Help … I’m a newbie at Crufts …..

So I'm joined by the wonderful Terry . Terry , it's your first time at Crufts this week . It's your first time ever . It's been a lifelong dream . Tell me about it .

So I got my first dog probably about 10 years ago now , so yeah , and you're going to crafts .

He's not the easiest dog to train but he's absolutely wonderful , he's keen and he loves it and I just want him to have so much fun and he loves it .

Yes , so you're used to the green carpet yes , the green carpet , although it is going to be a big thing , because when you get there you'll look around you and you'll be like wow , I'm really here . You've actually practiced already . You've rehearsed a bit of the green carpet walk and the swagger that you kind of get when you go in there , right ?

That was my first ever KCI as well , so that was also exciting and terrifying at the same time . And so , yeah , so here we are . Here we are on our first ever .

In a minute I'll let you quiz me on some questions , but what have been some of the things that have almost made you a little bit fearful , a little bit scared , a little bit anxious , maybe a little bit worried about going to Crufts ?

Don't put them on too loose , because they think you're going to share them with people . They think you're going to do dodgy things . Put them on properly and show them your wristband . Give them a flash of the wristband . They'll open those two doors for you and you'll get treated like royalty because you have a dog that should be in that main arena .

So they really do open and close . It's a door service . Now , behind there you've got coffee that is for like helpers , but outside you've got coffee station immediately there and they've also got like a sawdusty sort of toilet area . Now , my dogs typically don't like that . They want to wee outside or they want to go to the toilet outside .

So I always make sure I toilet them really , really well beforehand . So they've been to the toilet . Everything's fine when I bring them in . I try and bring them in as late as possible . I get my own myself ready , but I don't actually bring the dog until I . I need them , but you don't want to be too far off .

So if you've got a dog that's like an anxious weir or a dog who does need to wee , then you probably do need to either use a sawdust or find quick exits . But more boy dogs typically will be anywhere . Yeah , I would say so . You're probably fine on the sawdust , yeah .

Equally , if you need to get out , there are doorways fairly close and people can help you out and in . You've just got to make sure you get out and in . Okay , on the wristbands , because some wristbands don't let you get in and out certain places . They have to be secure at crafts . Why ?

Because there have been dogs and potentially poisoned or stolen or all of those things in the past . So they are cautious and I know that makes you go , oh my god .

But be aware it's the biggest dog show of the year in the world and dogs are valuable and people are , at times , morons , and so you kind of got the combination of really valuable sort of potentially for some people , assets , because some of these dogs are like part of their lineage and part of much bigger programs , and so I think it's worth knowing that .

And then you've got the police dogs there , and then you've got some of the other sort of teams , flyball , and definitely the breed world , which is just so different , and so that's where I think they come into play . The breed world's a bit different . That makes a lot of sense , yeah . And so , yeah , security is there . Wristbands on when you come in .

I personally you'll book yourself in , so you'll go and speak to them . You'll say hi , they'll give you a course map . You're going to send me the course map . I'm going to say to you this is what I would do , instead of handle it .

And I've already said to you I'm very happy to walk the course with you when we're out there , because actually we're in the same class , aren't we ? Yes , how cool is that we're in the same class . So I've got little wild there . Uh , wild is a youngster in her head . Really she's a young dog .

She's sort of she is four , but she's very immature four , and so for her it's great class to be in . Novice should be a fairly flowy , fluid , fast , enjoyable course . But who knows , because the judges make up their own sort of decisions on this .

We can't influence that and for me , novice should be a kind course , should be an open course and , most of all , if I was going out there , the number one thing I want to know is my dog's happy and I give them confidence . So I want to know that I can back them or I can look after them if , for any reason , something goes wrong .

Maybe there's a loud bang or a noise or something upsets them . My number one focus is dog , so I don't worry about crowds and I'm really not there for anyone else . I'm only there for myself , my dog . The eight o'clock performance no one's going to be there . It'll be really quiet , so that's quite nice . Um , other than our friends .

