West Devon is celebrating this week as three local Crufts champions come home from the world-famous dog show laden with prizes.

Okehampton dog agility expert Lauren Langman and her daughter ten-year-old Eliza, who competed at Crufts for the first time this year, came home with first place in the Crufts medium ABC (anything but collie) agility final with her dog Classic and first place in the Young Kennel Club’s Under 18’s Jumping respectively.

Lauren said: ‘Classic is a Mini American Shepherd (MAS) and she’s more like a cat than a dog. She prefers to be sat on the sofa and curled up and so she’s kind of quite offended almost by the fact that she has to go out and do some some proper work. But she enjoyed Crufts, she loves all the crowds, she liked meeting and greeting lots of different people and she loved going and having photos with people.

‘These are happy, fit, healthy working dogs that get to show off and yet most of the time they’re all pets so it’s really lovely to see them going out there and being the best in the country and sometimes even in the world because there are dogs there from all over the world. It is a privilege to win but also a privilege to be there.

‘To celebrate Classic will probably eat some steak and then the other thing that she would definitely go out and run around the moors or the woods. Those are some of her her favourite things to do.’

Lauren added that she was particularly proud of her daughter, who told her the night before the event that she would win.

She said: ‘It’s actually quite nerve-racking for them. I think it’s quite a big deal to go out in front of that many people, performing and have lots of people watching you and everyone’s cheering you on. So I think she did really, really well.’

But Eliza is not the only young Okehampton dog handler to come away with prizes. Eleven-year-old Faith Elkins won the Young Kennel Club’s medium agility dog prize.

Faith’s grandmother Shirley Elkins, who has taught Faith how to handle her dog in the agility ring, said: ‘We were just waiting for [the judge] to say third place but when he said first place in the medium dog category to Faith Elkins we were gobsmacked. Faith loved it and people love her. She’s polite, and she’s quite good handler so hopefully she’ll qualify again. It was quite an achievement and a surprise. We were all overwhelmed.’

Faith’s mum Debbie, added: ‘We are all just on cloud nine at the moment. Honestly so happy. She’s going to start training hard again for next year, hopefully qualify again for next year’s Crufts.’

In February, Faith won the Young Kennel Club’s Young Person of the Year compassion award in recognition of her kindness. Mum Debbie described her as ‘happy and smiley and loves dogs obviously and very helpful to everybody.’

Originally known as the Kennel Club Junior Organisation, the club went from strength to strength until in 1998 the club had a dedicated Crufts ring. In 2001, the Kennel Club Junior Organisation changed its name and became today’s Young Kennel Club.

Crufts dog show is organised by the Kennel Club, which aims to protect and promote the welfare of dogs, and has been running for over 100 years.

Originally set up by Charles Cruft in 1891 the show has continued to grow attracting thousands of dog owners and lovers from across the world each year.

In 2018, Crufts celebrated its 125th birthday.