Sam and her pack join the Akela team

As our sponsored pack continues to grow, Sam Bowman tells us a little about herself and her dogs:

Ollie_1“I am 32 years old and work in the Software Industry. I have a 4 year old daughter, and 9 dogs (plus cats, a parrot and some small pets!) I started in agility approx. 4 years ago. I am now also a KC judge for agility, and a measurer. I currently run 2 dogs, Patch, my 4 year of rescue JRT, and Ollie my 2 year old rescue. I have Oscar who will start competing later in the year and 14 week old cocker spaniel Brook who will start her foundation training shortly.
Patch
I first found out about Akela last year when Patch qualified for the Dog Agility Rescue League (DARL) finals at Grade 1/2. He went on to win the final and I was lucky enough to win a bag, from that time on I have fed it to my dogs and they all do extremely well on it, what is especially nice is my very small dogs can have the Small Paws and they do not choke which they have done previously where the kibble is too large. Patch also qualified and placed 10th at the UKA Grand Finals last year. This year we are aiming to now get his final wins to Grade 6.

Ollie is very very talented, but very hard work, he is a wild child and has had a couple of jumping wins and last week won an agility at Derbyshire Premier Show, he is very fast and is having to learn to work his brain as fast as his legs. Next year we will be focusing on Crufts qualifying classes.

Oscar

Oscar is still a pup and will be able to compete in agility at 18 months at KC shows. He was bred to be a ratter but his breeder was unable to keep him.
Brook

Finally we have Brook, a 14 week old Cocker. She loves her Fish Feast! She will be starting foundation agility very soon but before then will be doing some filming for a TV commercial, what a star!”

Agility Champion Borderpaws Secret Surprise

Our sponsored handler Martin Reid has finally found a moment between his runs to tell us more about his dogs and his current successful streak;

Akela dog food
Martin with Spring & Flash and their favorite fuel, Akela.

“I started agility around 11 years ago with my first agility dog Moss, he wasn’t the easiest dog to train he was rescued from Ireland as a puppy. He took me from grades one to six, he is now retired but still likes doing bits of time to time!

I currently compete with my two dogs Flash and Spring, Flash is a 7 year old border collie and Spring is a 3.5 year old Border collie. Over the past couple of years since being on Akela Flash has won two championship tickets, competed at Crufts on three different occasions with his best result a 3rd place in the Singles Final, competed at Olympia twice in the senior finals and competed internationally in Belgium and Luxembourg picking up some podium positions.

Spring flying

Spring in his short time of competing has won up to grade 7 within a year, competed at Crufts in 2016, won the novice agility Olympia stakes final, won three championship tickets giving him the title of Agility Champion and has been selected to represent Great Britain at the European Opens 2016.

Successful Spring & Martin

We have many more competitions coming up in the rest of 2016, these include Championship classes, more qualifiers for Crufts 2017 and the Olympia Stakes quarter finals. In July Spring and I are also off to France to compete at the European opens 2016 to represent GB.”

We wish Martin all the best for this year and the future!

Daisy~Mae

Daisy~Mae is my 3 year old Japanese Chin. Ever since she was a puppy she has always thrived on learning, she picks things up and learns so quickly that she is such an easy little dog to train in that respect. I decided that when she was old enough I would start agility training with her, if anything for mental stimulation and of course it’s good exercise for her and myself 😉 Most people associate agility with larger dogs and most people associate Japanese Chins as purely just show dogs! I started out training her at home with some foam equipment, Daisy~Mae being my first dog this was just as new to me as it was to her. Once I had taught her some basics we then joined an agility club where we have been training now for about 2 years. I have a friend who also runs a Japanese Chin and as far as I know we are the only two people in the country to train and run with Japanese Chins currently. I generally do agility training for fun but we have entered a few competitions of which her first one she came in at an amazing second place and we have also run as a pairs with my friends Japanese Chin and hope to do more of this in the future.
Jumping
I started Daisy~Mae on Akela Wholeprey about a year ago. It truly was the best thing I ever did. She can be quite a fussy eater and with this in mind I did a lot of research on different brands of dog food. With this knowledge and learning that what I was feeding her on was not as good nutrionally as I thought it was I decided to look for something that was much better for her. I ordered a free sample of Akela Wholeprey to try her with and she absolutely loved it!! She especially LOVES the newer flavour Suffolk Duck and I love the fact that all mouth sizes are catered for. Being a toy dog the ‘small paws’ kibble is just perfect for her and I know she is getting everything she needs nutrionally and it’s not costing half as much as her previous food. So that can only equal one happy dog and one very happy dog mum 🙂
A-frame
Thank you Akela!!

Planning for Crufts 2016

Crufts celebrates its 125th year this year – that’s 875 in dog years!

We are pleased to say we are going to have our first ever stand at the event and we have lots of planning still to do. We know we have new products – more than you can count on two paws – and new merchandise to show you but we are still working hard on our plans for a goody bag and other show offers.

We hope to meet lots of our pack there in between their agility and obedience work and also find some new members. With so many wonderful stands to visit we know people can be pushed for time, but we are making plans to ensure a stop to see us will be well worth it – so we will expect to see you there.

Akela at discover dogs
Our very popular Discover Dogs stand in 2015