Laura and Fin qualified for the YKC Starters Obedience Final at Crufts. It was a bit nerve wracking as Fin can be quite spooky and flighty, particularly when there is any sort of cheering or clapping...!

We worked hard on Laura’s handling, because Fin has become a bit of a “mummy’s boy”! And we continued to work on his slightly unreliable stays.

On the Wednesday I spent several hours bathing, brushing and blow drying the long, wavy coat in the hope that we would not be embarrassed to work a shaggy baffoon! I couldn’t get rid of the curls but he looked very glamorous!

Just to prove he is a real family dog, in the end he did us proud.  You can see his round on You Tube: 

He started with the temperament test - cuddling the judge - which was a good start! His heelwork was stunning only marred by a slightly fumbled halt at the end! The recall was good (slightly over-enthusiastic present!) 

I held my breath in the sit stay - mainly because we hadn’t practised doing stays in front of a number board ... Good job it was only half a minute or I would have been going blue!!!  But he did them really well and Laura managed to get hold of him before the clapping started!  We were thrilled with 2nd place and Laura is keen to try in Graduate next year!

This page was updated on 14th March 2011