Ten days is not long enough to really experience the  Czech Republic, especially when you consider that the focus of the trip is agility and not sight seeing! Four of those days I spent indoors at the World Championship,and 3 more were spent partially on training and checking in at the event. But it was beautiful nonetheless and I hope I am lucky enough to be able to visit Prague again some time. The food, the colors of the city, the architecture and the history cannot be adequately enjoyed in just the three days I spent there prior to the World Championships. Some notable site are the Charles Bridge, Old Town, John Lennon’s wall, the Jewish Cemetery and the Castle. And the easiest way to see lots of it is by Segway tour. This was my 3rd or 4th segway tour, and while the tour guide was not the sharpest, I still had a great time zooming around town with my travel-mates Daisy and her husband David and we saw many of  the city’s sites during the two hour adventure.

After the too short  Prague adventure we headed to the Team’s home base hotel a 90 minute drive north of the City. We hooked up with the rest of the team and got ready to begin our week of preparation and competition. Our crazy busy week went like this: Monday morning team meeting then practice. Tuesday practice, Wednesday vet checks at the site, Thursday…what a day! Team practice on site at 7:30 AM, Thursday afternoon Opening Ceremonies, Thursday evening Large dog team jumpers runs, and Thursday night standing on the podium! Friday/Saturday/Sunday more competing and then by 9 AM back on a bus to the Prague airport. It was an exciting week with a great group of handlers and the wonderful supporters that traveled with us.

This years team was a special one. A great group of individuals that clicked as a team at the first practice and that continued the camaraderie throughout the months leading up to the event. Team dynamics are so important. We spend a lot of time together and nothing can be more stressful than traveling unless it is traveling with 15 individuals and 12  dogs on the road to the most important event of the year, or possibly your entire career. This team did it all with a smile on their face and some stress relieving fun during break times. I look forward to many more years of working with this incredible group of handlers.

I wanted to share some of my favorite photos from our trip to the Czech Republic and a highlight of some of the Team’s incredible accomplishments.

A hearty congratulations to Team 2012!

Large dogs, gold in team jumpers- WAY TO GO! Silvina Bruera, Channan Fosty, Daisy Peel and & Tori Self.  There is nothing more exciting for an agility handler or a coach than to stand on the podium at the World Championships and listen to your National Anthem being played. Just an emotional, exciting and happy WOW!

Daisy Peel, highest overall individual placement for a USA  handler, 5^th in the world. Yahoo and well done Daisy! Your last run was incredible and had us holding our breath to see where you would finish.

Silvina Bruera had a phenomenol event finishing 3rd in team jumpers, with 3 of 4 clean runs and helping the team take Gold in jumping and tying Tori for 15th place in Individual jumpers. This was Silvina and TCam’s first time on the Team, but not her first time to attend the World Championships. Before becoming a US Citizen Silvina represented her home country of Argentina with her Doberman Aira and her border collie Maja.

Channan Fosty, best overall team member performance with 4 out of 4 fast exciting clear rounds and finishing 16th in the World and helping the team take Gold in jumping. I am so proud of my students Channan & Silvina, all the commitment to training and conditioning your dogs paid off and I can’t say how exciting it was to watch you perform at your best at the event we have been training for all year.

Tori Self, Another great performance for our youngest team member with a 5th in Team jumping and tying for 15th place with Silvina in Individual jumpers and helping get the team to the podium  for the Jumpers gold medal!

Congratulations to Medium team members John Nys and Laurene Galgano for their two clean team runs and getting the team close to earning a silver medal. John finished 8th in team jumpers and 15th in individual jumpers and showed his usual kick butt attitude that took him so close to one of the individual medals this year.

Well done Small Dog Team for earning a bronze medal in team jumpers! This was Dee Gamels’ Kelsi’s international retirement event  and they had 3 out of 4 clean runs. A great event for Dee Anna and Kelsi and a wonderful way to end an outstanding international career.   Laura Dolan &  Race were 2 for 2 in team and Laura kicked butt in small dog team agility earning an 8th place.

