We had a very relaxing bus trip through Luxembourg and Switzerland today.  We stopped at several little towns and got out to tour. 
The highlight of the trip was a large cable car trip up a mountain.  Apparently if your dog was a ‘lap dog’ you could take them on the cable car for free otherwise they were 9 Euros, so of course Rio got to be an oversized lap dog.  At the top of the mountain the sun was shining and it was quite warm.  Cathy, Carol and I had a drink at an outdoor restaurant at the top.  I think I could have stayed there all day!!  Unfortunately, Rio didn’t quite get the exercise I thought she might as there were no safe for dog walking trails at the top.  It was very rocky with sharp cliffs everywhere!   The tour guide and the cable car operator both told us that it is quite common for hikers that are tired of climbing to go up the cable car’s support tower ladders and be let into the cable car for the rest of the trip up or down!  How crazy is that?  I don’t think you’d catch me dead on one of those incredibly tall towers!!!!


Werdenberg - The Smallest City in Switzerland
Note the colour of the building town hall behind.  Originally the wood was preserved with a mixture of cow blood.


Werdenberg:  Population 99


All the houses in the city were very well kept and there were tons of flowers.
Left to Right:  Flip, Rio, Zoom, Briggs


My "lap dog" in the cable car

The scenery here is just gorgeous.  We have been so lucky with the weather too.  Its been rainy pretty much every morning, but then it turns nice later on and the sun has been shining brightly.

Rio at the top of the mountain


Beautiful restaurant at the top.  Nothing like warm, expensive beer with a great view!


Spot the real dog?  Also check out the giant poster behind the cart.  Yes, that is a rear end of a cow......


Rio and I did one last walk around Feldkirch.  We discovered some great little hiking paths that I would have loved to have followed if I'd just had more time (and if it wasn't getting dark!).  Actually, all over Austria I've been seeing signs to hiking trails.  I think I'll need to come back some day on a hiking vacation!  Especially since they really know how to do it here—there seem to be restaurants on every little mountain pass.


Had to take a picture of the beer—it was called "Hell Beer".  I wonder if its a comment about what the hike up would be like?

I’ve been trying to pack up a bit as it’s a bit of an early morning departure tomorrow for the Zurich airport.  The Toronto & Montreal bound folks will head out around the same time as me but the Calgary group won’t be heading out until the following day (Wednesday) as Lufthansa flies only every second day out of Zurich.  Rio and I will be travelling by ourselves again due to the one dog per flight regulation on Air Canada.  We will be flying Zurich-Toronto and then Toronto-Ottawa.  

       
Briggs couldn't figure out if this wooden dog was a boy or a girl and then couldn't figure out why it wouldn't play!

 

Sunday morning started off with the mini dogs taking the field.  Unfortunately both J.J. and Dice had off courses.  The medium team had some nice runs with Flip running the course cleanly, but with a few time faults and Nitro having a spectacular run.  The ‘Sunday Curse’ for Lucie has been lifted!  J  I think the only other dog that beat her in that round was a short legged BC from Great Britain who eventually went on to be World Champion.  The large individual dogs had a course that was built for speed with not as many handling challenges as we’ve seen.  Unfortunately Abbi took the wrong obstacle in a see-saw/dog walk discrimination and was eliminated L  Adrian and Fizz had a BEAUTIFUL run and were on top of the leader board for a long time and ended up in the top 25 (I think).  We all held our breath as Encore & Susan took the field—we knew this was their type of course but a bar coming down, early on in the course, was a heart breaker.  I’ve got to say, it is very impressive that Susan & Encore have been in that position now two years running and they just keep getting better!

Team Kanada taking to the field for the opening ceremonies.  Too bad that they changed us back to Canada for the closing ceremonies—-half our team (including me) missed the parade onto the field because we weren't behind Japan like in the opening ceremonies! 

Rio & I were happy to meet Eric & Petra who own one of Rio’s grandsons out of Lightning, Blaze.  Eric is originally from BC and even competed at the BC Regionals, but is currently living in Switzerland.  Eric & Petra also joined us in the Canadian section to cheer on our Large Dog Team.

Our team had great fun swapping Canadian clothing with the other countries all day with most of our team members coming home with South African apparel.  There may be more of us right now with South African agility jackets than Canadian ones!  LOL

 
Rio begging for treats from Adrian during the very, very, very long closing ceremonies.  Did I mention that they dragged on a bit?

Dinner was a relaxing event at an Italian Restaurant that Susan, Nathalie and I discovered accidentally when some un-named individual gave us wrong directions to our pre-competition team dinner.  Christina eventually found us and brought us back to the group but not before we’d had the world’s best bruchetta and promised the owner Daniele, that we’d be back again.  It was a fantastic way to end our time with the team, with lots of laughs and sharing of good memories.  Even Sandra Esford and travelling companions, who had been staying in Dornbirn, took the train into town to join us.


