A TRECWN teenager has become the youngest member of the Welsh dog agility team. Along with her rescue dog, Grace.

Sixteen-year-old Harriet Hunt wowed the judges at the recent selection event where she was up against hundreds of dog handlers from all over Wales.

As well as being selected for the Welsh team she will be Wales' only competitor in the junior competition.

Harriet who owns and runs The Valley dog agility school in Trecwn, completed two agility courses, a jumping course and a skills test with her dogs Sylvia and Grace, both of which she trained herself.

She came fourth with Sylvia and third with Grace and will now go on to represent Wales at the World Agility Open Championships in Ermelo, in the Netherlands next year.

"I am very excited," said Harriet. "To be the youngest person that they chose was great.

"I wasn't nervous at the tryouts. I was excited and hoping that the dogs would do well."

The judges told Harriet that they had had their eye on her since the CSJ national try outs, a five-day event in June where Grace and Harriet came sixth in her class.

For Grace, a rescued collie cross who came from Greenacres, competing for Wales is a particularly special achievement.

"I am very proud of her," said Harriet. "She has come on loads since I got her as a six month old pup.

"I could see the potential in her; she has the right sort of build and has the right attitude."

Harriet has wanted to be involved in dog agility since she was a child, at the age of six she told an interviewer at Crufts that that was where her talent lies.

"This is definitely a dream come true for me," she said.

Mikey Lawlor, Greenacres manager was delighted with Grace's success after the CSJ tryouts in June:

"It's brilliant," he said. "It gives rescue dogs that positive story. Lots of people will say that dogs are in a rescue because they have done something but that's not necessarily true. Lots of dogs come to us because their circumstances change.

"Grace is great publicity for rescue dogs. They can be wonderful dogs."