Crufts 2012: Zaz's 1st Crufts and other updates

I believe in Zaz; she is an amazing girl. We have both put the training in and I felt positive and calm. I also know that luck plays a small part for everyone whenever we step into the competition ring. This Crufts, for whatever reason, God smiled down and the the stars aligned for us. That is a tremendous feeling and one I wish for everyone to feel at some point in this game of agility that we play with our dogs.

We went into Crufts competing in three events: The Small Agility Challenge, Crufts Singles and Championship. We had both the Small Challenge and Singles on Friday. So four runs on the day. It doesn't seem like much but with the atmosphere and the energy it is a long tiring day. Saturday would be day off and the Championship (3 runs if you made it to the final) was on Sunday. I stayed at a local B&B which was only a 1/2 mile away from the NEC; you could even walk to the NEC from there! This was great for Zaz; less time in the car and more time to chill out. On Saturday I was able to keep her at the B&B and take her for a nice long walk. I think this really helped her for Sunday.

We received so many nice good luck cards and gifts; it really makes you feel special!





Each day I displayed them all at our benching spot. On sunday we benched next to Zeki so it required a photo. We had three other OBay shelties at Crufts this year. Zeki was in Medium Championship at her first Crufts and came 3rd in the Champ final! Todd was in the medium team event and put in 2 lovely clears. Oz was competing in the international freestyle and did a great routine with a handler he never met before that week! You can see Ozzie in his routine at around 35:00 minutes into the video.


The Crufts main arena was shown live on You tube which was fantastic as Dennis could watch from home and work! And I could go back (after some time to be brave enough to watch!) and see how we did.

This is the final of the small Agility Challenge. We ran around 21:00 min into the video. If you watch the end it is so funny as the commentator kept saying that we did not win. Luckily we did!



Here is the final round of the Crufts Singles all heights. We ran around 5 min. into the video clip.



So at the end of Friday we had run 4 clears and won both events.

Sunday we first had the jumping and agility qualifiers to try get us into the final on Sunday night before Best in Show. You need to run both qualifiers with no eliminations and be in the top 20% of your height class in order to get into the finals. Here is a video of the winners of the agility qualifier runs in each height. Poor Zaz I told her left after the wall when I should have said right. Bless her she corrected herself after I screamed her name a few times and she still won the class.


Zaz won the agility round and placed 4th in the jumping round. This gave her the most points for the final where the dogs ran in reverse order. So we would be running last in our height category. What a great place to be running in; we would know exactly what we needed to do in order to win! I watched a few dogs run just to see how the course flowed and then I concentrated on Zaz. I did see Greg and Scout run so fast and thought to myself well that is it; shit or bust! I love that feeling; knowing we couldn't just coast through but had to pull out whatever we could and still stay focused. "Bring it on" was all I could think of as a motto to get me through the run. Zaz did just that, she ran like a dream and put on the speed that she had been holding back on all weekend. What a little star.

Here is her final run to win the Championship. If you see my face at the end looking puzzled it was because I didn't know if we had done it because I can't always hear the announcer and I am so busy playing with Zaz that I don't look at the scoreboard. I kept asking people "Had we done it?" and still didn't know/believe for sure until we were called in at the end for prize giving.



Zaz has given me so much this year. An Agility Champion in her first full year of competition, an individual medal at the World Championships and now winning three events at her first Crufts.....



When Joy arrived into my hands 20 years ago in 1992 I knew she was special and I thought she was my dog in a million. Then she gave me Pax and I never thought I would have another dog that would be my soul mate. Then Zen was born into my hands I never though I could have a sheltie as great as her with so much heart for the game....then I was blessed with Hex and never imagined there could be another sheltie that would make my heart sing as she did....now I have Zaz and just feel amazed to have her. I just want my dogs to freeze in time and stay as they all are right now. All perfect, all healthy and happy.

