The Southern Lancashire Heeler Owners

Fun, friends, and support for all Lancashire Heeler owners!

SLHO AGILITY DAY

The first Southern Lancashire Heeler Owners agility day was held in September, it was a good opportunity for heeler owners that partake in agility with their dogs, to talk to like minded people and compare notes about the triumphs and trials of training a heeler for agility. The day was attended by 6 heelers, with four handlers and one Doberman x GSD.Our instructor was Mike Bacon who proved to be very adaptable, managing to accommodate the wide range of abilities.

We all went away having learnt something.

Carol Fallen`s two heelers Larnie (10 yrs) and her son Oliver compete regularly at UK Agility shows. Larnie despite her advancing years was enthusiastic throughout and had a permanent smile on her face. Carol had to learn to run a little further On left hand turns and do some nifty cross over’s as Larnie likes to be on `mums` left. Oliver who can suffer from motivation issues also went well.

Julie Coleman`s Percy who has actually only been learning agility for 1 ½ months went very well, although being the only entire male there, he had his wayward moments when he went to check out some interesting smell! Julie coped well and soon had him back under control. Percy was very confident on the equipment and showed just how intelligent and quick to learn heelers are.

Sue Keen`s 2yr old Hogan has being doing agility for only 8 months. Hogan is a fantastic little dog with great scope; he could have cleared standard 2’ jumps let alone the 1’ jumps required by the small dogs. We could have a star for the future competition scene.

Jess Flanagan`s 2 ½ year old bitch Thistle was very whizzy, obviously showing of to all the handsome Heeler boys present. She has been doing agility since she was 12 months and her `cycle’ normally has a profound effect on her enthusiasm. Although she always does the obstacles at top speed she will sometimes go as slow as possible in the `in between bits’!

Jess`s other heeler Flaxley( a rescue dog) started agility 3 years ago and was doing well until an unfortunate incident last year shattered his confidence, since then he has just rolled over and refused to move. Flaxley found his confidence again on our agility day, maybe it was the company of fellow heelers! He was back on form and tried his little heart out. Since this training day Jess entered him in an agility class at a local show and he came 3rd!

Jess`s 5 ½ year old Doberman x GSD Kulu lives for agility and enjoyed her quick blast round a higher course at the end. Every heeler went home with a clear round rosette and Percy was awarded the `Heeler of the Day’ rosette. The agility session was followed by a light lunch at Julie`s where the dogs all got on very well and played in the garden and watched `guinea-pig TV’. Then a walk along sand bay, where Hogan showed everyone how fast he can go-even beating Kulu to the ball. All the dogs went home tired and happy with `Weston super mud’ caked in their fur, not a peep was heard out of any of them that evening-bliss!

View all the pictures

The next agility day will be on the 3rd February 2008.