're over a winnerrealistically.
Or you get faults and you get awin.
You can still be the winner.
Like, there's lots of chancesto win and there's lots of
chances to podium and there'slots of chances to run around
that carpet.
Now quick one If you do end upon one of those podium spots
when you go in, you'll get stoodnext to another competitor.
(21:55):
I've been very, very fortunate.
It's funny I say fortunate.
The harder you work, theluckier you get right.
So the more you work at it, theluckier you get.
I think that's coincidental.
So that's why I didn't startworking out two days ago,
yesterday because I haven'tworked very hard at it, but I
have worked very hard at dogtraining, so my dog training is
sound, um, so you'll get calledin and they'll put the first
(22:16):
place and the second place andthey'll tell you what you are
and then you'll get presented.
And then they'll get presentedand then they'll ask for a lap
of honour Again.
Knowing whether a dog likes alap of honour or not, venture
hated the lap of honour, so whatI learned from that is I will
never do one again with her.
What I will do is take her abody.
Dub Blink could come instead ofher, or someone else could come
.
Typically, you can't do thatbecause you haven't got multiple
passes.
But what I suppose I'm sayingis don't put that dog in for
(22:39):
uncomfortable things, especiallynot if they're going to go
again in a minute, because if adog's going to be uncomfortable
here, they're going to run againhere.
Yeah, let's not make themuncomfortable, sure, and, to be
honest, let's not make our dogsuncomfortable for the sake of um
, a prestige event mr jasperloves doing a lap of honor.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
He regularly does them all on his own.
Unfortunately he'll have to beleaded for this one.
But you know, never mind hecan't have it all he loves,
he'll have already spent a fewminutes running around, so he
loves it.
I love that um, do you have anylittle lucky charms or
keepsakes or little rituals thatyou do to prepare yourself like
when you're going away?
Speaker 1 (23:14):
I think I don't have any lucky knickers or lucky
socks or anything crazy likethat, but I always love to be
sparkly, so I love to be, I loveto have something sparkly with
me, and that's.
I suppose I take pride in how Iwould appear somewhere like
that, not because I'm actuallyappearance conscious I'm really
not.
I don't wear makeup on aday-to-day basis.
I today I have hardly brushedmy hair, as you can see, like
(23:36):
I'm not someone who's um, aslong as you clean your teeth and
you had a shower, I'm all goodwith life.
I think for me, when you're ata prestige event, it's quite
nice to almost use as a anopportunity to really showcase
what you do and how you do itand who you are.
So I love having somethingsparkly around, a sparkly
hairband or a sparkly pair ofsocks or something sparkly.
Uh, I have a level of ritual inwhat I do, so my warm-up is a
(23:59):
ritual, matt is a ritual, havingmy setup is a ritual, my hot
water bottles ritual.
So I've got a lot of ritualsand I'm I have things like I
love a chai latte, so I'll havea chai latte in my mug and
things like that.
That would kind of settle me.
I suppose I hadn't even thoughtabout that.
Yeah, so have something thatsettles me.
So that for me is like acomfort thing.
It's in a pink mug.
I love it.
It makes me feel very, verycomfortable.
(24:19):
I've always got a warm coat onbecause I feel comfortable in
something warm.
I set up a little station whereyou take a cloth crate or a mat
or a pad or something your dogcan lie on, or a bed.
I'll take a soft crate and I'llhave a bed inside it and then I
can put her in it when I needto and she'll squawk and Matt
will have to cope with that.
(24:39):
And for me it's probably morethe ritualistic things like that
that I would do.
I don't.
I always make sure that I'mwell prepared and everything is
really ready there, but nothingso much lucky charms.
I did used to have likeprecious stones.
I would take with me thingslike um quartz and and pretty
(25:02):
color stones.
But actually I've kind ofalmost grown out of it a little
and now my biggest thing is togo there, be present, make sure
that I'm well timed, wellpresented, but like I've said to
you, I will always turn up aslate as I can into the event, I
don't know what it is.
I like that pressure moment.
I enjoyed the pressure.
There's a pressure level, but Idefinitely wouldn't encourage
that for you.
I would encourage for you toget in there as early as you can
(25:23):
without him and then go backand grab him.
So as early as the doors open Iwould aim for you to be in
there, register, get everythingready, because you've never been
in there before.
No, and do all of that becauseyou then know your pathway in.
For me, those things will feelvery, very familiar after like
10 years, 15 years of being inthere, yeah, and having done
that.
So for me, coming in as late asI can will be right for me and
(25:43):
my dog and the setup that we'rein.
But that isn't right for youand I think it's really
important you acknowledge thosethings.
But no, in terms of likekeepsakes, I'm not a big
keepsake.
I like to take things like mycards and stuff like that.
I've just had a really lovelybox delivered and I love that
because I've been doing it along time.
So sometimes it's notnecessarily the same thing as
when you've done it the firsttime.
Like for you I'm like lovelyfeeling, but when you've done it
(26:15):
lots of times.
I think people can forget thatit's still a big deal.
It's a really big deal, likeit's the highlight of my year
going to crufts and if I was topick crufts or Olympia, I'd pick
crufts every time.
I love crufts.
Why is that?
I think probably the fact thatall of your audience are dogs,
so you've got dog audience.
They're a dog driven audience,so you're not in a horse arena,
you're in a dog arena.
Second one was the AstroTurf.
I think my dogs perform waybetter on AstroTurf than Sand.
I much prefer it as a surface.
I think it's much.
I think it showcases what ouragility is in a really fun way.
(26:36):
I think the course is morereflective of what we see in
competition.
I think that it really is avery, very prestigious driven
dogs event and I've had reallygood history there.
So I've had lots of good wins.
I've had lots of good feeling.
I've had some of my mostemotional days.
I'm gutted I never got to takeTokyo there because I know that
(26:57):
he would have loved that arenaand he jumped so beautifully on
Astro, even jumped beautifullyon everything.
But I really love that arena.
I love all the crowds, I loveall the people around you.
It's just a great setup.
All of it's a great setup.
There's nothing.
There's nothing I don't likeabout crafts, the shopping but
I'm avoiding it like I know Idon't need dog tack.
(27:17):
I really don't, but I do lovethe shopping.
I do love the pilot's livethere how do you balance your
day?
Speaker 2 (27:19):
because I know obviously you have a lot going
on in your day with competing,and then you've got your stand
and then I was going to say, howdo you fit it all in with
shopping?
Speaker 1 (27:26):
but clearly, well, I typically would have shopped a
lot.
So I typically would haveshopped a lot and I will use it
as a little bit of marketresearch for our companies for a
canine, for absolute dogs, forDevon dogs, for holiday lets,
for all of what we do and forthe fact that we do dog friendly
holidays, for the fact that wedo, um, we've got lots of
companies which is is really, um, again, really fortunate to
have to be in that position.
