(I know my blog posting is whimsical at best, but not gonna apologise)
So this year I made the crazy decision to go alone to BASE and bought myself a mattress for rear seats of my tiny yellow car with the intention of sleeping there rather than in a tent (good decision, considering how much it tends to rain in Denmark). Then Maupka got in heat and the situation with three boys and her got a bit intense, so in the end we decided that I take all the boys (and Mojo) with me and leave the girls, Maupka included, at home with Roman to make our lives a bit easier and drove 1000 km to Denmark for tne annual Pyrshep competition.
I have literally one complaint, that the jumps were metal - everybody knows I hate metal jumps with all my heart and they should be gone from the planet forever, but
as Brego is no longer competing and all the other Pyrsheps I know are smart enough not to crash jumps plus the judges Daniel Eiling Eichler and Gert Bruus did great job with course designing (really fun, FAST, fluent courses that we enjoyed a lot), no dogs or humans were hurt.
Metal obstacles apart, it was PERFECT. The organising crew consisted of the nicest and most helpful people on Earth and thought of every detail to make the competition a great experience for everybody:
Attention to details :)
- they booked awesome venue with huge meadows to walk the dogs and lots of space for camping, plus all the facilities like toilets, showers, club house to socialise etc.
- they made nice podium and background for photos:
- they organised lunch and dinner every day and OMG, those were absolutely delicious. THE STEAKS. THE FRUIT AND CHEESE SALAD. I'm a simple woman and the way to my heart goes through the heart, so they have my love forever now.
- they arranged for a great dog physiotherapist to be present on the spot and got everybody a free coupon for check up for dogs,
- they found awesome sponsors so we got great welcome package and super nice rewards,
- they invited super judges who understood Pyrsheps, made awesome courses and had great attitude.
- they made sure there was a tractor and red carpet which made it possible for some of us to leave the venue on Monday morning after three nights of rain. Oh, btw, somehow the organisers also made sure that it rained only at night ;).
As we know, BASE is mostly about meeting Pyrshep friends from all around the world. This year it was very special to me, because we had a meeting of 5 out of 6 Brabousies (Brava and Babou puppies) - it was great to see them in great shape - Brie and Babou are even still competing at 12 years old!
Babou (top), Brego, Neo, Brie
Babou, Brego, BB
Reksio also met his family.
He didn't want anything to do with his actual brother:
Posed with mum, brother and half-siblings which somehow resemble him more than his actual siblings:
Because the actual sibling is father's clone:
On second thought, maybe not so sure about the half-siblings either... Are they crazy or what. Gimme treats.
But Brego and Chibee still love each other (they actually do and were happy to meet again, that was cute):
Oh, apart from numerous meetings with friends and family and socialising and eating and walking, there was also some agility involved. I was running with Pucek and Reksio and the boys did great, both qualifying for the final. Pucek was awesome and got 2nd place in individual final and 3rd place in teams with Bayli (with Melitta Berthold) and Filou (with Denise Eckert, how cool it is to make new friends and stand on a podium together few minutes later?).
Reksio was Reksio, had some great moments and some brain farts which caused him to miss straight jumps after doing all the difficult stuff (seriously: all the weaves and all the contacts were super). We had fun nevertheless :).
So, some of our runs:
Pyrshep world family:
Oh, I actually had a great suprise from Kathrin and Ulli, aka my wocker family, who were on holidays nearby and decided to visit, which reminds me I also need to write about our annual wocker family meeting that took place in the beginning of July and was just as awesome :).
This will be a quite boring post about very exciting Agility
World Championship 😉.
Why? Because really, there is nothing major I’d like to critise about (I mean, all
my previous remarks about how we should use good timing equipment and VAR for
contacts are still valid, but at least from what I’ve heard the FCI agility
commision working groups are on it, so we’re on good track and as for timing, this
year very good Alge timers were used and some people obviously would never
learn to reward their dog after they win, so the only thing left is to lead by
example rather than preach to the converted).
It was totally amazing, fantastic event. Starting with all
the crew – nice, smiling, helpful people all around. Usually AWC is a bit strict
and crazy, like „can’t go this way, can’t take dogs to the stands, where is
your security band, no entry here, no entry there” – this year while there were
still some basic security checks it was all so easy and relaxed and I loved it.