I was going to say our friends are supposed to be going but it won't be a busy performance , whereas the lunchtime performance will be much busier because you've got the crowds coming in . So 8 30 , you've got agility folk who are like cheering on their friends .

At 12 30 you've got people who are going to look and kind of go , they want the dogs to go wrong because they find it funny . So um 8 30 , they get agility . 12 30 they don't get agility , they're just enjoying the ride . Um , sorry , I mean agility as in the game of agility , oh yeah , yeah .

You've got people who just come to watch , yeah , the fun of of the sport , I suppose . So that's lovely . And then a couple of top tips for me . I personally , um , don't give my dogs any heavy meal on the day of an event . I give them a lighter meal or a smaller meal or , um , definitely not anything heavy .

And if I do give it to them , I'm way earlier . Yeah , then they're going to be performing because it's an eight o'clock performance . So for me I would give them a little bit of something , but nothing major on their tummies . And again , for 12 30 , my dogs earn a lot of their food anyway .

So because they earn a lot of their food , they're going to get it throughout being in there . So for the fact of I know , putting two feet on something or doing a middle somewhere or having some photos and posing , because they love all of those things , yeah , so I use some of my food for that as well .

And another one I think this is really important and you've got your aok9 goodie bag that you can take away with you later . Thank you , um . But another one that's a really nice tip and I can see if I've got any here for you , and I annoyingly didn't order any , um , I've only got my own here , but the fresh drink .

So giving them a rehydration drink in between and making sure they've had some electrolyte drink and for me electrolyte is really important just to know that they're hydrated . Well , because sometimes , when they're at competitions or they're at a high stress event , they don't want to drink . So actually preparing for that ?

Yeah , because then they are , um , staying um and healthy . So what's your next question for me ? If you've got any questions , and you can ask anything and everything .

So you go through a tunnel , they'll tell you say you're running first , they'll have you ready , so you're running second , third , which you are .

So when you're running a little bit later , um , and I know that's not late , but it is within a class of a smaller class so they'll say , um , terry , they'll call you up and they'll put you in your order so you know when you're going in . You cannot miss your run because they're there . There is a practice jump .

So in the practice jump , okay , put the practice jump , just be careful on not doing too many , and I'll give you an example here . So today , yesterday in fact , I thought you know what I'm going to get fit , and so this was my mind .

And I had to really talk myself out of it as I was about to jump on the bike and go with it for like two hours . Very , very funny , it's very , very busy today . So I decided not to do that . I talked myself out of it . Similar to the practice jump some people do 20 of them . Just one , two , three .

The other top tip and I love this tip if the practice jump is there and say you've got like a backside or a check check or you've got something on the course that you think I just might need to prep that a little , just do one or two of them . Yeah , so you prep that already . Already . Have your dog warm , yeah .

And in terms of warm-up , when you said , where can I warm up , you can warm up behind there . Walk trot , canter on lead . If you need to do off lead , you're better outside there's not a lot of off lead space but on lead space mine warm up doing figures of eight and on lead walk trot canter , I will do it all in that space .

So take like a little hot water bottle or a red light and I'll put that down the muscle groups . So I'll be putting that down the muscle groups I love . Just , a lot of people don't talk about hot water bottles , but main reason I think they don't is that they're cheap and it doesn't sell . Like hot water bottles don't sell .

They're not like a big , like you can sell this and people can't make a lot of money out of them . I think hot water bottles fantastic thing for warm up , but I think the reason that a lot of people don't tell you about them is that actually they want to sell you a tool and often there is a tool for that .

Yeah , actually a hot water bottle is one of the best ones . Well , there's little small ones that you can put down the back , or a long one that you put down the back . I love a hot water bottle .

I heat it in the well , I heat it in the in the hotel beforehand , or I bring a hot flask and then I , I have it fresh , so it's not boiling , but it's hot enough to to keep you want them warm ?

Yes , yeah , and I always put them in a coat , whether that's back on track or uh , I personally love back on track , so I use back on track , but equally well , done you high five , keep on it , keep ready . No prep for you needed , um , and equally I will use any other thermal sort of coats as well .

