Before I left for America, I entered Epic in the three day team selection for the World Agility Open. Which is to be held in May ALL the way over in England.
There were 15 dogs over the 5 heights, trying out for 4 places on the team (the 200/300 height was combined) The 500 height had the most dogs with 8 entered. So I really went into the weekend with no expectations and even with the view of scratching her if she looked like she was struggling to do so many runs. Particularly after having a month off.
Well it's seems the time off did her the world of good. Even now I can't believe how well she really did. On Saturday night we were told the placings so far, I couldn't believe my ears ...... Epic was 1st in the 500 class.
WOW!!! my consistent one bar dog, had just managed to get three out of four clear rounds that night.
So going into Sunday I wanted to keep things in perspective. It wasn't just another 4 rounds to go ... it was approximately 80 obsticles .... ALOT!!! Anything could happen.
The first round she went clear ..... 60 obsticles to go.....
The second round she went clear ...... 40 obsticles to go .....
The third round she knocked a bar ..... (but the dog hot on our heels also got a refusal) ...... 20 obsticles to go .....
And here is how the fairytale ending goes ........
She took an off course jump and was disqualified :-)
LOL!!!
I know I shouldn't laugh, and I know I should be a little disappointed ..... but I'm not. REALLY!!! I'm soooooooo proud of Epic and her achievement of even getting that far!!
I had an amazing time. Even discovered how much Epic LOVES International courses. I'm pretty sure I haven't run that fast for awhile!!! (Other than in America) Some distances between obsticles were 10metres!! And still incrediably challenging.
CONGRATULATIONS!!! to those who have made it through. Technically it's still unofficial as to who's made the Team. But I think an announcement will be made on the 1st April :-)
GO TEAM AUSTRALIA!!!!!! :-) I just know you'll have the time of your life!!!
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Home Sweet Home
Well I've arrived safely back home. The good news is!!! I get to see my dogs!!! :-)) 4 weeks is a LONG time to be away and I really missed the incessant squeaking of toys, tumbles of dog fur rolling along the floor, and the pushy puppy that just wants to play!play!play!
Speaking of THAT puppy ....... it was Liryk's FIRST birthday last Wednesday!!! OMG! where does time go?? Thankfully we arrived home the day before, so we didn't miss the milestone!!
We were greeted with barking, squealing, jumping and kisses :-) The welcoming was just what was needed after such a LONG flight!!
Jestah and Epic looked in great condition!! Liryk did too ..... she just didn't look like the little puppy I left behind. It seems she's done some "bulking" up .... not fat, just... well.... SOLID is probably a good word to discribe her :-)
Now to the bad news ......
We're not in Florida anymore :-(
I've done quite a bit of traveling in my time, but this trip far outweighs any other. The people, the dogs, events and experiences were just so much more than I could ever have imagined. And to put it quite simply, it left me wanting more .......
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL6EM2nO5Dg
It seems in my last blog entry my runs with Scream didn't come up, so I added my Standard run into the clip above. For some reason my computer wouldn't download my Jumpers run, so I'll try and repost the link of the video Gayle took :-)
www.vimeo.com/20512481
Looking back on the videos, I can't believe I was there! What a chance of a lifetime :-)
Speaking of THAT puppy ....... it was Liryk's FIRST birthday last Wednesday!!! OMG! where does time go?? Thankfully we arrived home the day before, so we didn't miss the milestone!!
We were greeted with barking, squealing, jumping and kisses :-) The welcoming was just what was needed after such a LONG flight!!
Jestah and Epic looked in great condition!! Liryk did too ..... she just didn't look like the little puppy I left behind. It seems she's done some "bulking" up .... not fat, just... well.... SOLID is probably a good word to discribe her :-)
Now to the bad news ......
We're not in Florida anymore :-(
I've done quite a bit of traveling in my time, but this trip far outweighs any other. The people, the dogs, events and experiences were just so much more than I could ever have imagined. And to put it quite simply, it left me wanting more .......
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL6EM2nO5Dg
It seems in my last blog entry my runs with Scream didn't come up, so I added my Standard run into the clip above. For some reason my computer wouldn't download my Jumpers run, so I'll try and repost the link of the video Gayle took :-)
www.vimeo.com/20512481
Looking back on the videos, I can't believe I was there! What a chance of a lifetime :-)
Friday, March 4, 2011
Pinch Me I Think I'm Dreaming
Two weeks ago I was getting ready to leave Perth for what I hoped would be a trip to remember.
We spent our first week in England and were fortunate enough not to see any rain .... Though it was a tad bit cold!!
Clint and I did the touristy thing and went to Harrods .... Where I was stunned to find we could buy a chihuahua for 2500 pounds!!! What the??? We also went to the Tower of London (one of my favourite places) I love all the history that England has.
Just over a week ago we arrived in Florida and are lucky enough to be staying with a very generous man by the name of Mike. We couldn't believe our eyes when he was showing us around his house, which is situated on the water and has it's own dock. The first morning I was upstairs on the balcony looking out over the water and there were dolphins swimming in the bay!!!! This area is abundant in wildlife and is the perfect place to come back to after a day of trialling or camp.
Last weekend I was fortunate enough to be able to compete in a three day trial. I arrived Friday morning and met Gayle York and her husbands dog Tax Man for the first time. Gayle is just lovely and Tax is unbelievable!!!
Now there are a couple of things different here at trials, compared to home. The first one is they only have two rings set up and the trial goes all day. Yes it's longer ... BUT you're able to see so many other people run their dogs, which I thought was really nice.
The next thing is, at this event they have a MASSIVE undercover arena and the surface you run on is a clay/sand mix. We definitely don't have anything like this in Perth and I was excited to run on something completely different.
