By 1996, although Mary was still being asked to give plenty of demonstrations, heelwork to music as a sport was not developing so it was Mary’s friend, Peter Lewis, who suggested that it should become a competitive event.  This is where the first problem was met.  Peter applied to the Kennel Club for permission to hold a “special event”.  The organisers knew that they could not apply for a show licence as it was a canine sport that was unrecognised by the Kennel Club and therefore they could not obtain “special permission” either because, as stated by the Kennel Club at the time, they could not give permission for something to happen when it is not a sport within their jurisdiction.  So the first six annual events held at Coventry and hosted by Rugby Dog Training Club were classed as “demonstrations”.  This proved the turning point for the sport and the interest increased.

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The first year the demonstration took place 40 handlers performed routines which mainly contained as it read on the label, heelwork moves to music however, some also took Mary’s lead and included additional moves in their routines such as leg weaving and the dog jumping over the handlers.  By the second year, which is when I first began in this sport, I clearly remember the routines had taken a turn from mainly heelwork to more and more additional moves which we today call freestyle moves.  As the years progressed it became apparent that the sport was splitting between those of us that performed “heelwork to music” and moves taken from our obedience training and those whose routines mainly contained freestyle moves.  The Coventry show organisers also recognised this and around the turn of the Millennium spilt the routines into two divisions; heelwork to music and freestyle.  This made for a better competition even though the sport was still not recognised by the Kennel Club and was still regarded as a “demonstration” event.