(27:47):
But what I've learned is themore I go shopping on a day
where I'm competing, the lessI'm focused on my competing.
So actually I'm not there toshop.
I have to remind myself thatyou, lauren, you're not here to
shop, you're really not here toshop, and if you want to do
shopping, do it on the next day.
So actually remind myself to goanother day if I want to shop.
Yeah, and I think that's quiteimportant not to not to put
yourself in a position where youare almost compromising while
(28:11):
you're there, and I have in thepast compromised one that the
olympia example is a great one.
Basically, when I had too manyprosecco's and then ran and felt
like that was not the cleverestmove and I'm not a drinker at
all, I mean I drank like twoglasses, maybe one and a half,
but that's enough for me to beoff focus and I just thought I
was treating myself, butactually being aware that you're
not treating yourself whenyou're at a performance event.
You're there to perform, sogive you and your dog the best
(28:32):
chance If you're going to shop,shop after 12.30.
So wait for your run and thengo shopping and celebrate and I
think it is nice to celebrate,but give your dog the best
chance to run.
So I would do no shoppingbefore the second run.
Sure.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
You mentioned about having a station.
I'm assuming that's backstage.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Yeah, about having a station, um, I'm assuming that's
backstage.
Yeah, so behind those blackdoors you can go in and set
yourself up with a station.
So for me, wherever you're mostcomfortable, find a corner.
I tend to find a corner with noone else in it if I've got a
reactive dog or a nervous dog ora dog who wants to greet
everyone.
The dog I'm taking is reallyfriendly and fine, so I feel
quite comfortable in that.
I actually feel reallyuncomfortable when I take a
nervous dog in thoseenvironments because, although I
can handle it, it's a lot ofpressure.
I'm taking a really happy littledog.
(29:10):
I love that.
I'm taking a real happy, golucky, easygoing dog.
Touch wood, she's never shutdown on me.
A lot of spaniels do shut down.
They've got shut down and thenthey go to run and they'll stop
and they'll stall on you.
She doesn't have that in her.
She's very, very like, ifanything, I won't be able to
hold her and start line, butthat's fine and I know what
we're dealing with, at least forme.
I'll set her up in a space whereI put a crate up.
(29:31):
I'll pop the crate up.
I'll have my fresh there.
I'll have my treat pouch.
You've got a treat pouch inhere it's a blue one and I'll
have nice food in that.
I'll normally take likesomething really high value, but
not liver, nothing awfullysomething like venison or
chicken or beef or lamb or um,something, something tasty.
And I've always got fresh foodfor them because I think fresh
food.
So it's hydrating rather thandrying, so I don't take dried
(29:52):
food or dried treats.
And then I'll have a hot waterbottle, maybe my laser or my red
light or whatever I might beusing to warm them up or to help
warm them up.
I've got my lead, my collar, myharness, everything I'm going
to use.
My dogs won't.
They've got really lovely,sparkly collars.
I don't put them on in thearena as much as they look nice.
My dogs aren't used to runningin them.
So because they don't run inthem typically, I won't put
anything extra jangly on them.
(30:13):
I want them to be able to runnormally so they'll wear their
normal collars.
But maybe if they're havingphotos they can have the really
posh collars, but not forrunning.
They're not used to wearingthem.
(30:35):
Them don't put it near wherethe practice jump is, because
you're gonna have loads of dogsjumping at you so you'll see
where the practice jump is.
Practice jump is not big andit's not a lot of space, so
there's not a lot of room there.
So just be a little bit mindfulof that and are you?
Speaker 2 (30:49):
are you set up for the day?
I mean, obviously you take yourdog, but in and out, so you're
different.
But um are other people setthere for the the whole morning
whilst they're doing their?
Speaker 1 (30:56):
I think, looking at how busy it is or isn't, you're
fine to leave it there.
I typically would say on athursday, you're fine on a
sunday or not.
So on a sunday, when it's bestin show day, which next year,
they flip the champ days eachyear.
Next year it'll be the largeday and then they flip it each
time.
So Sunday when you're competing, no, there's no space, it is
rammed because of best in show.
Most days there is space.
I would never leave wateranywhere so that people could
(31:17):
put things in it, just paranoidabout poisoning, and I know that
sounds silly, but I've justexperienced some of the worst
things you might experience withdogs and I feel just protect
yourself.
I would never leave anythingthat's valuable or anything that
someone can dispose of easily,whereas I would leave a crate
and I would leave their bed.
That'd be fine, and other thanthat, I'd take it with me.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Yeah, any more questions.
Yeah, you touched briefly on.
You like to wear sparkly things.
Um, it's kind of the bestfootwear, do you think?
Speaker 1 (31:43):
interesting whatever you're comfortable running here
on the astroturf, so I wouldpractice whatever you're running
on and use that on the carpet.
So ideally, what you use on theastroturf so whatever you're
using here here is the sameastroturf as there.
So you're going to use the sameastroturf, so you've already
run on the surface.
It's not a different surfaceand I think that's really nice.
The other thing we're going todo tonight is we're going to
show you that panel jump.
(32:04):
So we're going to get thatpanel jump out.
So you've seen the panel jump,because a panel jump can
sometimes throw a dog as well.
So make sure we get that outbefore you finish here tonight.
Brilliant any more for any more.
I think I've covered everythingthat I wanted to ask.
I love it that you've coveredit.
I want you to feel reallyprepped.
I'm very happy to walk thecourse with you.
Brilliant, I'm very happy to umshow you around all the
different spaces that I've umexperienced and seen and know
(32:26):
and and want to um show you when, when I see anything, really
happy to have any questions oncourse particularly on course, I
think there's often questionsand also, when you send the
course plan, very happy toanswer any questions.
When you send the course planover and you send both of them,
you'll get both of them in themorning, so they'll both come,
but don't even look at thesecond one no, no, only just get
your first one in your head,just do your first one, don't
even look at the second.
(32:46):
You can't do anything about itanyway.
So there's no point almostknowing it and in terms of
agility, there's no final.
So remember, it's jumping andagility, but there's no final,
so you're only going to run thisagility once.
So if you need to blast things,like release things as early as
you need to, or whatever youneed to do, but ultimately,
remember it is a clear roundcompetition and so ultimately,
clear round is what counts.
(33:06):
So don't do it at the expenseof a clear round.
Go round to get a clear round.
Yeah, if you get a clear round,you're standing in a good space
yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
And how far away do you park?
Because that's another thingthat's a really good one to know
quite a while, I think.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
The parking, depending on where you're parked
.
You can never guarantee whereyou're parked, but the parking
could be anywhere between 5 and20 minutes.
So I would say 15 15 minutesbefore you're actually at the
door.
So that is from car parking todoor.
So I just use that as a reallygreat warm-up.
It's just a warm-up.
It's toilet break.
Have as many wheeze as you canget out of your bladder.
Let's take every one of them.
The dog so yeah, me and the dog.
Actually it's something to know.
