Andrea McHugh meets Lucy Heath, triple winner at Crufts 2025...
Credit: Richard Moss
Lucy Heath is a professional dog trainer and star of Britain’s Got Talent, based in Grantham, Lincolnshire. She lives with her fiancé, Ross, their four-year-old son, Ethan, and seven amazing ‘dancing’ dogs. At Crufts 2025, Lucy pulled off an incredible feat with her dogs, Foxy and Trip, by winning the heelwork to music final, the freestyle final, and the international final. Her success is the culmination of years of training, determination, and dedication, and a far cry from her years working as a part-time post lady, delivering mail in all weathers, so she could get home to train her dogs. I caught up with Lucy to find out more about her journey, her beloved dogs, and her future plans…
Credit: Richard Moss
Congratulations on winning the triple! Is that something you ever thought possible?
Not in a million years. It was always a dream to win at Crufts in either freestyle or heelwork to music, and I’d been tantalisingly close in the past, but always just missed out. Only two other people have won the triple at Crufts, so it’s amazing, particularly as little Trip was the only small dog and the only non-Border Collie in any of
the finals!
The first win was with Foxy, in heelwork to music. Tell us more about that.
I couldn’t be happier with Foxy, who is a Border Collie. I’d always found her quite difficult to train, so for her to win Crufts at 11 years old felt incredible! With hindsight, I’d found her difficult because when I got her my training knowledge was limited, and I kept trying to use food as a reward. When I changed to toys – specifically a frisbee – as a reward, Foxy became like a different dog. She’s always been toy-oriented, and I think I could have unlocked her potential much earlier if I hadn’t kept trying to use food rewards. Foxy is a very working-line Border Collie and drawn to movement and motion. For her
to remain motivated enough to hold heelwork positions she needed to be constantly expecting an explosive reward of toy play. It’s important to find the reward that suits your dog. In heelwork, the dogs don’t have the release and adrenaline of the jumps and tricks that they do in freestyle, so Foxy needed the expectation that her favourite toy could appear at
any time.
Tell us more about preparing your fabulous routines.
I like to choose music that I think people will love, and that suits the dogs, and Disney is always a crowd pleaser. I started creating Trip’s freestyle Aladdin routine
last November, but it took me longer to find the right music for Foxy. I loved the song from Beauty and the Beast, but wasn’t convinced I could make a routine from it, so I tried other things, but kept going back. In the end, I panicked as I had to enter the semi-final! Once I’ve created a routine, I tend to do two 30-minute training sessions per dog a week. I also do little bits of fun trick training home, but there are lots of days when the dogs do no training at all.
With regards to costumes, for Trip’s freestyle routine, I was playing the part of the genie, and I managed to find a blue sparkly belly dancing costume, which was a nod towards the genie without me having to wear body paint! I wore a hooded black cloak at the beginning of the routine so that I could hide the genie costume until Trip did his trick of rubbing the magic lamp to make a wish.
You even had a flying carpet?
Yes, we had a little remote-controlled car, with a rug attached to a piece of wood on top, which was Trip’s flying carpet, but the car kept going wrong at Crufts and nearly ruined the routine!
Although it had worked perfectly in all the shows leading up to Crufts, we spent the whole time there trying to fix it. With all the lighting, cameras, and thousands of people with mobile phones in the arena, the car’s electronics just didn’t respond. I had to think on my feet and make little changes to adapt my routine!
You performed several times over three days, was that exhausting?
Yes, because when you win you have to do a solo spotlight performance as well. Spotlights are amazing, but I performed a total of seven times, which was exhausting. Ross and I were running on adrenaline, and were both really poorly after Crufts, as we’d barely slept! I would normally go home to rest at my parents every day after competing, but because of the spotlight performances we had to stay until the very end.
Foxy’s spotlight performance felt like the most beautiful, magical thing ever, as if I was in a dream. With Trip, I was concerned about conserving his energy for the international competition the next day, although he was actually better than in the freestyle! I kept giving him energy paste between performances but feeding him and ensuring he had enough energy was a complex balancing act.