The vet control on Tuesday was really thorough, even Pucek’s
heart certificate was checked – good job.
The location is awesome with beautiful forest next to it –
and because everything was so close and so relaxed, everybody actually had time
to walk the dogs <3. Super cool, really. Hot showers! Clean toilets! Beer on
the spot! Pancakes! Heaven 😉.
Oh, and the DJ was great, first pogo on the AWC arena during ceremonies ever
:P.
The schedule was perhaps a bit too relaxed, I mean my dogs
certainly appreciated the long breaks between the runs as I could walk them for
hours, but on the other hand perhaps it could all be squized a bit more and
last at least one day less? This is minor thing though. While it’s fun living
agility for a week, it’s also expensive and exhausting and there are more and
more voices that the schedule would have to be reconsidered somehow.
The judges and the courses… I feel like finally we are
finding some balance back (I thought after pandemic we lost touch with reality
a bit and a sense of what is actualy doable and possible for most teams, lol) and
really hope this year’s AWC would set some trends, because courses were fun, level-appropriate
(well, obviously Mojo still managed to disqualify but she’s talented like that 😉), with some technical parts and some speedy
parts, great to run and great to watch and seriously I enjoyed ALL of them. Judges
seemed like a perfect team working well together so as to minimise the number
of judging mistakes (but give them VAR as well, they need all the help they can
get, they are doing their best to be fair, but see-saws these days are next to
impossible to judge especially at this level when we are pushing for splits of
seconds).
(And last but not least about judges: Thora’s dress, hat and
shoes for opening ceremony were spectacular and I just loved to see that female
power shining bright!)
On personal level, well, I’m thrilled with Maupka’s
performance at her first AWC, so I feel future is bright. Pucek was doing
great, I was running two dogs in a a team, and while I actually coped
physically it was difficult for me to switch mentally so I messed his verbals a
bit. If I ever qualify with two mediums again I know how to prepare better now
and hopefully can do a better job next time. Mojo was speed ;P – love the
little brown thing so much, I mean she sometimes lacks better steering wheel but
it’s always thrilling to drive a Formula 1. I was hoping for better results,
but still enjoyed every moment and remembered to reward the dogs. And I’m still
taking the best dogs home.
Agility is breathtaking, thrilling, beautiful and cruel at
the same time. Everything can change in a split of a second and I watched this
spectacle with awe as always. It was absolutely fantastic that Poland finally
got two individual world champions – Paulina Duda with Huzi in small and Iwona
Gołąb with SeeYa in intermediate. I honestly don’t know anyone who worked so
hard for this success as Iwona did and the fact that she managed to hold it together
in the weirdest possible scenario is really inspiring. Huge congratulations to
both girls!
Well, history was written – for the first time ever, the
combined times of two competitors in individual runs were the same, so there
was a third run to determine the winner.
I know lots of people commented on how they both should be
champions or how they both should have refused to run or should have got
eliminated on purpose etc, but… well, rules are rules. That particular rule was
written when sometimes we had several seconds difference between first and second
place (not hundreths of seconds as we have now) and I don’t think anyone believed
it would ever come to that. Nevertheless, in the light of existing regulations,
there was no other option as to have that third run and well, disqualifing
yourselves on purpose is not really true sportmanship and I understand and respect
the will to fight to the end. Moreover, the regulations were hardly specific enough,
so actually lots of things had to be decided on the spot: what if both get
eliminated, what if they both got eliminated for the second time, how to decide
who runs first, which course they would run, who would judge etc etc. The only
thing that I can actually complain about it that it caused a bit of chaos, as
it was even annnounced by the speaker that they would run the large course and
then it was changed that there will be a different course build for them. I
think the world should see both Dalton Meredith and Iwona Gołąb as true
champions. Hopefully we’ll have a bit change in the rules and it will be
possible to have two champions – since we had that in the Olympics already, why
not?
Anyway, now waiting the for the awesome AWC photos 😉.
