Absolutely Finn-tastic!
Rehomed rescued Border Collie, Finn, entered the Kennel Club international Starters Cup on Thursday and against the odds ended up taking home the silver!
Finn was rehomed by his new owners, Emily Bell & Tim Warburton from Mawsley Village, Kettering in April 2023 from Animals in Need in Wellingborough. When he arrived at his new home, he was severely underweight, nervous and hadn’t really seen the world.
In an attempt to build up some muscle and general fitness, as well as keeping his busy Collie brain busy, Emily decided to give Dog Agility a try in December 2023. Finn was an absolute natural! His absolute favourite obstacle being the tunnel.
After nearly a year of training and finessing their skills, Emily & Finn started competing at Agility in November 2024. At first, Finn sometimes didn’t listen, exited the ring, or decided to run his own course- getting himself eliminated in the process! Emily always had a goal of attending the Kennel Club International Starters Cup at Rutland Show Ground in August 2025.
Emily is a keen animal lover and also owns Two ponies, Aura and Henry. Unfortunately in December 2024 they both sustained injuries from running around their paddocks and managing to pull tendons meaning Emily was unable to ride or compete with her ponies. This gave Emily a lot more spare time to focus on agility, improving Finn’s skills and attending Agility competitions.
Fast forward to 7th August 2025, The Kennel Club International Starters Cup had arrived. In the morning Finn had his first heat, Agility. He didn’t have the best start to this, by knocking over the first jump, not hitting his contacts on the Dog Walk, and struggling to complete the weaves. However, he managed to complete the class without being eliminated. Finishing in 32nd Place. Not the start Emily or Finn had hoped for!
In the afternoon, Emily & Finn had the second heat of the competition, Jumping. Finn clearly had a word with himself over lunch and managed to Jump clear in a time of 28.91 seconds. At the time of Finn completing, he was sat in 5th place, however there was still 88 dogs to run after him.
As Emily had to get home shortly after the last run of the day to take care of her two ponies, she decided to head home and painstakingly refresh the Results website to watch her placing. After the 88 dogs had run, Finn had been pushed down to 13th Place. Emily was thrilled though as this class was placing to 14th, meaning Finn would still win a rosette from this class! A little later on, Emily refreshed the Final results page of the Starters Cup Heats and noticed an asterisk next to hers and Finn’s name and didn’t have a clue what that meant. After a little bit of head scratching and disbelief, Finn had managed to get a combined score of 45 (32nd+13th), meaning he came 15th overall across the two heats and bagging himself a spot in the KCI Starters Cup Final on 8th August 2025 in the Main Ring.
Finn had other classes on the 8th August, which Emily used as “warm ups” for the main event in the afternoon, and actually threw away results in order to ensure Finn was prepared for the Starters Cup Final. Correcting his weaves and contacts, and ensuring he didn’t “super man” jump off the See-Saws!
At 3pm, Emily and her Fiancé Tim walked the course for the Final. It was quite a long, tricky course compared to others Emily had ran before; with the added pressure that the show was being streamed live on YouTube, was being commentated on live and had a crowd of people watching the main ring. Emily was determined that she was just thrilled with the fact her and Finn had managed to get to the Final, and even if they placed 15th in last place it was still an amazing accomplishment.
As Emily ranked 15th overall in the Heats and the competition was being ran in reverse order, it meant Emily & Finn were first to go.
Finn, being a Border Collie, clearly knew he had a job to do and was foot perfect! He jumped every single jump with conviction, he hit every single contact and weaved his little tail off! He ended up finishing Clear with 0 Faults and a time of 45.46.
In the End, Emily & Finn finished in Second Place having been overtaken by another competitor who had a time of 43.98.
Emily is absolutely thrilled with the result and is looking forward to her next competitions and whatever the future holds for Finn’s agility career! Her absolute dream would be to qualify for Crufts one day!