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.
We've been very busy in the past few days, but unfortunately not in the way that we like being busy. Xsara got sick. She was throwing up, refused to eat and was walking around the house like she was scared of everything. Of course I took her to the vet. He said she must have eaten something bad and gave her antibiotics, something to prevent her from vomiting, something for the diarrhea, rehydration powder and some probiotic liquid to equilibrate intestinal flora. He also instructed to put her on an easy digestive diet, so I'm cooking her favourite horse-meat-risotto every day. Luckily I got a Summer job that allows me to work from my computer anywhere I am, so I can be with her 24/7. She's feeling a lot better now, her appetite is back to normal and her playfulness as well. We have the last check-up appointment with the vet today and if she is OK we will go to the seaside for a couple of days - but I'll still keep her on the diet, just to make sure.
I also have a good news: I was informed that we won a photo contest by Red Dingo. I really love their products and as I had many nice pictures of Xsara wearing her RD collar, I mailed them. They will publish the photos in the next few days - and we will get to choose the reward by ourselves.
We had a trial on Saturday, when we still didn't know that she was sick. She was a little slower than usually, but I figured maybe she was hot and kept her in a cool place. She was still 2nd :) I have to say that the "reward on the rope" to improve tunnels (as the Finnish judge suggested) isn't working well for us. Guess what happens when there is no reward in the tunnel?! She entered the tunnel and almost got out, than turned back and went looking for the toy. We got one refusal and lost a lot of time, so I'm not using this method any more. I will still try with the "outrun me to the food" thing and let you know if it's working out.
If Xsara will be completely OK by Saturday, we will go to the trial in Portoroz. Portoroz is by the sea and it's very hot there, so this is a night trial. There are always many tourists so they organize some fun shows for them - there will also be frisbee and dog dancing shows, working dogs and more fun stuff. I will try to take some pictures and post them when we come back from the sea (we will be spending almost a week near Portoroz)!
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