I’ve reached the point when I’m afraid to open
the fridge so as not to see another DOGWALK SAFETY post.
Don’t get me wrong, I am concerned about
dogs safety as any reasonable person, I think dogwalk safety is an important issue that needs
to be investigated and I feel some adjustments can be made relatively easy
(like standardizing the length and height of dogwalks and perhaps lowering it –
making it wider is not an option that can be introduced in a quick, safe and economical
way and is therefore totally unrealistic).
But at the same time, I feel like we’re
reaching a mass hysteria here. I’ve already saw complaints of pretty much every
dogwalk entry possible – not straight enough, not fast enough, too fast, too
unpredictable because every dog would collect a bit differently, not enough
distance to adjust, too much distance so too much speed. Same as complaints about
different makes of dogwalks: too bouncy, too long, too short, too hard, too soft, too big of a gap
between the planks (ok, that is actually a valid complaint). Some people go as far as proposing to eliminate the dogwalk entirely (which totally is a slippery slope and I don't feel I need to explain why... let's just all switch to nosework perhaps).
Also, people push for speed and then
complain how we make dogs run crazy fast on a narrow plank. I’m not saying that
it is behind every fall from dogwalk – freakish accidents do happen, even to
best trained dogs and great handlers and it is truly heartbreaking, but I still see idiots bragging about their
dogs doing dogwalk in two strides or morons bragging about their dogs having
the fastest time despite knocking pretty much every bar in the course and
jumping every contact.
Please understand and accept that you cannot predict and prevent every
accident – one of my dogs cut all his finger ligaments during a normal walk in
the fields, the other fell several meters down after we climbed what seemed to
be a small hill but ended as a cliff on the other side. Life is risky – some of
these risks you can foresee, some you can’t. If you perceive a given situation
dangerous for your dog, you need to decide if you take that risk or not.
You actually don’t have to train running
contacts either… oh, but then you say you won’t be as competitive, right? Well,
here’s your sign…
You don’t actually have to run the course
in the rain or hard wind.
You don’t have to run a course that you
consider unsafe – and don’t bitch about it, because same situation can be
perfectly safe for 99% of other dogs and handlers, but not for your dog. Years
ago I made a decision to run a course with ridiculously dangerous dogwalk entry with Brava, but not with Brego. Because Brava was
experienced, because Brava was careful and able to adjust, because she had way
above average physical coordination and balance, because she was trained to
negotiate crazy entries (it’s still big part of my RC foundations) and Brego
was young, crazy and always felt he is immortal and by that time I hade learnt
to think for him. Should Brava fell of course I would beat myself up, but I
considered the risk minimal. If Brego fell, it would be totally my fault,
because in his case it was totally possible at that stage.
There are also things that you CAN do.
You can actually also train both 2o2o and
RC to your dogs. Seriously, dogs are very smart, and they can differentiate
between various verbal cues, you know, like sit and down and left and right and
stop and run… I’ve done it with several of my dogs, it works, I can always
decide that in a given situation 2o2o is a safer option and use it.
Train every possible dogwalk entry,
including the most stupid ones – breaking it down so as to explain to your dog
how to do it safely and that also, in fact, they are allowed to jump down if
they feel unsafe or out of balance.
Train your dog for situations that
you might expect reasonably in competitions (and also for some not so
reasonable). If you cannot teach your dog to safely navigate a dogwalk after
one straight jump and claim it’s too much speed, there is something wrong with
your training. It is your responsibility to train your dog appropriately, so they can negotiate obstacles in a safe way.
Work on your dog’s fitness and
coordination.
Also, please teach your dogs that regulating the stride is not extending it ad infinitum. Don't reward those "two strides" dogwalks. Use flatwork with grids / regulators to teach the idea of collection. Use less speedy approaches. Use regulators on the dogwalk. Use the collection after dogwalk. If your dog touches the planks just 2-3 times, there is more room for miscalculation and less for adjustment, also with smaller dogs, even wind can be a factor.
Dogwalk accidents will happen, same as
tunnel accidents will happen, same as jump accidents will happen and freakish-stupid-accidents-during-normal-walks
will also happen. You can’t foresee and prevent everything. But neither can anyone
else, so stop expecting the whole world to accommodate because you failed to
train certain things or made certain decisions. Take responsibility.