Congratulations to the entire team, it is never just about an individual at the Agility World Championships. Without the entire team’s participation we would not have had such a great event and such outstanding results.

Next year the event is in South Africa, and no doubt it will be an interesting one, but that is an entire other post!

NJG

I have been home from the Agility World Championships just over a week but it feels like a month. The schedule went something like this… unpack bags, write CR article all one day, more desk work, herding lessons, more herding, more playing with my friend from North Carolina Maureen Robinson, many hours of desk & email catch-up, jumping workshop, pack the RV, drive 4 hours to Yosemite, hike and play 2.5 days then drive 4 hours home, unpack, dog massages, obsess on getting ready for power paws camp, many hours of teaching, camp work, teach, camp work , teach, swim & walk dogs & repeat as necessary! Whew.

Looking at the schedule it reads like a lot of play time, wonder why I am dead tired and feel like I have been working too many hours:)

The Agility World Championships were incredible. Being with Ashley and Luka every step of the way to their Gold Medal was amazing, no less though than the wonderful celebrations we had afterwards. Check out the video of Ashley’s Gold Medal run and trip to the podium as well as Tori’s jumpers run which immediatley preceeds it on this video.

I am very proud of our team and all they accomplished. Tori, the totally hip and poised 19 year old from Florida with her perfect little border collie Rev won the Team Jumping class and were just a dropped bar away from an individual gold medal! Barb Davis had a phenomenal 2^nd place finish in jumping and JD and Tantrum took a 4^th in team jumping. There was lots’ more good stuff, check it all out!

http://www.akc.org/events/agility/world/2011/placements.cfm

Today I was entered in a trial and thought better of attending….too much paperwork and fighting off my annual cold. I am going out to pack the car though and get ready to go to one of our only local agility trials for the next couple days. Unfortunately without Scoop entered in a single class. I wish I thought he was on the mend, but after another vet examination, I am left with still more questions about why he still has some discomfort in his rear assembly. I have 2 orthopedist appointments coming up, surely one won’t be able to convince me what is really going on, and since I am planning on wanting a second opinion, it is already scheduled. Did I mention that I am completely obsessed with getting to the bottom of what might be ailing this dog or any other I have ever owned? I hate not knowing if they are in any kind of discomfort. The latest theory is that even though Scoop’s hips looked good in radiographs, there might still be a problem. Sigh. Before I left for Europe 3 weeks ago I decided to lay Scoop off from all field running and of course agility. He swam and hung out in the yard, but no other exercise. The first jumping in three weeks didn’t go very well, even after the break, and we are on hiatus until I have answer. I am slightly regretting the  herding lessons I took with my friend Maureen Robinson last week, now that I think he is still broken, but on the flat he is sound as a dollar and raring to go and we had soooo much fun.

I will put up some great Yosemite and World Championships photos as soon as I get my hands on them.

I hope you are headed for a fun weekend of agility or hiking or adventuring with your dogs, I know I am looking forward to this weekend with mine!

Nancy

Ace and I came home two days ago from the European Open which was held in Austria. The adventure had a rocky start with plane cancellations and a couple rescheduled flights, but after day one the entire journey totally rocked. Channan Fosty, Susan Cochran, Laura Jones and myself spent 3 days prior to the event in the beautiful area that is called Salzkammergut, a lake region in Austria in the area of Salzburg.

We hiked, ate, explored, ate, played tourist and then ate some more. It was so fitting that we were together in our travels as well as competing on Team USA 1, one of 4 large dogs teams (of 3 or 4 handlers and dogs) competing at the EO for the USA. Our team went into the Team Relay finals in third place, and while we did not medal from our team run, we still got to visit the podium for our trophies for our overall 3^rd place team scores which was a real bonus. Our team was one of only 10 teams to make finals and the only US team to do so.

