Young handler hoping for national title at dog trials

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This article was published 16/08/2025 (233 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Irish setters, Labrador retrievers and pointing griffons — they’ll each have their day this weekend at the Manitoba Canine Association’s annual shows and trials.

But on Saturday at noon, one local human holding the leash will have a chance at national glory at the East St. Paul Recreation Complex.

In her final year of eligibility in the age bracket, Winnipeg 18-year-old Lilly Raposo will vie for the Junior National Handling title in front of a hometown audience. Competing against a field of zone-winning handlers from across Canada, the champ of Saturday’s competition will represent the country at the world juniors next March at the Crufts dog show in Birmingham, U.K.

A two-time competitor at the nationals — once in Camrose, Alta., at 12 and most recently last summer in Summerland, B.C. — Raposo will be Manitoba’s zone representative at this Saturday’s competition, which marks the first time since Raposo was four years old that the province is hosting the world-junior feeder event.

“I think I’ll have a big cheering section,” says Raposo, who will handle Denali, a three-year-old standard poodle with both Canadian and American grand champion pedigree. “I’ve been involved in this for so long, so people have seen me grow into the handler I’ve become. It’s also really nerve-wracking.”

A nursing student at the University of Manitoba who works at the Roblin groomer Classy Clips, Raposo has an impressive pet industry pedigree of her own, and in a sense, owes her existence to a high-maintenance West Highland terrier with a weekly salon regimen.

Her mother, Barb, started working at Classy in 2001, with her training shift coming the day before her 19th birthday, looking for a job while on the waitlist for Red River’s veterinary technologist course. She loved it, stuck around, and her future husband became a persistent client.

“He brought his dog every week to the grooming salon and finally had the courage to ask my mom out for a coffee date. She made him buy a ton of stuff, too. And now I’m here,” laughs Raposo, whose brother was also a handler until growing out of the pursuit at 13.

Raposo was introduced to handling by her aunt Beth Chopey, who was the province’s top junior handler in 2006. Around age seven, Raposo collected her first competition points by winning second place at her first dog show, leading a Canadian champion shih tzu named Rachel around the course at the Assiniboine Kennel Club in St. Norbert.

“I had no idea what to do, to be honest,” recalls Raposo. “I knew I had to take the dog in a circle.”

But as a quickly obsessed Raposo soon found out, handling is an all-out study in balance, preparedness, interspecies communication and calm. Competitors learn the ins and outs of breed standards and the ideal frequency for grooming and coat conditioning, along with how to navigate patterns — a triangle, a reverse triangle, the go-around, the basic down and back — cleanly with their furred colleagues as distractions abound.

“With junior handling, the attention is fully on you and how you and your dog work together, how you talk with the dog, how you make sure they’re engaged and not bored,” says Raposo, who, like all winning handlers, follows the competition’s business casual dress code. “Judges are constantly watching, checking if you’re looking at them, seeing how you make the hand-switches. You have to know where the judge is at all times.”

Raposo is also trusted by several clients to lead their dogs through competitions, giving her an added side hustle throughout the canine association’s weekend. This year, she’s handling a border collie, an Australian shepherd, a Chinese crested, and a Keeshound.

As she ages out of junior competition, Raposo says she will likely continue to add clients to her handling roster.

The junior handling competition begins Saturday at noon, while other shows for the day include competitions for Chinese cresteds, the Red River terriers, the River City Labrador enthusiasts specialty shows, and the Manitoba Hound Club.

Full event details are available at canuckdogs.com, says canine association secretary Corinne Walker.

“BYO lawn chair,” she suggests.

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca