Archive News

26 Dec 2005 BSD League details announced (at last!) We have decided to form the Vapresto Agility Club to run the league for 2005: This will enable us to provide some additional benefits for members and organise some events for members. Click here for more details and league rules.

16 Dec Last results of 2004? The leagues have all been updated today and, as there are no more KC shows this year, these are almost certainly final results for 2004. However, until the last day of submission for 2004 points (one month after the last show), we will not announce the trophy winners just yet. It is planned to present the awards at our show in April...

Spring At Suffolk Open Agility Show announced: We will be organising a two-day agility show at the Suffolk Showground on 16-17 April 2005, to raise money to send the GB Agility team to the BSD World Championships in Germany next year. We are currently trying to produce a schedule and hope to have it ready for Christmas or very soon after.

We are planning some changes for the 2005 League and hope to post the details on this website at the weekend (by 20th December): We are proposing to acknowledge non-KC results in some way, and are considering forming the 'Vapresto Agility Club', with league entrants becoming members. This will enable us to organise club events for members, and to raise money for more and better awards in the future.

22 Nov Results still coming in: Our own Cloud (Minka Indena Cumulus), handled by Amanda, came 3rd in Starters Jumping at Eastbourne (click here for the movie!) and Rebecca Agronius, with her Malinois 'Alfie', came 3rd in Elementary Agility at the same show. Anne Challis and Copper won Senior Power & Speed at Newton Heath, and also at Newton Heath, Andy Brown & Skye (Heidron Chasing Stormy Skye) achieved the qualifying criteria for the 2005 BSD WC with 6th in Novice Jumping. The newest league member - Razzle (one of my Storm's Grandchildren, handled by Julie Saunders) also did very well, with a 7th, 10th, and 12th place despite being just 19 months old

21 Nov Watch this space: In the next few days we will be announcing plans for a new two-day Open Agility show in Spring 2005, to raise money to send our team to the BSD WC in Germany in May...

14 Nov BSD World Championship 2005 details updated: Click on the BSD WC 2005 'seesaw' to view...

3 Nov Some non-agility news! We have just heard that the Tervueren Minka Inspiration Chivvy (Chevy) has just been made up to Obedience Champion by his handler Michelle Newman. We mentioned it here as Chevy is litter brother to our Cloud, Julie Saunders' Storm, Niki Keeler's Aika, Ann Olsen's Minty, and Gill Raddings' Kyte who are all in the Vapresto league!

2 Nov British team 7th in the BSD World Championships and Mike Bacon 6th Individual: Check out the BSD WC 2004 page for details...

24 Oct Successes for Vapresto relatives at Bridge House & Downland: One of our own Storm's puppies - Vapresto Arainy Jay (pictured right at Axstane earlier this year) - picked up another trophy for 2nd in Starters Agility at Bridge House show yesterday, and Julie Saunders' 'Razzle' (one of Storm's Grand-daughters) got a clear round at her first ever show - in Intermediate Agility!!!

22 Oct World Championship changes again at the 11th hour! OK, so a relatively minor change this time - the venue has moved by about 20 miles, the organising club has changed, and an extra jumping round in the team competition introduced!

The squad is as ready as they will ever be - and thanks are due to Toni Dawkins and Andy Brown for running really excellent last-minute FCI rules training sessions for us all last weekend.

17 Oct A few more results from Weald show

for the league: Rebecca Agronius and 'Alfie' got off the mark with places in both Elementary and Starters Agility. Sue Schofield also managed a clear round with Kia (pictured right, and a granddaughter of our own Storm) at her very first Open show

7 Oct Agility training for BSD WC 2004 squad (and 2005 hopefuls): Louise Challis has arranged some training with Toni Dawkins (All-breeds 2004 WC team member) at Premier Showjumps on 16th October. If you are interested please download full details and an 'entry form' here.