So , but do have them warm , I think that's really key . And one or two practice jumps , and I do my one or two practice jumps , I walk the course . I'll do one or two practice jumps and I'll walk the course again because that course will be there until we start .

So that course will be set fairly early , so you'll have time to walk it because there's nothing before us . So actually you'll have time to walk it . The second one will be slightly different , there'll be more timed ,

but the first one you'll have enough time . Second one you'll maybe once , twice , three times , and then what they start to do is walk you off the course , and they walk you off the course . Doing this , you have to get off the course , but you don't really want to be in there till they walk you off the course .

I could be , because I'm not running first height , yeah . But because you're running first height , you want to be gone by then . Yeah , by the time they're clearing you off , you should already have your dog and ready , yeah . Whereas for me I would be that in the next round , because I think I go first in the second round , potentially .

I think they put small first there , so they just do it in high order .

It's very much about mindset and where your mindset is , and I've also done a few with a lovely , brilliant mental mindset coach of mine uh , his name's bill , and also justin . They're all on sex and squirrel . They're all completely free . You can listen to them in the car on the way up .

I love all of them and I've been a competitor for over 20 years now , so a long time and I genuinely don't get frazzled by it and I'm really I'm good at being a competitor . I'd much prefer being a competitor than being a anything else . So if I had the choice judge or competitor or trainer or anything else I love being a competitor .

Those are my favourite things , like moments . If I think about some of my favourite moments , they were winning Crufts with Blink or being on a podium with Venture , or being on a podium with any of our dogs . It's so much fun to do that competition round and then build it and then win it too .

And I think it's worth saying to you if you do win and it you , you can come first , second , third , um , in that competition and be brought in . Sometimes they only bring in first and second . Sometimes they bring in first , second , third . It depends on the class and what they're doing and how they're presenting and everything else .

But be ready and be with your dog . If your dog doesn't like other dogs or photos , just be willing to tell people that they don't like dogs . And I think I'm fine to tell people this dog doesn't like dogs . Or I will sometimes say funny things like um , yeah , she bites , um . Or she likes to give nose piercings like she .

And so venture , is that dog like that ? She would like to pierce another dog if she had a choice because she will she will back into a corner and then she doesn't really have a choice , so she will just go . I don't like you . Now . I'd much prefer to be severe with someone and tell them this dog doesn't like you .

She has never bitten a dog , she has never pierced a dog's nose , she has never done any of those things . But I'd much prefer to tell someone than you've prepared . So actually , although that might sound quite extreme .

I think that we should be advocating for our dogs and then by advocating for her , I'm also advocating for you , because I'm not then putting you and me on a podium together and having an issue where he's going hi , lady , and she goes piss your nose , and no one wants that . No one wants that . The owner of the dog doesn't want that .

The owner of the other dog doesn't want that . None of the ring stewards or the people at the event want that . Nobody wants it . Nobody wants it . It's just horrible .

So if your dog either likes or doesn , dogs to yourself when you're at the event , because ultimately there's also probably loads of disease going around because of things like kennel cough and things like giardia , stuff like that , that's everywhere so you just don't events like that . You want to probably keep your dog very much themselves .

I don't let them drink out of public water bowls . I don't let them drink out of um all the stand bowls . I definitely don't take them shopping . A lot of people will take the dog shopping for me when I , when I come in at eight o'clock .

They do their event , they go home and then they come back again and obviously my home is the hotel room and then they come back again . Or if I'm not in a hotel room , they go back to the vehicle and then they come back again . And if I can't be in that vehicle then I go back to someone else's vehicle and then they come back again .

But I do give them their break . I don't personally feel for long . It's a bit like a pressure pot . So the arena is a pressure pot and they just go pressure , pressure , pressure , pressure and they will explode at some point . A bit of a full bucket maybe .

