Introducing The Team - Lesley Neville and Angus HTM and Freestyle

Lesley Neville and
Choxxstart Dream Angus FSA Ex, HTM A Ex.

Angus and I are very proud to have been chosen as one of the Team GB for the Open European Championships this year.

People often say “be careful how you name your dog – you may not get what you wished for!” But with Angus I can honestly say that he is a “Dream” dog!



Angus is the second Beardie that I have owned (numbers three and four are at home too so as you can see I am quite besotted by the breed) and originally he was to be mainly my Working Trials Dog, with Dancing as his part time hobby. He quickly gained his CDEX and UDEX in Trialling but the Heelwork To Music was taking over as the main sport in my life and fortunately Angus was very capable of dancing his way right up to the top of this sport.

My own life had been in teaching Art at a local Comprehensive School where the pupils were aware of the strange sport that their teacher indulged in at weekends, but an opportunity to take early retirement from teaching Art arose in 2006.

Angus and I had the honour of demonstrating HTM at Crufts 2005 as one of the “Top Lodge Dancing Dogs” team, dancing to “Om Pa Pa” in the Special Events Ring, and over the next year rose through the classes up to the Advanced Level in Freestyle, qualifying for Crufts in 2006.
Unfortunately our debut in the Crufts ring did not go to plan as Angus had an upset tummy, but he made up for it in 2007 when we won the Freestyle Competition at Crufts, and then went on to win the International Competition as well! I was invited to Judge the Crufts Competitions the following year, 2008, but am happy to say that by 2009 Angus was Advanced in both Freestyle and HTM and competed in both divisions at Crufts that year.

2010 and 2011 again saw Angus and me competing at Crufts in the Freestyle division, and at the moment we have qualified for the Crufts Semi Finals for 2012.

As I said, a Dream Dog.


Of course he can be naughty too. (Beardies do have their own sense of humour and the trick is to go with it rather than against it) but we are determined to do our very best to represent this lovely country this year in Denmark, and support what I think is a very strong team.

Good Luck Everybody!