A YOUNGSTER from Week St Mary has achieved sporting success, becoming the youngest handler ever to be selected for a junior dog agility team by working in tandem with his best friend — a five-year-old cocker spaniel.

Will Bacchus, aged eleven, who attends St Teath CP School, and his charming little friend, Aston, have been partaking in dog agility for approximately four years, and, in the last few months, have achieved some notable results.

The pair have recently returned from Crufts, where they qualified for the grand final of the Young Kennel Club Agility Dog of the Year. This was a televised event in the main arena, in front of a very large crowd, and saw the pair run really well, accruing just five faults and finishing in ninth place. Just one pole on a fence was knocked over to give the faults; without this, the duo would have finished third.

The achievement is all the more notable as it is a competition for dogs of all sizes and for handlers up to the age of 18.

Will and Aston also reached the final of the YKC Anything But Collies final — a competition for handlers up to the age of 24.

Last month, Will and Aston travelled to Nottingham to take part in the final trials for the Great Britain Under 18 team for this year. The pair were delighted to find out that they had been selected for the team that will represent the country at the European Junior Open Championships in July.

The tournament will take place in Luxembourg and will involve teams from right across Europe.

Will has the honour of becoming the youngest handler ever to be selected for the Junior Great Britain team.

Will has been doing agility with Aston for four years. The sport involves handling a dog around a series of obstacles, including jumps, long jumps, A-frames, tunnels, weaves, see-saws and tyres in the quickest time possible.

The pair normally compete in open competitions against adults and have quickly risen through the gradings to compete at their current level. They train a couple of times a week with trainer, Kim Clelland, in Marhamchurch, and have reached grade five through winning competitions around the South West.

The highest grade a dog can reach is grade seven, and Will hopes that his future career could lie in the field of promoting agility, perhaps working as an agility trainer.

At the end of last year, the pair also qualified for the UK Agility Grand Finals in Buckinghamshire, another under 18 national competition, where they finished in the top 12.

Will and Aston will continue to compete with the ambition to reach grade seven, get a podium finish at next year’s Crufts, and to perform as well as possible in the previously unknown world of the international arena, representing Great Britain.