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"Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole."

"We think our trainers are amazing, and our dogs are great teachers too!"

Our member trainers and committee 
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Judith Doble - Head Agility trainer and Club President

Judith started competing in agility for fun in 2004 with her Labrador, Raja. She competed for Wales with her other dog, Indie at the World Agility Open Championships in England in 2011 and then again in Belgium 2012 with Kali and a borrowed dog, Scruffy, and in Spain with Kali in 2013.

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“I rescued Kali, a Collie x Spaniel, from Lizzie's Barn Sanctuary in October 2008. I was so proud of her as we quickly went up the grades in Kennel Club agility and reached Championship level in UKA. I have attended many finals with Kali and, in December 2012, she came 4th in the UKA Masters Final. She’s older now so I don’t push her – she’s fallen in love with scent training – and I’m training with my new rescue dog, Solar, a Collie with boundless enthusiasm and a lot of attitude!”

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“Learning and improving never ends, and I’m now training young Solar with Barrie James, international agility trainer and judge, who has been competing in and judging agility for over 20 years and has been placed in numerous prestigious finals, including Crufts and Olympia.”

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Philippa Coggins - Adult Obedience trainer and Club Treasurer

Philippa is a founding member of the club, starting in 1994 after having attended obedience classes in the Llanharan social club hall and moving up to the Cynllan Lodge kennels when they were opened.

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“I had taken on a Labrador Retriever, Jack, who had no formal training and thought it was ok to drag me everywhere! So I started training him out of necessity and found I enjoyed it and wanted to get better at it. I really enjoyed the training classes and just wanted to continue meeting and training together.”

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Philippa’s first dog in 1967, was a Shetland Sheepdog, and she has since shared her life and love with four crossbreeds, a Labrador and then five Working Sheepdogs. She is working and competing with her current three sheepdogs, Lily, Grace and young Freya. She has been a veterinary nurse since 1973 so has developed a great understanding and empathy with animals, especially dogs. She began competing in obedience in 1999 until the agility took over in 2005. Together with other club members, she also put on displays for local events during the summer months.

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​She has been teaching obedience at the club for several years. Although very skilled and experienced in training dogs, Philippa has taken each of her dogs through the Canine Good Citizenship tests along with other members of the club. Lily, Grace and her youngest dog, Freya, are all Gold Awards doggy citizens. Philippa is one of the agility trainers at Caerphilly and District Agility Club and is also one of the higher grade handlers.

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Jan Thomas -  Trainer for KC Awards / Club Secretary

Jan joined the club in 2002 after completing a 10-week obedience course at Cynllan Lodge Kennels and wanting to progress in obedience and agility training. Jan has had dogs all her life - a Welsh Springer spaniel, and four rescues - a whippet and three much-loved mixed breeds.

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“Before I joined our Club I trained three of my dogs at home, but I really think that my girls, Jodie and Meg, have benefited enormously and grown in confidence from being trained with other dogs, and I’ve improved my handling skills too. It gives me a great sense of achievement seeing my dogs enjoying their training, working for me and happy around other dogs and people.”

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Since joining the club, both dogs have gained Kennel Club Good Citizens awards in bronze, silver and gold and Jan has competed in agility with Meg and Jodie, both for fun and competitively.

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“I’m so proud of my girls and what we’ve managed to achieve together with what I’ve learned at the club; we’ve competed in numerous Team agility events and displays. Some of my proudest moments with Meg are when she won into Grade 2 Agility at Honiton in 2006 and won into Grade 3 Agility at Daventry in 2010, also coming 3rd in the DARL jumping finals at Daventry. We’ve gained the Kennel Club Agility Warrants in bronze, silver and gold together.  Jodie won Best Sight Hound at Fonmon Castle dog show in 2014, also coming 3rd there in 2016. She’s a little bomb at agility, coming 3rd in Grade 3 Agility at the Heart of Brecon Beacons Kennel Club show. Jodie won into grade 4 at CADAC show in July 2018. Jodie came 3rd in the DARL finals jumping in 2019. Although Meg just loves to work and do agility, she’s had to retire now. Jodie adores agility, although she’s not been easy to train! She also loves nose/scent work; she can’t wait to find the scent article. But, being a whippet, her favourite pastime is ‘zoomies’ with her best dog-friend Solar. She is just so loving, affectionate and a calm and trusting, loyal dog.”

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Kay Burridge -  Club Chairperson

Kay's a regular at the club and has been training her Newfoundlands for many years.  Her house is overflowing with Newfies - there's Henry, Dora, Ellie and Inka.  They are working rescue dogs , trained to jump out of a boat and swim to save the lives of people who get into trouble in water. They also get to have fun pulling carts, which they love! Here's Kay with Inka when she won Southern Newfoundland Club Top Working Draught Dog 2013. What amazing, gentle giants!

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Lesley Jackman - Committee member

After completing Cynllan Lodge Kennels' ten week course, Lesley joined the club in 2004 as an inexperienced dog handler with a disobedient chocolate Labrador called Harvey.
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"With lots of help from club trainers and members he turned into a happy dog with whom I achieved so much. We worked hard and gained our bronze, silver and gold Kennel Club Awards. I am now attempting to train a busy chocolate Labrador called Ollie and, whether doing obedience with Philippa, agility with Judith or Jan helping us, I get excellent advice making Thursday night a night to look forward to with friends and their dogs. With Ollie we have gained our bronze and silver awards and are working towards our gold.
 

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Cassie Fairchild -  Committee Member and Agility Trainer

A member of the club for a number of years, Cassie loves her collies and, in particular, they enjoy agility together. 
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"The club has been a really great place to learn so many things about my dogs and how to teach them skills, giving me the confidence and ability to work with my dogs off leash. It doesn't take much to motivate a collie, but it can take quite a bit of work to direct my high energy dogs in a positive way and I've learned how to do just that at the club."
 

Some of our members at the club with their KC Good Citizen's Bronze awards.

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