Alan Bray Senior Agility World Cup Championship - The Journey - Part 1

Agility legend Alan Bray is our Ace Canine Healthcare ambassador it's a pleasure to share his agility competition plans and results with you along with news on fabulous agility dogs Ticket and Ticita.

In this open 2 part narrative Alan gives an insight into the preparation and dedication needed for competing in agility at international level and representing Team GB.

So, preparation begins months before as soon as we know we are going to try out and then when we know we have qualified. 

Admin issues such as booking hotel planning travel, booking channel tunnel and breakdown cover, plus passport, travel insurance and dog insurance have to be done way in advance plus arranging for our dogs left at home to be looked after by Louise's wonderful family.

Dog's Rabies vaccinations and worming plus normal vaccinations must be up to date plus now, we need the Animal Health Certificate to get into and out of GB which is a real pain but has to be professionally produced and verified otherwise you aren't going anywhere!  All of this is a huge cost running into thousands of pounds which we have to pay for ourselves so we try to fund this by running more training days over winter! 

We have a spreadsheet with all the things we need to bring with us written down. This is segmented by admin and legal documents required to take with us plus clothing both competing and social ready for hot or cold or dry or wet weather, first aid for both us and our dogs plus then all the dog accessories you need with you and of course their food and supplements including of course our wonderful Ace Canine supplements plus water and energy milk. 

I pre-prepare all food for both dogs travelling with us and those being looked after at home. It's all bagged in sandwich bags and has name tags on for both morning and evening feeds so this is a huge job for 10 dogs and takes me ages to do! 

Not forgetting making sure the car or van whichever one we use is ready to travel!

This is all before we go! Thank goodness I have Louise to help with her excellent organisation skills!

Then there is the little matter of the preparing both the dogs and me for the competition we are going to face over there! 

So as with the dogs we have to train very, very differently to competing on British courses as FCI is totally different and demands many different skills for both dog and handler and of course a whole set of different competition rules.nSo we constantly train these as you can't just do this last minute. 

We find out who is judging and then study their previous courses and then put them up and work our dogs over them to get a flavour of the particular judges style and tests they all like setting. A bit like preparing for exams and revising then doing previous exam papers so no surprises on the day! 

Our dogs are physically maintained by a lovely lady Sue Julian who is a witch with them so Louise takes them every month and just before international competitions for a sort out so as to ensure they don't have any underlying injuries or niggles because remember they can't tell us! Well not in words but they do with their performance and movement.

And of course we must maintain them on a daily basis using Ace Canine supplements for joints, movement and optimum digestion Trimega, FlexSprinkle and Epimmune  and Finer by Nature 50/50 for their food.

Additionally there is the little matter of keeping me fit so I do my running exercises plus take i-Flex from Ace Canine to maintain my joints and movement which is brilliant.  Having played semi professional football and cricket for the first 35 years of my life the old joints have took an hammering so now need help that I'm 66 but I'm still going! 

On the run up to major international competitions we do less and pick and choose shows and competitions we compete at only choosing where it will be complementary to what we are going to be facing over there.

We don't stop completely competing as this is detrimental for me as my football and cricket taught me that I need to keep match fit otherwise I get rusty if  stopped completely.

Part 2 - Packed and ready to go.