28 Sep Sad news for many agility Tervueren: A fair number of agility Tervueren (including all of our own) in the UK are descendants of Minka Freedom Zenna, who was sadly given rest on Friday , suffering from inoperable bladder cancer. Zenna was one of the most enthusiastic dogs and gave my Storm (her daughter) and many others a zest for agility (and utter disdain for contacts!) Zenna thoroughly enjoyed her last run at Suffolk Five Rivers and even managed a 10th place recently at Severnside show in the Agility Addicts sponsored 'All-Sorts' class (and they very kindly provided the attached picture).

22 Sep First show successes for Heidron puppies: I received the following news from Heidi Totesaut:
"FIVE RIVERS WAS NINA'S (VANISTICA FRENCH ROMANCE WITH HEIDRON) PUPPIES FIRST SHOW. INKA OWNED BY DIANE GRIFFIN GOT 13TH IN NOV. JUMP. AND A 16TH IN NOV. AG. TWO OF THE BITCH PUPPIES GRACE OWNED BY MYSELF AND MINNIE OWNED BY DEBBIE AND RICHARD LEA MANAGED CLEAR ROUNDS.
THE SECOND DOG PUPPY SKYE OWNED BY ANDY BROWN WENT TO A UKA SHOW ON 18. SEPT. AND GAINED 7TH IN NOV. AG., 4TH IN NOV JUMP., 3RD IN NOV. HELTER SKELTER AND 2ND IN NOV. POWER AND SPEED. ON 19. AT BROMSGROVE HE GOT 29TH IN OPEN HELTER SKELTER AND 4TH IN NOV. AG. OUT OF 250 DOGS.
THE PUPPIES WERE 18 MONTHS OLD ON 15. SEPT. DAD IS DELARK LUCKY CHASE WHO DIDN'T DO ToO BADLY HIMSELF.
HOW IS THAT FOR A 'COMING OUT' OF NEARLY A WHOLE LITTER AT THAT AGE?"

21 Sep Last 'Outdoor' weekend results trickling in: Niki Keeler's Cruise won his last Novice Agility at Five Rivers (and came 2nd in ABC Jumping), where Louise Challis also won ABC Jumping with River. Our own Blitz got his best ever Novice Agility place (15th) and a good ABC Jumping result (11th) at the same show.

13 Sep A few notable results from the weekend: Mandy Elcock and Wilf won out of Elementary at Daventry - well done Mandy! Niki Keeler & Cruise won ABC at Longleat (apparently - but no results submitted yet), Michael Stonehouse with The Blade Runner won another starters class - the only results they have submitted this year are 3 second places and two firsts!!!

BSDs also took a good share of the rosettes and trophies at Burnham, with Louise Challis and River winning ABC Jumping and her mum Anne winning ABC Agility with Timber - by a massive 4 seconds! The man on the tannoy even started commenting on the number of Minka, Vapresto, and Louandi dogs that he had to announce in the places, with a huge cheer going up each time a BSD was called out!

ABC Agility rosette winners pictured (from left): Terry Polley with Nikki and Mia, Anne Challis with Timber, Julie Saunders with Storm, Sue Schofield with Jay, and Amanda Cable with Cloud

6 Sep Lots more points added to the League tables: Sorry about the lack of points updates recently, but Vapresto have been organising the WBSDS show and the BSD WC effort. The lead in Starters has changed for the first time in months with Karen Perry and Tango (Delark Sun King) and that's without a winning out bonus!!

31 Aug WBSDS Show a success! We do not have the totals yet, but it looks as though we will have raised somewhere between £2,500 and £3,000 over the weekend at Bath Racecourse! Over £600 was raised from the Pay on the Day 'FCI Style' courses, and the coffers were further boosted by Minka, Stuntdogs, Michelle Griffiths and Vapresto sponsoring classes / rosettes.

We are also very grateful to the many other kind contributions made by ring parties not claiming their refunds, judges not claiming expenses, the caterers for not charging the full amount for lunch vouchers used, and Steve Hughes for donating some draw prizes.