(33:41):
The toilets as you come out,there's toilets both sides.
I don't know what I'll be likethis year, but every year in the
past I find myself in thetoilet a lot, and it's not that
I'm nervous, but my body must bein that heightened state of
arousal.
So every time I find myself inthose toilets.
So I'm often in those toilets.
So, yeah, being aware of uh,toilets are there and I just
literally don't even need a wee.
I'm just there because I feellike it's your, it's your body
(34:03):
preparing.
You're in that fight and flightmode.
Yeah, so you've taken yourselfinto that and and and often I
can't eat breakfast.
And it's not that I'm scared ornervous or anything, it's just
your, your arousals up.
So you're in that arousal space.
Yeah, makes sense.
And remember, your dog knowsnothing other than they're out
there with you.
So you advocate for them, youprotect them, you look after
them in every scenario.
You don't let them greet newdogs head to head, you don't let
(34:23):
them do fluffy photos with withchildren, unless, like, you
really need to.
I think.
Just be aware that you're inthere for that short time with
your dog, protect them, advocatefor them and then get them back
out of there, because thatevent is a lot of pressure for a
lot of dogs in a small space,and although it isn't a small
space, it is with the amount ofdogs that are in there.
So, um, just be mindful that andmindful that a lot of people
don't handle their dogs like youdo.
(34:44):
So the show dogs or the flyball dogs or the other dogs all
have their own etiquettes.
They'll be different to theagility dogs.
So just kind of be mindful, andfor me, I just always keep my
distance on other dogs.
It's just a bit safer,brilliant, happy, yes.
So after this, are you happy tocome back and do another one
where you tell us how it's allgone.
Oh yes, well done Terry.
(35:05):
Good luck, I think it's gonna beamazing but you've got your
goodie bag, your goodie bag togo, and if there's anything at
all, you know where I am.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Brilliant.
Thank you very much.
Thanks for having me.
Welcome to the Absolute Dog Sex in a Squirrel
podcast.
I'm Lauren Langman.
I'm one of the world's leadingdog trainers, and it's my
mission to help owners becometheir dog's top priority.
In each episode, you'lldiscover how to gain trust and
communicate with your dog likenever before, creating
unbreakable bonds that make youthe most exciting part of their
world.
So I'm joined by the wonderfulTerry.
(00:30):
Terry, it's your first time atCrufts this week.
It's your first time ever.
It's been a lifelong dream.
Tell me about it.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Oh, so I remember when I was little I used to
watch Crufts on the telly withmy gran back years ago and um,
and I just remember thinking Iwish I could do that, and I
always knew that when I grew updo we ever grow up that my, I
would always do agility with my,with my dogs.
So I got my first dog probablyabout 10 years ago now, so yeah,
(01:00):
and you're going to crafts.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
So tell us a little bit about who you're taking to
Crufts and why or how you gotthere.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yep, so I'm taking my most favourite dog we all have
them.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
I don't care what anyone says.
I definitely definitely havefavourites.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
So, mr Jasper, I got him about eight and a half years
ago from a pound.
He's from a rescue centre and,bless him, he didn't have very
long before they were going toput him to sleep.
So I got him about six monthsand we started our agility
journey and it's taken a bit oftime.
He's not the easiest dog totrain but he's absolutely
(01:39):
wonderful, he's keen and heloves it and I just want him to
have so much fun and he loves it.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
I love that and he loves it and I just want him to
have so much fun and he loves it.
And you've been practicing,haven't you?
So you've been on the greencarpet here a couple of times.
Yes, so you're used to the greencarpet yes, the green carpet,
although it is going to be a bigthing, because when you get
there you'll look around you andyou'll be like wow, I'm really
here.
You've actually practicedalready.
You've rehearsed a bit of thegreen carpet walk and the
swagger that you kind of getwhen you go in there, right?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
but yes, we've definitely been practicing and
we've been up here a few timesto train here, so we've been up
here more recently.
So, yeah, we've had thepractice.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
So yeah, and what are you excited about for you and
jasper?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
I'm excited at the fact of how far we've come
together like both of us, likeour, our little journey from
just being two little people whostarted together like just for
a bit of fun, and how far we'vecome Like we qualified last
April and then we went to thesemifinals at KCI.
That was my first ever KCI aswell, so that was also exciting
and terrifying at the same time.
(02:37):
And so, yeah, so here we are.
Here we are on our first ever.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
It's almost Christmas Eve, like it's almost there.
It's literally not quite there,but we're almost there.
Now I know that, being an eventlike this, there's lots to
think about.
In a minute I'll let you quizme on some questions, but what
have been some of the thingsthat have almost made you a
little bit fearful, a little bitscared, a little bit anxious,
maybe a little bit worried aboutgoing to Crufts?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
I think, even though I've been as a spectator, I
think for me it's just like theunknown, like the backstage
things.
So, um, you know, what time doI need to get there?
Like, where do I take toilet mydog?
Where do I warm him up?
Like what, how is he gonna bein the atmosphere?
Speaker 1 (03:19):
so you want to quiz me a little on some of these
yeah, yeah, I mean so you knowwhen.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
When you get there, obviously, um, you, you go in
through the hall and then youwalk through to the main arena.
Like what happens when you getto the main arena?
Like when do you?
Speaker 1 (03:32):
get there.
Okay, so you've got these bigblack doors and they actually do
have a bodyguard on them.
So they have a bodyguard onthem and there's going to be
like definitely a couple ofpeople there that are going to
check your wristbands.
You must make sure you got yourwristbands and anyone coming
with you has got the wristbands.
Put them on properly.
Don't put them on too loose,because they think you're going
to share them with people.
They think you're going to dododgy things.
Put them on properly and showthem your wristband.
(03:54):
Give them a flash of thewristband.
They'll open those two doorsfor you and you'll get treated
like royalty because you have adog that should be in that main
arena.
So they really do open andclose.
It's a door service.
Now, behind there you've gotcoffee that is for like helpers,
but outside you've got coffeestation immediately there and
they've also got like a sawdustysort of toilet area.
Now, my dogs typically don'tlike that.
(04:15):
They want to wee outside orthey want to go to the toilet
outside.
So I always make sure I toiletthem really, really well
beforehand.
So they've been to the toilet.
Everything's fine when I bringthem in.
I try and bring them in as lateas possible.
I get my own myself ready, butI don't actually bring the dog
until I.
I need them, but you don't wantto be too far off.
So if you've got a dog that'slike an anxious weir or a dog
who does need to wee, then youprobably do need to either use a
(04:36):
sawdust or find quick exits.
But more boy dogs typicallywill be anywhere.
Yeah, I would say so.
You're probably fine on thesawdust, yeah.
Equally, if you need to get out, there are doorways fairly
close and people can help youout and in.
You've just got to make sureyou get out and in.
Okay, on the wristbands, becausesome wristbands don't let you
get in and out certain places.
They have to be secure atcrafts.
