Rawgeous Pet Food-sponsored World Dog Agility Champion, Katrina Hands, and her son Blair, are limbering up for Crufts which starts at the NEC Birmingham next Thursday.
Katrina will be competing in the Crufts Small Singles on Friday, in the Small Championship on Sunday and Blair in the Junior Pairs Competition.
Last year competing for Team Scotland, Katrina won a Bronze medal for the Overall Games Championship at the World Agility Open in the Netherlands with her Shetland sheepdog, Sizzle. She also gained second place in the Gamblers Class. Katrina was selected to represent Team GB at the World Championship in Austria where she ran clear and contributed to the team’s seventh place.
Katrina who is a Sports Massage Therapist by profession as well as being a Dog Agility Trainer at Finavon Dog Agility, started in the sport in her mid 20’s. Her love and passion for dog agility was passed down to her son, Blair who plans to train to be a hydro therapist when he leaves school. Blair started out in agility at the tender age of 10 years old winning the Scottish Junior Handler prize two years in a row with Rosie, one of their two retired border collies in 2018 and 2019. Blair has also competed in Young Kennel Club classes at Crufts for the past 6 years gaining a third place in the YKC Agility Dog of the Year and a 2nd place in the Futurity Dog at CSJ Open in 2021
Katrina now competes with Sizzle, a 4 year old Shetland sheepdog, and Minx, a 7 year old jack russell terrier cross toy poodle. Blair competes with his 3 year old Shetland sheepdog, Rapid, and is also fortunate to occasionally borrow another Shetland sheepdog, Sofi, from her owner Lian Knight.
At last year’s Crufts, Blair and Rapid were 4th in 12-18 years YKC Agility Dog of the Year. Blair and Rapid also partnered with Dylan Osborne and Jelly were 2nd in YKC O12 pairs. Katrina and Sizzle came second in the Singles and also second in the Championship class. Katrina also won the British Open with the same dog. Blair competed for the Junior GB Agility Team with both Rapid and Sofi in Finland in July 2022 which was a huge achievement and the team finished fourth overall and won the jumping round.
Katrina was also selected for the Senior GB Agility Team with Sizzle for the European Open in Belgium in July 2022 where they put in clear runs but narrowly missed out making the finals.
Katrina and Blair have been helped on their way by a recent sponsorship deal with raw pet food manufacturer, Rawgeous. Katrina believes that changing her dogs’ diet has helped to fuel their performance and helps to keep them fit and healthy.
Katrina explains: “I decided to change to raw feeding as I wasn't happy with how my son's dog was doing on the various dry foods we had tried. A good friend suggested we should try raw. Then I started the process of looking into different raw food companies. We settled on Rawgeous for a number of reasons. They laboratory test each batch of food to ensure it is safe. They ethically source and can trace all their ingredients and they are a family company, which appealed greatly as Blair and I are mother and son. Additionally I was able to speak directly to Lorraine Sweeney, co-founder of the business to get advice on which flavours to try first and which flavours to feed at different times of our competing season.
“Their packaging is biodegradable and recyclable; some of the other companies I had considered were using lots of plastic packaging and I wanted to try to avoid this. In addition to the minced raw food, they also produce raw sausages; these are great for training treats when chopped into small pieces. So I can continue with the raw food even when training certain activities.”
As well as providing food for the sponsored dogs, Rawgeous Pet Food also provides polo shirts and a jacket to wear with the Rawgeous logo on it for the competing pair which they wear at competitions. Katrina also has a 30% discount code that she can pass onto other dog owners who want to try to delicious Rawgeous raw food recipes for dogs.
Commenting on the sponsorship deal, Lorraine Sweeney said: “We are absolutely delighted to be sponsoring Katrina and Blair and to see them doing so well in the dog agility world. They are an example of the old adage that when it comes to pet nutrition, what you put into a dog you get out of it in terms of health, vitality and wellbeing. It is fantastic that all the dogs are performing so well on the Rawgeous food.”
For further information on Rawgeous Pet food visit: www.rawgeouspetfood.com or contact Lorraine Sweeney on 07376 572479, email: Lorraine@rawgeouspetfood.com