EO 2024 is over and as usually there are some controversies concerning dogs that were measured out of a category. It is of course a personal drama and definitely a huge disappointment for the handlers involved, but as some people question how come measurement by the judge of the FCI measuring commission weights more than sometimes 2 measurements from their national judges, here's my two cents.
Mojo (34,7 cm), Brava (38 cm), Brego (44 cm), so small - medium - intermediate (previously large)
Let’s start with the fact that generally the measuring system we have (that is measuring dog’s height at the withers) is amateurish and inaccurate in several ways and perhaps in time we could find a better way, although personally think that it would be possible only with x-rays and (ok, not being a vet I’m not entirely sure this is possible) for instance measuring ulna from olecranon process to styloid process.
But for now, you have to consider the following variables:
- the condition of the dog – whether the dog is muscled, fat, hydrated and so on,
- the stance of the dog, especially the position of the head – that can be taught and the better and more natural your dog stacks, the more accurate measurement is possible. Personally, I devote quite a lot of time to that.
- the measuring device – years ago we got pretty weird official measure of one of our dogs, which didn’t matter much as it wouldn’t influence the category (at that time the dog was clearly large), but still we wondered, and we actually measured the measuring stick with another measuring tape… and got 2 cm difference. So well, the measuring device should be certified and accurate.
- how the measuring person perceives the withers – this is actually not so easy and you’d see that some judges would generally tend to measure a bit lower or a bit higher, depending on where they actually put the measuring stick. As part of Polish agility commission I witness lots of measurements to make sure the dog is standing as correctly as possible and the judge is not putting the measure at the middle of dog’s back rather than at the withers (I actually had to reject such measurement once, so this is not a hypothetical example).
- the fact that measuring regulations very greatly from country to country when it comes to the number of measurements, who can perform it, age of the dog when measured and so on.
There are also factors concerning well, honesty and good intentions of both the dog’s owner and the person doing the measurement and if you read the above, you can deduce some things that can be done to get a particular measurement. Sadly, people can and some do cheat and also go great lengths to achieve particular result.
By doing an official measuring at AWC / EO, you eliminate at least some of the variables. Yes, the method is still flawed, but what you get is:
- the measurement is done by a person who has been trained on how to do this properly,
- the measurement is done with same equipment for everybody, on the same surface,
- the microchip of the measured dog is checked and recorded,
- the measurement is public and witnessed by lots of people – team captains, team members etc.
- in case of doubt, there are other members of the measuring committee to consult, check the correctness of the measurement or measure themselves to get second opinion. Again, I have witnessed the measuring process several times – and really, in case of doubt there is always more than one measure taken, the handler is told to go for a walk and come back to get the dog more relaxed and so on. The intention is to get as fair and as accurate measurement as possible.
Yes, considering how costly going to EO or AWC can be and how heartbreaking it can be to go all the way and not be able to compete if the dog is measured out of its category, it would be great if we could get the official measurement by the FCI measuring commission done (with all the correct procedures) at some other events during the year or at least enter the non-competiting dogs for measurement as well for the future - that would be especially valuable from the competitors from overseas.
Another AWC is over and I just wish I could relive it again. It was a stellar job from the organisers, the helpers were amazing - their respect for dogs and handlers' comfort was really remarkable and they created such friendly, relaxed atmosphere that again I just felt like home.
I loved the courses - actually so much better when it comes to safety than last year! - and some of them were really masterpieces, for example Alex Beitl's medium team agility and Karel Havlicek medium individual agility, Petra Vyplelova's ballsy large individual agility with 2 dogwalks - those were all courses with multiple handling options and having great balance between speed and testing both dogs and handlers' skills!
