NATALIE SILCOCK & KIROS OF FINAL FANTASY - LARGE CROSSBREED WINNER

Kiros coming to live with us was totally unplanned.  We had lost our lovely dog, Jake, very suddenly from cancer of the spleen and, being unable to be “dogless”, picked up the local paper to start looking for rescues.

Amongst the adds on that Friday night was one from the Animal Accident Rescue Unit with details of an energetic young Shepherd cross looking for a new home.  We went to see him on the Saturday morning and fell in love with him. 

Against everyone’s advice we took him home with us – it was November 4^th 2000 the day before bonfire night!

 Kiros was fortunate enough to be a “nice” rescue.  His mother was not so lucky, she had been abandoned heavily pregnant and picked up by the AARU the pups were born the next day. He was rehomed initially to a family with an autistic daughter that thought having a dog would help her.  Thankfully they realised quickly that was not the case and he was a 4 month old bundle of energy when we got him. I had been a member of a fun obedience and agility class with Jake and decided to enrol Kiros onto an obedience course straight away. From the start it was obvious that he was a quick learner and when he started Agility training at a year old he picked it up very quickly. When Kiros was almost 2 years old a friend suggested we enter a competition.  Not knowing what to expect I went along secretly hoping for some good results. How disappointed could I be?  I hadn’t taught Kiros to turn corners – he could only run in a straight line!  Despite this we had an excellent time at the show and I was hooked on competing. I knew I had a lot of work to do with his training and we eventually managed our first clear round in Dec 2002 – 6^th Place in Starters Jumping at Wyre show.

Kiros got better and better at jumping but how to train him to get his contacts remained a mystery to me. In August 2003 I decided to join a KC club – Nottingham Dog Agility Club – and two weeks after that Kiros won out of Elementary with a 3^rd place in Starters Jumping at Dordale. We won out of Starters at Scunthorpe August 2004 with our first ever clear round in Agility. More by luck than judgement! During the next year we both lost confidence with each other.  I struggled to handle Novice courses and Kiros couldn’t understand what I wanted him to do. The highest placing we got in 2005 was 19^th in Novice Agility but by the end of the year I was starting to get to grips with them and Kiros was beginning to understand what I wanted him to do on his contacts.

In April 2006 we started training with Jo Rhodes (as well as Nottingham) and that same month got a 4^th place in Novice Jumping!  During that year we qualified for the ABC semi final and picked up numerous top 5 Novice placings (including a win in Novice Agility at PADs) putting us into Grade 5 at the beginning of 2007.

With the standard of Grade 5 being so high and Kiros now 7 years old I was happy to settle there but Kiros had other ideas. In September he won Grade 5 Agility at Wigan and again at Lincoln taking us well and truly into Grade 6. We have also qualified for 2008’s ABC semi final.

To say I am proud of him is an understatement. He has achieved so much more than I ever expected a “Big Brown Rescue Mongrel” to!

To see a video account of Kiros’s journey from Elementary to Senior please visit my You Tube channel http://uk.youtube.com/Agilitynat