The assistance of Severnside Agility Club in guaranteeing the event, allowing us to use one of their days, and providing 3 sets of equipment, was generous enough, yet many of the members worked very hard throughout the weekend to help make the show the success that it was. A huge vote of thanks to all of those that helped set up the rings, provided judges lunches, helped organise the campers, and much more...

Finally, thank you to all the judges (we had many compliments about the courses), our ring managers (Linda Evans, Alan Smith, Louise Challis, Lisa Jordan and Jill Lowe), and all the many helpers that enabled us to get through nearly 2,500 entries in just 4 rings and allowing us to run the Pay on the Day all day! Thanks also to my co-organisers Mike Bacon and Sue & Tom Cuddon.

23 Aug Lots of news! One more person has won out of Starters since I last updated - Peter Mactaggart with his Malinois Yetter Nuther Story (a new league entrant) taking them straight to 5th place in the Starters League.

We also witnessed Niki Keeler taking Nickila Highland Cruise into Senior at Dogs in Need - well done to you both, especially as it now means there are four Senior dogs in the BSD WC Team!

Anne Challis and Timber are now getting very close to maximum points score, and are dropping anything below 6th place now after 2 more Novice Agility wins and one more Novice Jumping win at Dogs in Need!!

4 Aug New entry in at number 4! Margaret Hudson and 'Voe' (Jaraz Ambition) has just joined the Starters league with a win and a couple of other places - taking them straight to 4th position.

3 Aug More results in from last weekend: Haven't had a points submission yet, but I'm told John Grainger and Oba (Kirstaving Applejack) won out of Starters at the Agility Club show with a cracking jumping round - what a way to break your duck! There were a couple of other trophies taken home by BSD handlers: including Anne Challis with Timber (2nd in Novice Jumping at Derby), and Louise Challis with River (1st in Open Jumping at Derby)

Less good news is that we also heard today that Zenna (Minka Freedom Zenna), the winner of the 2003 League Veteran trophy, has been diagnosed with an inoperable tumour. She is OK at the moment, and we hope that she responds well to her medication and keeps going for a good while yet. For those that don't already know, most dogs with Minka in their pedigree, and all Vaprestos, are direct descendants of Zenna and it is certainly from her that my Storm gets her enthusiasm and speed. We're keeping our fingers crossed for her and, of course, her keepers - Olive & Terry and her handler last year and this - Julie (pictured)...

1 Aug A good weekend for Vapresto: All the Vapresto dogs at Derby show were placed this weekend, with Storm getting 27th in novice jumping, Blitz 10th in Novice jumping the next day, and Frost getting 24th in starters agility. Terry Polley also took 15th in Novice Agility with Frost and Blitz's litter sister Vapresto Aurora Kita (Niki).

28 July All change for next year? Most people will now be aware of the proposed rule changes for next year (if not, have a look at www.agilitynet.com) and I thought you might like to know how this will affect the Vapresto BSD League: Of this year's entrants and based on known results, approximately 62 will be in Starters, 9 in Novice/Intermediate, and 10 in Senior!!!
The good news is that, judging by what we saw in Belgium last year (and the World Champion being a Tervueren) we may just have a chance of beating the collies at their own game!

24 July A sad day at Vapresto: Our very own Vapresto Carrera Gee-Tee (Rush) had to be given rest today, at the tender age of just 17 months, to prevent suffering from heart failure . Early agility training went extremely well, and he showed enormous promise; so he was entered in the league and was due to have his debut at DIN, but sadly this was not to be. Thank you to all who have sent messages of sympathy - we really do appreciate it.

20 July Sorry for lots of belated news: Sue Rasey and Leila (Corndael Star Sensation) won out of Starters at Cornwall on 10th July - congratulations!!! We were there (with considerably less success unfortunately) and what a nice show it was too - relaxed, fun atmosphere, fenced rings, glorious views, dog-friendly beaches, and great fish & chips - we'll be back!

