About Hayley’s Dogs

Delta

15/10/23 – Border Collie

Delta was a rather surprise find from a friend – after getting in touch with her breeder and doing some research, it turned out she is Ash’s great cousin! Super healthy sporty lines so we went down to meet her and she joined our family when I returned from teaching in SanFrancisco December 2023.

She is a real cuddle-bunny but thoroughly enjoys running around and learning new things.

Impulse

08/10/22 – Working cocker spaniel.

Imp was a rather unplanned surprise christmas present! He is an adorable cheeky little guy who is super smart and seems to pick things up really quickly!

Neo
Born 09/06/2021.

Dalmatian. Joined the family as an 8 week old puppy!
Neo is a fun and bouncy dalmatian who is working hard on his foundations for hoopers, agility and bikejor. He has also started some basic mondioring training for fun!

Growing up, Neo experienced a really strong ‘fear period’, one of the strongest i’ve seen! Unfortunately, just as he was starting to get more confident again, he got attacked at an agility class we had just started to help with his confidence!

Neo is a task-trained assisstance dog. With his fears improving, he is even able to take his work out on the road now. He loves fetching shoes or slippers! Having to go find them is just sooooo much fun! Emptying the washing machine into the tumble dryer is also one of his favourite tasks!

Harpa
Born Sept 2017. Cocker x collie. Joined the family on 18/12/2021 at 4yrs old.
She came with quite a few behavioural issues, but is now a delightful member of the family and is absolutely loving dog sports Hoopers and Agility.
Hoopers: She took the medium reserve at the Canine Hoopers UK National Finals 2022! She even attended and had some fab placings at the Tri Score tournament!
Agility: She is enjoying her training and has attended a couple of NADAC competitions and even got her first clear round. Following winter contact training, she is looking forward to competing at KC in 2023.

Pacman
Born 27/09/2019

Pacman is a sweet nutcase! Nicknamed Chewbacca due to the chit-chatting he does with his people, he is crazy and fun-loving! He is a true work-a-holic and adores agility, hoopers and bikejor, throwing himself into everything at 100mph.

Sadly Pacman had on and off health issues with chronic long-term spinal pain being diagnosed meaning currently he is not participating in any sports, although we are hopeful he can return to hoopers down the line.

Nitro
Born 23/08/2018.

Cocker x Colle. Joined the family as an 8 week old puppy!
Nitro is a complete and utter goofball! He is extremely enthusiastic about everything he does!!! His favourite sport is hoopers! Currently he is a bit OTT to do agility, Hayley is concerned he will injure himself so is focusing on hoopers with him for now.
Hoopers – Reserve medium Championship at Tri Score Tournament 2021.
Canine Hoopers UK National Finals Winner 2022.

Pixel
Born 02/07/2016

Pixel joined the family as a naughty little pupster! Cheekiness personified as he stole the adults toys and paraded them out on walks! He has a rather unique yodel that he likes to do as he walks out onto the startline!

Currently competing in Grade 7/champ level in agility. Achieved a gold medal at the Paragility World Championships 2022 in Italy.

Hoopers: Medium Championship Winner at Tri Score Tournament 2021.
Canine Hoopers UK National Finals Medium Winner 2021

Morph

Born 02/12/2015

Aka Monkey. Morph is a rather special individual. He was born with a head tremor and has a neurological defecit. However, he is as goofy as they come and is a really loving boy. He has tried his paw at a few things, enjoying agility and hoopers sometimes and sometimes forgetting whether tunnels should be jumped over or run through…! Bikejor is his favourite sport and he has enjoyed competing both on the bike and even joined our 4 dog team for the one weekend we raced on the rig!

For a high energy working dog, hmm yeah right, Morph is only contented when he is able to sleep a minimum of 22hours per day. He is up for anything and everything and doesn’t like to be left out, but when its not fun time, he isn’t happy if he is disturber after taking himself off upstairs to bed!

