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In the ring at the World Agility Championships

Well, apologies if you visit the website on a regular basis as I haven’t put on a news update for quite a while.  We’ve just got back from Discover Dogs which is a very successful event held by the Kennel Club at Earls Court in London . There were around 25,000 visitors over the two days and a number of HTM handlers were invited to perform in the Main Ring along with myself and, as usual, the audience absolutely loved it. 

I did my Mack & Mabel routine but unfortunately I couldn’t take all four dogs as it is just too difficult in a hotel in the middle of London with no decent exercise areas and I had to take Gypsy so I tailored my routine to suit just Kizzy and Taz. 

Anyway it went down superbly and the audience really enjoyed it.  I also had Gypsy with me because I had been invited to compete in the Mini Agility and I had been asked to give a 15 minute clicker training demonstration as well but then the Metropolitan Police display team could not appear at the last minute as they were off on security duties so I did a 30 minute demonstration each day where I used all the dogs including Gypsy.  That got a very good reception so I think the word about clicker training is spreading very fast and this is particularly good at Discover Dogs as 95% of the spectators are just the ordinary pet-owning Joe Public.  Then as the icing on the cake, I got second place in the Mini Agility with Gypsy even though she hasn’t competed for several months and I got second place in Standard Agility with Kizzy who is nearly eleven years old!

Obedience has been going well this year as I have qualified both Kizzy and Quincy for the Championship Obedience at Crufts 2006 and Taz has won his way through the classes including a ‘C’ win so he only needs a place in ‘C’ now - either first second or third - to work Championship class (he got fourth in ‘C’ at Tunbridge Wells Champ Show, just off by one place!)   I have also had several Open ‘C’ wins with both Kizzy and Quincy and Foxy, well, she’s such a smashing little dog and a real character who has worked her way through the Obedience classes winning six ‘A’s and is now working in ‘B’.

In the last few weeks, I have had two trips to Spain , the second visit being to train in Madrid for Teo Mariscal who has an organisation in Spain called “Bocalan”.  They were insistent that I took two dogs with me so when I flew out I took Quincy and Gypsy.  Can you believe that two dogs cost £600 return and they don’t even have a seat or a cup of coffee!  And the palaver you have to go through when it comes to getting the dogs back into the country compared with how easy it is bringing them back through the channel tunnel - what a farce!  Anyway there were over 50 people there and I did some training with them and also demonstrated a lot of the training methods with my dogs which is exactly what they wanted so they must have been really pleased with the results as they have invited me back next year.

The first visit of Spain , of course, was our yearly pilgrimage to the World Agility Championships which were held in Valladolid this year and I was very honoured to be asked to perform at the opening and closing ceremonies.  I took Quincy with me and fortunately the Kennel Club allowed us to travel with the British team which, under the guidance of vet Peter van Dongen, made travelling with a dog very easy, although once more £89 for me with a seat and a drink and £300 for the dog - what a joke!  For the opening ceremony I performed my Spanish bullfighting routine which was very appropriate as all the town dignitaries including the mayor was there and they thought it was absolutely wonderful and it went out on local television as well.  Then for the closing ceremony I performed my Fred Astaire routine.  All in all it was a great experience and we were treated a little like VIPs while we were there so it made the whole event a little more pleasurable.


Mary with George Centre Manager George Choi

Between the two Spanish trips we both went to South Korea at the invitation of the Samsung Canine Centre.  This was my second visit and they really are lovely people, very hospitable and generous hosts.  You may have read the article that Dave wrote last year about their canine centre which is just out of this world and must be the finest facility in the world and my job while I was there was to train the kennel staff who are obviously in charge of training all the dogs.  I started by sharpening up a routine that one of the girls had put together for their annual open day and she did do a super Freestyle routine in front of a crowd in excess of 1,000 people. 



