See full results of this show further down this page. Well done to all the winners.

Merlin or Pipestrelle Merlin Magic at Kazim came to me from Clarie-Anne Ahern in Southern Ireland, I originally wanted a show/stud dog but as it turned out he is proving to be an agility superstar.

Merlin started training at around six months of age and took to it like a duck to water, it is harder to get him off of the course then it is to get him on. Once he knew what to do with different pieces of equipment there was no stopping him.

I entered him in the Just Minis Agility Show (unaffiliated) last December at 16 months old, I put him in the Papillon only class which was an open class, Grades 1-7, purely to get him ring experience before he started competing in the Kennel Club shows in March. He flew around and won, four seconds faster than the second dog. I then put him in UK Agility classes, he went from a Beginner dog to a Senior dog in a matter of weeks, also qualifying for the Steeplechase Final.

He started his agility career in March 2009 when he was 18 months old, his first agility class found him in second place, but in May he won his first agility class beating 115 dogs, this put him into Grade 4. At Axtane Agility show he qualified in the Eukanuba Circular Knockout which is held at Crufts (now run by the Kennel Club) he finished third out of 78 dogs on a very hot day indeed.

At Keston Agility show a week later Merlin won a Grade 4 agility class which has now put him into Grade 5. Two weeks after that he won another Grade 4 agility class but because of the 25 day rule he could not go up into Grade 6, which was sad as his time was faster then the winner of the Grade 5 class.

Merlin has also appeared on Sky TV in the Groomers programme, he had to stand on a moving table, which he did with no problem.

Merlin has achieved all this in under 20 months, I am sure he has a great future, will keep you posted.

Denise Welsh and the lovely Merlin

First pic is a young Merlin ready for his walk complete with back pack.

So you have decided that you want to try agility! You have a lovely bouncy Papillon that would love to rush around and do all the jumps etc., so what comes next? First of all you will need to find a good agility club (the Kennel Club has a country wide dictionary of Clubs) especially one that takes mini or small dogs, some clubs don't.  Always remember that agility should be fun, enjoy your training and enjoy your dog, Paps are very easy to train and normally love to throw themselves into all sorts of energetic things, especially jumping. Always be aware that there are other dogs about especially large dogs so make sure before you place your Papillon on the ground to start training that all is safe.

Once you have found your club and your dog is a year old or more, then its all systems go.  You will need to have basic obedience so that your dog will sit and wait when told, so you can get yourself into the right position, also your dog must be fit. You will be asking your pap to do things that it has not done before and use muscles that it has not necessarily used before. You cannot ask a dog that is carrying a lot of weight to jump, it is not fair and will only cause damage.   Depending on your trainer you will normally be encouraged to run with your dog over the jumps, which should be very low in the beginning to give the dog a chance to adjust itself to jumping.  Then you have the contact equipment, again this should be low to help build on the dogs confidence.