As usual the fun part was seeing friends from all over the world - sorry I couldn't have longer or more meaningful conversations with them, as I was half deaf because of ear infection, but it was awesome to meet them again anyway. We did the Pyrshep picture, which of course was crazy, because basically Pyrshep people are Pyrsheps themselves, so getting them to gather at one spot at one time and keeping them still long enough to take photos was not an easy task - we're easily distracted and not so good at following instructions as Barbara observed, so instead of taking it on Saturday in front of the hall we ended up doing it on Sunday in the large field behind and then we needed 4 takes, because more kept coming, but here it is:
And here is Flaszek and his Japanese doppelganger Tono:
Now on to my runs - for the first time in my life I was running with three dogs in three different classes, Mojo both team and individual small, Pucek team medium and Brego team intermediate (and it was funny, because he was part of the winning team in large in 2017 and now he had to be measured at 10 years old for the new class, haha). It was quite emotional, because most probably it's Brego's last big competition and I'm just so grateful that we got to step on the green carpet together again, even if that time we were not as succesful.
Pucek did great and the only explanation I have that he knew both his first loving owner Frank and his daddy Evo were watching from whatever afterlife there is, because he really did his best and was brilliant and contributed to our medium team winning gold in team agility :D. That dog is both totally unpredictable and extremely great with his happiness and eagerness to run his heart out in whatever circumstances. What can I say, yellow doggies are the best and Pucek is my personal world champion.
Hugs to my best teammates Basia Członkowska and Dominika Klimkowska, you were the best team I could have hoped for!
Mojo, as I said, is a large dog that happens to have a tiny wocker body, so we'd prefer a bit more spacious courses, but I feel like after corona break we're finally becoming the team and I can just hope we stil have time and more chances to prove it. She had two fantastic agility runs in both teams and individual, both placed in top 10, some silly mistakes from both of us in jumpings, but overall I'm very pleased with our runs.
I loved every minute and every second of running each of them and I felt so privileged and grateful that it was possible.
Big thanks to Roman for cheering and supporting and everything 💓, our team leader Michał Pieniak and his assistant Kara Zawistowska for ensuring we had everything we needed and could concentrate on our runs fully, Zuza Łada for the treatment of my leg on Friday (golden hands, as we got the gold after!) and all the warm messages and words of support I got last weeks (special mention to Kathrin, owner of Mojo's sister, who messaged me every day - I hope you know it mattered and made me smile each morning, thanks, sis!).
And OMG, the beauty of agility will never cease to amaze me, how quickly things can change, how the mighty can fall and others rise to glory in a blink of an eye, how every split of a second and every step, every movement, every decision matters, I still feel the goosebumps just thinking of it.
Huge congrats to all the winners - I'm so happy that I know many of you personally and I know you deserve it so much! Kjersti Jorgensen, Aneta Obrusnikova, Magdalena Gadomska, Gerda Zemaityte - I couldn't be happier for you all!
As for a fly in the ointment, it's really time FCI ensures we get proper timers for the big events, seriously not every timer is equally reliable or accurate and seriously it's not something that you can construct in your garage, because every component of the system has to be top-notch, that's why in the other sports only certified equipment is being used and once you have some knowledge why, you can't unlearn it and accept something which is below these standards... ALL teams deserve to get their times measured with equal accuracy and with the same equipment.
And since we're on technology topic, how about this video judging of the contacts? I don't want to blame the judges, it's huge pressure and huge responsibility on their shoulders and they have to make those decisions in a split of a second, knowing that it might make or break someone's dream, so why not make it easier and more fair to everybody?
Regarding the yearly discussion about people who don't reward their dog at the finish line - stop finding excuses for yourself and others, stop quoting iconic speeches that have no reference to this situation whatsoever because I don't suppose Theodore Roosevelt writing about "daring greatly" was thinking about making a blind after a straight 6-meters tunnel, stop being snowflakes about how people judge the relationship between dog and handler based on those couple of seconds seen on livestream - truly, noone is judging you as a human being or evaluating your whole relationship based on this, but if you ignore your dog after they did their job in a challenging environment - in THIS PARTICULAR MOMENT you are behaving like an ungrateful prick, so either ensure someone else gives your dog a freaking ball and a word of praise or, better, get your shit together and do it yourself before checking the scoreboard or falling into your teammates' arms. You can wait for your gratification a couple of seconds longer than a simple, loving and living in the moment animal. No, it won't ruin your whole relationship if you don't, but you'll spare your dog lots of confusion and disappointment and you'll also give good example to others, so just devote some of those 10K hours of training allegedly required to achieve mastery to drilling it into yourself to reward your dog first until it becomes a habit so ingrained that you'll never forget it again.
