My princesses

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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.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

National Champion 2008

Yup, that's right! For the second year in the row, Xsara won the combined National Championship in Agility on A2/J2 Medium level. Even though we have been competing in A3/J3 for the past two trials and missed the first trial of the season due to her nail injury, we still had enough points from 9 out of 12 trials. I am super proud because the competition was a lot more difficult this year. It really gives us a nice closure for A2/J2 and now we can set new goals for the next season.




In the final trial of the season we also competed in A3/J3. In the first run we missed the teeter contact, and in jumping we were disqualified due to the wrong tunnel entry and had one knocked bar. Xsara wasn't in a great mood for running, she had an upset tummy the day before and is on a risotto diet. But looking at the videos I think we did some parts of the course quite well. Courses of this type are very difficult for us because the handler stands still and sends the dog around the same jumps, while Xsara performs her best when I run with her and pull her ahead with my movement. We need to gain speed in situations like this, so this will be our main working focus in the next weeks or months. I really hope that we will soon be able to bring the attitude she has in training to the trial field, because we do a lot better in training (well, most teams do). Here are the videos of our runs:

Agility


Jumping

We also had another Rally-Obedience trial last week. Xsara did very well, but she missed the entry into her favorite agility obstacle - the weaves! It was funny to see that many agility dogs had problems with agility obstacles in obedience, because they don't really expect to see them there. She got a very nice score considering we didn't get points for one exercise. We were 5th, but without this silly mistake she would probably have won.

We also have to tell you that we are now driving around safer in our new Hyundai Getz! Well, it's not completely new, it used to be my mom's, but she bought a new Getz this week (she is a huge fan, what can I say), and gave me a really good price for the "old" one (well, at 5 years she is not really "old" yet, but she's older that the new one). Pictures to follow!

20 comments:

Kess And Her Mama said...

Congratulations Xsara! Excellent work for the year.

PS. Enjoy the ride in the "new" Getz.
P.S.S. Come by and read the article on "Slow Dogs" and let us know what you think.

Chris and Ricky said...

Congratulations on winning the national championship again! We love watching your runs - they inspire us!

Gussie said...

Congratulations - superb news! (I wouldn't want the upset tum but the risotto diet sounds nice.) Funnily enough we sometimes do better in the trials than at class. I think I get into a more competitive state of mind and I focus more so Jake focuses more. I'm sure this is the case because we sometimes run the class like a mini-trial and I suddenly come over all competitive and raise my game. :-)

Amber-Mae said...

Huge huge huge CONGRATULATIONS to you Xsara! I am sooo proud of ya. Dang, that course is sooo hard with a lot of winding turns here & there. You did really good!

Butt wiggles,
Solid Gold Dancer

Patience-please said...

Congratulations!!!! WAY TO GO!!!

wags from the whippets

Girasol said...

Congratulations Xsara!!!! you practiced too hard, that you deserve to win.

Annaret said...

Congrats! Well done! Really proud of you on winning the National Championship. Nice runs, pity about that tunnel. You must enjoy the Getz! :)
Hugs from the SA Beagles.

Raising Addie said...

WOOOOOHOOOO!!

Congratultions Xsara!

You go GIRL!!

Kisses
Addie

Raising Addie said...

WOOOOOHOOOO!!

Congratultions Xsara!

You go GIRL!!

Kisses
Addie

Eduardo said...

Congrats! You were so fast! You were zooming, zigging & zagging & just flying! WOW! You deserve that award!
Hugs & Snugs
Eduardo the Snuggle Puggle

Lorenza said...

CONGRATULATIONS!
CONGRATULATIONS!
CONGRATULATIONS!
Kisses and hugs
Lorenza

Dewey Dewster said...

Congratulations !!!!!

What a wonderful run and Gram was laughin' the whole time cause ya were barkin' up a storm....I guess ya know the correct order of all the jumps but it looks totally confusin' ta us...ya know those Senior Moments?????

Yer Great.....yes siree....fer sure....

Dewey Dewster here.....

River said...

Congratulations!! That's amazing! My mom laughed herself silly over Xsara barking through the weaves. She just flies over the jumps.

love & wags,
River

Samantha ~ Holly and Zac ~ said...

Congratulations to both of you.
Those videos were great, Xsara looks like she was having a great time.

Riba said...

Cestitke, kaj pa drugega :o)

TWa76 said...

Congratulations Xara! Great videos!

XXX Taru and boys

P.s Strange world, I also just got my mum's "old" Getz a month a go.

Dughallmor Beagles said...

Brilliant news, awesome Xsara! Congratulations from your Scottish pals xx

The Army of Four said...

What a great accomplishment! Congratulations to both of you!
Tail wags,
Storms

Anonymous said...

Yay Xsara and Barby!!!
Big congratulations, what a great accomplishment!

Glenn and MACH Rudy

Johann The Dog said...

Big, big congrats! And very well deserved!

Woofs, Johann