Team Canada before leaving the venue for the last time.  I'm going to miss those mountains!

I just waved good bye to Susan, Adrian & Deryl as they took an early morning shuttle to the airport.  I think its going to be very quiet in my little room!  I will miss Susan’s music here and on our bus.  She spoiled us with entertaining, uplifting and patriotic music every day to and from the venue.

Today we will be travelling to Switzerland where I think we are going up a mountain by cable car.  Rio is going to be thrilled to get out run a bit.  Its been many long days in the hotel room and then in her crate at the agility stadium. 

I’m pretty sad that my time here in Austria is almost up, but can’t wait to get home to see the two-legged and four legged family members.  Austria is such a beautiful country!


Celebrating the Individual Large Dog Team World Champions.  Austria took first and third place and the US second place.

A bit of a heartbreaking day for members of the Canadian Team but it was punctuated with some fabulous runs.  Jessica & Dice had two gorgeous runs that blew the competition away, Susan & Encore were breathtaking with their flawless individual jumpers run and Dart proved twice over that old dogs certainly do rock! 

The best part about FCI is that they really do know how to celebrate the winners.  As soon as the event is over, the top three teams and all their supporters from the country take to the field in what amounts to a giant party with everyone dancing and waving flags.  No one rushes the winners off—they just allow the party to go on.

Tomorrow will be the crowning of the Individual World Champions in Small, Medium & Large.  Encore is sitting in a very pretty position for tomorrow.  Hopefully Canada will be taking to the field in celebration!

Sorry to wait you wait for the day one update….   I tried to be rude and work on my computer in the dining room last night, but just couldn’t do it.

Yesterday morning started out with a 7:15 am departure from the hotel for the 20 minute drive to the venue.  Opening ceremonies started a bit late and had us poor Canadians confused as we figured we should enter the arena with the ‘C’ countries, but then got turned away and told to wait for the ‘K’ countries.  I guess for the next few days, I’m a Kanadian.  There weren’t too many dry eyes in the crowd when the American Large Dog Team came in each holding a poster of Geri & Focus.  It was a good reminder how lucky we are each time we step up to the line with our four legged friend.

Team Canada’s Large dog team was third country into the ring yesterday, so there was very little time to waste.  Rio & team mates got their pre-run work up done by Carol & Dr. Leslie while Kiersten, Susan and I studied the course build for the Jumpers course.  We ended up being even quicker into the ring than we thought as one of the countries ahead of us had some bitches in heat.  Girls in season are allowed to compete here, but they must go at the end of the class.  They bring out a mat to put at the start line and if there’s a table, they cover that up too.  Rio led the way for the Canadians with a clean run.  Zoom came next and had a good run going until she had a slight disconnect from Kiersten and was over an off course jump in the blink of an eye (off courses were rampant with the large dogs—in the end only 4 countries made it through the 6 courses without an off course!).  Encore ran anchor and had a beautiful run with just a slight bobble.  After the jumpers round, our large dog team was sitting in 20th place.

Our medium team ran the medium jumpers course next and it appeared that pushing to the other side of the jump was the skill of the day with about 4 or 5 pushes required on course.  Our medium dogs (Cypher, Flip & Nitro) all did very well, but unfortunately had one elimination when Cypher stuck his head in a tunnel.

The small dogs also had a challenging course, but Dart, Briggs and Dice all came through with flying colours and three clean rounds, putting them in fourth place for that round.

The final event of the day was the second round of the Large Dog Team that took down many an experienced dog with several off course possibilities.  Our team was not immune to an off course tunnel at the beginning of the course, but still managed to have a clean run by Zoom and a 5 fault run by Rio.  In the end, our large dog team managed to move into 12th place overall (I think….?)

It was back to the hotel for a late dinner  and a small celebration for Encore, Nitro, Cypher and Rio who we found out earlier in the afternoon had been selected for the AAC’s World Team that will be travelling to England in May.  Lucie & Christina’s young dogs, Scud & Rhyval were also named as alternates.

Today the small dog individual jumping starts us off followed by medium and then large dog individual jumping.  After that, they will be running the small & medium standard team rounds.

Thanks to everyone for their kind notes and good wishes.  All of us here really appreciate them!!!! 

Now I must run to breakfast and make my sandwiches for my lunch….

Finally the real fun begins   We had our vet checks that went really smoothly although had us all wondering why they checked so very throughly for fleas!?  We were the third team to be vet checked and they were already behind close to 45 minutes!  We then rushed directly onto the floor where they had the equipment segregated into 3 sections with one of the contacts in each section.  We divided ourselves into small-medium-large groups and had about 5 minutes to rotate all the dogs through.  Most of the large dogs had no problem with the chaos although Rio kept staring at Adrian adoringly when she was supposed to be sitting on the start line and watching my lead out!    She also thought the clear tunnel was a little funny—first time through she slowed and stared at the dog walk which she could see above her!  I didn't see much of the shelties practice, but it sounded as if it went well although I think the younger dogs may have been a bit overwhelmed by the chaos on the field—that's definitely something you can't re-create anywhere else!