When I've got out there , I've rushed it , and that rush not only compromises your competition run but takes away from your special moment . But actually breathe it in , enjoy it . There's lovely guys ring crewing , like my friend Nigel Rudd . He ring crews there and I always see him and I always hope I get him . I'm always like I hope I get him .

If you get the guy , nigel won't mind me saying he's a shorter guy and he's dark haired . He's always got a beam on his face . He's called Nigel , I love him . He's like one of my favourite people at the ring and it'll always say follow me and off I go .

And then I see um , the other lovely guy who starts us off , and then Rob , he , he gives you the in your , in your own time or when you're ready type thing . For me I love seeing those guys because they kind of like prepare your run . But in all of those minutes or seconds , enjoy it . Enjoy it . We work really hard to get there .

Our dogs are really precious . You don't know when you're gonna have your last run . You don't know where you're gonna have your last run . You don't know what the future holds for any of us . Yeah , for me , savor it and sort of like almost taste .

It sounds odd , but like , breathe it in , look around , like ground yourself a bit and , and yeah , enjoy that second and even if it does go wrong , find , find the joy in that moment . Yeah , and also , don't talk yourself out of it . Sometimes you talk yourself out of it accidentally by , like , when you ask me about what do you do for mindset ?

Like , listen to uplifting podcasts that talk about mindset . Um , talk myself into it . Uh , explain all the positives . If it's something I don't like on the course , I find all the things I do like on the course and the bits I don't like , I talk about how I can make it work . There's always a way around it . It just might not be the way you planned .

There's always a way to do it . Yeah , you just might not like the way to do it . And the other one , I think what would I tell my younger self not to do so much shopping ? I'm not there for the shopping , like , you don't need the tack , lauren , you really don't need to have , you've got enough dog coats .

Seriously , like , go and be there for the event . And I remember being a big event , olympia and I had two Proseccos and a pizza and then in the next run I fell . It fell over because the dog ran into my leg and my timing was off . Sparky , my timing was off . I fell over , face planted into the arena , head in the dust , my bum was in the air .

The crowd was like squealing with laughter and all I was hoping for was someone would come and cordon me off and take me off like one of the ponies to see a vet or something . And I couldn't go and see a vet , obviously , because I was had my head face there and I'm a person , not a dog . Um , but it was so embarrassing .

I was so embarrassed , but it was all because I didn't really . I was almost the other way . I was taking it , I was not taking it seriously enough . I was enjoying pizza , I was enjoying prosecco , I was having a lovely time and suddenly my face was in the sand .

Um , because my timing was off , because ultimately , I really wasn't concentrating , and so I'd say there's a fine balance between enjoying it , having a brilliant time , but also taking it seriously enough , but not taking it too seriously . And and one of my , my big takeaways from owning um or being owned by Tokyo was don't take yourself too seriously .

And I think there are moments that when you're younger , you take it all so seriously , like it's all so important and it is and it's also there to enjoy , definitely . And when you live through hard moments like watching my dad or losing my best friend , my dog I , you kind of those are the moments you look back and really cherish . So don't rush them .

You can still , overall , place for 20 faults and I think that's important to know because if you get a pig of a course and there's only sort of six dogs , four get eliminated and there's two of you . One gets 20 faults , one gets 25 faults . The one with 20 faults will win .

Yeah , I think that's important to know because you're going to get placed overall in the jumping , you're going to get placed overall in the agility and then the combined result is your result . So you get three chances of winning here or coming second right . Three chances and it's in six .

So actually you stand a really good chance of getting one of those chances . Play for the clear round . If the clear round isn't working , as in something goes wrong like a pole drops still play for the best time with the pole dropped . Yeah , as long as you're not eliminated , you still stand a very good chance .

If you do get eliminated , okay , what's the next tactic ? Play for the next round and play for the clear round . The next round , because you still stand a chance of a trophy in that round , because you can still stand a chance of first and second .

If you've got faults in that round , play for the clear here , and a safe clear is still better than a faulted run and a faulted run is still better than me . So you've always got your level of sliding scale and you've also got that level of what tactic am I playing ? That makes sense , yeah , no , yeah . So you've got . You've got tactics , so don't I ?