Why?
Because there have been dogsand potentially poisoned or
(04:56):
stolen or all of those things inthe past.
So they are cautious and I knowthat makes you go, oh my god.
But be aware it's the biggestdog show of the year in the
world and dogs are valuable andpeople are, at times, morons,
and so you kind of got thecombination of really valuable
(05:17):
sort of potentially for somepeople, assets, because some of
these dogs are like part oftheir lineage and part of much
bigger programs, and so I thinkit's worth knowing that.
And then you've got the policedogs there, and then you've got
some of the other sort of teams,flyball, and definitely the
breed world, which is just sodifferent, and so that's where I
think they come into play.
The breed world's a bitdifferent.
That makes a lot of sense, yeah.
And so, yeah, security is there.
Wristbands on when you come in.
(05:39):
I personally you'll bookyourself in, so you'll go and
speak to them.
You'll say hi, they'll give youa course map.
You're going to send me thecourse map.
I'm going to say to you this iswhat I would do, instead of
handle it.
And I've already said to youI'm very happy to walk the
course with you when we're outthere, because actually we're in
the same class, aren't we?
Yes, how cool is that we're inthe same class.
So I've got little wild there.
Uh, wild is a youngster in herhead.
(06:00):
Really she's a young dog.
She's sort of she is four, butshe's very immature four, and so
for her it's great class to bein.
Novice should be a fairly flowy,fluid, fast, enjoyable course.
But who knows, because thejudges make up their own sort of
decisions on this.
We can't influence that and forme, novice should be a kind
course, should be an open courseand, most of all, if I was
(06:22):
going out there, the number onething I want to know is my dog's
happy and I give themconfidence.
So I want to know that I canback them or I can look after
them if, for any reason,something goes wrong.
Maybe there's a loud bang or anoise or something upsets them.
My number one focus is dog, soI don't worry about crowds and
I'm really not there for anyoneelse.
I'm only there for myself, mydog.
The eight o'clock performanceno one's going to be there.
It'll be really quiet, sothat's quite nice.
(06:42):
Um, other than our friends.
I was going to say our friendsare supposed to be going but it
won't be a busy performance,whereas the lunchtime
performance will be much busierbecause you've got the crowds
coming in.
So 8 30, you've got agilityfolk who are like cheering on
their friends.
At 12 30 you've got people whoare going to look and kind of go
, they want the dogs to go wrongbecause they find it funny.
So um 8 30, they get agility.
(07:03):
12 30 they don't get agility,they're just enjoying the ride.
Um, sorry, I mean agility as inthe game of agility, oh yeah,
yeah.
You've got people who just cometo watch, yeah, the fun of of
the sport, I suppose.
So that's lovely.
And then a couple of top tipsfor me.
I personally, um, don't give mydogs any heavy meal on the day
of an event.
I give them a lighter meal or asmaller meal or, um, definitely
(07:25):
not anything heavy.
And if I do give it to them,I'm way earlier.
Yeah, then they're going to beperforming because it's an eight
o'clock performance.
So for me I would give them alittle bit of something, but
nothing major on their tummies.
And again, for 12 30, my dogsearn a lot of their food anyway.
So because they earn a lot oftheir food, they're going to get
it throughout being in there.
So for the fact of I know,putting two feet on something or
doing a middle somewhere orhaving some photos and posing,
(07:46):
because they love all of thosethings, yeah, so I use some of
my food for that as well.
And another one I think this isreally important and you've got
your aok9 goodie bag that youcan take away with you later.
Thank you, um.
But another one that's a reallynice tip and I can see if I've
got any here for you, and Iannoyingly didn't order any, um,
I've only got my own here, butthe fresh drink.
So giving them a rehydrationdrink in between and making sure
(08:08):
they've had some electrolytedrink and for me electrolyte is
really important just to knowthat they're hydrated.
Well, because sometimes, whenthey're at competitions or
they're at a high stress event,they don't want to drink.
So actually preparing for that?
Yeah, because then they are, um, staying um and healthy.
So what's your next questionfor me?
If you've got any questions,and you can ask anything and
(08:29):
everything.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
No, I did come prepared with questions.
Definitely I love it she's gotquestions.
Yeah, I did.
I came prepared because I knewI had some things I wanted to
ask you.
So you touched on it reallybriefly earlier about people
being there to see the jumpingand agility.
So when you're actually in themain arena, like, what can you
see?
Speaker 1 (08:46):
like, can you see the audience?
Yeah, you can see everybodyaround.
You see, if you're in the arena, it's actually almost much
smaller.
When you're in the arena andyou look around, it's not nearly
as big as if you were on theoutside of it, almost.
So it's quite.
It is quite small.
You go through a tunnel always.
So you go through a tunnel,they'll tell you say you're
running first, they'll have youready, so you're running second,
third, which you are.
So when you're running a littlebit later, um, and I know
(09:06):
that's not late, but it iswithin a class of a smaller
class so they'll say, um, terry,they'll call you up and they'll
put you in your order so youknow when you're going in.
You cannot miss your runbecause they're there.
There is a practice jump.
So in the practice jump, okay,put the practice jump, just be
careful on not doing too many,and I'll give you an example
here.
So today, yesterday in fact, Ithought you know what I'm going
(09:28):
to get fit, and so this was mymind.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Two days before craft yeah, I thought I'm going to
get fit.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I'm like actually going to get fit.
I was like I've got some time.
I'm going to get on the pel myhead.
I had to actually have aconversation with myself why are
you getting fit two days beforethe event, lauren?
Because I've got time, I canreally get fit.
Right now I'm going to beastmyself.
No, let's not do that.
And I had to really talk myselfout of it as I was about to
jump on the bike and go with itfor like two hours.
Very, very funny, it's very,very busy today.
(10:01):
So I decided not to do that.
I talked myself out of it.
Similar to the practice jumpsome people do 20 of them.
Just one, two, three.
The other top tip and I lovethis tip if the practice jump is
there and say you've got like abackside or a check check or
you've got something on thecourse that you think I just
might need to prep that a little, just do one or two of them.
Yeah, so you prep that already.
Already.
(10:21):
Have your dog warm, yeah.
And in terms of warm-up, whenyou said, where can I warm up,
you can warm up behind there.
Walk trot, canter on lead.
If you need to do off lead,you're better outside there's
not a lot of off lead space buton lead space mine warm up doing
figures of eight and on leadwalk trot canter, I will do it
all in that space.
So take like a little hot waterbottle or a red light and I'll
(10:43):
put that down the muscle groups.
So I'll be putting that downthe muscle groups I love.
Just, a lot of people don't talkabout hot water bottles, but
main reason I think they don'tis that they're cheap and it
doesn't sell.
Like hot water bottles don'tsell.
They're not like a big, likeyou can sell this and people
can't make a lot of money out ofthem.