So what about this coming year? I am hoping God has a better idea in mind as all my puppy plans are not going very well! I think I am 0 for 10 at this point with no girl puppies for me either in my own breedings or from other special litters I have been interested in. So it looks like a quiet year in that respect. I won't say I am not extremely disappointed; it is hard to keep up a breeding program with only one girl. Agility will take a smaller part this year. I need a break from the constant shows and want to sit back and enjoy our house and our life. I will not be chasing qualifiers or travelling all over the world.

I miss running Zen and hope to have her back running this year to do some Medium ABC classes (Anything But (border)Collie). Itzy is enjoying agility and I love her enthusiasm; she will get more training this year. I will run Zaz this year just focusing on keeping us as a team rather than chasing qualifiers. I will not run her at Olympia this year and am already qualified for Crufts 2013. She will not be trying out for the EO and I am unsure about the World Champs. I am looking forward to the WAO (World Agility Open) in Belgium. Giz-mo is finally getting trained and he will be the challenge that I think boys can be! Small but mighty will be his motto; I look forward to our journey together.

If you read this far I will let you know that this blog will stop for a few months. Not only do I need a break from agility; I need a break from the internet. I will still enjoy catching up on my favorite blogs and hopefully you won't all forget about me! Talk soon.....

Chicken-topia March 2012

I know you are all expecting a Crufts update! I realize that I am over-sensitive but it takes me awhile to work through all my thoughts and feelings about big events. There is that excitement before-hand, the focus on the day(s), the sense of accomplishment, followed by a let-down and slight worry if we did well enough! Topped off by my mental struggle lately if I want to continue with agility, cut back or just take a break. For me it is not as simple as putting up some videos; I have to let it mull around my head a little. I am working up to it and have actually watched a few videos; so watch this space.

So instead you are all going to get a Chicken update! I LOVE my chickens; they make me smile even when I have to get up at 6 am to let them out. I am enjoying learning about them and constantly trying to see if we can improve their living conditions. Now that I have lived with chickens I am even more horrified to see videos and photos of caged birds no matter how "enriched" the cages are. I am not a vegetarian but I like to think that we can be humane even to the animals we eventually eat. I probably could be a vegetarian again (I was for many years) but do find it hard personally to stay healthy without meat. And I do love a good steak!

The house extension is going fantastic! We have had 3 weeks of perfect weather since the building started; so no delays at all. This is a view from where the new bi-fold doors will be. You can see to the right of the wooden pergola is the fenced-in vegetable patch, the green house and the chicken pen.

When we walk down to the veg/chicken garden they all come running up to greet us. They always think we will have extra goodies for them. They follow us around clucking like crazy and telling stories. Giz-mo likes to come down with me for our evening feeding of corn. Plus I couldn't put an entire post up on the OBay sheltie blog without a photo of a sheltie...

I love to see all the colours. Right now we have 8 chickens. They are all hybrids bred for laying. We reached a new record of 5 eggs a day this week which is pretty good as 5 of the birds are very new and young.

The chickens get to free range in the vegetable patch and greenhouse during the day for now.

Once we start planting the veggies they will be more restricted but will get some free range in the main garden when I am out to supervise. They have a nice large dedicated pen that houses their coop, a little dog kennel for daytime protection, branches and lots of dirt to dig around in. We are eventually going to put a roof on this pen and then it will be 100% (as much as it can be) secure from predators. It has a very expensive wire mesh around it that is both dug into the ground AND bent outwards to form an apron. These are both deterrents for the foxes. The mesh is about 8 feet high right now and will also go over the top. Then the roofing will go over that to provide both sun and rain protection.

We have been trying different options for the chicken coop. I hear all kinds of horror stories about mites and other beasties so I wanted to try one of the plastic coops. Unfortunately they are ridiculously expensive so we thought we would try and make our own! This is a little plastic garden shed that we have adapted. We have gone through many revisions so this is the current rev. Lots of ventilation, wooden perches and 2 cat litter trays for nesting boxes. The only issue with this current revision is that the chickens like to roost in the nesting boxes at night and that makes a mess. Chickens are VERY messy!