(yes, I've made a meme, because 10K hours is like 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 5 years straight, so that's utterly ridiculous)
B.A.S.E. (Berger Agility Sommer Event) is a very special annual competition for Pyrsheps, or more accurately, annual Pyrshep friends and family meeting. This year it took place in Austria and was very special for me for several reasons.
Some months ago I planned it would be Maupka's first competition and also Brego's last (that was in winter when I didn't even know if he would be able to compete again, as he was nearing 10 yo, is 44 cm at the withers and has started his agility career jumping first 65, then 60 cm. He is also prone to injuries, because he simply doesn't care and when he runs, he runs. If there is obstacle in his path, so much worse for the obstacle... he actually headbutted me unconscious once during walk when I crouched to tie my shoe. So at that stage I was just HOPING that he would be able to compete one more time on this very special event. Well, he not only went back to competing but actually qualified for AWC, so now I hope for a couple of more months at least 🤞 ).
Anyway, I was sooooo looking forward to this and then just before the competition everything started to go wrong: money was tight, Reksio limped, Brego got some problem with the tail and when on top of that Zelda started coughing on Tuesday, we though we couldn't go, as we were afraid she has kennel cough. But I rushed her to the vets - no inflammation, the lymph glands were normal, no fever, no secretion... so it was probably some irritation after eating something scratchy (she tears the burs from her fur sometimes and it has happened before) and indeed, she stopped coughing right after this vet visit ;), in the end we decided to go and I'm really happy about it.
The competition itself was fantastic - the best welcome back (I really love the idea of getting some regional gift, like last year it was Belgian chocolate and this year Austrian white wine), super organisation, great judges (Lisa Frick and Wolfgang Tieber), air conditioned hall (and thanks for that, as it was 30 degrees C outside) with a nice bar with snacks and drinks (Austrian white wine spritzer rocks!), some decent options to walk the dogs (although I ended up walking them at night, it was so hot during the day). The only downside was the obstacles - like I said so many times before I hate metal jumps with all my heart and I think they should be forbidden and rust in hell.
Well, anyway, Maupka's debut was awesome - it was not the easiest environment as the hall was quite crowded and the music was loud (ok, as someone who can be a bit oversensitive to certain sensory stimuli I mostly hated this as well, especially the sound that announced the end of coursewalkings and whatever happened after elimination, especially for some more sensitive dogs that was not the most considerate thing to do honestly) and she just totally ROCKED, was focused, happy, getting faster with every run and even got on a podium a couple of times. Suprisingly, she jumped ALL the A-frames and I have no idea why as she never did that in training and she also jumped most of the dogwalks (some of it was my fault as I was getting insecure and perhaps didn't cue what's next clearly enough), anyway, some more training is needed before we compete again, but see-saws were great (and actually lots of dogs struggled with that one), her searching for obstacles was also great, she did the weaves that she could do (some were a bit too difficult for a debutante ;)). She's an awesome little doggy and I'm just enjoying her so much 💚.
Our first A1 run ever:
Brego was also absolutely freaking awesome, he is really one in a million dog with a heart of a lion <3 He had some great runs, including win in A3 and then had a super nasty crash on this horrible metal jump and came out on three legs... I was absolutely mortified as it was the leg in which he injured the knee before and I could just see all my dreams tumbling down for a moment and hated myself for even trying to run that run as he was already qualified to the final by then (but then on the other hand it was a cool course by Lisa and if you asked Brego, he is always up to rather running than not running). Fortunately as I had him checked first by Miriam and then next day by Laura (thank you both!) he was totally fine, apart from a little bruise and was allowed to run the final, although I pulled him out of the other run. In the final mommy was an idiot in a hurry (well, because obviously I'm not experienced in competing at all) who didn't notice jumps weren't lowered after the large dog, so poor little Brego jumped 55 cm instead of 50... but he didn't care and had a great clean run. I was offered a re-run, but since so many other great dogs ran clean I knew we couldn't beat their times anyway, so I decided not to. Little cherry on the top was that Brego's sister Babou has won the final <3 and Zelda came 3rd <3
Pucuś was Pucuś ;). I honestly love this dog to bits, but he is totally unpredictable and either a genius or an idiot and there's no rhyme or reason why or when ;). Fortunately he is always enjoying himself a lot and giving his all and also, he's absolutely prettiest Pyrshep on the planet, so whatever :D.