Joanne Apostolou and Zellik (Sabrefield X'citing Story) appear to have won a Novice Jumping class at Rugby - well done to them too.

There were 3 BSDs in the 2nd place 'Nature's Menu' team at Newlands - Julie Saunders and Kane, Anne Challis and Timber, and Sally Ellis with Boston.

There may be other significant results that I missed - sorry, but it was a mammoth task catching up after two weeks not updating results.

4 July Lead changes again in Starters: Lisa Jordan and Kane are back in front after CATS - and our bred Vapresto Arainy Jay was piloted to 2nd in Starters Jumping by Sue Schofield at the same show - well done to you both.

3 July First Signatures in Warrant Books! A few judges were surprised with a small queue of people waving Agility Record Books at the weekend! Our Blitz and Frost both got theirs signed for clear rounds, and Blitz also had his first ever place in an ABC qualifier (only 21 better places to go before we qualify for the final!!)

26 June Timber goes Senior at Empingham: Congratulations to Anne Challis and Timber (Louandi Creole) on their 2nd Novice Agility win taking them into Senior and into a convincing lead in the Novice League! We shall be expecting great things from the 14 of his 15 puppies (the Minka 'L' litter and the Vapresto 'C' litter) that will be starting their agility careers later this year and at the end of 2005!

Other Belgians score at Empingham: The announcer struggled with all the Minka pedigree names at Empingham as they grabbed a good share of the rosettes - including 3 of them winning the team knockout, 2 getting trophies in the pairs, and several individual places. Julie Saunders' Storm (Minka Island Storm) got all three trophies - 1st in the teams, 2nd in Open Stop & Go, and 3rd in Intermediate Jumping - boosting them to 4th in Seniors!

22 June Starters League leader changes again! Steve Hughes and Kip took two novice trophies (including a win in Agility) home from the Isle of Man at the weekend, and inherited a 21 point lead for their efforts.

Also a big well done to Niki Keeler and Cruise (Nickila Highland Cruise) for their agility win at the RVA show - after all those 2nd and 3rd places last year! They also got a 3rd in Novice Agility on the other day of the show just to prove the point.

20 June Cloud gets a trophy for the Vapresto team: Not strictly a Vapresto, but Amanda's Cloud (Minka Indena Cumulus) broke a habit of late by staying in the ring to get 3rd place in Starter's agility at Axstane today!

19 June New leader in (and now out of) Starters! Lisa Jordan and Kane had a cracking round on a tricky course to win out of Starters at Axstane today - putting them in the lead of the Starters League.

18 June Bailey streaks ahead in Senior: Brenda Hollis and Bailey appear to be heading for a maximum score in the Senior League - with 518 points so far from their top 20 results! Timber (with Anne Challis) is not that far behind their total in the Novice League with 447 points.
(Oops - slight error there, Timber has now submitted more than 20 scores, so his points tally drops back to 442 - still a commanding lead in Novice, with lots of chances to boost his score to come!)

12 June All change in Novice & Senior Leagues: By an incredible coincidence, both leagues are being led by the same number of points (339) as of today - Anne Challis and Timber in Novice & Brenda Hollis and Bailey in Seniors. Brenda's score would be a little higher if they were not now over the 20 result total, but Timber still has a few to go.

Our own Storm got off the mark at Belvoir Castle today, with her 7th lifetime clear round (age 8 1/2) giving her 5th place in Novice Jumping!

Sorry the site hasn't been updated so regularly lately, but we are rather pre-occupied with our Rush's condition at present and will probably only be updating once or twice a week for a while.

5 June Vapresto League entries beat last year's! On returning from Supadogs we found another two entries in our postbox - taking the total this year so far to 75 dogs... One of the new entries (Elaine Thompson and Sableblack to the Future) also came with results from just 3 shows (in the past two weeks) and went straight to number 7 in the Novice League!

We know there still are lots more Belgians out there that haven't entered the BSD League, so spread the word for us please - especially to those that may not be on the Internet: The more we get, the more trophies we can get for next year's presentation. Thanks.

