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Heelwork to Music Handlers
Kate Nicholas
Kate currently specialises in Canine Freestyle and Flyball, but her family’s kennel of dogs also have success in the show ring, obedience, agility and working trials and their Labradors carry out gundog duties at the local shoot!
The Coedllwynog kennel currently consists of:
- 2 Working Sheepdogs
- 2 Labradors (Black and Yellow)
- 1 German Spitz
- 1 Jack Russell cross
- 4 Welsh Terriers
October 2010 update
Kate writes…… Ice (Kate’s youngest Working Sheepdog) won Intermediate Heelwork to music at the Ynys Mon HTM show making her into Advanced in Heelwork to Music as well as Freestyle.
Twist also won Novice Heelwork to music at his 2nd ever HTM show and last weekend Gin and Ice's Flyball teams both won their divisions with Ice's team getting a new fastest time and Ice clocking her fastest ever time of 3.9 seconds.
Ice and Twist have also qualified for Crufts 2011 in YKC Obedience.
Twist has won his first Novice and Ice has her first two Class A wins this year in Obedience.
Ice has also won into Grade 3 in Agility in our first year competing.
How Canine Freestyle started for Kate and her dog Gin ……….
Gin was a 6 week old surprise for Kate when she was nine years old and she taught Gin tricks to keep her focused when not training or competing in other dog sports.
Kate was first introduced to Canine Freestyle at 13, whilst at Young Kennel Club - where she and Gin attended and enjoyed training classes in Canine Freestyle.
After about two years of training in her back garden, "Just to relieve mine and Gin’s boredom on those long summer days”, and doing demonstrations for the Young Kennel Club, friends from other dog sports encouraged her to find the time to enter a Canine Freestyle competition.
In July 2006 they attended their first competition and to Kate’s surprise were placed 1st. She was also amazed at the amount of positive comments they both received.
This inspired Kate to enter more Canine Freestyle competitions and she and Gin have been placed 1st in the five competitions they have been in and are quickly making their way to advanced.
So, as Kate says, "Maybe one day you will see me and Gin in the Canine Freestyle Final at Crufts.”
The biggest or most memorable success so far?
As she and Gin are both still fairly new to the Canine Freestyle scene Kate says she would say their most memorable success was performing at Crufts in the Young Kennel Club ring and performing Canine Freestyle in front of Simon Cowell, Pierce Morgan and Amanda Holden and receiving a standing ovation in Britain’s Got Talent in January 2008.
Other successes ……. its flyball too
Kate’s biggest and most enjoyable successes outside Canine Freestyle are in Flyball with her two Working Sheepdogs and last year Gin’s flyball team (Livewires) competed in division one at the British Flyball Championships and were crowned the British Flyball Champions 2007.
As Kate says, "This result just reflects the dedication of team members and how strong our team bond is with a whole lot of laughs thrown in for good measure.”
Also both Collies competed at Crufts 2007 in the Warrington Wizards Flyball team.
And when not competing or training……
It seems that dogs really are Kate’s whole world – when not competing or training she’s at college studying for a National Diploma in Animal Management. Kate lives in Shropshire.
"We have been feeding CSJ for about two years now when our fellow flyball team mate (Susan Mcdermott) became a CSJ Stockist. Since using CSJ our feed bills have been greatly reduced as well as getting a better product for our money. This has been greatly reflected by the overall condition of the entire kennel with all dogs having a gleam to their coats even the golden oldies. Before feeding CSJ we had problems with some of our dogs being fussy eaters, this has since changed and all ten dogs can’t get enough of CSJ.” Kate Nicholas
You can find out more about Kate and Gin on her website.
Twist and Ice
Ice flyball dog intermediate
Ice wins
List of all Heelwork to Music Handlers
Steph Rendall
Steph has held her Heartside affix since 1981. She has taught Flyball from 1994 and has also taught Obedience.
Find out more
Kate Nicholas
Coedllwynog Kennel.
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