Barking Mad Final - Runner Up

Fin finished his amazing season by qualifying for the Grade 1-2 final at the Barking Mad Winter series. He put in a great performance, coming 2nd place - runner up! You can see his run on You Tube.

5th March 2011

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We have just come back from an amazing week of non-stop dog shows.

We started at the Kennel Club International Agility Festival in Northants, then went on to Dogs in Need in Suffolk.

Fin has had a brilliant week and his achievements are listed below:

KC International
Starters Cup Agility - 4th place
Starters Cup Jumping - 7th place
Starters Cup semi-final - 12th place (sadly he rolled a pole in the semi-final, costing us a top-3 place. However he did still qualify for the final at Discover Dogs in November - so he will have another chance then!)

Grade 2 Jumping - 8th place
Grade 2 Agility - 3rd place
Grade 2 Jumping - 7th place
Grade 2 Agility - 6th place


Dogs in Need
Grade 2 Jumping - 2nd place
Grade 2 Agility - 7th place
Grade 1-2 combined agility - 2nd place (as this was an OmniPro Starters cup heat, this has qualified him for the Final at Lansdown next June)
OmniPro Classic Tournement 1-2 Final - 4th place


Other Highlights
Scott ran Fin in Fancy Dress pairs and got a brilliant clear round - though his partner wasn't so lucky.
Laura ran Fin in YKC qualifier but sadly rolled a pole.
George ran Fin in the Dogs in Need Helping Hands class, achieving 7th place.

I think Fin now needs a rest! He has been brilliant and he is now quite tired! He is a lovely, honest chap and he tried his heart out for all of us! It is easy to forget that he is only just 2 years old and still quite a baby!  What a star!

I will put some of his runs (including the DINAS final) on You Tube in the next couple of days

23rd August 2010

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Fin won out of Grade 1 Agility at RVA on 20th June. He had a fabulous weekend getting placed in every class. 

Thanks to all our friends at A-to-Zooom for your support.

See his winning run on You tube: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h55fzQFqGBQ

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At Watford Show (27 June 2010) Fin won Grade 1 agility, beating the second place dog by 3 seconds! He then went on to get 3rd place in Grade 1 jumping and 8th place in 1-3 Combined jumping. 

I was particularly pleased with the result in the combined class, as he was competing against the Grade 2 and 3 dogs, so it showed that he is not out of his depth at this level!

27th June 2010

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Fin has now won Grade 1 Agility 3 times. He has topped this by winning the Agility Club Starters Challenge Grade 1-2 Agility at Wellingborough Show, qualifying for the Starters Cup final in 2011. We are so proud of him and, as we look forward to Grade 2, we thank our friends and supporters at A-to-Zooom!

3rd July 2010

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Fin loves agility and we have been training with A-to-zooom since he was 5 months old. 

We started doing pre-agility classes, which are basically obedience and control exercises with an agility "flavour"! We did recalls through jump wings and channel weaves as well as teaching Fin to follow shoulder movements and run through tunnels. We also worked hard on our "wait" exercise in preparation for the "start line" wait that will be so important laterLater we progressed to jumping over low jumps and kept at this level for quite a long time until Fin was about 14 months old. He is a big dog and really needed that time to mature physically. We were also struggling with his lack of focus at that time, so training sessions were short.

By the time he was 16 months old I decided to teach him to weave and I decided to use a variation on Susan Garrett's 2x2 method. Fin loved this and virtually learned to weave in 3 weeks. He now has a reliable and independent weave entry and nice action through the poles. Several of the dogs at A-to-zooom have now been taught with this method.

We continued to train at A-to-Zooom and now also train at Aylesbury Canine Training Society. 
By 20 months of age Fin was pretty much ready to compete. As it was the winter there are few open shows but there is a local winter-series that we entered. He was placed at nearly every show!

Now we have entered the show season we have entered 2 shows. Fin's first open show was Shuttleworth in April and he did a lovely round (despite my dodgy handling), getting 4th place in Grade 1 agility. Our second show was Worcester and he went out and won the 1-2 combined jumping class!!! 

We are thrilled with the way he is coming on!  He is a big dog and does not have the nimble, nippy approach of some of the fast collies, but he does have power and he is consistent. 

We still have lots more to work on - including floppy tunnels which Fin finds disorientating, but we are getting there and looking forward to the rest of the season!

This page was updated on 14th March 2011