Crufts update maybe in a few days! Now off to close the chickens in for the night and to scold them for sleeping in the nesting boxes.

February is not a great month...

I have been in a funk lately but didn't know why. Only today I realized that it has now been 5 years since I lost Joy (16 February 2007) and 2 years since I lost Pax and Jordan (17 Feb 2010). Maybe February is not a great month for me...

And now a friend just lost her beautiful border collie Jessie yesterday on 19 February. Gone too soon... Another special dog that will be greatly missed....

And it seems only yesterday that Spooky was competing with Johanna for the first time in the UK in 2002. Now he is gone too soon as well...

We have these little souls for such a short time and I am so glad to be around people who cherish their dogs as much as I do. Enjoy them while they are here and give your dogs a special hug today.

January 2012

December and January has flown by. I really wanted to do more blog posts but time got away from me. I also need to do more videoing of Giz-mo but I have forgotten how to edit video! My new little video camera is great for short clips of runs but I don't really know how to simply edit longer clips of training.

Here is an example. If you decide to watch ALL 5 minutes of it you may be bored silly. In addition you will see alot of my crocs and, while I love my crocs, that wasn't quite the point. Finally you will see a great video of Giz jumping into thin air. LOL I was trying out my new Gorilla-pod tripod for my video camera. I haven't quite figured out where to stand to get the entire session in the frame! It is hard to train and stay in one place as I have found out. I now have an increased appreciation for those who put out good little video clips while training their pups. And I am in awe of those who put out video after video of running contact training PLUS slow motion! My head explodes just thinking about doing that....



This video is slightly better as it was shorter and I was forced to stay in one position by the official upside down elephant-trick bowl.



Really both videos are pretty pitiful.....help!

Agility and training has taken a back seat this past month. We have spent time getting the chickens sorted and "Chicken-topia" is progressing. More chickens are planned as soon as we get a secure top/cover on their run and put up the new improved BIGGER chicken coop. I am so egg-cited about getting different breeds of chickens! So far these two girls (Wilma and Betty) are giving us one egg per day. I am not sure if it is one chicken laying everyday or they are taking turns.



Giz hasn't really done any true "agility" training. I did this little video of him 3 weeks ago and that is about the extent of his training. His cone/champagne bottle training as a puppy seems to have carried over to his wing wraps and I am pleased that he is working for a toy. He doesn't always feel the need to bring the toy back to me but he will happily tug once I catch him up. LOL



I wanted a smaller sheltie from this litter but Giz-mo has taken my request a little too far. He is all of 11" at 5 months old. I am hoping he will grow a little bigger; if he hit 13" I would be thrilled!


Zaz wonders if he is leaving yet?

Dennis and I have taken TWO non-doggy holidays this month. First we were off to Portugal to visit a friend. That was such great fun and I hope she comes to visit us in England also now! It is amazing how dogs can bring people together as I first met Connie when I fell in love with her sable sheltie Teller and wanted to use him to breed to Joy. That combination produced my darling Pax; the sheltie who was my sheltie soul-mate.

Then after being home for a few days we jetted off to Iceland hoping to see the Northern Lights. We had a great time but the Northern Lights were elusive and now we have to try again next year! We are thinking maybe Finland or Norway next year to try again.


My gorgeous Zen is now over 8 1/2 years old and I had to make the decision to spay her. She was obviously not going to have anymore pups and I wanted to spay her while she was still young and healthy. There was still a part of me that felt sad at doing the spay as it felt like the end of a journey for Zen and I. What an amazing girl she has been to have given me four litters of puppies. Thanks Zen-star and I look forward with joy to the next stage of our life together.

