Teen dog handler balances canine contest and exams

A teenage dog handler has been explaining how she manages to compete in an international agility contest in the middle of the GCSE exam season.

Taylor, 16, from Northampton, competed with her dog Asher for Team England in the World Agility Open in the Netherlands.

She took her school books so she could revise on the plane and during breaks in the competition.

She is now preparing to represent Team GB at the Junior World Championships in Portugal next month.

Taylor is no stranger to international competition.

She became the youngest person ever to compete in TeamGB's agility squad at the age of 10, and won.

She won gold at the World Junior Agility Championships at the age of 13.

But she is equally determined to do well in her exams.

"Because of my GCSEs, I had to fly out because I didn't want to miss any exams that I didn't need to, so my mum drove out before with the caravan and the dog, and took the ferry across," she told BBC Radio Northampton.

Her mother Hannah said: "It was quite an adventure because I've driven abroad before but not towed abroad before and not on my own, but it was easy because there was quite a few of us going so there was convoy to the venue."

She said Taylor "works hard".

"She took books with her to the Netherlands; she was revising on the plane; she was revising in the caravan; she just knuckles down and gets on with it," said mum.

Hannah also competes in agility contests with springer spaniels, but, when Taylor started following in her mother's footsteps at the age of five, Hannah decided that cocker spaniels would be more suitable.

She said: "We thought for a little five-year-old, a springer was a bit big because she would be jumping the dog above her head height."

The next major event for Taylor is the Junior World Championships in Portugal in July.

The family takes seven dogs to competitions - they bring a caravan and construct gardens around it so the dogs have somewhere to roam.

Hannah said the animals were "only noisy when they're fed; other dogs get noisy when they're competing".

The dogs have a whole house to themselves when they are back at home as the family's residence used to be three separate cottages.

The arrangement suits both the animals and Hannah's husband Gavin - he is allergic to dogs.

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