Feeling rather pleased to be invited to join the team again after last year’s stage-fright, Shumba and I arrived at Biggin Hill Primary School to be met by a very friendly lady who proudly showed us the proposed arena.

Situated on the hot tarmac playground, it was the size of a couple of Judo mats! A little small for eight hot and possibly grumbly (Shumba, at least) canine stars. Smiling graciously, it was decided to leave Kaye to sort that out – a huge advantage of being a junior member of the team is having all the fun with none of the hassle! As we were a bit early, we wandered around to the usual chorus of "what a gorgeous German Shepherd" punctuated liberally with "don’t go near that, it’s a German Shepherd". Fortunately, Shumba was more interested in the whereabouts of the ice-cream van than in being offended!

Finally our turn arrived and we paraded into the ring (thankfully enlarged!) as the crowds gathered, led by the ever-elegant Jet, nose in the air taking his role as Very Important Lead Dog very seriously.. Play downs followed which Shumba needed a little coaxing into as his look very definitely read "Mom, you do it, the floor’s HOT!" Accompanied by David’s engaging commentary, we all worked through the exercises, with everyone (at least all the dogs!) behaving impeccably and looking to all the world like we’d done hours of drill practise. Such showmanship! Even Shumba kept his attention on me this time, ignoring the rest of his “flock” sitting on a bench right next to us. What a star!

Soon it was all over and we paraded out again to do our "meeting of the adoring fans" routine. Every dog was swamped by admirers and all showed what true gentlemen and ladies they could be when there’s no fox deposits to be rolled in!

Shumba patiently offered his ears as support to a young toddler taking his first steps and even cleaned the ice-cream off him as a special consideration. After group photos it was time to go home, all looking forward to the next display and all bathed in the warm glow, secure in the knowledge that each and every one of us was going home with the very best dog in the world.

By Helen Clarence

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