4 June SupaDogs over for another year: A few results are in already and there have been some changes in the league already - well done to Sue Schofield for getting a Vapresto (Jay) up to 3rd place (pity I can't do the same with Jay's litter brother in Novice) and to Caroline King, who seems to have really cracked it with Blitz, climbing into 10th place at the moment with another two places!

Congratulations also to Karen Perry & Delark Sun King for shooting from near the bottom to second in the Starters League with some great results at Packington over the Bank Holiday weekend

25 May Blitz breaks his duck in style! After being the only novice dog not to trouble the scorers last year, Blitz (Louandi Beau Blitz) won Open Helter Skelter at Cranbourne with his first clear round in nearly two years! Well done to him and Caroline King... (we know how it feels - my Storm had just 3 clear rounds in her first 6 seasons of competition!!

24 May Belgians out in force at Cranbourne: Several people were overheard commenting on the number of Belgians at Cranbourne show, and a few of them were mentioned in the results announcements - well done! We'll update the points as they come in!

15 May Toby has a new home - and a new name! Look out for 'Inca' at an agility show near you... He'll be the young Groenendael hanging off of some part of his older Tervueren 'brother' (Kane). 'Inca' found his new owner within 24 hours of our posting on this website, and we are proud to have helped the young lad so quickly, as kennels are no place for a young Belgian - especially one already lacking socialisation.

11 May We think Toby has found a home already! Hopefully he'll be joining the league next year...

On the subject of the league, we now have our 70th entry - only 4 more dogs needed to top last year.

10 May Groenendael Pup needs a home: I've been asked to mention that there is a 4 1/2 month old Groenendael dog (Toby) in Belgian Shepherd Rescue at the moment, through no fault of his own, that urgently needs a new home. Toby is the result of an accidental Tervueren-Groenendael mating and is said to be extremely active and may be well suited to an agility home? Please go to BSD Rescue for more details.

9 May Vapresto at 'All About Dogs' - briefly! After being towed onto the camping area at 9:00 pm on Friday, we were promptly towed off again on Saturday morning after rain stopped play at Suffolk Five Rivers agility show! Thanks again to the kind person who towed us, and many many others, off the field in his own vehicle, and our commiserations to the organisers, and all those who also missed out on a weekend of agility: There'll be a few people relieved about the 20 results rule if we have any more wet weekends!

5 May News of the Malinois Magnifique Team making an impression at Wallingford! Unfortunately we missed their run, but a great result for the Belgians with 4th in the Natures Menu Team team event - well done to Yvonne Black & Ice, Julie Bishop & Della, Rosemary Banfield & Vixen, Jo Apostolou & Zellik
(Ice and Zellik are litter sisters, Della is their Aunt, and Vixen is a 'friend'!)

4 May First League Entrant exceeds 20 results! Joanne Apostolou's Sabrefield X'citing Story (Zellik) has now submitted 21 results into the league, and so will drop her lowest scores from now on. They are still at the top of the Novice League however, so the others have some catching up to do!

Congratulations to Alan Smith and Jazz for winning Intermediate Agility at Wallingford... The rapid rise to Senior was obviously well deserved! Well done.

BSD World Championships Date AND Venue changed again! The Agility & Obedience events will now be held in Badelona (near Barcelona) on 29-31 October. Hopefully this is final, so we can all book our time off work!

66 Entries in the Vapresto League now... A few more needed to top last year's 73 - so tell your friends! (The more entries we have, the better the trophies at the end!)

WBSDS Show entries trickling in after being online for just over a week now... again - please tell your friends!

17 April Schedule available for WBSDS Open Agility Show - 28th & 29th August 2004: At last, we now have a schedule for the show organised to raise funds to send our BSD WC team to Spain in October! Click here to download a copy of the schedule, and entry & camping forms.

