We are back from the World Agility Open Championships 2011 (WAO). WOW what a great event and I am going to work hard to be able to go again next year with Zaz. Before I go into more about the WAO I wanted to catch up on the the weekends prior to the WAO.
First in my excitement about Zaz's 1st champ ticket at Vyne I forgot to do the obligatory trophy photo for Vyne. I am trying to do this after every show but sometimes just run out of time. These are not the most creative photos and they are taken with my little video camera but they are just meant to be a special reminder of each show. The rosettes and trophies will eventually be put away in a box and/or recycled; the photos will last a little longer! I like to get better quality photo from Dennis but sometimes it is just inconvenient to do the photos when he is around.
Beacon and Tunbridge Wells shows are run on the same weekend. On Saturday Beacon is a small/medium only show and Tunbridge Wells has no classes for smalls and mediums on Saturday. On Sunday Beacon is a Large dog only show and Tunbridge Wells holds classes for all sizes. So it works well on paper...the only catch is the distance between the two shows!
Beacon is in the north of Birmingham so it is on the edge of being able to do in one day.(3 hours) Instead I drove up on the Friday to stay in a B&B so I did not have to get up at 4 am to drive up on Saturday. We drove up late so we were able to have the whole day home and just used the B&B to crash for the night. At only £25 per night it is worth staying just to not have to be up at the crack of dawn.
Beacon show is one of my favorite shows. It is held at sport field so the grounds are good and it is only 4 rings so we can park close to all the rings. This makes Bernadette VERY HAPPY! Have I mentioned before how much I hate being parked miles away from the rings? LOL Also having a show dedicated to smalls and medium dogs also makes me happy; not that I am prejudiced against big dogs but well.....just saying I like my smalls and mediums. Just saying...
Beacon is also a championship show. So it was Zaz's second chance at a ticket. Sadly we didn't win the ticket this time but I was chuffed to bits with Zaz and Zen's runs. We had a new champ judge for Beacon; Lee Gibson was judging his first champ classes. I was looking forward to the courses because I knew the Lee has been exposed to a more "international" flavour of courses. He didn't disappoint and I was thrilled that all the courses were on the difficult side. Not only were the jumping and agility rounds difficult but he kept the final just as difficult. I LOVED it! We had to work all rounds and the final was so exciting.
Here is Zaz in the agility qualifier round.
Zen was entered in the champs because she was competing in the WAO the following weekend. So it was nice to have some handling courses to get us tuned up as a team. I was so happy that both Zen and Zaz made it into the final. Both girls did really well in the agility and jumping qualifier rounds so Zaz was running 2nd to last and Zen was running last.
First up was the small dog final. There were alot of faults and eliminations in the final rounds but then up came Helen and her poodle (running 3rd to last) putting in a faultless fast round. I watched that round and knew that if we had any chance we needed to go for it. So we did but my over excitement caused Zaz to miss out a jump. Watching the video back I know what I did to cause it so it was my fault totally. She never even saw the jump I wanted her to take the back of so she locked on the next jump she saw. I was not disappointed because I was thrilled with the rest of the run. After Zaz ran there was one dog left to go. Nicky and Indy put in a fantastic run to just win out over Helen by a nano-second! It was such a great final and I was proud that Zaz and I were sandwiched between those two great teams. I cannot be complacent as Zaz and I still have work to do to become as polished as Nicky and Indy and Helen and her adorable poodles. This is what makes it fun!
I needed to trust Zaz's weave poles more to have run that section smoothly and in my rush to get to the next off set jump I forgot to change arms to bring her in after the go-round. Listen closely and you will hear my videographer say "pants" which is an English term meaning SH*T or DAMN! Now you all have a new swear word you can use in the USA and not get eliminated for cursing on course! LOL Yes my English friends can you believe they will eliminate you for swearing on course in the US?
Then is was Zen's turn. My little Zen-star ran her little legs off. We ended up in 2nd place to get the Reserve Championship Ticket. Not bad for the old girls (me and Zen!)
Itzy did not come to the shows this weekend; instead she stayed home and kept Dennis company. I find it exhausting running 3 dogs and not sure how everyone else does it!
It was a long drive back home to get up early the next day for Tunbridge Wells. The nice part is that Tun Wells show is only 45 minutes from home. Yay!
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