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!

Xsara Is The National Champion

Xsara is National Champion of Slovenia in her class (A2/J2 M)!

Saturday was the final of National Championship. I was feeling very sick that day and I was handling her horribly. We had two off-courses, but we had enough advantage from previous trials to win the Championship anyway (only one dog could have beaten us for one point if she won but she also had off-course). Anyway, I still can't believe it, I am so proud of Xsara. She really is an amazing beagle and we are lucky enough to have amazing trainers in our club (Silvia Trkman, Polona Bonač and Daša Zakotnik). We still have a lot to work on but seems like we're on the right track.

Back From Vacation

We are finally back after successfully passing my last exam on the faculty and now only a half of an easy project and the diploma separates me from becomming a journalist. Xsara was the main attraction on holidays. People even asked us if they could take pictures with her on the beach and her tricks were always accompanied by loud a applaus. But she was very happy to come back home. She doesn't really like the sea itself, she only went swimming a couple of times and she only did it to get a cookie. Otherwise she loved laying on the beach, going for walks and developped an infinite desire to catch and retrieve a ball or any other toy. Finally!


Unfortunately we weren't able to include this new talent in our performance on 4fun trial and agility training. I just couldn't concentrate. Even though I never check the combined results during the season I accidently came to know that we were in the lead for National Champioship (Our Sašo wrote it in a famous slovene canine magazine Moj Pes and of course I had to read it). Well, there are three more trials and the situation could change. But it doesn't really matter, as long as Xsara likes to work I'm happy. I can't wait for the trial tomorrow! I missed the trials so much over the summer that I built a course with legos. It even has the timing devices (alge timing). I'm not very talented for arts but I just love to be crafty!