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Sava Sara Brakada, AKA Xsara was born on 06-27-2004. She was raised in Kennel Brakada spending the first two months of her life on beautiful countryside Gorenjska (Slovenia) with her siblings and parents. As soon as she came to Ljubljana we started a puppy class, followed by an obedience class. She passed her B-bh exam with 96 points (instructor Agility EO winner Polona Bonač). We now continue with Rally-Obedience under Polona's supervision. Our biggest passion however is Agility. We started our first Agility class in October 2005 (club Agility Ilirija, instructor Silvia Trkman, two times agility world champion). When Silvia stopped teaching agility classes, we switched to Daša Zakotnik. We regularly participate in Agility trials in Slovenia and sometimes abroad. Xsara also loves to learn new dog tricks, you can see some of them in our videos. Her other passions include long walks, big meals and playing with dogs, specially her pyr shep sister Tani, her crazy agility pals and her sister Sena.

Monday, June 9, 2008

IABC 2008

Our IABC adventure was incredible, far beyond my expectations. We have never ran so many courses in such short time, but Xsara didn't seem to mind. However I decided not to take her to the training today - I'll let her sleep in a little instead (I'll just take her to RO in the evening). Now let me tell you more about the trial and the rosette you see proudly displayed on the left.

We arrived to Szolnok on Thursday and the weather was awful. We had heavy rain showers on our 7 hours drive and it didn't get much better when we reached the destination. We were very happy that we decided against camping and had booked little houses in advance.

On Friday we had registrations, training and the first runs in the afternoon. Here I have to admit that I was a little disappointed because nobody bothered to check Xsara's health certificate. I know that the sticker doesn't necessariliy mean that the dog was indeed vaccinated, but it would still make me feel more comfortable. Anyway, we were allowed to train for 10 minutes on each course (3 in all), but we only decided to try out the contacts and the weaves and not overdo it. The competition started in the afternoon - it was team agility, pairs and open (for those without a team or pair) competition. We did very well in the open class (clean jumping run, 4.11 m/s), got one refusal in teams run (I ran too far away from her) and didn't run in pairs. Here is the video of our open jumping:



On Saturday we had Team Jumping, Individual Jumping and Open Agility (and it was also pairs finale). Both our jumpings were clean, but she knocked one bar in agility. However she was in a great mood for running so we really had fun together. We finished on 2nd place in combined agility and jumping Open (that's why we got the rosette), and 14th place in Individual Jumping. We also resulted as diecent team members, but unfortunately other members of our team made some mistakes so we were 15th. Another team from Slovenia was however 2nd, so congrats to Katka, Kati, Gala and Kuki. You can see Xsara's runs below.

Team jumping:


Individual jumping:


Open agility:


On Sunday we ran individual Agility - and messed up the weaves and knocked a bar, so we finished on about 18th place in medium. We also ran in the Nationals Finale (another clean run, even though I almost missed the course walk). 9 best placed dogs from each country competed in this cathegory and Slovenia was 3rd. Xsara was also the best placed beagle in the competition so we had the privilege to represent the breed in the Breeds Finale. I don't know how we were placed because we had to leave before they had the results, but we had a clean run again (only this time I could see she was a little tired because it was like 5 minutes after the Nations Finale). Anyway, here is the video of our Breeds Finale run:


We came home at about 3 in the morning and are resting a little bit today. I must say I am very glad that we went, it definitely improved my confidence and calmed my ring nerves a lot (I basically didn't have the time to make myself nervous). It was also good to compete with other dogs of different breeds, see many experienced handlers and run the courses of WC and EO judges. And, most importantly, we had a great time with other agility freaks who don't mind running in the mud, rain or under the hot sun (we had all of these) as long as they are running with their best friends.

EDIT: I just found the results online, apparently we were 5th in the Breeds Final.

15 comments:

Simona said...

naporen vikend a.Čestitke za vse uvrstitve predvsem pa za to ker sta zdržale in kljub utrujenosti še kar tekle lepe čiste teke.

Urban Smoothie Read said...

hey xsara, u had an amazing weekend...

i'm sure u made all the other beagles really proud

Clover said...

Hi Xsara!
Congrats! I am so glad you had a fun time and did so well. I love watching your videos!!
Love Clover xo

The Army of Four said...

Congratulations to both of you! We love watching Xsara run the agility course and can tell just how close you are to each other! Nothing beats doing something you love with someone you love!
Tail wags,
Storms

Amber-Mae said...

Wow, I can't believe you did sooo much running & jumping in a day! You must be sooo pooped & aching today. Hehe! Your rosette is bootiful! I wish to get one too during the next trial which is coming up soon. I've been working hard every week including my OB & the mommy & I have learned alot of new things from watching your video. You make us love agility more!

Butt shakes,
Solid Gold Dancer

Lorenza said...

Hi, Xsara!
What a day you had! Sure it was great. I just can imagine how tired you two are!
Congratulations!
Kisses and hugs
Lorenza

Thor and Jack said...

Hi Xsara!
Congrats! You did very well! I´m glad that you had a great weekend!

Love licks
Thor

Kess And Her Mama said...

What a rewarding day for you both. You deserve the sleep-in.

Riba said...

Bravo!!!

Rudy said...

Xsara you are awesome out there! I have a beagle friend in agility class and she's fast too. Enjoy your rest! Looks like you had a lot of fun.

Rudy

Mali veliki norci said...

Čestitke za izjemno uspešen vikend Barbara in Xsara !!!

Lp, Ivana

Amber said...

What an adventure Xsara had,I want some excitement in my life too :)! Great job!!

~Amber

JAZZ AND DIXIE said...

Hi Xsara,
WOW what a fun filled, busy weekend you had. You continue to inspire us with your great runs!
Lix
J&D

Xsara and Tani said...

big thanks to everyone :)

snoutbeagle said...

Thank you for posting your videos! I'm going to watch them over and over. Your handling is just beautiful Barby ... I aspire to be as good a handler with my boys as you are.

Xsara's stream of barks is just adorable. That beagle girl is having fun!

Big congratulations to a fantastic team of two!