I think hot water bottlesfantastic thing for warm up, but
I think the reason that a lotof people don't tell you about
(11:03):
them is that actually they wantto sell you a tool and often
there is a tool for that.
Yeah, actually a hot waterbottle is one of the best ones.
Well, there's little small onesthat you can put down the back,
or a long one that you put downthe back.
I love a hot water bottle.
I heat it in the well, I heatit in the in the hotel
beforehand, or I bring a hotflask and then I, I have it
fresh, so it's not boiling, butit's hot enough to to keep you
(11:25):
want them warm?
Yes, yeah, and I always putthem in a coat, whether that's
back on track or uh, Ipersonally love back on track,
so I use back on track, butequally well, done you high five
, keep on it, keep ready.
No prep for you needed, um, andequally I will use any other
thermal sort of coats as well.
So, but do have them warm, Ithink that's really key.
And one or two practice jumps,and I do my one or two practice
(11:45):
jumps, I walk the course.
I'll do one or two practicejumps and I'll walk the course
again because that course willbe there until we start.
So that course will be setfairly early, so you'll have
time to walk it because there'snothing before us.
So actually you'll have time towalk it.
The second one will be slightlydifferent, there'll be more
timed, but the first one you'llhave enough time.
Second one you'll maybe once,twice, three times, and then
what they start to do is walkyou off the course, and they
(12:06):
walk you off the course.
Doing this, you have to get offthe course, but you don't
really want to be in there tillthey walk you off the course.
I could be, because I'm notrunning first height, yeah.
But because you're runningfirst height, you want to be
gone by then.
Yeah, by the time they'reclearing you off, you should
already have your dog and ready,yeah.
Whereas for me I would be thatin the next round, because I
think I go first in the secondround, potentially.
(12:26):
I think they put small firstthere, so they just do it in
high order.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
That makes sense.
Got any more questions?
Speaker 1 (12:38):
yeah, you've answered quite a lot of them already, so
, um, this is good, okay.
So what prep do you giveyourself before you go to class?
Really nice one.
So I did a podcast a couple ofweeks ago with a lovely lady
called linda.
You could definitely listen tothat podcast.
It's very much about mindsetand where your mindset is, and
I've also done a few with alovely, brilliant mental mindset
coach of mine uh, his name'sbill, and also justin.
They're all on sex and squirrel.
They're all completely free.
You can listen to them in thecar on the way up.
(13:01):
I love all of them and I've beena competitor for over 20 years
now, so a long time and Igenuinely don't get frazzled by
it and I'm really I'm good atbeing a competitor.
I'd much prefer being acompetitor than being a anything
else.
So if I had the choice judge orcompetitor or trainer or
anything else I love being acompetitor.
Those are my favourite things,like moments.
If I think about some of myfavourite moments, they were
(13:22):
winning Crufts with Blink orbeing on a podium with Venture,
or being on a podium with any ofour dogs.
It's so much fun to do thatcompetition round and then build
it and then win it too.
And I think it's worth sayingto you if you do win and it you,
you can come first, second,third, um, in that competition
and be brought in.
Sometimes they only bring infirst and second.
(13:43):
Sometimes they bring in first,second, third.
It depends on the class andwhat they're doing and how
they're presenting andeverything else.
But be ready and be with yourdog.
If your dog doesn't like otherdogs or photos, just be willing
to tell people that they don'tlike dogs.
And I think I'm fine to tellpeople this dog doesn't like
dogs.
Or I will sometimes say funnythings like um, yeah, she bites,
um.
Or she likes to give nosepiercings like she.
(14:04):
And so venture, is that doglike that?
She would like to pierceanother dog if she had a choice
because she will she will backinto a corner and then she
doesn't really have a choice, soshe will just go.
I don't like you.
Now.
I'd much prefer to be severewith someone and tell them this
dog doesn't like you.
She has never bitten a dog, shehas never pierced a dog's nose,
she has never done any of thosethings.
But I'd much prefer to tellsomeone than you've prepared.
(14:25):
So actually, although thatmight sound quite extreme.
I think that we should beadvocating for our dogs and then
by advocating for her, I'm alsoadvocating for you, because I'm
not then putting you and me ona podium together and having an
issue where he's going hi, lady,and she goes piss your nose,
and no one wants that.
No one wants that.
The owner of the dog doesn'twant that.
The owner of the other dogdoesn't want that.
None of the ring stewards orthe people at the event want
(14:46):
that.
Nobody wants it.
Nobody wants it.
It's just horrible.
So if your dog either likes ordoesn, dogs to yourself when
you're at the event, becauseultimately there's also probably
loads of disease going aroundbecause of things like kennel
cough and things like giardia,stuff like that, that's
everywhere so you just don'tevents like that.
You want to probably keep yourdog very much themselves.
(15:06):
I don't let them drink out ofpublic water bowls.
I don't let them drink out ofum all the stand bowls.
I definitely don't take themshopping.
A lot of people will take thedog shopping for me when I, when
I come in at eight o'clock.
They do their event, they gohome and then they come back
again and obviously my home isthe hotel room and then they
come back again.
Or if I'm not in a hotel room,they go back to the vehicle and
then they come back again.
And if I can't be in thatvehicle then I go back to
(15:26):
someone else's vehicle and thenthey come back again.
But I do give them their break.
I don't personally feel forlong.
It's a bit like a pressure pot.
So the arena is a pressure potand they just go pressure,
pressure, pressure, pressure andthey will explode at some point
.
A bit of a full bucket maybe.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Yeah, let's not give them a full bucket no, I'd
absolutely planned not to dothat with um with jasper
definitely take them out, givingthem a breather brilliant.
Um, what would you go back andtell your younger self for your
first time on the green carpet?
Speaker 1 (15:53):
enjoy every second.
It's really not that serious.
Don't take yourself tooseriously.
Tokyo would tell me this.
Right, don't take yourself soseriously, lauren.
Enjoy it all.
And the other one is breathe itin.
So sometimes when I love thisquestion, it's a lovely question
.
When I've got out there, I'verushed it, and that rush not
only compromises yourcompetition run but takes away
from your special moment.
But actually breathe it in,enjoy it.
(16:15):
There's lovely guys ring crewing, like my friend Nigel Rudd.
He ring crews there and Ialways see him and I always hope
I get him.
I'm always like I hope I gethim.
If you get the guy, nigel won'tmind me saying he's a shorter
guy and he's dark haired.
He's always got a beam on hisface.
He's called Nigel, I love him.
He's like one of my favouritepeople at the ring and it'll
(16:38):
always say follow me and off Igo.
And then I see um, the otherlovely guy who starts us off,
and then Rob, he, he gives youthe in your, in your own time or
when you're ready type thing.
For me I love seeing those guysbecause they kind of like
prepare your run.
But in all of those minutes orseconds, enjoy it.
Enjoy it.
We work really hard to getthere.
Our dogs are really precious.
You don't know when you'regonna have your last run.
You don't know where you'regonna have your last run.