The other different thing is, they don't have a mass of practice equipment for people to do last minute training on. They have a single bar jump to the side of each ring and you share this with everyone else. And its not a small competition there were easily 800 runs each day.
Now I'm no opposed to the single practice jump, BUT for someone who has just met their "new" dog only an hour prior to going into the ring .... It was a little daunting walking up to the start line not REALLY knowing what kind of dog Tax Man is.
My first class was Standard, a nice flowing spread out course. The first three obstacles were tyre, d/walk and tunnel. I left Tax on the start line wondering how fast he might be .... well in the split second it took to release him off the start I discovered that he is INSAINLY fast. No really!!! His speed is JUST MENTAL!!!! He was a good boy and did his contacts, there was a pin wheel that I did a front cross in to pull to the table ..... BUT he zoomed past and took an of course jump. As I came out of the ring Gayle came up and said " Oh, I forgot to tell you ... He explodes out of his front crosses!!) LOL that was our only penalty so was extremely happy with our first attempt.
Jumping With Weaves (JWW) was a little more challenging and he missed his weave entry.
We didn't manage to get a qualify over the weekend, but we came so close several times, it just left me wanting more :-)
On Sunday, Ann Braue arrived. I haven't seen her since she came to Perth in Dec and I was excited to catch up and also be able to see her run her dogs..... except she asked if I'd like to run Scream!!!! I have run Scream at Camp the last two years... But this is a COMPETITION!!! I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Of course I accepted!!!
One thing I love about Ann is her personality and just after I said yes to running Scream she said " not to put pressure on you... but for the last 6 trials Scream has had 6 double Q's" OMG talk about pressure!!!
Standard was a nice flowing course but had an enormous stretch of jumps at the end with a potential off course tunnel entry. So I released Scream off the d/walk, sent to the spread and ran!!!! YAY!!!!! We went clear :-))
JWW was a little more challenging, a tunnel discrimination and the potential for off course jumps to be taken. But we DID IT!!! Double Q!!!
What topped it off though ..... we WON both classes!!!! OMG!!!! What an amazing way to end the weekend :-)) you can't wipe the grin from my face I'm so excited!
These are my runs with Scream. Thank you so much to Gayle for videoing and sending them to me.
We spent our first week in England and were fortunate enough not to see any rain .... Though it was a tad bit cold!!
Clint and I did the touristy thing and went to Harrods .... Where I was stunned to find we could buy a chihuahua for 2500 pounds!!! What the??? We also went to the Tower of London (one of my favourite places) I love all the history that England has.
Just over a week ago we arrived in Florida and are lucky enough to be staying with a very generous man by the name of Mike. We couldn't believe our eyes when he was showing us around his house, which is situated on the water and has it's own dock. The first morning I was upstairs on the balcony looking out over the water and there were dolphins swimming in the bay!!!! This area is abundant in wildlife and is the perfect place to come back to after a day of trialling or camp.
Last weekend I was fortunate enough to be able to compete in a three day trial. I arrived Friday morning and met Gayle York and her husbands dog Tax Man for the first time. Gayle is just lovely and Tax is unbelievable!!!
Now there are a couple of things different here at trials, compared to home. The first one is they only have two rings set up and the trial goes all day. Yes it's longer ... BUT you're able to see so many other people run their dogs, which I thought was really nice.
The next thing is, at this event they have a MASSIVE undercover arena and the surface you run on is a clay/sand mix. We definitely don't have anything like this in Perth and I was excited to run on something completely different.
The other different thing is, they don't have a mass of practice equipment for people to do last minute training on. They have a single bar jump to the side of each ring and you share this with everyone else. And its not a small competition there were easily 800 runs each day.
Now I'm no opposed to the single practice jump, BUT for someone who has just met their "new" dog only an hour prior to going into the ring .... It was a little daunting walking up to the start line not REALLY knowing what kind of dog Tax Man is.
My first class was Standard, a nice flowing spread out course. The first three obstacles were tyre, d/walk and tunnel. I left Tax on the start line wondering how fast he might be .... well in the split second it took to release him off the start I discovered that he is INSAINLY fast. No really!!! His speed is JUST MENTAL!!!! He was a good boy and did his contacts, there was a pin wheel that I did a front cross in to pull to the table ..... BUT he zoomed past and took an of course jump. As I came out of the ring Gayle came up and said " Oh, I forgot to tell you ... He explodes out of his front crosses!!) LOL that was our only penalty so was extremely happy with our first attempt.
Jumping With Weaves (JWW) was a little more challenging and he missed his weave entry.
We didn't manage to get a qualify over the weekend, but we came so close several times, it just left me wanting more :-)
On Sunday, Ann Braue arrived. I haven't seen her since she came to Perth in Dec and I was excited to catch up and also be able to see her run her dogs..... except she asked if I'd like to run Scream!!!! I have run Scream at Camp the last two years... But this is a COMPETITION!!! I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Of course I accepted!!!
One thing I love about Ann is her personality and just after I said yes to running Scream she said " not to put pressure on you... but for the last 6 trials Scream has had 6 double Q's" OMG talk about pressure!!!
Standard was a nice flowing course but had an enormous stretch of jumps at the end with a potential off course tunnel entry. So I released Scream off the d/walk, sent to the spread and ran!!!! YAY!!!!! We went clear :-))
JWW was a little more challenging, a tunnel discrimination and the potential for off course jumps to be taken. But we DID IT!!! Double Q!!!
What topped it off though ..... we WON both classes!!!! OMG!!!! What an amazing way to end the weekend :-)) you can't wipe the grin from my face I'm so excited!
These are my runs with Scream. Thank you so much to Gayle for videoing and sending them to me.
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