Performing on stage with woman’s best friend

Lucy Creek shares how she and her dog, Skiffle, became one of Britain’s best performing duos

Lucy Creek and her male border collie, Skiffle, are back at Discover Dogs, London’s biggest annual dog event. Creek usually helps fellow trainers with their displays, but this year her and Skiffle are in the spotlight as they perform in the main ring. The pair got to show off their famous heelwork to music displays that have made them the British Freestyle and HTM Winners for four years in a row.

Creek got her first dog after she married and he was a “naughty beagle” that needed training desperately. The club she attended noticed that she had a flair for training and asked her to join their trainer scheme. She participated in a workshop and realised that performing with her dog was what she wanted to do. Creek now has 15 years of experience working with various breeds.

She met her current partner, Skiffle, eight years ago in what she describes as an accident. Creek was helping a friend pick a border collie and she wasn’t looking for one herself but Skiffle “just shone out the litter,” she says. In the end, her friend decided not to get him as she wanted a female dog.

After two weeks Creek contacted the breeder to see if he was still available: “When I rang the breeder up they said, ‘well I thought you two had a bit of a bond so we actually saved him for you just in case’, so that’s how we ended up with Skiffle.”

When Skiffle was two years old he did his first freestyle heelwork to music display. However, Creek soon discovered that he enjoyed freestyle too much. “It kind of sends his head completely skyrocketing. We started competing freestyle properly when he was about four when he’d had enough time to calm down,” she says. Another issue was that Skiffle would end up learn a routine off by heart and then try to do it in half the time. “He knows what next move is coming so it’s mostly about me telling him to wait a moment for the music so that we actually get it in time,” she says.

Creek performs because she enjoys the reaction. She likes knowing that she does something people appreciate as she can feel the audience reacting. She adds that “it’s nice to be able to show how well you can train a dog and what you can do with a dog. You’ve not just got a dog plodding next to you. By showing them off, it shows how bright and intelligent they really are”.

Off the stage, Skiffle is a sensible dog that likes to follow the rules. “If any other dogs are breaking the rules he tells us, so he’s a proper little tattle tale,” she says. Creek adds that he is not the kind of dog that settles down as he prefers to be active. In his spare time, he enjoys watching TV.

Creek just got back from Switzerland where they were competing in the Europeans and finished in the Top 10 finals for discipline. She also came back from Europe with her new puppy, Jingle.

Aside from Skiffle and Jingle, she has three other dogs. Two beagles, aged 13 and 15 who have retired from performing, and Maple, a three-year-old wire-haired vizsla who is training for competition.

When training her dogs, Creek does “little bits here and there”. Out on a walk the dogs some tricks for a toy and in the mornings, they do a couple of minutes before breakfast. Coming up to competition time she dedicates half an hour on some days to do a more intense training session.

Being part of the Kennel Club training club, Creek gets to work with all breeds. “It’s useful because you get to see how different breeds learn. There’s not one set way of teaching a dog. You need to have a number for ways for doing the same objective,” she says.

When asked why she chose to work with dogs, Creek paused for a moment before a smile appeared on her face: “I just seem to get them. And they seem to get me. It’s really funny, we just seem to sort of understand each other.”

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