Petra Ford and her Labrador Retriever “Tyler” Win at Crufts Obedience World Cup
AKC/USA team members Petra Ford and Tori Self excelled in the Obedience and Agility competitions, respectively, at the Crufts Dog Show, which took place March 8-11 in Birmingham, England. Petra and her Labrador Retriever “Tyler” won the Individual obedience competition in the Crufts World Cup, while Tori and her Border Collie “Rev” brought home 2nd, 3rd and 5th placements in the International Agility competition.
“I congratulate our AKC/USA team members on their wonderful successes at Crufts,” said AKC President Dennis Sprung. “These competitors represented the American Kennel Club and the United States well and should be commended for the hard work and dedication to their sports.”
Obedience
The international Obedience World Cup took place Sunday, March 11th and included exercises from UK, USA and European (FCI) obedience.
Petra Ford, from Washington, NJ, placed first in the Individual portion of Crufts World Cup 2012 out of 30 dog and handler teams with “Tyler,” NOC OTCH Count Tyler Show Me The Money UDX7 OM6 MH, her seven year-old Labrador Retriever. Petra and Tyler are two-time AKC National Obedience Invitational Champions. Watch an interview with Petra after her win here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wicm09_nMk&feature=youtu.be
Petra and Tyler also competed alongside Plano, Illinois residents Bridget Carlsen and “Saucy,” or High Times Instant Soup SH, a three year-old Golden Retriever in the team competition. The AKC/USA team placed 8th out of eleven teams in the Obedience World Cup despite fielding only two team members instead of three.
Agility
Nineteen year-old college student Tori Self, from Orlando, Florida, and her Border Collie, NAC MACH Sagehill’s Change the World OF “Rev” represented the American Kennel Club in the Crufts International Agility Competition. The pair competed against 22 teams from countries around the world and placed 2nd in the International Jumping round, 3rd in the International Agility round and 5th in the Final round.
Tori and Rev were selected based on their accomplishments in 2011 which include an AKC National Championship in the 26” height class and winning the Large Dog Team Jumping class over 93 teams at the 2011 FCI World Agility Championships in France. Tori is a former AKC Junior handler who now balances her college life with her Agility training and competition.
Watch Tori and Rev’s three runs on the AKC YouTube channel.
For more about Crufts, visit http://www.crufts.org.uk/.