No, I don't have a new dog. Since I haven't recieved Xsara's EO pictures yet, I'm posting a photo from Portoroz with Dasa's poodle Katka. We are on our way to the seaside again and will return in two weeks. In the meantime I'm posting a video of Xsara playing with our new smart toy. This is her third encounter with Nina Ottosson's Dog Turbo. I have to say that I absolutely love this puzzle!

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.

Three's Company

Yes, I am now officially working with three different dogs - that's right: three! I had the first agility class with Sena on Thursday and I also convinced Daša to lend me one of her border collies, Kate, for Rally-Obedience. Working with a BC is very weird for me, specially because she's so big compared to Xsara and I have to use my body language a lot more with her. She also needs very clear and determined handling; if she is not absolutely sure what I want her to do, she gets nervous (while Xsara would do it anyway if she was in her position). I think working with Kate will be very helpful to me and that Xsara will also benefit from what I learn with another dog. In addition, Kate is an extremely cool dog, so I really enjoy spending time with her.

Working with another beagle is a real treat and I have to say that Sena surprised me a lot. I didn't really expect her to follow me so nicely in our first training, but she was amazing. We started with obstacles introduction and she tried to avoid jumps at first, but she would already do a set of three jumps and a tunnel by the end of the class. We also started introducing her to the weaves. I thought she would try to escape and go sniffing around since she was in a new place (our course is in the woods, by the way!) without her people, but when she saw Xsara was also there, she really enjoyed being with us. Xsara wasn't really jealous, but she did want to play with me while I was working with Sena so she cried a little - and she was super proud when it was her turn to run with me. Sena will be staying with us for one week from May 12th on :)

I don't know if my working with other dogs is the reason why Xsara is performing so nicely lately, but she is amazing. She just learned a new trick and is now able to wrap herself in a blanket like a cute furry pancake. And she performed so well in yesterday's trial, that she even surprised me. The courses were very difficult and the times were so fast that even most of the fastest dogs got points on time. Our first run was clean, even though the contacts were rough enough to satisfy any fakir and dogs couldn't wait to get off them. The second course was even more difficult, and I made it extra hard by including two additional front-crosses in our run. It was very silly of me, but I am still happy with our performance. Despite my mistakes and one bar down (again, my bad - made the front cross too quickly), we were first in our cathegory and had quite satisfactory times in both runs. Here are the videos:

Agility


Jumping

Beagle's Stuff

Unfortunately, our agility class on Monday was cancelled because of the storm, but it stopped raining by the evening so we didn't have to cancel the Rally-Obedience class. We decided we would be doing courses on Mondays and new things on Fridays. Xsara did horrible at first, she refused to heel and acted as she had never done any obedience in her life, but after a while she became her normal self again and worked very well for the rest of the class. I guess it's just "beagle's stuff" - I think she is very reliable for a beagle, but sometimes she has to remind me that she is a beagle, and I believe it's best to deal with this issue with a lot of patience.

We had agility training today, and she did quite well. You can see how sad she was while she had to wait for her turn. She knocked one bar and analyzing the video I think I probably made her turn left too quickly, while she was still in the air. The rest of the training was quite OK, I think our running-in-the-mornings is starting to pay off, which makes me extremely happy (but I still have to work on MY running a lot!). I'm posting two videos of our runs - the quality sucks, but you can see the dog and most of the obstacles, which I guess is the point :) Unfortunately you can't see the weaves, but the entrance was very difficult, so she did a really good job finding it right away. You will notice I was out of breath - in my defense I have to say that we had to move all of the obstacles (including the contacts) to the other part of the ring before our class. And they were heavy. Thanks to Simona for filming us.

Trial Videos

Here are the videos of our runs on Saturday - thanks to Petra who is always so kind to film us.

First run (Agility):


Second run (Jumping):

Training Video

I haven't posted any new agility videos in a while, so ... This is one of our runs yesterday, when we were training. Remember Xsara is a barker, so you might want to have the volume on your PC low before viewing the video :)

Beagle Doggy Tricks Part 3

It stopped raining today, so we managed to film the third part of Xsara's tricks. I didn't include the "diagonal legs up" in this video, because she can't do it with distractions yet. She was in a pretty good mood so I'm quite happy with the result, but she can do some of the tricks even better. I hate being a perfectionist, but what can I do, it's just how I am. Anyway, I hope you like our video - I'm going to change the music next week, when I think of something more appropriate. Enjoy!

