Clash of the K9s -An Intro to this Worldwide Sporting Dog Event

Recently some of our sponsored pack members entered “Clash of the K9s”, a fantastic event where borders and breed are no boundary. Keeley, one of the Sporting Dogs England team tells us about the event:

“Clash of the K9s is a large organised event spread across several countries where any breed can compete, there are 5 disciplines the dogs have to complete.

Track mill; track mill is a very basic discipline, it’s a continuous string held high from the ground attached to 2 wheels on poles and a bag tied to the string, the handler uses a peddle or remote to move the bag around in the air so the dog runs back and forth, the distance of each run is 100 ft or about 30 mtrs, they do this for 7 mins and each run counted, your score is how many runs the dog gets in 7 mins.

A-Frame
A-Frame
A-Frame and long jump are disciplines that more people are familiar with as they are common at agility events although the way we score a-Frame is how many overs in 60 seconds and the dog has to complete 3 rounds. The dogs score is all 3 A-Frames together. Long jump is how far the dog jumps in 7 mins divided by the dogs body height and then X 10,

High Jump Canine Athletics
High Jump
Then we have high jump where the dogs have to jump up and grab a toy, they get 7 mins to get the best height they can, the distance jumped is then divided by the dogs body height and then X by 10.

Lastly we do tug of war where dogs are paired with dogs of similar ability and weight, each dog gets a toy and they hold on for a max of 20 mins, points are scored for how long (up to a max of 20 mins) a dog will hold on for.

The competition isn’t generally for your average pet dog; all the dogs that compete are trained to a high standard of fitness and ability.
Sporting dogs England who are sponsored by Akela took part in the event and placed well worldwide against 168.
We are hoping this competition gets bigger every year, all breed events are rare and it is even rarer to have a competition in several countries on the same weekend with live results.”

For more info on the competition visit: http://www.clashofthek9.com

Yet More Akela Fuelled Agility Stars Join Our Sponsored Pack

After feeding Akela and seeing the benefits for her agility dogs, Blyth approached us for sponsorship for her and her dogs. With such a great record at just 19 it was hard to say no. We will let Blyth introduce herself…

“My name is Blyth Fox, I am currently 19 years old and studying at Solihull College. Studying Animal Welfare and Behaviour foundation degree through Oxford Brookes.

Akela Sponsored Member Blyth Fox
Akela Sponsored Member Blyth Fox

Akela Sponsored Member Blyth FoxI currently own two dogs. My first dog is Rosie a five-year-old Jack Russell Terrier. Rosie is my first agility dog. We started training when she was 15 months and after a year we competed at our first show. In one season, we went from grade 1 to grade 7! We have now been competing for three years. Within these three years we have made the YKC agility at Crufts three years running and in 2017 we gained second place in the senior jumping. Last season we came third in the Adams show off jumping cup final. We have also attended the UKA finals for two years.

Akela Sponsored Member Blyth FoxMy second dog is Roo who is a 20-month-old Working Cocker Spaniel. He had his first show in January and won up to grade four. He is still very young and has a lot still to come! “

We look forward to seeing Blyth’s future developments and wish her all the best for 2017.

New Sponsored Pack Member – Gilli Sayer

We are pleased to announce our latest sponsored pack member – Gilli

“I’ve had dogs for 28 years and got involved in agility, like many others as a result of having horses and running the dogs over the horses show-jumping courses. At first I only had the two dogs, a collie cross and a lurcher but soon progressed into more competitive agility and got my first full collie, Jago who was the love of my life and my soulmate. Jago adored agility and won me out of Starters in 2002 but sadly had to retire from competitive agility at 8 due to arthritis caused by hip dysplasia.

Ludo, one of my current oldies became my first grade 7 dog in 2010 and nursed me through my first few champ classes. Ludo is now largely retired but with the aid of good nutrition still enjoys his agility in Veteran classes and his beach and park runs with the other dogs.

Tico at Crufts
Tico at Crufts – photo with kind permission from Yulia Titovets
About the same time, Tico arrived from Morgans Rescue in Cumbria and showed that she had already read the agility book from cover to cover and was way ahead of me. She reached Grade 7 within her first 6 months of competition and very soon proceeded to qualify me for Olympia and Crufts amongst other finals, including winning the Darleague. She took the electric atmosphere of Olympia and Crufts in her stride, quite obviously playing to her public and won the British Open at her first Crufts outing, beating the times of both the large and small dogs with such experienced handlers as Greg Derrett. She took second place to Natasha Wise and the amazing Dizzy at her first Olympia outing and thoroughly enjoyed her time on the KC stand, meeting and greeting the public. From thereon in we have had further Crufts and Olympia visits, each time coming away with at least a top three rosette. She really is a dog in a million.

My household currently consists of ten dogs with another 2 regular visitors. Of those, 3 currently do competitive agility with another 2 who love to run but are retired competitively due to age so just do veteran classes so that they don’t feel left out. The other 5 are what I call sofa surfers who have run at some point in their lives but for various reasons I don’t feel it is in their best interests to compete anymore. However each and every one of them deserve the best in nutrition to enable them to keep an active and healthy life.
My oldest Bob, who apparently has been 14 for the past few years, lost a hind leg at 18 months due to a road accident. Due to the inevitable arthritis onset caused by the wear and tear on his remaining legs I didn’t expect him to even still be with me by the age of ten but he still insists on his daily walk with the youngsters, duly taking on his puppy sitting duties with a big beaming grin when Sprout, Jana’s beardie x border collie puppy comes round to play. I believe that giving him the best nutrition possible has contributed greatly to his longevity and hope that it will continue to allow him to have a good quality of life for many more years to come. I also hope that my other dogs will have a similarly good quality of life and longevity due to good nutrition and with that in mind, my dogs are all fed on Akela.”

Morgans rescue are part of the Akela Rescues Club.

Gilli's Pack
Gilli’s Pack

Akela “Highly Commended” by Your Dog Magazine readers

It can be hard swimming against the flow, which is how it has sometimes felt here at Akela. We believe in our food, independent nutritionists believe in our food and dog owners are joining our pack by the hour. With money going into ingredients rather than an expensive marketing allowance it can be hard to get noticed.

So when our pack members rallied together and voted for us in the Your Dog Magazine Award we were absolutely over the moon. We really feel this is a sign of things to come; an award that has always been dominated by a grain-based diet finally recognising the benefits of grain-free and high meat diets.

At time of writing we are still the number 1 dog food on eDogAdvisor (based on customer reviews) and we have the 5/5 from AllAboutDogFood (based on nutritional content of the food). We have also just come back from a fantastic Crufts following the launch of more products in our range – what will the rest of 2017 hold – we cannot wait to find out!

Akela Dog Food Award