A Lutterworth woman ran agility in Crufts and came fourth in her class, all while eight months pregnant.

Tilly Ingham, 29, has been competing in agility for the past five years and this year managed to qualify for the Novice Cup (Grades 3-5) at international dog show Crufts.

Tilly competed with her five-year old Jack Russell Terrier called Buddy last week.

She said: "We qualified for Crufts in August last year, so we had a little while to prepare, but Buddy really didn't want to prepare at first.

"He was being especially naughty right up until the competition, so it was a bit hit and miss.

"In the end, he did really amazing and it was really shocking to come fourth."

Tilly Ingham, with Buddy the dog who came fourth in agility at Crufts after running with his owner.

As if the challenge of running agility in front of a huge crowd wasn't enough, Tilly gave herself the added obstacle of running the course while eight months pregnant.

She said: "It was certainly a challenge in itself.

"I am very lucky that I am quite a small pregnant person anyway, but it gets quite hot in the arena so it is very easy to get out of breath.

"But it was an amazing experience."

She did not let this small issue stop her and Buddy, who is known as Foxy Rascal in the Kennel Club, running as quickly as they could.

Tilly said: "Everyone was saying to me that luckily I didn't have the baby on the green carpet!"

Despite the pair's new found Crufts success, Tilly did not originally set out to compete properly, but started doing agility as a hobby with her Labrador, Dottie, five years ago.

She said: "I didn't really know about competing then, I just wanted to do it for exercise.

"As soon as I found competitive agility, I knew I just wanted to be out there."

Two-year old Olivia, daughter of Tilly Ingham, with Buddy the dog who came fourth in agility after running with hisr owner.

Tilly, who trains Buddy with Hinckley Dog Training Club, went along to the dog show with fiancé Sam Hunt, 30, and their two-year old daughter Olivia.

Even though Olivia is only two, Tilly has already given her the agility bug and she thinks its only a matter of time before her unborn daughter will be loving agility too.

She said: "She was 10 weeks old when I went back to doing agility with the dogs and she came with me to

"Before we ran the course at Crufts, Olivia came and walked round with me.

"So when she saw me competing on the day she had a bit of a paddy because she couldn't understand why she couldn't do it too!"