Maverick

Born 18/02/2016

Aka Kevin! Mav is a flat coated retriever. He officially belongs to Lou – my wife, but i stole him for agility for a couple of years. Maverick is a true flat coat in all of his mannerisms! From being water obsessed, to rolling around just cos he can, he is goofy and funny and silly and serious all at once.

Making it to grade 5 in agility, qualifying for crufts his first season out competing and then Winning the ABC Agility at crufts!

Mav has done a bit of hoopers and has enjoyed bikejor but mostly just enjoys being a daft pet and going for long walks.

Mav’s health has struggled for the last few years and the vets are at a total loss with him, finally deciding he must have IBD but still working through to get him sorted.

Oreo

Born Jan 2015

Oreo is another of Lou’s dogs, he is an old english sheepdog. He joined the household as a pup but at around a year old, a friend no longer had a dog to do agility with, so we leant Oreo to her and they trained and competed together for a couple of years. Winning from grades 1 to three in that time, he is now happy spending his days at home with Lou, charging round the garden and going for walks.

Aslan

Born 08/01/2014

Aslan is a flat coated retriever – yes a pedigree one even though he is yellow! Yellow is still present in flat coats although you don’t see it very often. Breeders still ‘get rid’ of yellows as they are an embarrassment – old school thinking that is slowly being changed!

Aslan had until the end of the week to find a home, so he joined our household around 4.5 months old. Derrr…. just sums him up! Not the sharpest tool in the shed but oh soooo loving!

Aslan did a bit of competing in agility for a year, he even went up to grade 4! He has done odd bits of hoopers as well. Bikejor – great as long as you don’t need him as a lead dog, directions aren’t his strong point! Had a go at some gundog stuff and he enjoyed that – he is naturally a carrier and is happiest when allowed to carry things around.

Atom
Born 12/08/13

Aka Superstar, Goldenballs and CEO. My absolute heart, my dog in a million.

Atom is a kelpie and he joined the household just shy of 7 weeks old. He was a total nightmare puppy, he was pretty savage drawing blood on several people multiple times, but never in an aggressive way – even if that sounds odd! He was bundles of fun even though he was always a very serious boy – no sense of humour and didn’t appreciate things like toys balanced on his head!

Atom was a true working dog through and through. He escaped into the training area at just 7 weeks old and went through a tunnel and got halfway up an aframe before he got caught!

Agility with him was always flying by the seat of your pants! Exciting and exhilirating but oh so frustrating at times! We worked through my health issues so we started together when I could run. Atom had to work with me as I went from running to walking to jogging then finally back to walking for good.

Reaching the dizzying heights of grade 7/champ and making it to several champ finals. Atom also competed at the World Agility Open as a Wildcard in 2019. Following that, we competed at our first Paragility World Championships in 2019, returning home with both a gold and a bronze medal!

Atom was just amazing at everything he did or tried. He rocked hoopers taking several national and championship wins even against much younger dogs.

In bikejor he took several gold and silver medals across the season, including a silver medal at the classic Checkendon Challenge our first time racing it against a lot of seasoned competitors! He was always an amazing lead dog in 2 dog and 4 dog teams. Even having great fun leading a sled team in the snow!

Sadly Atom had to retire from agility and most sports aged just 8yrs old. He has severe arthritis in his knuckles in his front feet that cause his feet to be splayed out. Given the opportunity he would go out right now and compete on full height – he would just be in pain afterwards! He has been given the ok to still compete in hoopers as its ground based running but is more controlled than free running – plus it uses his brain and allows him to still ‘work’. Work is one of the main things this boy lives for and its great that he still gets to do it.

Ember
Born 04/08/2011

Ember is a border collie/isds working sheepdog. She is a total princess! Although that doesn’t mean she doesn’t get dirty or roll in disgusting things!

Her ladyship has a dark side though and can be super fickle about who she speaks to and who she doesn’t!

Ember grew up doing agility foundations but wasn’t keen, she enjoyed competing but not training so competed in steeplechases and did the odd triple a agility class as she loved the a-frame, but agility wasn’t her thing, so we went searching for what was.