Mojo got to run a relay run on Sunday with super cool papillon from Mikulas Kocvara and out team got on the podium on 2nd place :D. Little aliens in a Pyrshep's world did great :D.
As usual the best part of BASE was meeting all the friends again! To many to list them all - but it's amazing to see all the Pyrsheps lovers from all over the world and share our passion and enjoy some time together!
Some family pictures below :).
Brego can succesfully clone himself. (I actually saw a great photo of Brego's running contact and was like "yes, finally the photo I've been dreaming of" only to realise a moment later that it was not Brego but Shenzi on the photo).
Not the best picture, but someone didn't want to sit stay anymore ;).
The face rase gang or two black Pyrsheps and a golden retriever, who can at least hold a sit stay ;).
Thank you Simone, Stefan, Sabrina and all the organising crew for this fantastic time!
EO 2023 is over, we're back home and back to reality, so just to hold on a bit to great experiences, here's the report.
I love those big events. I love meeting all the people,
The people, obviously.
I love the challenge, I love the fact that you need an absolutely freaking perfect run to place on the podium, I love watching so many great runs, I love the talks, the little dramas, the laughs, everything. So this year was no different, and I actually loved so many things about this year's EO - the venue was cool (baring the super weird communication routes, walking the shortest way from camping 2 to the field sometimes felt like you were crossing barrens with knee high weeds and mud), nice spacious camping, lots of place to walk the dogs (we even managed a trip to a beach and the dogs swam a bit), showers with unlimited hot water :D, awesome judges and great courses - I ran so many FANTASTIC courses during that weekend, courses that irrespective of the results just make you feel exhilarated to get through particular sequence and demand you really try your best - Stefanie, Kine, Esa, Morten - you were absolute stars! (we all know there was also the black sheep, but I'll get to it later), the weather mostly (well, apart from Sunday, but actually I take cold and even A BIT rain over smouldering heat any time), super nice ring helpers (or "officials" in the Danish-English, lol, sorry, couldn't help myself), the organisation and smooth schedule, my runs (haha), our Polish teams runs and successes, the cutest trophy ever that we've won and the list actually goes on.
Mojo with the cutest trophy ever. And I think it looks just like Pucek.
My dogs were truly amazing and I feel a bit guilty about not appreciating Pucek enough recently, because he really has his moments of brilliance and he is just so motivated and tries his best always (I mean, he is incredibly silly sometimes but I AM grateful for his enthusiasm and dedication). There were so many moments when he was just so awesome, did such difficult things and I feel a bit of an idiot for trying the RC in his agility run, because he had one of the best times with contact fault and actually if we qualified I could've nailed the stupid medium final course with 2o2o 😆😆😆.
Pucek's jumping that was so brilliant until it wasn't ;)
Mojo was fantastic as always, she struggled a bit (aka: screamed at me) with short distances in some courses and was so offended (screamed at me more) with how much some tunnels were bent, but OMG, I've been dreaming of having a Ferrari of a dog like her and she is an incredible little fighter. We had the most hillarious elimination on Esa's individual jumping, when she didn't enter the weaves (in hindsight, I think I was too close, she works better at a distance), yelled at me and then decided to run along the whole length of the weaves and enter them from the other direction at which point both me and the judge were like WTF???!!! and I was close to tying her to the nearest tree and leaving her for the wolves.
Then the small individual agility course was published:
... and I really felt like I was gonna cry. I really had to summon all my mental resourses to try my best on this course, but then in the end managed: I even used the freaking turning command on the dogwalk literally first time ever in a competition and qualified to the individual final.
