St Ives dog handler Cameron Bunce and his four-legged friend Ziggy will be representing Team England for the second time at the World Agility Open Championships.

The pair will be travelling to the Netherlands for the event, which is taking place between May 18 and 20 at the National Hippic Centre in Ermelo.

Cameron and Ziggy, a nine-year-old crossbreed rescued from the Dogs Trust at just nine-months-old by his owner Sara Kirkwood, achieved considerable success last year when they won a silver medal in the overall games class category.

“It was fantastic,” Cameron said. “As it was our first event in the adult team having transferred from the junior team for under-18s.”

They have once again been selected for the games class which entails competing in two classes. Additionally Cameron, aged 19, and Ziggy will take part in the pentathlon, the combined results from five classes determining the individual pentathlon world champion.

Cameron, who has been competing since he was eight-years-old in junior classes, said: “Ziggy is a star. He loves agility and the training involved to maintain his fitness. But when he’s not competing he is like any dog and really enjoys walks in the local woods and playing with our other dogs.”

Cameron has been working as a dog handler since 2016 with Omnidogs, a family business based in London Road, St Ives, which offers puppy training, obedience, agility, 1-2-1 sessions and dog walking.

Cameron started running Ziggy in junior classes when he was 16. As a junior partnership their most successful achievement was winning a bronze individual medal at the Junior European Open Championships organised by yhe Young Kennel Club. The event was held in Slovakia, July 2016.

Ziggy and Cameron are competing in championship classes and qualifiers for Crufts and Olympia. They have won two so far, and need three to become registered as an agility champion with the Kennel Club.

“This is the ultimate goal for us and hopefully we will be able to achieve it this year,” said Cameron, who qualified with Ziggy for Crufts and competed in the main arena in March.

Cameron’s first dog when he began competing as an eight-year-old was another rescue crossbreed called Lia. They regularly competed and won major junior classes and competed at Crufts in the Young Kennel Club ring several years running, winning the Small Dog Agility in 2012

For those who would like to follow Ziggy and Cameron’s progress the event will be live streamed by 4 Legged Flix on streaming live starting on the Thursday with team practice and the opening ceremony.