HSD Pupil is UK's Top Junior Dog Handler!

Looking for something different to do during the first lockdown of March 2020, Bex Hardy decided to try training Hoopers with her dogs.

With the help of her grandparents, she made a few hoops and added them to barrels her family already owned, to create a course. With the willing cooperation of her Labrador Retrievers Whisper, Moss, and Jazz, she was then ready to begin teaching the pooches to navigate challenging circuits.

It turns out that you can teach an old dog new tricks, as just a year later, Bex walked away from her first Hoopers competition with a first place and two clear rounds (from Moss and Whisper) that proved to be the first of many.

The team have since gone from strength to strength and between July and October 2021, Whisper, Moss, and Jazz attended 5 Hooper shows, recording an impressive ten clear rounds between them.

The points from the clear rounds were accumulated, scoring Bex entrance into 3 competition leagues: Large Gundog, Large Scottish Dog, and the Junior Handler League.

And just last week, Bex found out that in the Junior Handler League, she had come first with Whisper, second with Moss, and third with Jazz; officially making her the top junior handler in the UK!

Bex said, “I started training Hoopers with my dogs in the first lockdown for a different challenge, and I’ve been thrilled to see the dogs enjoy it so much! 

“I’d been doing Agility training since 2019 and when I started, I didn't really know what I was doing but watched videos of agility at Crufts and instantly fell in love with it.

“Since starting out with Moss I have trained a further two dogs on agility and I am now training my 7-month-old puppy in Agility and Hoopers.”

Bex’s hobby is very much her passion and she says, “I love working with my dogs. I’ve grown up with them my whole life and couldn't imagine life without them.

“All 5 of my dogs are Labrador Retrievers. Dusty is a black lab and is the oldest (10), then it's Moss who is a yellow lab and is 9, then it's Jazz and Whisper who are sisters and are both 5, then it's Echo who is a 7 month old fox Red Labrador.”

Bex and her dogs deserve a huge round of a paws!