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Hi All -
Well, it's been several days since we returned from Arizona for the Cynosport World Games and I am finally feeling recuperated. We had a great time and I hope that they choose to have the show there again next year!
First of all, both dogs did FABULOUSLY! I am very proud of both of them. It was another scorcher so we did our best to keep everyone hydrated and in the shade as much as possible. There were nearly 1000 dogs entered in the USDAA agility portion of the show. Out of 174 Championship teams (3 dogs per team) with competitors from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Japan and all over the U.S., Oscar's team "Let The Fur Fly" ended up 58th, which is the best we've ever done. The relay cut-off was the top 29, so we were thrilled to be so close with National and World level competition! Emmy's team - "Belgians Bordering on Insanity" - ended up... NOT LAST! <woohoo> We finished at #147th, mostly because we had a few E's (eliminations) from our teammates. That's ok! We were there to have fun, and we did! We were fortunate to hook up with a super gal from Oregon and her Border Collie, Speck, as our 3rd and nobody took themselves too seriously. Emmy really did a very very nice job and is showing great potential. Just a few faults here and there, mostly knocked bars or missed contacts, and we need to work a little on her jump efficiency, but those are all easily workable. She showed good speed and focus throughout the event.
Our Steeplechase Quarterfinals were very nice, but each dog had a fault, which kicked us out of the Semifinals. Very disappointing! Especially since I didn't know Emmy had gotten a contact fault until later, which knocked her down to 6 away from the top 15 qualifiers out of 59 dogs in the 26" class. Oscar was 11 out of qualifying. Darn!
I ran Emmy first in the Grand Prix Quarterfinals and she did well, but had too many faults to make it thru to the Semifinals. Oscar... Well, let's just say he was wound up tighter than usual and bee-lined for an off-course tunnel at the opening so we were whistled off the course. I was crushed! That's SO NOT like him! You'll note in the videos that he's *extra* careful on our next run in Team Standard, checking in just to be SURE he's going where I want him to! <g>
USDAA now adds TWO fun runs per show. The warm-up run was European Standard on Wednesday, which was the most technical course I've ever seen. Two 270-degree sequences and multiple off-courses at every single turn. Neither dog made it thru perfectly, but Emmy actually did better than Oscar. On Sunday, after we were officially done, there was a European Jumpers course and Emmy's time rivaled that of some of the top dogs in the country. A knocked bar was our only fault. Unfortunately, I sent Oscar off-course. (As they say, "Great dog, too bad about the handler!")
You can see some of our videos on YouTube. Anna was kind enough to post them on her account, but will send me the originals so I hope to have the entire set on our site at some point.
Emmy-Team Jumpers- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb4rBHUhvfM
Emmy-Team Standard- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LofKCXp3PcM
Emmy-European Jumpers- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XI5lr-sM2c
Emmy-Steeplechase- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlAozYEyuho
Oscar-Team Jumpers- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IELntPAYPq0
Oscar-Team Snooker- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-qxLtUuTqY
Oscar-Team Standard- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J8TDh5S9ec
Oscar-Steeplechase- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzkyCziRGyk
Emmy was pre-qualified for the Splash Dogs Super Vertical World competition on Saturday. She was feeling great after all that agility so I decided to enter her. Out of 20-some entries, many of whom had 7-foot jumps under their belts, Emmy made it thru to 4th place with a high jump of 6'-8"! This matched her personal best. Her sister Pico went out at 6'-10" for 3rd place and a new personal best. 2nd place was at 7'-0" and 1st place went to Stryker, who always wins, and had an "easy" catch at 7'-2".
The weather was HOT and 5 days of competition agility tiring, but we're all figuring out how to get qualified for next year! There was live streaming video of the finals and video on demand to watch at any time. All the scores are posted on the USDAA site - http://www.usdaa.com/news.cfm. There are course maps and commentary, as well, if you are curious about what courses look like these days. They've gotten so much more difficult than they used to be!
The best part of the trip for us, was Anna bringing Emmy's sister, Pico, all the way from New York to team with us! The Splash Dogs folks made a big deal out of the East-Coast-West-Coast-Sibling-Rivalry in Super Vertical which was a lot of fun. Our DAM teammates all had a good time and all of our dogs were highly entertaining - at least after a couple glasses of champagne and some video playback! :-)
I still need to update our site (all the way since August!) but hopefully I'll get to it in the next couple of weeks!
Enjoy!
Kim
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