Update and Christmas 2011

So Olympia 2011 has come and gone. Zaz and I were paired with Helen and Piaf in the morning pairs event. That was fun and we won the pairs! Zaz copes well with the large crowds and noise; maybe too well as she is slightly out of her mind with excitement!! Very similar to momma Zen at the same event!



Our evening final did not quite go to plan. As the winners of the semi-final in August, Zaz and I ran last. Our run was over at the first jump when Zaz knocked the first bar. At that point I would have liked to have left the ring but at Olympia we have to keep going. The run went from bad to worse and let's say it was not our best run ever! Never mind; I took the best dog home anyway.



I do slightly lose the will to live having to wait around for 6 hours between events. There is only so much shopping I can do in the Olympia village and I hate leaving Zaz alone in her crate. Maybe I am just getting jaded; Olympia does not excite me anymore. Or maybe I am just bah-humbug.

There is only one thing that can bring some Christmas spirit to me and that is Christmas Giz-mo! Damn he is cute!




So what is in store for OBay Shelties for the New year? I seem to continually find beautiful potential litters of puppies only to have missed pregnancies, litters of boys and oversized girls. Maybe 2012 will be my turn for a girl? I am not even choosy anymore; I will take any colour as long as she is small, pretty, smart and feisty with perfect ears. You know, basically Giz-mo without the boy bits.

In the meantime I have finally gotten my chickens! It is a new experience and I am enjoying learning about something new. So far we have gotten ONE egg from the girls and so it is one expensive egg! But the pleasure I get from looking out and seeing them pecking around is priceless. Right now we only have two but when our pen is complete I hope to get a few more. I am thinking 5 would be nice number.






This photo makes me laugh. Dennis bought me this tee-shirt when he went back to NY because I love marshmallow peeps! It is also appropriate considering my new love of chickens! This photo was taken on my birthday just chillin in front of the fire with my pups.



Happy Holidays to all!

Giz-mo The Dude

So Giz-mo is still here with us at nearly 15 weeks old. He may be 10 years old before I decide if he is truly staying with us. I know some people do not understand why I would "not" keep Giz-mo but I really do think carefully about each and every dog I keep. I do not want to get into the situation where I have too many dogs; I have seen it done too many times.

If Giz-mo was a girl he would definitely be staying. He is adorable, smart and funny. So for now he is staying and I am treating him the same as all my other pups. The question will be whether I can handle keeping an intact dog along with intact bitches. Time will tell.

For now he gets along great with all three girls; they love him one minute and just tolerate him the next.



Giz-mo has been learning his little party tricks as well as just being socialized. I try to take him everywhere with me. A few week ago he took a ride with me on the train into London. I carried him in a little bag onto the train and he took it all in his stride. I am glad he was in the bag as the trains were so crowded and I would have been worried about any dog just on a lead.

The day before I did some training to get him used to the little bag. He is such a neat dog to clicker train; he can be so serious about his jobs!



I hope to get some videos of his training to date up. For some reason I am having difficulty being motivated to video him; I think have been fed up with how people are charging money to watch You-tube videos of them training their own dogs! Sigh...

FCI World Agility Championships Wrap-up

So I had lots of emotions building up while waiting to learn if we won a medal. Once the realization hit, I ran down to get Zaz for our lap of honour. Now I wished I had brushed my hair ect as I look a little frazzled! Important things took preference; I needed to change the label on Zaz's harness to her special victory label! You can just about see it here in the photo; it is her name in gold with a gold union jack. Now I am wondering if it looks more bronze and maybe that is why we didn't win the gold! Also I have no idea who wrapped the flag about me but we must have a chat about their bow making abilities; that darn bow kept hitting me in the face when we jogged around. LOL


Then I worried about the lap of honour. Would I fall down or step on Zaz? Would I run too slow? Yes really these are the things going through my head! I got lots of hugs and congratulations from people I did not even know and that felt great. And it was so nice to have the team and other supporters down on the floor with us to celebrate. It made it special. I felt strange being the center of attention. Other than when I am running my dogs I really don't like being the center of attention and my shyness comes out. Thank goodness I had Zaz with me!


