The KNIGHTs Shelties: what a FAB Final

Off we went to Dawn Weaver's FAB show yesterday. The boys were entered in the IFCS qualifier classes and Sonic managed to scrap himself into the Grand Prix Final at Gloucestershire 2 show a few weeks ago :)

At this show, they did all the IFCS classes (4 classes - Agility, Jumping, Gamblers and Snooker) in one day. At some shows, they split them into two days. Poor Sonic has FIVE run yesterday including the Final. I was rather worried that by the end of it, he will be too tired to run in the Final. The Final didn't start until all normal classes have finished. Unfortunately, Sonic has to run in the Final soon after he ran his IFCS Jumping. There's not much break in between for him.

Overall, Sonic ran much better in this IFCS than the previous qualifiers. I was really stupid not to trust him to find the weave entry in the IFCS Agility and vote to run him differently to Sizzle. It was a challenging entry with the A Frame so close to it. I knew I will be behind him and I can't trust him not to go up the AF. I was trying to be clever and wanted to do a ketscher so I have a better position to direct him into the weave and of course my ketscher failed and I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. He was a good boy to got the entry on his own but I rushed ahead and he double up the pole. When I swing him back to catch up in time and I made the whole thing worst and he failed the entry 3 times! Oops! BAD mummy!

Sonic @ IFCS Agility:

This is Sizzle's version of IFCS Agility, he ran before Sonic and I didn't think he ran well (I thought he was slow to start with) but he surprised me by winning the class. There are many other small dogs that ran clear and by watching them go, I thought they would have easily beat him in time. I am really surprised. And I am happy too :)

Sizzle @ IFCS Agility:

Apart from this great Agility run from Sizzle, the rest of his runs were a disaster :( He's my best Gambling boy but in the last two qualifiers, we failed to gamble. He insist he will take his own line, hahaha ... I love him really. He made me laugh so much. I can't blame my best boy. We have not been training (due to his injury) and I can seriously said we are not quite a Team this year. He was a very good boy to try so hard for me though.

Sonic on the other hand did well in the Gamblers, although it was rather messy in the opening sequence. We need to get 65 points to qualify, the Gamble is 20 points, meaning we need to plot at least 45 points in the Opening in 40 seconds. This is the 1-3-5-7 game, all jumps are 1 point, tunnels are 3 points, AF and SS are 5 points, DW and weave are 7 points. The Gambler looks tough but the big dogs made it looks so easy. I thought I will easily achieve this with Sizzle but he wasn't going away from me. Although he took the A and B but he turned to me and refuse the AF :( Sonic on the other hand did great. He is the one that I don't think he will work away from me but he impressed me! We got the highest 72 points :)

Sonic @ IFCS Gamblers:

None of the boys did well in the Snooker :( Sizzle was great until the closing 5 points (see-saw), he insist he will take the red jump instead of the 6. Silly dog! Sonic didn't even go that far, Bless him! He failed at the 3rd red jump. I, again try to do a ketscher and I failed and he back jump the red. I think we need to polish our ketscher over the winter! I know I am new to this new handling technique. I was reluctant to try it to start with but I know if I do it well, Sonic and Sipzie wrap the wing so tight to save a lot of time! I never use to "throw" my run and try new things but this year, it's totally a whole new ball game for me. I willing to try new thing at a real competition; and I work harder when I got eliminated.

The IFCS Jumping was a real challenging course, a lot of obstacle discrimination. I have to force myself to jump in front of my boys to stop them going into the weave but Sizzle was so head strong that after a few twiddle, he still want to take the weave. LOL! I know it's such a bad idea to suddenly do a front cross eventhough I was way behind the dog, I collided into both of them and I am sure Sizzle and Sonic were hating me for doing that! I meant to do two ketschers in this Jumping course but I chicken out at the end :(

Sonic @ IFCS Jumping:

The most exciting run of the day is this Grand Prix Final. If you have a win in any class, you will get a chane to run in the Final. Sonic hardly has any clear round but he did win a Grand Prix a few weeks ago. We are very prvileged to be in a Final. This is Sonic's very first final and I hope we have many more Finals to come. I chose to run Sonic in a lower height in FAB shows. Sonic is a very small medium, I'd like my dogs to be able to jump in a more comfortable height, that not only encourage speed but less injury. The only disadvantage is the dog will be faster than jumping their usual height. I think it's good for me to also handle it when he is fast :) Sonic did made me run like bat out of hell.

I am over the moon with his achievement in this Final. He ran clear and in a very good time. If combined overall result of all height, he would have come 2nd, half a second behind a fast Maxi Border Collie. I felt good after we ran clear. I know I have to leg it and handle well with AF and tunnel trap. He loves the AF more than the tunnel and you can see he did look at the AF before going into the tunnel. I am so happy that Mr Gobby and Mr Refuser actually LISTEN for one good time :) So very proud of our achievement together.

Sonic @ Grand Prix Final