13 April Dates announced for BSD World Championships: The Agility BSD WC will be held near Castellon, Spain, on 1st -3rd October 2004. Click here to go to the BSD WC page for more details.

11 April Vapresto BSD League 2003 Awards presented at Dashin' Dogs: We had a fantastic turnout of Belgian Shepherd Dogs for the awards presentation and you can read a report here. We will also have photos of the presentation and various BSDs competing, and we will be happy to produce reprints at a sensible price for anyone interested.

1 April League entrant in 'Dogs Today': Congratulations to Colleen Mowbray for winning her section in the 'Dogs Today' photography competition with her pictures of Rembrandt (Lebeau Firestarter). The way Rembrandt was going in his few competitions last year, I suspect this might not be the only success they have in 2004!

28 March Congratulations to Steve Hughes and 'Kyp' for winning out of Starters at Otley: We weren't there to see it I'm afraid, but they've claimed 30 points for Starters Jumping so they must have won - well done! With your 100 point bonus for winning out, that gives you a commanding lead in Starters at this early stage of the season!

28 March The Working Belgian Shepherd Dog Society is launched: Click here to read more about the WBSDS, or go direct to the WBSDS website (www.wbsds.co.uk) for more information and a membership form.

24 March Not strictly agility news, but Vapresto are very pleased to announce the arrival of 9 puppies to Vapresto August Sky (not an agility competitor herself, but litter sister to our Frost and Blitz, and to Jay and Nikki in the League). At least one of the puppies should be featuring in next year's league, and there are a couple not yet spoken for at this stage. See Vapresto Breeding Plans for pictures and more details.

23 March Belated congratulations to Brenda Hollis & Bailey at Crufts: It was great to see that a 'true ABC' won at Crufts this year, and especially a Belgian Shepherd. The fact that Brenda & Bailey (Baudwin Cappamore) also won our Senior category in 2003 is encouraging to us at Vapresto, as it indicates that we are achieving exactly what we set out to do - find the top performing Belgians in the UK!

17 March BSD league well under way: Dianne Griffin and Chase take the lead in Seniors after Newton Heath, Anne Challis and Timber are leading Novice after Mid-Downs. Not many Starters points claimed yet (but few winter shows have starter classes) and Jo Pidduck leads with 5 points from Corton.

10 March BSD World Championship venue changed again! The agility and obedience sections of the 2004 BSD World Championships will now take place somewhere in Spain in September or October: As soon as we have more details we will post them on this and the BSD WC 2004 pages.

26 Feb 2003 League results amended! Unfortunately we had forgotten our own rules when we announced the winner of the veteran category. The rules state that points from veteran classes ONLY count towards the trophy, but we had stated that the winner was the dog with the most total points scored as a veteran dog.
Consequently, we have decided to give both dogs an award on this occasion.

21 Feb Judges and ring parties needed for our agility show: We are well on the way to getting our show organised now, but are short of two judges for Sunday 29 August, and reserve judges for both days (28th - p.m. only & 29th - all day). We could also use a couple more Ring Managers if anyone fancies that job! Please email me at ian@vapresto.com if you are able to help.

16 Feb League entries top the half-century: We now have 53 entrants before the season has got under way for most people (us included). It is nice to see a few new names of both handlers and dogs and we hope there will be even more this year!

9 Feb Both Starters and Seniors get off the mark: Corton show provided points to enable Jo Pidduck to take the first lead in the Starters League, and North Downs for Andy Brown's Storm in Seniors (with Julie Saunders' Storm next in line!) Seems the season is well and truly under way...

5 Feb New date for our show: Thanks to Severnside, we will now be holding a joint show with them over the August Bank Holiday weekend (28-30 August 2004) to raise money for the BSD World Championships. Schedules will be available from this site, AgilityNet and Agility Eye hopefully by the end of this month, and will contain some exciting news for everyone who works a BSD in the UK... Watch this space!

With regard to the World Champs, we are still waiting for confirmation of both venue and dates (which may now be October apparently)

Vapresto BSD League News 2004