(16:59):
You don't know what the futureholds for any of us.
Yeah, for me, savor it and sortof like almost taste.
It sounds odd, but like,breathe it in, look around, like
ground yourself a bit and, andyeah, enjoy that second and even
if it does go wrong, find, findthe joy in that moment.
Yeah, and also, don't talkyourself out of it.
Sometimes you talk yourself outof it accidentally by, like,
(17:22):
when you ask me about what doyou do for mindset?
Like, listen to upliftingpodcasts that talk about mindset
.
Um, talk myself into it.
Uh, explain all the positives.
If it's something I don't likeon the course, I find all the
things I do like on the courseand the bits I don't like, I
talk about how I can make itwork.
There's always a way around it.
It just might not be the wayyou planned.
There's always a way to do it.
Yeah, you just might not likethe way to do it.
(17:43):
And the other one, I think whatwould I tell my younger self
not to do so much shopping?
I'm not there for the shopping,like, you don't need the tack,
lauren, you really don't need tohave, you've got enough dog
coats.
Seriously, like, go and bethere for the event.
And I remember being a big event, olympia and I had two
Proseccos and a pizza and thenin the next run I fell.
It fell over because the dogran into my leg and my timing
was off.
Sparky, my timing was off.
I fell over, face planted intothe arena, head in the dust, my
(18:07):
bum was in the air.
The crowd was like squealingwith laughter and all I was
hoping for was someone wouldcome and cordon me off and take
me off like one of the ponies tosee a vet or something.
And I couldn't go and see a vet, obviously, because I was had
my head face there and I'm aperson, not a dog.
Um, but it was so embarrassing.
I was so embarrassed, but itwas all because I didn't really.
I was almost the other way.
I was taking it, I was nottaking it seriously enough.
(18:28):
I was enjoying pizza, I wasenjoying prosecco, I was having
a lovely time and suddenly myface was in the sand.
Um, because my timing was off,because ultimately, I really
wasn't concentrating, and so I'dsay there's a fine balance
between enjoying it, having abrilliant time, but also taking
it seriously enough, but nottaking it too seriously.
And and one of my, my bigtakeaways from owning um or
(18:50):
being owned by Tokyo was don'ttake yourself too seriously.
And I think there are momentsthat when you're younger, you
take it all so seriously, likeit's all so important and it is
and it's also there to enjoy,definitely.
And when you live through hardmoments like watching my dad or
losing my best friend, my dog I,you kind of those are the
(19:11):
moments you look back and reallycherish.
So don't rush them.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Don't rush them definitely breathe them in.
I think definitely.
What I'm taking away is um, youknow, we worked hard to get
there, we deserve to be thereand we're gonna enjoy it we are
not gonna worry too much aboutwhat happens on the day.
We're just gonna go and haveour give it our best shot.
But I also think.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
I also think tactics I was about to get your notes
back tactics.
I also think tactics.
Whilst you are going to giveyou best shot, I also think that
we can play tactics here.
Like there are tactics to behad and the tactics are you're
going for not getting eliminated, so you're going for a clear
round at best, but at worst youmight have 20 faults.
(19:50):
You can still, overall, placefor 20 faults and I think that's
important to know because ifyou get a pig of a course and
there's only sort of six dogs,four get eliminated and there's
two of you.
One gets 20 faults, one gets 25faults.
The one with 20 faults will win.
Yeah, I think that's importantto know because you're going to
get placed overall in thejumping, you're going to get
(20:11):
placed overall in the agilityand then the combined result is
your result.
So you get three chances ofwinning here or coming second
right.
Three chances and it's in six.
So actually you stand a reallygood chance of getting one of
those chances.
Play for the clear round.
If the clear round isn'tworking, as in something goes
wrong like a pole drops stillplay for the best time with the
(20:33):
pole dropped.
Yeah, as long as you're noteliminated, you still stand a
very good chance.
If you do get eliminated, okay,what's the next tactic?
Play for the next round andplay for the clear round.
The next round, because youstill stand a chance of a trophy
in that round, because you canstill stand a chance of first
and second.
If you've got faults in thatround, play for the clear here,
and a safe clear is still betterthan a faulted run and a
(20:54):
faulted run is still better thanme.
So you've always got your levelof sliding scale and you've
also got that level of whattactic am I playing?
That makes sense, yeah, no,yeah.
So you've got.
You've got tactics, so don't I?
I love the saying you were justout there to have fun, but for
me, you have way more fun whenyou win right, like it's so much
, don't get me wrong.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Like, isn't that everyone's dream?
Speaker 1 (21:14):
just to go there and win and yeah, and yet in a
minute we'll go and have a lookat some of the trophies and I'll
show you.
Like classic went there and didfirst in one round.
I think she won, I think shedid base, I think she did first,
first and first and hers wasabc um same thing, medium, abc
one, seven.
Same type of class.
It's a.
It's a combination class.
So you win one round, you winthe other round and then you're
over a winner, or you wouldn't.
(21:34):
You win the other round andthen you're over a winner.
Or you win one round, you'resecond in the other round,
you're over a winnerrealistically.
Or you get faults and you get awin.
You can still be the winner.
Like, there's lots of chancesto win and there's lots of
chances to podium and there'slots of chances to run around
that carpet.
Now quick one If you do end upon one of those podium spots
when you go in, you'll get stoodnext to another competitor.
(21:55):
I've been very, very fortunate.
It's funny I say fortunate.
The harder you work, theluckier you get right.
So the more you work at it, theluckier you get.
I think that's coincidental.
So that's why I didn't startworking out two days ago,
yesterday because I haven'tworked very hard at it, but I
have worked very hard at dogtraining, so my dog training is
sound, um, so you'll get calledin and they'll put the first
(22:16):
place and the second place andthey'll tell you what you are
and then you'll get presented.
And then they'll get presentedand then they'll ask for a lap
of honour Again.
Knowing whether a dog likes alap of honour or not, venture
hated the lap of honour, so whatI learned from that is I will
never do one again with her.
What I will do is take her abody.
Dub Blink could come instead ofher, or someone else could come
.
Typically, you can't do thatbecause you haven't got multiple
passes.
But what I suppose I'm sayingis don't put that dog in for
(22:39):
uncomfortable things, especiallynot if they're going to go
again in a minute, because if adog's going to be uncomfortable
here, they're going to run againhere.
Yeah, let's not make themuncomfortable, sure, and, to be
honest, let's not make our dogsuncomfortable for the sake of um
, a prestige event mr jasperloves doing a lap of honor.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
He regularly does them all on his own.
Unfortunately he'll have to beleaded for this one.
But you know, never mind hecan't have it all he loves,
he'll have already spent a fewminutes running around, so he
loves it.
I love that um, do you have anylittle lucky charms or
keepsakes or little rituals thatyou do to prepare yourself like
when you're going away?