I love the saying you were just out there to have fun , but for me , you have way more fun when you win right , like it's so much , don't get me wrong .

It's a combination class . So you win one round , you win the other round and then you're over a winner , or you wouldn't . You win the other round and then you're over a winner . Or you win one round , you're second in the other round , you're over a winner realistically . Or you get faults and you get a win . You can still be the winner .

Like , there's lots of chances to win and there's lots of chances to podium and there's lots of chances to run around that carpet . Now quick one If you do end up on one of those podium spots when you go in , you'll get stood next to another competitor . I've been very , very fortunate . It's funny I say fortunate .

The harder you work , the luckier you get right . So the more you work at it , the luckier you get . I think that's coincidental .

So that's why I didn't start working out two days ago , yesterday because I haven't worked very hard at it , but I have worked very hard at dog training , so my dog training is sound , um , so you'll get called in and they'll put the first place and the second place and they'll tell you what you are and then you'll get presented .

And then they'll get presented and then they'll ask for a lap of honour Again . Knowing whether a dog likes a lap of honour or not , venture hated the lap of honour , so what I learned from that is I will never do one again with her . What I will do is take her a body . Dub Blink could come instead of her , or someone else could come .

Typically , you can't do that because you haven't got multiple passes . But what I suppose I'm saying is don't put that dog in for uncomfortable things , especially not if they're going to go again in a minute , because if a dog's going to be uncomfortable here , they're going to run again here .

Yeah , let's not make them uncomfortable , sure , and , to be honest , let's not make our dogs uncomfortable for the sake of um , a prestige event mr jasper loves doing a lap of honor .

I love that um , do you have any little lucky charms or keepsakes or little rituals that you do to prepare yourself like when you're going away ?

I don't wear makeup on a day-to-day basis . I today I have hardly brushed my hair , as you can see , like I'm not someone who's um , as long as you clean your teeth and you had a shower , I'm all good with life .

I think for me , when you're at a prestige event , it's quite nice to almost use as a an opportunity to really showcase what you do and how you do it and who you are . So I love having something sparkly around , a sparkly hairband or a sparkly pair of socks or something sparkly .

Uh , I have a level of ritual in what I do , so my warm-up is a ritual , matt is a ritual , having my setup is a ritual , my hot water bottles ritual . So I've got a lot of rituals and I'm I have things like I love a chai latte , so I'll have a chai latte in my mug and things like that . That would kind of settle me .

I suppose I hadn't even thought about that . Yeah , so have something that settles me . So that for me is like a comfort thing . It's in a pink mug . I love it . It makes me feel very , very comfortable . I've always got a warm coat on because I feel comfortable in something warm .

I set up a little station where you take a cloth crate or a mat or a pad or something your dog can lie on , or a bed . I'll take a soft crate and I'll have a bed inside it and then I can put her in it when I need to and she'll squawk and Matt will have to cope with that .

And for me it's probably more the ritualistic things like that that I would do . I don't . I always make sure that I'm well prepared and everything is really ready there , but nothing so much lucky charms . I did used to have like precious stones . I would take with me things like

um quartz and and pretty color stones . But actually I've kind of almost grown out of it a little and now my biggest thing is to go there , be present , make sure that I'm well timed , well presented , but like I've said to you , I will always turn up as late as I can into the event , I don't know what it is . I like that pressure moment .

I enjoyed the pressure . There's a pressure level , but I definitely wouldn't encourage that for you . I would encourage for you to get in there as early as you can without him and then go back and grab him . So as early as the doors open I would aim for you to be in there , register , get everything ready , because you've never been in there before .

No , and do all of that because you then know your pathway in . For me , those things will feel very , very familiar after like 10 years , 15 years of being in there , yeah , and having done that . So for me , coming in as late as I can will be right for me and my dog and the setup that we're in .