Ember took to hwtm freestyle as she loved learning tricks and was a real foody. Ok so she enjoyed it for about a year before she got bored of that too! She did two competitions and won both! She also did several public demonstrations over the years from training displays to full routine demonstrations and she loved being the star of the show!

It turns out she just likes being a lady of leisure! Occasionally she comes along to a hoopers show to enjoy a run or two with my mom, and she really loves it, for the odd day!

Ember prefers to spend her days lying around taking in the sunshine at home.

Nova

13/10/14 – 04/08/2023

Nova is a Siberian Husky. He joined the household as a pup back when we first got into harness sports – he is from a racing kennel. However, whilst Nova does enjoy harness sports occasionally, he much prefers going for long walks off lead! Due to being an off-lead husky, he doesn’t require harness work to exercise and so he doesn’t really see the point, often times choosing to run next to the other dog who is doing the pulling!!

Competing for 2years in agility, mostly at big champ shows with 150+ dogs per class, he reached grade 5! He still occasionally does some agility for fun at the field and even the odd bit of hoopers.

Nova always enjoyed doing whatever we were doing but didn’t really find his personal joy until he started coming out and teaching alongside me on instructors courses. This is his real joy in life! The students all love him and all want to take him home, especially after they have worked him! He loves waltzing into a room full of collies and gundogs and showing off – being the centre of attention is the bestest!

Roux

With us November 2015 – November 2023

Roux is a Kelpie that joined our household when he was 2-2.5yrs old. Roux enjoys doing things and being included, but doesn’t really get or see the point of agility or hoopers! He LIVES for bikejor! Louder than any husky or hound at a race, and always requiring a handler to line out at the startline due to his enthusiasm! Partnered up with Atom for racing, they took many gold medals along with a few bronze and silver through the racing season!

When Roux first came to live with us, he got nicknamed KangaRoo – he bounced constantly, behind the other dogs or in camping gardens at shows! He was just so full of life!

Roux came out with me on multiple behavioural consults during his healthy times. He was a fantastic stooge dog, one of the best I have worked with.

Roux got diagnosed with Lupus, an auto-immune condition back in 2018/2019. Twice the vets sent him home for us to say our goodbyes for him to bounce back again!

Roux is also living with cancer. Having had several aggressive cancerous tumours removed previously, he is now on palliative care. As long as he is happy, bouncy and barking, we are enjoying every last second we can with him.

Diego

23/08/13 – May 2023

D is a working cocker spaniel from a gundog breeder so working lines. Lots of fun and high energy! Up for anything and everything! Loves agility, loves hoopers, trick training, fitness exercises, you name it, that tail wags…. except harness sports – really not his thing!

Away at a week long agility show when Diego was first old enough to enter the ring, entering 2 steeplechase classes that first day. He loved his agility and was super fast with pretty good distance too! He was like an Atom but in Medium!

Sadly, that evening in the camping area, 3 offlead dogs chased and pinned him down, before he escaped and made it back to the caravan where the rest of our dogs kicked up a fuss and the persuing dogs finally gave up. D was traumatised! We spent 2 long years building D’s confidence up gradually, even giving him a queuing buddy at shows – normally Aslan! As his confidence grew, he would win up a grade, then hear a dog bark and go straight back to minus square one. We stopped competing after that. D still enjoys doing his agility and hoopers but just doesn’t enjoy being in the competition environment.

He did a couple of hoopers shows as they are a totally different environment to agility shows and he aced these, much more confident!

D was diagnosed with Cushings disease a couple of years ago, but has since progressed to having Addisons disease. Apart from nearly losing him in the crossover from Cushings to Addisoins, he is a happy healthy boy who is loving being a family dog nowadays and just doing odd bits in the garden when he isn’t out walking.

Merlin
07/04/12 – 14/11/20 flat coated retriever.

8.5 years ago, we turned up at a strangers house in the middle of our honeymoon… Lou questioned where we were… 5 minutes later we were sat in their garden and Lou was choosing her surprise wedding present!