Speaker 1 (23:14):
I think I don't have any lucky knickers or lucky
socks or anything crazy likethat, but I always love to be
sparkly, so I love to be, I loveto have something sparkly with
me, and that's.
I suppose I take pride in how Iwould appear somewhere like
that, not because I'm actuallyappearance conscious I'm really
not.
I don't wear makeup on aday-to-day basis.
I today I have hardly brushedmy hair, as you can see, like
(23:36):
I'm not someone who's um, aslong as you clean your teeth and
you had a shower, I'm all goodwith life.
I think for me, when you're ata prestige event, it's quite
nice to almost use as a anopportunity to really showcase
what you do and how you do itand who you are.
So I love having somethingsparkly around, a sparkly
hairband or a sparkly pair ofsocks or something sparkly.
Uh, I have a level of ritual inwhat I do, so my warm-up is a
(23:59):
ritual, matt is a ritual, havingmy setup is a ritual, my hot
water bottles ritual.
So I've got a lot of ritualsand I'm I have things like I
love a chai latte, so I'll havea chai latte in my mug and
things like that.
That would kind of settle me.
I suppose I hadn't even thoughtabout that.
Yeah, so have something thatsettles me.
So that for me is like acomfort thing.
It's in a pink mug.
I love it.
It makes me feel very, verycomfortable.
(24:19):
I've always got a warm coat onbecause I feel comfortable in
something warm.
I set up a little station whereyou take a cloth crate or a mat
or a pad or something your dogcan lie on, or a bed.
I'll take a soft crate and I'llhave a bed inside it and then I
can put her in it when I needto and she'll squawk and Matt
will have to cope with that.
(24:39):
And for me it's probably morethe ritualistic things like that
that I would do.
I don't.
I always make sure that I'mwell prepared and everything is
really ready there, but nothingso much lucky charms.
I did used to have likeprecious stones.
I would take with me thingslike um quartz and and pretty
(25:02):
color stones.
But actually I've kind ofalmost grown out of it a little
and now my biggest thing is togo there, be present, make sure
that I'm well timed, wellpresented, but like I've said to
you, I will always turn up aslate as I can into the event, I
don't know what it is.
I like that pressure moment.
I enjoyed the pressure.
There's a pressure level, but Idefinitely wouldn't encourage
that for you.
I would encourage for you toget in there as early as you can
(25:23):
without him and then go backand grab him.
So as early as the doors open Iwould aim for you to be in
there, register, get everythingready, because you've never been
in there before.
No, and do all of that becauseyou then know your pathway in.
For me, those things will feelvery, very familiar after like
10 years, 15 years of being inthere, yeah, and having done
that.
So for me, coming in as late asI can will be right for me and
(25:43):
my dog and the setup that we'rein.
But that isn't right for youand I think it's really
important you acknowledge thosethings.
But no, in terms of likekeepsakes, I'm not a big
keepsake.
I like to take things like mycards and stuff like that.
I've just had a really lovelybox delivered and I love that
because I've been doing it along time.
So sometimes it's notnecessarily the same thing as
when you've done it the firsttime.
Like for you I'm like lovelyfeeling, but when you've done it
(26:15):
lots of times.
I think people can forget thatit's still a big deal.
It's a really big deal, likeit's the highlight of my year
going to crufts and if I was topick crufts or Olympia, I'd pick
crufts every time.
I love crufts.
Why is that?
I think probably the fact thatall of your audience are dogs,
so you've got dog audience.
They're a dog driven audience,so you're not in a horse arena,
you're in a dog arena.
Second one was the AstroTurf.
I think my dogs perform waybetter on AstroTurf than Sand.
I much prefer it as a surface.
I think it's much.
I think it showcases what ouragility is in a really fun way.
(26:36):
I think the course is morereflective of what we see in
competition.
I think that it really is avery, very prestigious driven
dogs event and I've had reallygood history there.
So I've had lots of good wins.
I've had lots of good feeling.
I've had some of my mostemotional days.
I'm gutted I never got to takeTokyo there because I know that
(26:57):
he would have loved that arenaand he jumped so beautifully on
Astro, even jumped beautifullyon everything.
But I really love that arena.
I love all the crowds, I loveall the people around you.
It's just a great setup.
All of it's a great setup.
There's nothing.
There's nothing I don't likeabout crafts, the shopping but
I'm avoiding it like I know Idon't need dog tack.
(27:17):
I really don't, but I do lovethe shopping.
I do love the pilot's livethere how do you balance your
day?
Speaker 2 (27:19):
because I know obviously you have a lot going
on in your day with competing,and then you've got your stand
and then I was going to say, howdo you fit it all in with
shopping?
Speaker 1 (27:26):
but clearly, well, I typically would have shopped a
lot.
So I typically would haveshopped a lot and I will use it
as a little bit of marketresearch for our companies for a
canine, for absolute dogs, forDevon dogs, for holiday lets,
for all of what we do and forthe fact that we do dog friendly
holidays, for the fact that wedo, um, we've got lots of
companies which is is really, um, again, really fortunate to
have to be in that position.
(27:47):
But what I've learned is themore I go shopping on a day
where I'm competing, the lessI'm focused on my competing.
So actually I'm not there toshop.
I have to remind myself thatyou, lauren, you're not here to
shop, you're really not here toshop, and if you want to do
shopping, do it on the next day.
So actually remind myself to goanother day if I want to shop.
Yeah, and I think that's quiteimportant not to not to put
yourself in a position where youare almost compromising while
(28:11):
you're there, and I have in thepast compromised one that the
olympia example is a great one.
Basically, when I had too manyprosecco's and then ran and felt
like that was not the cleverestmove and I'm not a drinker at
all, I mean I drank like twoglasses, maybe one and a half,
but that's enough for me to beoff focus and I just thought I
was treating myself, butactually being aware that you're
not treating yourself whenyou're at a performance event.
You're there to perform, sogive you and your dog the best
(28:32):
chance If you're going to shop,shop after 12.30.
So wait for your run and thengo shopping and celebrate and I
think it is nice to celebrate,but give your dog the best
chance to run.
So I would do no shoppingbefore the second run.
Sure.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
You mentioned about having a station.
I'm assuming that's backstage.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Yeah, about having a station, um, I'm assuming that's
backstage.
Yeah, so behind those blackdoors you can go in and set
yourself up with a station.
So for me, wherever you're mostcomfortable, find a corner.
I tend to find a corner with noone else in it if I've got a
reactive dog or a nervous dog ora dog who wants to greet
everyone.
The dog I'm taking is reallyfriendly and fine, so I feel
quite comfortable in that.
I actually feel reallyuncomfortable when I take a
nervous dog in thoseenvironments because, although I
can handle it, it's a lot ofpressure.
I'm taking a really happy littledog.
(29:10):
I love that.
I'm taking a real happy, golucky, easygoing dog.
Touch wood, she's never shutdown on me.
A lot of spaniels do shut down.