I love this photo of me and Zaz with Lesley and Dennis. I couldn't have done it without them! Zaz looked so cute in this photo as if she were trying to hide.

Wow I even got a hug from Greg but he ruined it by saying I shouldn't get used to it.

After the excitement we settled down to watch the large dog individual final. Unfortunately none of our large dogs went clear but it was an exciting final. Then, unbelievably, it was time to pack up and get ready for the closing ceremony and getting on the podium!

Our small team had expected to get a trophy for our 2nd place in team jumping and we thought they would be doing those presentations first. As it turned out they never presented them! It was so disappointing and our KC rep actually had to go up after the ceremony and ask for our trophy. We were handed an ugly trophy that did not even have any engraving on it; it could have been a trophy for anything no less for 2nd place at our World Championships!

So instead, after the boring gift exchange between countries and the even more boring Dog Dancing routine, they started right in with the individual placings. Guess who was called first? Yikes I was not ready and never even had a chance to close my jacket. You could see me in the photo and my mind is racing thinking how can I zip my jacket while holding this trophy and not lose Zaz as well?


Or maybe I was wondering why we didn't actually get a "MEDAL"? I love my trophy (well love is a strong world but if you knew what we got for winning the Silver team in Norway you would understand why this year was a little better) but really wanted a medal around my neck! I know that sounds silly but I loved receiving the medals when we won at the WAO. There is just something about having it put around your neck that makes it feel real.

I also wanted a good podium photo but I am cursed in that respect! In almost all the photos I appear to have a third arm! I have no idea why Dave hid behind the flag or why both managers did not come up to the podium. It felt lonely up there!



And then it was over! The closing ceremony is always anticlimactic and, well yes, boring. Do we not all look excited?



So we achieved this year's World Champ goal of an individual medal....now to decide what to do next year!

FCI World Agility Championships Individual Bronze Medal!

I am finally sitting down to put together my thoughts on winning my first FCI Individual World Championship Medal. So many emotions go through your head on the day. I could not believe I had won an individual medal yet I knew Zaz would win. Does that makes sense?

The day started with the medium dogs running their individual agility run. Unfortunately we had only one dog that was in contention for a medal and that was Natasha and Dizzy. I watched all our medium dogs run but I cannot say that my mind was totally focused. All I could think about was getting our small individual course plan and getting out there! Sadly none of our medium dogs medaled but they all looked good. Luckily they had their team medal from yesterday to celebrate!

After the medium dogs ran we went back to the crating area to wait for our course to come out. I felt like jumping out of my skin while waiting and I think I asked our managers a hundred times "where was the course?"! Getting the course on paper, studying it and then watching the course being built is essential for me to feel confident once I get out to walk the course. Walking the course at the World Champs is like nothing else most of us have experienced. We have 8 minutes along with about 150 other people (handlers and coaches) to walk 20 obstacles. Most of the time you cannot see the next obstacle and you certainly cannot stop in one place as you will get knocked down by some enthusiastic European! If you do not have the course and your strategy in place before you go out there you are in trouble!

So we studied the course on paper, watched it being built from all angles and then realized that two numbers were in the wrong place according to the course plan on paper. The judge was told and he went out onto the course again to look at the two jumps in question. We watched as he kept moving the #6 to each side of the jump deciding what to do! Each time he changed it we starting walking it in our heads and then he would change it back again. Just a little excitement to get our Adrenalin going! The jump #11 was also changed to the other side of the jump from the original course design. This one he left changed. So from this course plan both #6 and #11 are on taken from the other sides.