The individual final was this smashing course by Kine and I was so ready to attack it and nail it and then a momentary lapse of concentration caused us an elimination on no 2, which was heartbreaking, because after that we had such a great run and totally podium time, but oh, well, that's agility. I love that run anyway and I love Mojo for her skills.
Our small team qualified into team final and got to run Stefanie's crazy relay course. It was awesome, we had the same team as last year when we won and it just felt great to really know our strenghts and weaknesses. We could really match the different parts of the course to individual teams (that's kinda funny, because I didn't want to run course no 4, because I thought the straight line with the dogwalk is just too much running and then started to walk my sequence and Sandi Okanovic was walking it as well and he was like "so you're running the second course, huh?", and I was like "yeah, why?", 'Oh nothing, it's just it's the crazy straight line to the finish..." and seriously I've never ran so much on just 14 obstacles and I don't think I've ever done a rear cross on the A-frame in my entire life before that, but we all nailed it and got silver medal!!!!
Some things I didn't like:
the fact that live results were not really live and I got spoiled by the fact that they can be and got used to timing my arrival in the ring by checking them on my phone. Well, not this time.
that timers failed so many times especially on Friday it was ridiculous - in the era when we're actually talking about the times in agility needing to be super accurate and measured to three decimal places we had the best teams of the world timed with the stopwatch. I really feel that FCI must ensure that the big events like EO, AWC, JOAWC are timed with the best, certified equipment, same as for instance equestrian sports.
ridiculous locking of the camping, and its opening hours,
the food, I mean seriously, let Italians take care of the food in the future. Or Spanish. Keep the Nordic countries away from the kitchen.
that there was no real medical or veterinary assistance on the spot,
the fact that despite the promises the competition was not moved to artificial turf at least for the finals (yeah, I realise it would be huge logistic problem, but I still feel it would be safer option),
no spectator stands, making it hard to watch the finals,
Regin's courses,
the shitstorm about Regin's courses.
Okay, so here we go. No, I didn't like the courses, I didn't like his attitude (I've been doing this for 30 years and it's been FINE) either (although, if he was a better course designer I would actually admire his ability to stick to his guns and keep his promise to build exactly the courses he promised he'd build already a year before), but I also feel like people are blowing it totally out of proportion. I watched the runs, yes, the courses were not fluent, yes, the distances were much smaller that we got used to, yes, the dogs never got to run full speed, yes, lots of dogs had difficulties reading those lines (funny how USA dogs had no problems though) and it was somehow boring and at times painful to watch. On the other hand, people are lashing out that the courses were soooooo dangerous, that he is making dogs break their backs, that people should refuse to run them (oh, how easy it is to boycott something on someone's behalf and not actually being there...) and I'm like, well, how many dogs actually got injured on his courses? How many crashed jumps have we seen (may I just remind you Jan Egil's jumping course from last AWC when dog after dog after dog crashed the same jump? Hueppe's course when handlers crashed the dogwalk? Or the agility individual large in AWC in Zaragoza when Marie Piirjoja's dog actually got injured because of a stupid line and a metal jump? or so many other actually dangerous courses we've all ran without as much as a peep of complaint, some of them from the most renowned and famous judges?). I was never the person to advocate "less speed" in agility, but yes, there is food for thought in this, especially if you think of less advanced, less skilled dogs and handlers on an average competition. No, we don't want to get back on the training wheels on big competitions - we are actually the elite of the sport and can handle the speed and the challenges, but let's just skip the idea that every lead change is lethal and every turn is breaking your dog's body, and fuck, actually you CAN train both RC and 2o2o (the latter in just a few weeks) and I've done it with numerous dogs so far. Dogs are smart, they really can distinguish two different behaviours on the same obstacle on a different cue, same as they can differentiate multiple ways of taking a jump.
And I'm really, really pissed off about how this is taking all the spotlight, overshadowing the other fantastic, absolutely top of the sport judges, that built SAFE, fast, interesting courses during this weekend. At worst, we all ran ONE course from Regin and three or four courses from the other judges - let's not forget that. I am also hoping that all this would bring some changes in how the judges are picked for those events and in the end, would lead to making the sport better.