They've got shut down and thenthey go to run and they'll stop
and they'll stall on you.
She doesn't have that in her.
She's very, very like, ifanything, I won't be able to
hold her and start line, butthat's fine and I know what
we're dealing with, at least forme.
I'll set her up in a space whereI put a crate up.
(29:31):
I'll pop the crate up.
I'll have my fresh there.
I'll have my treat pouch.
You've got a treat pouch inhere it's a blue one and I'll
have nice food in that.
I'll normally take likesomething really high value, but
not liver, nothing awfullysomething like venison or
chicken or beef or lamb or um,something, something tasty.
And I've always got fresh foodfor them because I think fresh
food.
So it's hydrating rather thandrying, so I don't take dried
(29:52):
food or dried treats.
And then I'll have a hot waterbottle, maybe my laser or my red
light or whatever I might beusing to warm them up or to help
warm them up.
I've got my lead, my collar, myharness, everything I'm going
to use.
My dogs won't.
They've got really lovely,sparkly collars.
I don't put them on in thearena as much as they look nice.
My dogs aren't used to runningin them.
So because they don't run inthem typically, I won't put
anything extra jangly on them.
(30:13):
I want them to be able to runnormally so they'll wear their
normal collars.
But maybe if they're havingphotos they can have the really
posh collars, but not forrunning.
They're not used to wearingthem.
(30:35):
Them don't put it near wherethe practice jump is, because
you're gonna have loads of dogsjumping at you so you'll see
where the practice jump is.
Practice jump is not big andit's not a lot of space, so
there's not a lot of room there.
So just be a little bit mindfulof that and are you?
Speaker 2 (30:49):
are you set up for the day?
I mean, obviously you take yourdog, but in and out, so you're
different.
But um are other people setthere for the the whole morning
whilst they're doing their?
Speaker 1 (30:56):
I think, looking at how busy it is or isn't, you're
fine to leave it there.
I typically would say on athursday, you're fine on a
sunday or not.
So on a sunday, when it's bestin show day, which next year,
they flip the champ days eachyear.
Next year it'll be the largeday and then they flip it each
time.
So Sunday when you're competing, no, there's no space, it is
rammed because of best in show.
Most days there is space.
I would never leave wateranywhere so that people could
(31:17):
put things in it, just paranoidabout poisoning, and I know that
sounds silly, but I've justexperienced some of the worst
things you might experience withdogs and I feel just protect
yourself.
I would never leave anythingthat's valuable or anything that
someone can dispose of easily,whereas I would leave a crate
and I would leave their bed.
That'd be fine, and other thanthat, I'd take it with me.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Yeah, any more questions.
Yeah, you touched briefly on.
You like to wear sparkly things.
Um, it's kind of the bestfootwear, do you think?
Speaker 1 (31:43):
interesting whatever you're comfortable running here
on the astroturf, so I wouldpractice whatever you're running
on and use that on the carpet.
So ideally, what you use on theastroturf so whatever you're
using here here is the sameastroturf as there.
So you're going to use the sameastroturf, so you've already
run on the surface.
It's not a different surfaceand I think that's really nice.
The other thing we're going todo tonight is we're going to
show you that panel jump.
(32:04):
So we're going to get thatpanel jump out.
So you've seen the panel jump,because a panel jump can
sometimes throw a dog as well.
So make sure we get that outbefore you finish here tonight.
Brilliant any more for any more.
I think I've covered everythingthat I wanted to ask.
I love it that you've coveredit.
I want you to feel reallyprepped.
I'm very happy to walk thecourse with you.
Brilliant, I'm very happy to umshow you around all the
different spaces that I've umexperienced and seen and know
(32:26):
and and want to um show you when, when I see anything, really
happy to have any questions oncourse particularly on course, I
think there's often questionsand also, when you send the
course plan, very happy toanswer any questions.
When you send the course planover and you send both of them,
you'll get both of them in themorning, so they'll both come,
but don't even look at thesecond one no, no, only just get
your first one in your head,just do your first one, don't
even look at the second.
(32:46):
You can't do anything about itanyway.
So there's no point almostknowing it and in terms of
agility, there's no final.
So remember, it's jumping andagility, but there's no final,
so you're only going to run thisagility once.
So if you need to blast things,like release things as early as
you need to, or whatever youneed to do, but ultimately,
remember it is a clear roundcompetition and so ultimately,
clear round is what counts.
(33:06):
So don't do it at the expenseof a clear round.
Go round to get a clear round.
Yeah, if you get a clear round,you're standing in a good space
yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
And how far away do you park?
Because that's another thingthat's a really good one to know
quite a while, I think.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
The parking, depending on where you're parked
.
You can never guarantee whereyou're parked, but the parking
could be anywhere between 5 and20 minutes.
So I would say 15 15 minutesbefore you're actually at the
door.
So that is from car parking todoor.
So I just use that as a reallygreat warm-up.
It's just a warm-up.
It's toilet break.
Have as many wheeze as you canget out of your bladder.
Let's take every one of them.
The dog so yeah, me and the dog.
Actually it's something to know.
(33:41):
The toilets as you come out,there's toilets both sides.
I don't know what I'll be likethis year, but every year in the
past I find myself in thetoilet a lot, and it's not that
I'm nervous, but my body must bein that heightened state of
arousal.
So every time I find myself inthose toilets.
So I'm often in those toilets.
So, yeah, being aware of uh,toilets are there and I just
literally don't even need a wee.
I'm just there because I feellike it's your, it's your body
(34:03):
preparing.
You're in that fight and flightmode.
Yeah, so you've taken yourselfinto that and and and often I
can't eat breakfast.
And it's not that I'm scared ornervous or anything, it's just
your, your arousals up.
So you're in that arousal space.
Yeah, makes sense.
And remember, your dog knowsnothing other than they're out
there with you.
So you advocate for them, youprotect them, you look after
them in every scenario.
You don't let them greet newdogs head to head, you don't let
(34:23):
them do fluffy photos with withchildren, unless, like, you
really need to.
I think.
Just be aware that you're inthere for that short time with
your dog, protect them, advocatefor them and then get them back
out of there, because thatevent is a lot of pressure for a
lot of dogs in a small space,and although it isn't a small
space, it is with the amount ofdogs that are in there.
So, um, just be mindful that andmindful that a lot of people
don't handle their dogs like youdo.
(34:44):
So the show dogs or the flyball dogs or the other dogs all
have their own etiquettes.
They'll be different to theagility dogs.
So just kind of be mindful, andfor me, I just always keep my
distance on other dogs.
It's just a bit safer,brilliant, happy, yes.
So after this, are you happy tocome back and do another one
where you tell us how it's allgone.
Oh yes, well done Terry.
(35:05):
Good luck, I think it's gonna beamazing but you've got your
goodie bag, your goodie bag togo, and if there's anything at
all, you know where I am.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Brilliant.
Thank you very much.
Thanks for having me.
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