But that isn't right for you and I think it's really important you acknowledge those things . But no , in terms of like keepsakes , I'm not a big keepsake . I like to take things like my cards and stuff like that . I've just had a really lovely box delivered and I love that because I've been doing it a long time .

So sometimes it's not necessarily the same thing as when you've done it the first time . Like for you I'm like lovely feeling , but when you've done it lots of times . I think people can forget that it's still a big deal .

It's a really big deal , like it's the highlight of my year going to crufts and if I was to pick crufts or Olympia , I'd pick crufts every time . I love crufts . Why is that ? I think probably the fact that all of your audience are dogs , so you've got dog audience . They're a dog driven audience , so you're not in a horse arena , you're in a dog arena .

Second one was the AstroTurf . I think my dogs perform way better on AstroTurf than Sand . I much prefer it as a surface . I think it's much . I think it showcases what our agility is in a really fun way . I think the course is more reflective of what we see in competition .

I think that it really is a very , very prestigious driven dogs event and I've had really good history there . So I've had lots of good wins . I've had lots of good feeling . I've had some of my most emotional days .

I'm gutted I never got to take Tokyo there because I know that he would have loved that arena and he jumped so beautifully on Astro , even jumped beautifully on everything . But I really love that arena . I love all the crowds , I love all the people around you . It's just a great setup . All of it's a great setup . There's nothing .

There's nothing I don't like about crafts , the shopping but I'm avoiding it like I know I don't need dog tack . I really don't , but I do love the shopping . I do love the pilot's live there how do you balance your day ?

So I typically would have shopped a lot and I will use it as a little bit of market research for our companies for a canine , for absolute dogs , for Devon dogs , for holiday lets , for all of what we do and for the fact that we do dog friendly holidays , for the fact that we do , um , we've got lots of companies which is is really , um , again , really

fortunate to have to be in that position . But what I've learned is the more I go shopping on a day where I'm competing , the less I'm focused on my competing . So actually I'm not there to shop . I have to remind myself that you , lauren , you're not here to shop , you're really not here to shop , and if you want to do shopping , do it on the next day .

So actually remind myself to go another day if I want to shop . Yeah , and I think that's quite important not to not to put yourself in a position where you are almost compromising while you're there , and I have in the past compromised one that the olympia example is a great one .

Basically , when I had too many prosecco's and then ran and felt like that was not the cleverest move and I'm not a drinker at all , I mean I drank like two glasses , maybe one and a half , but that's enough for me to be off focus and I just thought I was treating myself , but actually being aware that you're not treating yourself when you're at a performance

event . You're there to perform , so give you and your dog the best chance If you're going to shop , shop after 12.30 . So wait for your run and then go shopping and celebrate and I think it is nice to celebrate , but give your dog the best chance to run . So I would do no shopping before the second run . Sure .

The dog I'm taking is really friendly and fine , so I feel quite comfortable in that . I actually feel really uncomfortable when I take a nervous dog in those environments because , although I can handle it , it's a lot of pressure . I'm taking a really happy little dog . I love that . I'm taking a real happy , go lucky , easygoing dog .

Touch wood , she's never shut down on me . A lot of spaniels do shut down . They've got shut down and then they go to run and they'll stop and they'll stall on you . She doesn't have that in her . She's very , very like , if anything , I won't be able to hold her and start line , but that's fine and I know what we're dealing with , at least for me .

I'll set her up in a space where I put a crate up . I'll pop the crate up . I'll have my fresh there . I'll have my treat pouch . You've got a treat pouch in here it's a blue one and I'll have nice food in that .

I'll normally take like something really high value , but not liver , nothing awfully something like venison or chicken or beef or lamb or um , something , something tasty . And I've always got fresh food for them because I think fresh food . So it's hydrating rather than drying , so I don't take dried food or dried treats .

And then I'll have a hot water bottle , maybe my laser or my red light or whatever I might be using to warm them up or to help warm them up . I've got my lead , my collar , my harness , everything I'm going to use . My dogs won't . They've got really lovely , sparkly collars . I don't put them on in the arena as much as they look nice .