Luckily, when it was finally decided, the change of direction for obstacle #6 was to my benefit. Originally my plan (in my head) was dogwalk, go-around #4, pivot, #5, go-around #6, pivot to #7. Pivots are the hardest maneuver for me as I can lose my perspective and two pivots in a row are definitely not ideal! Now, with the change, my plan was dogwalk, go-around #4 to #5, front cross #6, front cross #7. Although this required two front crosses the spacing was tight and I felt I could do them.

I was very lucky to have my friend and team-mate Nicky and my friend and trainer Lesley Olden to help me walk the course. I could not ask for better knowledge and experience. I specifically asked for Lesley to come in to help me rather than our team coach as she knows Zaz and I. I really appreciated our team coach allowing this, for although I value his opinion, he has never trained Zaz or I. Lesley knows how I handle and she knows our strengths and weaknesses. There were a few times that weekend when I could not decide how to handle a particular sequence. If it had been a normal everyday show I would have had no issue but it is so different when you are on "stage" and the result matters so much to you. It is amazing how little things what can make the difference in our decisions. On one course I was vacillating on how to handle the start and got many different options and suggestions from people I spoke to about it. Finally one guy said what I really knew: "Just go with your first thought". In that case he was correct and my first thought was right for Zaz and I.

Now in this Small Individual Agility course I had an area of concern before the see-saw. After some deliberation I thought I was sure about how to handle the sequence #8tunnel to #10 see-saw. I knew I wanted to be on the left side of the see-saw but was not sure which option to get there was best. I originally walked it as doing a front cross between the tunnel and the jump. I also considered a front cross after the #9 jump. The first way seemed to open up the back of #18 if I could not get my cross in correctly and be able to start moving off the cross. I thought I could do it and that was how I eventually walked the course. Lesley helped me with the possibilities but I know she was unsure with my decision.

After we walked the course and the first few small dogs started running Lesley came up to me and said "I don't think you should do that front cross and you should rear cross the see-saw". Now I had a few choices at that moment: panic and pull my hair out as I had not really walked that option, say thanks but I will stick to my original thought or trust Lesley's opinion and re-walk the course in my head. I decided to go with Lesley's opinion as I knew she wouldn't have said this to me this late in the game if she did not truly think it was the best option. She took a risk as well because if her idea failed she would feel awful for potentially losing us a chance at a medal. So this time I did NOT go with my first thoughts but changed my mind at a late stage.

As I was waiting for my turn to go I spent some time listening to my World Champ Agility playlist. I had a group of songs that meant something to me, made me smile or just gave me a boost. Some were songs that I associated with Zaz, some were old songs that cheered me up and some were picked up from other people's blogs. Three songs I picked up from other blogs were: "You Make my Dreams Come True" by Hall and Oates (from Christine), "Better Things" by the Kinks (from Dawn) and "This Pretty Face" by Amy Macdonald (from Karen). Songs that made me smile: "U Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer as it was our song for the World Champs in Norway when Zen won a Silver Team medal and "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley because we are pretty crazy to do this agility stuff! Finally Zaz's song is "Hey, Soul Sister" by Train because, well, just because...

So here I am listening to my songs, doing my crazy warm-up routine and running this course over and over in my head. Jump Jump run like crazy, dog walk, out around, pivot jump front cross, front cross, send, hold back, run, rear cross see saw, front cross don't block the tunnel, front cross wall left left left up up up out around send and run, tunnel, push to jump, front cross weave, leave her and run to finish and celebrate. And this is what goes on in my head the entire time. If anyone spoke to me I cannot remember nor can I tell you how we got into the collecting ring!

Zaz ran the course exactly how I told her. She was a little star and for all she knew it was any normal run; naughty start-line and all.



I was only in 15th place going into this run so I knew there had to be some luck involved if we were to place in the top 3. I played with Zaz, gave her a big hug and kiss (although she hates that) and sadly needed to hand her over to Dennis to cool down so that I could watch my team-mate Dawn run. As I stood in the tunnel and watched Dawn I realized that we were still in the top 3. After watching Dawn I was unsure whether I should keep watching the last 8 dogs or if I should just walk away. My decision was made simply, when as I was watching Dawn, someone started talking to me and made a comment about "coming in 4th". This was something my brain did not need at that moment so I walked up into the stands to be with my team-mates and supporters.