The actual team winners were the three teams which made it through the incredible relay course designed by Judge Gabi Steppan. Finland rocked the audience with 4 clean runs in the Relay with a team of 3 “pups” and their Dam. How cool was that?

The European Open is a really interesting event in that they include each country in the individual finals. You can get into finals with a class placement, or you can be one of your countries top dogs. Daisy got there through a placement, and Ace and I were the top US large dog. There were only 2 large USA dogs in Individual Finals, Daisy Peel with Solar and Ace and myself. Ace and I finished in 7^th place, barely 1.5 seconds off the winning time. I have not seen the run on video, I don’t know anyone who filmed it.:( The Finals was held on Saturday night in a driving rain storm and most folks were huddled under umbrellas trying to stay dry. It would not be the EO without a little bit of weather challenge. We had perfect weather every day that week other than for the four hours on Saturday night for the finals.

I have been to 4 European Open events and Ace made finals each of the 4 years. This is the first year they have had a finals for Team. The winner is usually based on cumulative scores over the jumpers and standard rounds. The first year in Italy I fell down in the finals which were held in a sand arena and I found a deep bog and was down on my butt. I usually do pretty well in final rounds but that was certainly not one of my better moments. I can’t remember what place I had three years ago in Germany, but two years ago in Holland I got to the Podium and took home a bronze medal. I would have loved to repeat or better that finish, but I am not at all disappointed with what we accomplished. For a little dog that is not a speed demon, and who spends most of the year jumping 22 inches, finishing in 7th at what I think is the most competitive international event in the world is a huge honor. There were about 350 large dogs at EO jumping 26. Many of the same faces we will see in two months at World Championships were competing, and the class is twice as large as the WC with almost as many countries participating.

I have been going to International and National agility events since 1993. I have been lucky and had lots of high placements, but I have had my share of failures as well. The days following some of those wins and huge successes I used to describe my mental demeanor as being an “absence of sadness”. I often had a big letdown after a huge success, and I would not have described my attitude as being totally happy. I was simply happy that I wasn’t sad! Happy that I had not failed. I wanted too much not to fail as opposed to wanting to do the best I could. I wanted the wins a lot, but my focus was on “not losing.” For a while “not losing” helped me win. I threw everything I had at the finals runs, I would rather have bombed than lost, but the feeling afterwards wasn’t as joyous as it could have been. I hope that attitude is long behind me. I want to give it all I have when I am lucky enough to make a finals run, but I won’t commit hari kari the next day if I don’t win, and if I do win, I am damn well gonna enjoy it!

I am really happy this week. I was thrilled to be the only US handler to make both Individual and Team finals this year! My little dog did all he could do for me, and we didn’t have any huge errors or E’s. And I am happy that I kept a good attitude before during and after the event. I was excited and a little bit nervous prior to runs, but I could still breathe and smile and play with my dog and make small talk with friends while still staying connected and focused on the job.

The mental game that I talk to students and members of the World Team about I hope I am actually living and practicing and reaping the benefits from. Reading books, and articles and blogs on the subject has changed me over the years. I hope it will help me continue to help my students and those I coach as well.

I am happy this week that I don’t just feel an “absence of sadness”. This was probably 8 year old Ace’s last year at the EO and I want to enjoy all my lovely thoughts about the great experience we just had.

Scoop, well, just isn’t ready for me to consider International competitions yet. I sure hope that I have those goals to look forward to with him when I feel like he is really healthy and I can trust that setting a goal to go to Europe and get on a podium with him is actually achievable. I am training Scoop every day I am home, but I know he still has this creepy fungus growing in his head and I am sure it is affecting how he works for me which is really not 100% right now.

Tonight he was a good boy though and I am looking forward to being home the rest of this month to train him, after I get back from a weekend seminar. My happy thoughts and I are headed tomorrow morning to Portland to teach for the weekend. And today was a good day. I had some of my favorite students for classes, and I opened a box from Clean Run that held my Alphabet Drills book. Yeah!!! This was definitely NOT an absence of sadness day!

