my first champ

Been and done with my first champ! Sizzle was one good little boy, I cannot ask for more from a young dog like him. He did me very proud eventhough I got him eliminated in both qualifiers. He gave me his 110%. I was just being too nervous. This is my very first champ, I never dream to get there but he made my dream comes true. I started competing in agility since 2005. I only did 3 to 5 shows a year, only in 2007 that I started to go to more shows. He is my first Grade 7 dog, he took me to Champ Class in such a short time.

It was a great experienced and I have learned a lot. I have been trying to control my nerve over the years but only just recently that I started to calm down when I stood on the startline. I found it very stressful when I received my first champ running order. I read the catalogue attached to my running order and that freak me out. There is a full list of all the competitors, all the famous handlers and dogs ... can you imagine my first champ running against all these top handlers and dogs?

Then, on the day (Saturday), more nerve wrecking. Eventhough the courses weren't too horrible but you have to run according to your running order, that made me uneasy too. In the normal classes, you just walked in and booked in and queue and run but in the Champ class, you need to run according to your allocated running order. My Jumping was 23 and Agility was 32, I thought it wasn't too bad, at least not the first one to go at my first Champ but the atmosphere keeps kicking my nerve. There is caller that did the calling, he shouted for the handler to come on the startline ... that really made my legs feel like jelly. I thought I am quite a confidence person but obviously not, when he shouted LIAN KNIGHT, my legs just went softer and softer ... yuk!

The weather wasn't great on Saturday morning, drizzly, windy, wet ... whenever I watched a Champ class, it seems to take forever to finish one class but on Saturday, the Medium Champ Jumping just flew by and before I knew it, it was for the Small. There were a couple of tricky traps, funnily enough, I got eliminated at the part that no one has got eliminated!! The one that cost most people eliminated is from jump #15 to jump #16, as most dogs back jump #2!

After we got eliminated in the Jumping round, I knew we won't be able to squeeze into the Final so when I walked the Agility round, I wanted to try a couple of handling that is risky to get it wrong and I did got it wrong to get elimination in that Agility round as well.

Overall, I am very pleased with myself and Sizzle, he is a wonderful little dog, I just loved running with him.