My dogs aren't used to running in them . So because they don't run in them typically , I won't put anything extra jangly on them . I want them to be able to run normally so they'll wear their normal collars . But maybe if they're having photos they can have the really posh collars , but not for running . They're not used to wearing them .

Them don't put it near where the practice jump is , because you're gonna have loads of dogs jumping at you so you'll see where the practice jump is . Practice jump is not big and it's not a lot of space , so there's not a lot of room there . So just be a little bit mindful of that and are you ?

So Sunday when you're competing , no , there's no space , it is rammed because of best in show . Most days there is space .

I would never leave water anywhere so that people could put things in it , just paranoid about poisoning , and I know that sounds silly , but I've just experienced some of the worst things you might experience with dogs and I feel just protect yourself .

I would never leave anything that's valuable or anything that someone can dispose of easily , whereas I would leave a crate and I would leave their bed . That'd be fine , and other than that , I'd take it with me .

It's not a different surface and I think that's really nice . The other thing we're going to do tonight is we're going to show you that panel jump . So we're going to get that panel jump out . So you've seen the panel jump , because a panel jump can sometimes throw a dog as well . So make sure we get that out before you finish here tonight .

Brilliant any more for any more . I think I've covered everything that I wanted to ask . I love it that you've covered it . I want you to feel really prepped . I'm very happy to walk the course with you .

Brilliant , I'm very happy to um show you around all the different spaces that I've um experienced and seen and know and and want to um show you when , when I see anything , really happy to have any questions on course particularly on course , I think there's often questions and also , when you send the course plan , very happy to answer any questions .

When you send the course plan over and you send both of them , you'll get both of them in the morning , so they'll both come , but don't even look at the second one no , no , only just get your first one in your head , just do your first one , don't even look at the second . You can't do anything about it anyway .

So there's no point almost knowing it and in terms of agility , there's no final . So remember , it's jumping and agility , but there's no final , so you're only going to run this agility once .

So if you need to blast things , like release things as early as you need to , or whatever you need to do , but ultimately , remember it is a clear round competition and so ultimately , clear round is what counts . So don't do it at the expense of a clear round . Go round to get a clear round .

Yeah , if you get a clear round , you're standing in a good space yeah , that makes sense .

Have as many wheeze as you can get out of your bladder . Let's take every one of them . The dog so yeah , me and the dog . Actually it's something to know . The toilets as you come out , there's toilets both sides .

I don't know what I'll be like this year , but every year in the past I find myself in the toilet a lot , and it's not that I'm nervous , but my body must be in that heightened state of arousal . So every time I find myself in those toilets . So I'm often in those toilets .

So , yeah , being aware of uh , toilets are there and I just literally don't even need a wee . I'm just there because I feel like it's your , it's your body preparing . You're in that fight and flight mode . Yeah , so you've taken yourself into that and and and often I can't eat breakfast .

And it's not that I'm scared or nervous or anything , it's just your , your arousals up . So you're in that arousal space . Yeah , makes sense . And remember , your dog knows nothing other than they're out there with you . So you advocate for them , you protect them , you look after them in every scenario .

You don't let them greet new dogs head to head , you don't let them do fluffy photos with with children , unless , like , you really need to . I think .

Just be aware that you're in there for that short time with your dog , protect them , advocate for them and then get them back out of there , because that event is a lot of pressure for a lot of dogs in a small space , and although it isn't a small space , it is with the amount of dogs that are in there .

So , um , just be mindful that and mindful that a lot of people don't handle their dogs like you do . So the show dogs or the fly ball dogs or the other dogs all have their own etiquettes . They'll be different to the agility dogs . So just kind of be mindful , and for me , I just always keep my distance on other dogs .

It's just a bit safer , brilliant , happy , yes . So after this , are you happy to come back and do another one where you tell us how it's all gone . Oh yes , well done Terry . Good luck , I think it's gonna be amazing but you've got your goodie bag , your goodie bag to go , and if there's anything at all , you know where I am .