I hope all your happy days are really happy and that your pup dog is well on his or her way to helping you achieve all your dreams and goals. Mine have already done so for me!

Nancy

–

Scoop, April 2011, USDAA trial

Last night I arrived home from a weeks long adventure. Last weekend we had AKC World Team Tryouts Saturday and Sunday in Hopkins, Minnesota. The excitement was such that on Sunday my stomach was in knots all day just watching the teams compete for a spot on the TEAM! 6 Team members won their way onto the team, and 6 more will be picked this week. What stress, so many great dogs so few spots to fill. The quality of the dogs gets better every year which makes the final choices that much more difficult, but the good news is we have the depth to take great teams to France this year, and many chances for medals.

On Monday afternoon I flew to Atlanta to meet my friends Maureen Robinson & Laura Miller and was whisked away from the airport at 5 PM to the 55th floor of a law office to watch the 6 PM banding of an urban clutch of 4 falcon chicks whose families have made their nest on the top of this beautiful downtown Atlanta office building for many years. How in the world did I end up there? Maureen and Laura are great friends, Laura has a penthouse office in the building, and Maureen is a professional photographer. I just got real lucky! The Georgia Wildlife guys were there to do the banding, I took upside down videos with my new ipad2, (banding peregrines, an Ipad2 video by ME) and we all had a great time watching all the excitement. On Tuesday Maureen and I headed for her beautiful mountain farm in  North Carolina, and by Wednesday I was spending my time watching Maureen practice LONG outruns in preparation for the Blue Grass Sheep Dog Trial this week. (Maureen at Otie’s Knob, a video taken on my new Ipad2)

Wow! A month ago I was teaching in Hawaii and getting stung by man of war jelly fish on Kailua Beach, yeah that’s the beach our president takes his holidays:) I love my life. This evening was spent as many are here on the ranch. I took the dogs for a hike around the property and even though I have lived here since 1976, I never get tired of my fields and hanging with the dogs on a spring evening in the hills. This evening we had lots of nature moments. A killdeer tried to tease us with her broken wing act the entire time I was in one of the fields, yeah yeah, I see you mama kill deer, and I am not going close to the hedgerow by your nest, but keep up the performance, it is very entertaining! Then the dogs and I wandered down the front drive and scared up a big doe that sauntered off when I called the dogs back.

It looked like a full moon out there peeking behind the clouds, even though it was hardly dark and the hawks were still doing their helicopter act hanging over the edges of our cliffs looking for a bedtime snack I guess. Dead quiet out there other than the chirping birds getting ready to head off to bed. I let Scoop come for a walk with us, even though he still is bothered by something in his nose or throat or I don’t know what. He is now on antibiotics 3 times a day to see if there is some kind of infection which is causing the sneezing and hacking. If he is not perfect by Monday, (this afternoon) on Tuesday he goes back to see Dr. Helen our internist, for another scoping. Poor Scoop, poor me! Once again I am home and have time to train him and can’t. BOOGERS.

Riot and Wicked complained bitterly when I left them at the house tonight and just walked Scoop, Ace and Panic. I had already taken them for a trundle around the yard earlier today and thought they were happily resting. Not so. They busted out of the gate when the boys went in, (deaf and almost blind 14+ and 16 year old dogs are allowed these naughty priveleges) and they were rewarded for the effort by getting another short play out in the big yard. Since both of these girls have life threatening illnesses, they sort of get to call the shots, and when they want to tug and run and play they get to do so. So, my evening plans got slightly delayed but I wouldn’t have traded the opportunity for anything. It’s dark here now, the dogs are quiet, Jim is at a soccer game and I might just get off this computer and read a book.

I hope you had as lovely an evening with your pack of dogs as I had with mine.

NJG