I was now starting to be convinced that we would not place. It is amazing how easily someones comment can upset you at that important moment. For me it has hopefully made me a better person when I need to support someone else at an adrenalin charged event. A comment that would normally roll off your back or make you chuckle at any other time can really upset you at that moment.

I sat in the stands not wanting to watch yet wanting to watch. Amanda and Zoe kept trying to explain the scoring to me. I kept telling them "no no you are wrong I am 2 seconds behind and can't make that up". Bless them they kept trying and when the last dog ran they tried to congratulate me and I still didn't believe them! Look at my face in this photo; it makes me cry just seeing it again.



I will write more about our celebrations and the closing ceremony but will leave you with this: my happy photo!

FCI World Agility Championships Saturday

Zaz and I would have only one run on Saturday: Small Team Jumping. The team jumping looked pretty straight forward which was not great for us being in the 10th position we were after team agility. We needed a difficult course that would knock some higher placed teams out. This is where luck plays a great part at the World Championships. The Large and Medium teams were placing in the top 3 even with faults but the small teams were needing to get all clears in order to place. I guess us small dogs are just too darn good!



The only real difficulty was the sequence #7-#8. If I had been running Zen I would have been in a panic that she would turn away from me into the #9 tunnel after #7. With Zaz I was more confident but still did alot of calling to be sure!



What a happy bunch we are waving to our supporters after our team jumping. I appreciated everyone who was there in the stands cheering us on. It meant so much to us that when we stepped into the arena and when we finished our run we could hear the cheering. You knew that everyone was running the course with you!



Our combined runs placed us 2nd in the Small Team Jumping. Even this only improved our placement from 10th to 8th overall. Compare this to the medium and large teams who had faults in all the top 3 placings; we would have been 2nd overall if we were medium or large! I know it is difficult to compare but I think it shows the strength of our small team. I felt slightly better when we were told that we would get a trophy and podium "time" for this 2nd place in jumping but that never materialized...That was very disappointing. Luckily our large team had also placed 2nd in their team jumping received trophies, rosettes and a visit to the podium.


At the end of the day on Saturday it was our Medium team who took a medal! It felt strange to me not being part of the medium team; a few times people forgot and kept asking me why I was not walking the medium courses. And poor Zaz was getting a complex from being called Zen all weekend! I did my part for the medium team by helping Amanda warm up and I ran each course with them from up in the stands! Oh and I tried to get in the photos; that is my hand in the top right holding the flag! LOL



I was so happy for the medium team but especially for Amanda. Both of us were previously on the Medium team and together won a Silver team medal in Norway. This year we were both running our young dogs for the first time but now in different heights. It felt strange not being on the team with her!

It was another long day and our big day was tomorrow. The tough thing about being at the World Champs is that we get there early and stay to the end to support all the team members no matter what height. This makes for a long day for both human and dog. This is why your support network is so important. Like having Dennis there to take the stress for me and to keep me calm and fed! Like having good teammates to be able to go over courses with. Like having Lesley there to help me walk courses knowing she knew our strengths and weaknesses.

This year the issues with the flooring caused the dogs to slip and fall; so we were very lucky this to have both human and dog chiropractor and physiotherapists. They were invaluable in keeping us all feeling good after walking on the cement floors and sitting in hard chairs all day. They even warmed up the dogs for us before we ran so that we could know they were ready. Thanks everyone!

Our supporters were great! Yet I would really like to see some of them work on their dress code. LOL Look at one of the Japanese supporters.

Even Ant and Lee wanted to recruit him to become a British supporter. Either that or they were looking for another seminar booking....


The Dutch were pretty cool also.



More to come!