A St Albans schoolgirl has been selected to represent the UK in an international dog handling competition.

Abbie Stoutt was crowned UK Junior Handler of the Year 2012 and is now preparing to compete against 34 other countries in the International Final, which will be held at Crufts in March.

The 16-year-old St Albans School pupil said: "It was quite a big deal, I knew I’d been picked for the final of UK Junior Handler for a reason, but I was competing against 14 good other people. It all depended on what happened on the day.

"When we were first looking for a dog, we had no idea what any of this was. We found a breeder we liked, which took a while and they told us they had a litter of puppies. They said we were welcome to have one, but they wanted us to show it.

"So we tried it, and there’s a phrase known in the dog world, that is you get bitten by the ‘dog show’ bug. Once you do it, you have to do it again, you can’t help yourself.

"This is more than just a hobby now."

Abbie, of Hillside Road in Radlett, was selected as winner of the UK Junior Handler of the Year final at Earls Court on November 10.

In the past she has shown her other dog, five-year-old Maverick, but found he did not like competing.

Instead she uses her other Husky Goose, who she says loves showing.

For the competition, Abbie had to walk around a ring with Goose, getting him to perform various tasks for judges such as walking a triangle or a "T" shape.

When she was selected for the final six, she was given another breed to handle, a miniature schnauzer, to showcase her abilities as a handler.

She said: "It was quite difficult as it’s a completely different breed. They’re a lot smaller, so you walk instead of run, and show and stand with them differently. Plus, he was only 16 months old, so very into what he was doing, very lively."

Abbie revealed that she does not need to train Goose very often to compete. When he was a puppy she had to train him five minutes every 15 minutes for about three hours. These days however, she mainly practices with him at shows.

Abbie said: "We’ve been doing this for about five years, so we’ve competed in hundreds of shows - there are about two to three a month.

"I’d love to continue showing, handling and judging in the future, but for a career I’d like to be a vet.

"I don’t know what I’d do with my weekend if I didn’t participate in showing.

"As for being chosen for Crufts, it’s a massive honour."