The Samsung Vets at work
I had better explain about the open day: the kennels just outside Seoul have a working section where they have collies and a few other breeds, a mainly small dog breeding section, a guide dog section, a PAT dog section, a disaster rescue section, search dog section etc.   In fact, they cover just about every type of canine discipline.  Any Samsung employee in South Korea - and there are hundreds of thousands of them - can apply to have a puppy from the centre.  They are given free of charge after a home visit to ensure they can cope with a puppy, there are then follow-up visits and an annual invitation to the open day with their dogs.  As well as canine entertainment at the open day, visitors have a complimentary lunch, lots of goodies and the dogs can be groomed by the grooming team and also the Samsung vets are on hand to check all the dogs and administer their yearly booster vaccinations.  I know that the South Koreans have a reputation for eating dogs but certainly the chairman of Samsung is really trying hard to change the Koreans outlook of dogs.  It may sound corny but he really believes that if they understand more about what dogs can do for you, it will make them better people.  So not only was it an enjoyable trip, I do feel as though I am contributing towards their good cause.


Clockwise from left; Freestyle Korean style; Mary signing autographs; The dog trainers in party mood; Some of the huge audience
It’s been a fairly busy time as in between all this I had also been invited to give a demonstration at the Horse of the Year Show at the NEC.  What they wanted was a canine and equine dressage routine and Ferdi Eilberg, who is a top international dressage rider and trainer, agreed to take part in the demonstration with me.  We decided on a Spanish theme so we used my Spanish music and we were supposed to get together through the Summer on several occasions to rehearse but unfortunately with my commitments and his international commitments we didn’t really get together.  Then when we did, of course, it’s a bit different with a horse because whereas with a dog you would try a routine and moves several times, with the horse he would only do the routine a maximum number of two times.  So it was going to prove pretty stressful.  

Mary at the Horse Of The Year show with Ferdi
We were going to do the demonstration once on the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of the show then twice on the Saturday and Sunday.  So on the Tuesday we went along for rehearsals in the ring with Ferdi and I have to say that I wasn’t at my best and during the day I felt more and more unwell and without going into detail I finished up being quite poorly that evening and they announced that I had tripped over they not knowing what was wrong but anyway I was fully recovered by the Friday so I went to the NEC and performed both routines on the Saturday and Sunday.  Definitely not as easy as it looks but the audience’s reaction and consensus of opinion afterwards told us that it as a very successful event for the first time and I’m sure it’s an exercise we’ll see repeated.

During the Summer as usual, I put all my training on hold so that I could concentrate on dog shows which of course is my first love. I took my usual week’s course at the end of July but this year moved the venue to the home of Premier Showjumps in Surrey. This was a tremendous success as usual and if anything more successful due to the hospitality of Liz and Alan Pollock as well as being a much better venue. I was booked to do a demo at the beginning of August at Broadgate in the centre of London but unfortunately that was cancelled due to the 7th July bombings. In September I went up to Rex Seddon’s and Maggie Backup’s new training facility in Anglesey. They purchased a run-down farm the year before which they are slowly converting it into an excellent training centre - lovely camping, a lovely venue, a newly refurbished barn with a super non-slip surface similar to that used in children’s playgrounds, a great bunch of people on the course and a good time was had by all. So it looks as if that could be another yearly week.


In Rex and Maggie’s new training hall
In between this, I have had a few of my Cabaret Evenings. Particularly successful were the ones at the Wood Green Animal Sanctuary and the ones at MyPetStop in Leeds both of which had several hundred people in attendance.

If you look at the Events page, you will see that there are quite a few Cabaret Evenings coming up. I have just released a new cabaret night video called “An Evening with Mary Ray” and the first part is extremely interesting because during the afternoon Maria Johnson came along as she was to be one of the spectators that evening and she brought her new puppy Inca with her so I asked if I could use him on the night to demonstrate puppy training. Well, the results are quite stunning and quite by accident I have a really good demonstration of how to start a puppy off using a clicker.

I also have my first book out! This is called “Dog Tricks” and I had a ghost writer working with me called Justine Harding as I’m not very good at putting things into words myself. It is 128 pages long with detailed instructions of how to get started with a clicker, the props and the treats you will need and how to perform over 50 tricks, or should I call them moves. This is illustrated with many colour photographs on every single page and it looks like it could be quite successful. Everyone who has seen it thinks it’s a super book and, would you believe, the publishers already have my completed second book so that should be out next year sometime. Again, though, I’m afraid that I had to have another ghost writer as I have all the knowledge but just find it difficult putting it down in words.

I think Dave is working me too hard because as I write this I am shortly off to the USA to hold Freestyle and Agility seminars for Gail Fisher in New Hampshire, then nothing more until after Christmas so at least then I will be able to have a bit of a rest!