East

This is hard to choose!!!! Non-sporting memory has to be East, sleeping on my bed, curled up as I sat up wide awake with my newborn daughter when she was 2 weeks old. I remember this so clearly, those days and weeks after giving birth are so intense and so sleep deprived. But I remember East being a rock of stability in my life during a turbulent time. He took all the changes in his stride, without hesitation or surprise, he was just so adaptable to life's changes. That night, curling up on my bed as I sat with a newborn, just felt like him knowing I needed a few extra cuddles at that time!

Our favourite sporting moment? Probably from 2025, when we were competing in Intermediate Freestyle. I had put in a move where East runs through my legs and continues running straight away from me and faces out. It's a technical move and requires trust and training. It was the first time I'd put something like that into a routine, so when I cued it a little bit of me was braced that it wouldn't go the way it had been doing in training. But thankfully East confidently performed his part. I then walked to my prop and stepped on it, but in my haste and relief that it was going well I misjudged my step and fell over! Real smooth. I got up, looked at East and he was looking at me from the otherside of the ring like "what are you doing?" I chuckled for the rest of the routine and thoroughly enjoyed it after that!

East has been competing in Heelwork To Music for 2 full seasons and in that time he has won up from Novice to Advanced in both Kennel Club divisions (Freestyle and Heelwork To Music).

In 2024, East won Heelwork To Music Dog Of The Year and came second in Freestyle Dog Of The Year for his 2023 Novice season.

He has been selected to be a part of the Team GB Squad for three years in a row.

In 2025, East won into Advanced for both divisions, competed in his first semi final qualifier and got the invite to the semi finals!

We began 2026 preparing for the semi finals, going into it for 'the experience' and then coming 7th and winning a slot at the 2026 final at Crufts!

Our Crufts 2026 main arena appearance will only be our fourth time competing at Advanced level!

I'm a 30 something, mum of two, dog trainer who lives in the middle of nowhere in Mid Wales. I definitely shouldn't have time for dog sports, but training my own dogs is my brand of self care and learning together keeps us all happy.

I love Heelwork To Music as there is always something new to train, you've never learnt it all. Something new to try, a new way to use a move or something completely different to figure out. Beyond the individual moves, Heelwork To Music takes a huge amount of your personality and puts it on show - the music, the props, the choreography - its all your ideas as there is no set way to do things. I love this, as different partnerships can take the same music or theme and produce something completely different.

Show days are always fun, the community is supportive and everyone genuinely wants it to go well for those in the ring. The sport is filled with wonderful, creative and fun people, I'm always so happy to see friends when show weekends arrive.

East loves training, he enjoys learning new things and he loves the process of learning routines. He can almost hear what I'm thinking sometimes and in those moments there is such a special connection between us.

Performing, learning and training for any dog sport means you need your dog to be fit, healthy and well. But particularly with Heelwork To Music, we are asking so much from our dogs, it's a physical sport! Antinol is a big part of that for East, to ensure he is as his best and that I am giving him the best support.