About the Instructors
Millie Clark - club owner and instructor
Millie has been doing agility since 2010, when she started at Highdown Agility with her English Bull Terrier, Nero. They learnt the ropes together but it wasn't really for him, so after a year he retired to the position of chief team mascot! Millie has taught agility regularly for the past 8 years.
She then went on to train up her Working Sheepdog Dexter and their competitive career highlights, before Dexter was retired in 2018, include:
- Winning up from grade 1 to 7.
- 7th place in Vyne Championship Final one year.
- Crufts Young Kennel Club Agility Dog of the Year finalists 2013.
- Novice 3-5 Olympia Finalists in 2013 & 2014, where they won the afternoon pairs competitions both years.
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Her third dog Herbie (rescue Working Sheepdog X JRT), who is currently her top competing dog, has career highlights so far that include:
-Winning up to Grade 7
-Qualifying for the Novice 3-5 Camddwr Cup Final 2016 (no run due to injury)
-Qualifying for the Agility Secrets 3-5 Jumping Final 2016 (No run due to injury)
-Olympia finalists in 2016 where they competed in front of 10,000 people and came 2nd in the grand evening final. Over 5000 Novice dogs had competed in this competition throughout the year.
-Olympia finalists in 2017 where they came 5th in the afternoon jumping round.
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Pilot (rescue Working Sheepdog) is Millie's youngest dog, who has recently achieved his first clear round, placing 3rd in Large G3 Agility.
Nero
Dexter
Millie & Herbie
Pilot
Neil Bennison- instructor
Neil has been doing agility for over 10 years, with both of his Belgian Shepherd dogs, Aisha and Lillie. Lillie has an exciting future ahead of her in agility and is currently only a few wins away from reaching grade 7. Neil trained Lillie exclusively with Millie for the first 3 years of her life, so Neil and Millie both have a very similar, positive teaching style. Although Neil hasn't taught agility for long, he has all the necessary experience, knowledge and passion to be a great instructor, and Millie is proud to call him part of her team.
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Neil & Lillie
aisha
Shirley French - instructor
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Shirley has owned and bred dogs all her life, but began her agility journey in 2010 and was instantly hooked! After spending her first three years competing in national events, she decided to combine her love of agility and teaching and begin a three-year instructor course earning her LLAAI qualification.
She then set up her own agility club in Devon which she loved running from 2013 until 2019 when she made her move from Devon to West Sussex to be closer to her family. During this time, she ran four of her own agility dogs and still has two of them competing and training at Highdown now. Most notably, Shirley got to KC Grade 7 in small and qualified to trial for the Small height Agility Team GB.
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Shirley & Twix
Eight
Sandra Ross - instructor
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Sandra has done agility with several of her dogs over the years, and was first a member of Highdown over 11 years ago! She has mainly had large Border Collies, but has also ran in small with her Terrier cross, Luna.
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Across her competitive career Sandra has got to KC Grade 6, represented Valgrays Rescue at Crufts running her rescue collie, Molly, and qualified for The Starters Cup Final at The Agility Club Show, which she won!
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