What dogs do you currently have?
There’s Tempo, who is a three-year-old Border Collie; Peach, my three-year-old Maltese; Foxy, who is 12; Trip who is a Pomeranian X Maltese and is 11; Strike, my other Border Collie who is six; nine-year-old Dizzy who only weighs 1.5kg and is nine years old; and Bandit, who is currently 16 weeks old.
Bandit is a Yorkshire Terrier X Pomeranian who we got just before Crufts. I do lots of demos every summer and love working Peach and Trip together, but I needed another little dog for Peach to work with when Trip retires. I loved the fact that Bandit has the exact markings and colours of my soul dog, Indie, a Border Collie who passed away a couple of years ago. He’s also the same sort of breed, shape and size as Trip, so I had to have him! He’s incredibly confident, friendly, and very greedy – everything that makes him a nice dog to train.
Do all your dogs live in the house?
Absolutely. They all live in the house and nowhere is off limits. They can sleep where they want, including on the sofas and beds. Obviously if any had behavioural problems it would be different, but they don’t and they are 100% family members. When visitors come, Trip can be a bit cheeky, but I say it’s his house and he can do what he likes! I think there can be a misconception that trained dogs must be robots who can’t live like normal dogs, but I make sure all my dogs’ needs are met, and they have lots of daily off-lead walks. The fact that they are trained gives them much more freedom rather than less.
What has happened since Crufts?
It’s been full on, as immediately afterwards Ross and I did some filming for TV shows, including Blue Peter. We then started preparing for this year’s demo season, as we’re performing somewhere every weekend until September! A lot of people do dog dancing, so I make my demos very different. They are also really interactive, and I like to get the whole family involved! It’s fun as my little boy comes along, and he’s started to join in as well.
I’ve also been developing an online Pup to Performance course, to show how I train a dog from scratch using positive reinforcement. You don’t have to have a puppy to benefit, though. For example, if you have an adult dog who lacks focus, this will help with going back to basics. The course covers everything from rewards I use, motivation and socialisation, heelwork, tricks, and obedience. Monthly subscriptions are £15 and I’m constantly adding videos of me training Bandit in
real time.
How would you describe your life?
I have the life that younger me always dreamed of. I love what I do so much. Ever since I was a child, watching my idol, Mary Ray, at Crufts, I thought that heelwork to music was the most magical thing I’d ever seen. I grew up in Birmingham and was never allowed a dog but when I was about 21 and moved to Lincolnshire, I got a Sheltie called Ash. Ash was brilliant and I began working part-time at Royal Mail just so I could spend lots of time with him. I also started volunteering as a trainer at what is now Lincs Dog Training, and I still teach there every week.
My life now involves training dogs for TV and film work, and doing lots of demos, so I can be with my dogs and my family all day. I’m so grateful that my job fits in with my partner and my son, and they can come with me when we travel the country doing demos. I don’t think I’d want to change a single thing! I owe everything to
my dogs, and I never take them
for granted.
My partner, Ross, is my biggest support. He’s so calm and level-headed, which is brilliant, especially if I’m feeling nervous or stressed. He makes sure that all the dogs are in the right place at the right time at demos and that was particularly important when we did Britain’s Got Talent. Ross loves all the dogs and is really good with them.
I couldn’t do this without him.
What advice would you give to someone dreaming of winning at Crufts?
I’d say that with dreams anything is possible. When I was growing up my parents thought I should get a normal job, but if you want something enough you will find a way to make it work. For me, it was working part-time at Royal Mail, so I could focus on my dogs. Ross feels the same, and as his cousin is a drummer in a famous rock band, he’s seen him make it in the music world. If one day Ethan has a dream, we will definitely support him in trying to achieve it.
Will you be trying to win at Crufts next year?
I’ve actually never really been that competitive, so I’m not driven by the goal of winning Crufts again. I do heelwork to music for the enjoyment of being with my dogs and I like entertaining people with my routines – it’s not just about winning.