It's Snow

We finally got our first REAL snow in Ljubljana, some of it actually stayed on the ground. It started snowing right on Christmas day, which was pretty. But the first agility-training-in-the-snow this year was even nicer! Since we can't film the skating video in the snow, I'm posting one of our runs today - and to prove you that we can run a little faster :) It was very slippery so I couldn't run as fast as Xsara, but I did my best.



We are going to the seaside for the New Year and we will stay there for a week. I will make the skating video there since they have no snow there.

Christmas Trial in Postojna - Video

I'm posting a video of our first run on Saturday. She was very slow, that's always the case when she's in heat. Also the carpets were really bad, it was hard to run on them. But we managed to get through this run without faults. The second run however ... also had many turns and it was just too difficult for us. As I said in the previous post, many other dogs had course problems as well: I checked out the results and apparently only 45 dogs qualified out of 180 competitors! I've never seen so few dogs qualify, it's kind of funny. Anyway - thanks to Petrca for the video!

Beagle Doggy Tricks part 2

We had no trials yesterday. It was kind of weird having so much free time. We decided to make a trip to the seaside and film the second part of Xsara's tricks. I thought it would be nice to do it before I go to Norway. So ... let me know what you think! We forgot to film some of the tricks so I guess we will have to include them the next time ...

Agility in Ljubljana, 08.09.2007

This is the video of our second run (jumping) on Saturday's trial. Thanks to Petrca for the video!

Beagle Doggy Tricks Part 1

We finally filmed the first part of Xsara's tricks! She didn't give her best performance because it was very hot, but it's OK.


Oh, and we had a trial in Portorož on Saturday. This trial is a little different because it's in night-time since it gets too hot for the dogs during the day. The Italian judge put together interesting courses and Xsara overcame them very well resulting in her achieving the 1st place. The names of our this year's team members were also published during the event. Xsara and I are proud to congradulate them!

Agility in Ljubljana - New Video

I'm adding new videos of the trial in Ljubljana. Thank to petrca for the filming!

Weaving Problems

Ah the weaves! If anybody wants to know what it looks like if a beagle is fooling you on the weaves, check out the demonstration from Saturday's trial in Ložnica pri Žalcu. On training all the weaves are perfect of course, and she hadn't missed a contact in a very long time. Naughty little girl! I should probably blame myself, the beautiful weather, the virosis she doesn't have any more, anything but the beagle. Otherwise I'm glad she's running happiliy like this, following the principle "if the beagle is barking, she's feelingče OK". Last year she was dragging herself from one obstacle to another if it was too hot outside, this year she is running much nicer (knocking on the wood). Right now she is on her back, all paws in the air and snoring like crazy. Beagles rule!

Halloween

There will be more videos now that I have all the equipment. Here is a video of our "mouse" Xsara for Halloween. I will soon be adding some of the tricks we have learned so far.

A Trial in Ajdovščina - New Video

I'm attaching Xsara's second run from Ajdovščina. I think this was probably one of our worse runs until now, but it happened to be the first time we remembered to bring a camera. I finally have all the equipment so there will be more videos from now on. Today we are going to the sea with Ben and in Italy to get Interceptor pills. Maybe I will manage to catch something on the camera.

A Trial in Ajdovščina

On yesterday's trial in Ajdovščina we had an off-course on the first obstacle because of my mastake. Nevertheless we finished the course very nicely. We had a very nice day, like it's summer already. After the trial we visited Xsara's breeder since their kennel gained five new puppies yesterday. Otherwise Xsara and I have been training for B-bh exam. I'm attaching the link to the video of Xsara's first run from yesterday's trial without the disqualifying mistake (no censorship, the girl who was taping it just turned the camera on a little late):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKA6Uld5EoA Thanks so Petra for the video!