Merlin was one of the strongest, most powerful gentle giants I have ever known. He lived to swim – that was his absolute favourite thing! He even swam in the infamous Loch Ness!

He had a go at flyball and hoopers. He competed in agililty for a couple of years way back when, won us out of g1 and g2! He made senior at UKA. One of his funniest runs was when Lou surprised us by coming down to the rings first thing one morning, whilst eating her breakfast. Merlin spotted her when he was on jump 2 and just took off across the ring in the hope she was going to share her bacon sandwich with him!

He used to love showing off for the crowds when we did the carnivals – he always played up when there were large crowds watching him and laughing at his antics.

When we did the carnival processions, he used to love pulling his little trailer and getting treats from everyone watching.

His favourite place was the beach – although he was happy anywhere he got a ball and a meal!

He adored canicross, bikejor and scooterjor. He often competed in canicross with friends. During training runs, he often ran out with beginners as he was such a steady, reliable boy.

Back in 2014, we did the coventry santa dash to raise money for charity – merlin and aslan were reindeer pulling a wheeled sleigh round and D was santa in the little sleigh.

You have always been the rock of the house – Lou’s shadow from day 1. Lou’s heart and soul dog. Atom’s bestest bud and Aslan’s hero.

Ash
16/08/11 – 09/09/2019 Border Collie

Taken far too young.

I have never met a dog with such a love for life as you Ash

I am honoured and privileged to have been a part of your adventure.

There was never anything that you didn’t want to do – life was one huge game for you and everyday brought with it a new adventure! You introduced me to so much from scooterjor to agility competitions to splish splashing in everything from a box to the sea.

Quite simply you were crazy! You were the best trainer I found and Atom is grateful for the work you put into me to get me started – apparently it made his job easier!

You had your share of behavioural issues after being severely attacked at just 13months old. You were the original wearer of space vests and we wondered for a while if you would ever be able to compete in agility – which was your favouritest thing ever! 2years on from the attack and not only were you competing, but you were more confident and doing amazingly! We even did some kennel club shows, although you didn’t get to do many of these as you were tiny, just out of medium and struggled with 65cm jumps! You loved it when the low height option appeared, meaning you came back out of early retirement and immediately won up to grade 5! You never got to see intermediate height at competition as a proper thing but UKA was well suited for you with the standard height, along with BAA competitions.

You were always there by my side – my best friend!

Whizz

Whizz joined the Laches family as a foster dog following some behavioural complications. Sadly only with us for approximately 12 months, but in that time he really found his love for agility, even going to a competition!, and for bikejoring, which he took to as a complete natural. Unfortunately following some seizures the vets were unable to help him so we did the kindest thing we could and we said goodbye.

Harry

Harry was about 14years old when he joined our family. He had been a foster dog for DogsTrust for many years after being deemed unrehomable. When his kennel mate died of old age, he just couldn’t stay in kennels any longer. As both myself and Louise worked at the DogsTrust, we offered him a home. He lived with us for around 15months. Boy what a 15months he had! Lots of long walks and adventures and extra cuddles in the evenings.

Chip – Oct 2008 – Dec 2015

Chip was around 5years old when he joined our family.

Chip was an ex-gypsy dog who came to live with us Halloween 2008. He had a fair few behavioural issues but was ball mad. He loved long walks, snuggles and lots and lots of playtime! He was a collie x lurcher – unfortunately not the sharpest mentally but a real sweetie. He had the speed of the lurcher and the stamina of the a collie and watching him run was fabulous.

Later in life Chip got diagnosed with Lumber Sacraal disease but this was managed with exercises and pain relief for as long as we could.

Sam
April 2001 – may 2016

My first ever dog. Sam was a showline border collie and he joined the family the summer i turned 12yrs old. We had great fun learning tricks, playing football, making jumps out of buckets and brooms in the garden.

You loved your walks on the beach the most of all.

You tried your hand at sheepherding, agility, heelwork to music, obedience and basic trick training.

But most importantly, you were my best friend and companion.