Dornbirn 2009

This year WC started really good for us. In first run, team jumping, both La and Bu ran clean and placed first in medium and second in large!!! Doesn't get much better than that! That was La's 10th win in runs on WCs, pretty cool huh?! Friday was a really good day for us, we ended it with large team agility that Bu ran really well and had the best time from all, but one bar down at the end, when people went really loud after her dog-walk contact.
 

Saturday was not my day, I didn't feel very well and just couldn't focus, my head was all foggy. La's individual jumping was still very nice right till the end when I gave her too much "left" - would be just about right for Bu, but was too much for La, so I pulled her in a refusal. Yes, she was still listening then, but I already saw she is getting "WC syndrome". Bu was running really well in jumping individual too, I think she was running more confidently and faster as in her first two runs, I loved it! But then, I forgot the course - completely... I walked the course differently and then changed my plan... I know, never a good idea, but I thought I can afford it with Bu as she listens that well that I don't even need to look at her... But I guess I still need to let her know where to go... Oh well. In team agility, La was already getting on a wild side and therefore missed an A-frame contact. I would handle it differently if I thought she might do it, but her contacts were so great this season that I didn't think this could happen. Other than that, it was still a nice run, we had the best time, the same as the merle BC who won WC. Very good, considering how much smaller&lighter La is and the fact that ALL the courses were set so that running contacts actually put you in disadvantage. That was enough for ending second in team agility and third in medium team overall results, so that's already La's third medal from WCs.

Sunday, La was already over the top and we had a very chaotic run that ended with an off-course. I should choose another way to handle the beginning, after such an ugly beginning, it was hard to concentrate on the rest of the course. Bu on the other hand didn't feel too well, she had a diarrhea and I was deciding whether to start or not right till the end. She was again running slower because of that, but had another clean run and placed 7th, again not too bad considering that she was not feeling too well and that there was a 180 degree turn after a dog-walk that was facing her favourite obstacle, a tunnel.
 

Overall, I was really happy to see La run just as fast and wild as before an operation, that was the biggest win ever. And I was just so happy to see Bu can run in environment like that too and is competitive on such a top level too. She really did a great job, nailed all the turns perfectly (only one, the starting one in individual jumping, could be better), had all the contacts, even see-saws that she used to like to fly and as always, listened perfectly from the first to the last jump and didn't have any problems getting through the courses that were way more difficult as we're used to see in WCs. Not too bad for such a young dog!

Congratulations to all the winners, it was a thrill to watch them run. Especially in large, it was crazy how fast the handlers were and what perfect runs they were getting, one somewhat big turn put you out of the game immediately. It was really amazing to watch. Medium dogs are getting bigger and bigger and therefore faster and faster too, but top 10 was always dominated by dogs much higher than 43cm, it's a kind of sad that it's getting about how big dog one dares to enter into medium class. Other than that, organizers did a good job by not bothering competitors about not playing with the dog in a pre-ring as much as they did last couple of years. I didn't get why using treats was not allowed though as pre-rings were on a concrete floor anyway... Oh, and it was really cool to have plenty of fields to walk the dogs behind a hall. But running two dogs in two different categories didn't give me much free time, so my apologizes to all that I didn't manage to say hi to.

Can't believe this was my 12th World Championships, I qualified 18 times (running with two dogs for many years) and Bu is already my fourth dog, running on WC (meaning all my dogs but baby Bi were on WC). One would think that by now, I could at least remember the course, but well, seems it can happen to anybody...