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Here’s Sophies story: We got Gabby the German Spitz for Sophie when she was 5 and Gabby was a 9 month old rescue from Hearing Dogs for the Deaf.  They started competing at UKA in April 2005 and got two clear rounds!! but unfortunately after that Gabby got a lot faster and naughtier and the next clear was a long time coming.  Our dogs wouldn’t run for Sophie which is why we got Gabby but as Sophie got more experienced from running Gabby we decided to enter her with my advanced dog Breeze (Fantastic Elastic) and Ian’s novice dog Skye (Havocsmill Sixth Sense) at Dogs in Need.

Sophie then 6 and Breeze got a 3 rd and a 5 th and Skye got 2 clears which was a real boost for Sophie as Gabby was still being very difficult although they have won a couple of 8” casual jumping classes at UKA and had a 7 th in Mini Starters Jumping at the KC Festival.  At Chippenham in September Sophie won the YKC Qualifier, it was a really tricky course for juniors and she was the only clear round – 2 nd place was on 10 faults – and qualified for Crufts.  Sophie turned 7 in December (same age as Breeze) they haven’t done much since Chippenham as we don’t do winter shows but Toni Dawkins is giving her a lesson in a couple of weeks to polish her up for the big day.  Sophie wrote to Blue Peter telling them about her dogs and won a Blue Peter Badge.