English dogs win the world cup for obedience

A triumphant team of English sheepdogs and border collies scooped the coveted world cup for obedience yesterday at Crufts dog show.

A triumphant team of English sheepdogs and border collies scooped the coveted world cup for obedience yesterday at Crufts dog show.

Yaz, a border collie, and Visa, Jazzie, and Holly, three working sheepdogs, won the cup for England for the second year running, at the biggest dog show in the world in Birmingham's NEC.

Ten teams had entered - Northern Ireland and the Netherlands took second and third place respectively and Switzerland trailed in last.

Caroline Kisko, general secretary of the Kennel Club, organiser of the annual event, was delighted England had again won the cup. "It is an important competition and the dogs need a lot of concentration so there tends to be silence until the end when people are free to cheer. The dogs have to complete tasks in scent discrimination as well as following commands to fetch, sit and heel."

Competitions on the final day of the four-day show, which featured 23,000 dogs, included agility championships as well as an online public vote on the hero award.

The hero candidates are Mandy, a former trailhound who saved her owner in a fire, a dog who performs domestic tasks, a guide dog for the blind, Bob, a German shepherd who kept his owner warm after he was stuck in icy conditions, and Buster, a springer spaniel Army sniffer dog who has found hidden weapons in Northern Ireland, Kosovo and Iraq.