The view of the practice field.  The competition venue is much smaller than last year—the stands are going to be very cosy!


A view from the other end of the arena


Every country has its own private little cube of space.  Once again its a bit cosy considering how big the 'airplane hanger' above is!

Our third dog for team was finally announced—Encore & Susan will be running anchor on the team tomorrow with Rio first and Zoom in the middle of the red dogs.

As I'm typing, Nathalie Lafleur has just arrived and rumour has it that Leslie Woodcock has also made it to Austria.  Yea!  More fans!  We also decorated our area in the stands this morning—lots of red & white   Hopefully they won't make us move.


Half way through the decorating process


Deryl so badly wanted to be on the blog that she was willing to dress up for me

This aft is a bit of quiet time before our team dinner tonight. 

Our large dog team is in the ring third tomorrow morning, so please be sending us your best vibes!  Maybe it'd be a good idea to sleep in your Canadian Agility Team supporter shirt since we will be starting to run while most of you will be snug in your beds.

Can't wait for the competition to begin tomorrow.  Go Canada go!!!!!   

After breakfast today, our bus picked us up and drove us to Bergenz, Austria and we caught a ferry across Lake Constance (the third largest lake in Europe—do not ask me what lakes are bigger.  I don’t know!) to Lindau, Germany.  We had a walking tour of the town and then lunch on the main Maximillian Strassa on a nice outdoor patio and then it was time to catch the ferry back to Austria and head back to the hotel to pick up the dogs for practice.  Unfortunately the rain started coming down pretty hard just before practice, so I decided not to run Rio on the wet grass and wet contacts.  From there we got our first trip to the ``Oil Can`` and got to set up in our crating area.  We had to wait several hours for Lori to finish up at the Team Leader meeting, but were entertained by Susan`s ipod which she hooked up to the buses sound system and played some rockin` Canadian music.



Our ferry boat & Carol hanging out on the top deck as we head out of the Lindau harbour.



The gang getting the scoop on a 1000 year old church from our British tour guide.



Rapunzel's hair hanging from the Lindau jail tower.


Justine finally getting her strudel (yes, she skipped the main course!)


Proof that I actually am in Austria....


Since we were so late getting in tonight, dinner ended up being left over cheese factory cheese and 'girly' beer and now Susan and I are sitting in the front lobby having a real beer and using the wireless (since our room appears to be in a wireless free zone!).



A few extra photos from yesterday that never got posted.....


Some fun photos from Schnapps sampling yesterday.  Not sure Linda really enjoyed it....

 
Looks as though Adrian might have enjoyed the Schnapps however!
 

The brown blob was some 'cheese-chocolate' that we sampled.  I don't think anyone really enjoyed it.  Maybe the look of it should have given us a hint....

    

I just added photos and a quick video to yesterday's entry.  Sorry for those of you who already read it

Right now I'm being anti-social and writing this from the breakfast table as the internet connection in our room doesn't work very well(but it does in the breakfast room!)

Today we are taking a steamboat to Germany and then we will have our final outdoor practice.  After that we will go to the trial site.  I will have to get photos—its a very unique looking building!

Rio is going to spend today hanging with Susan & Encore like she did yesterday and hopefully she'll be raring to go at practice time!

We started off Monday morning with an excellent Austrian breakfast at our hotel and then walked to the old part of Feldkirch for a guided walking tour.  Feldkirch is a fairly small town (it can’t really grow bigger because its squished between mountains) dating back to medieval times.  I don’t think any of the old walls are standing, but the castle is still in good shape. 

The Shattenburg Castle in town


The view of Feldkirch from the castle

Medieval toilet....   They used to put a wheelbarrow under the shoot to collect the 'droppings'.  (Not sure why Lori's dad is standing under there....)

Susan, Adrian & Deryl arrived at the hotel before 9am, having landed in Zurich shortly before 7am.

We had our team photo taken at the hotel.  Rio loves photos


In the afternoon, we were hosted by a local agility club who let us use their equipment to have a practice and then hosted a traditional Wienerschnizel dinner right at the agility field complete with live music.

The parking lot was is in Austria and the field in Switzerland!


We had dinner in the clubhouse behind which was complete with heavily stocked bar

Today our bus picked us up and drove us up and over the mountains to a small town that was celebrating the return of the cows from the mountain pastures.  It was pretty entertaining seeing all the cows running through town decorated in cedar branches and carrying GIANT bells.  Apparently the better the milk producer, the bigger the cows bell!

All the people bringing the cows down wear rosemary in their hats.

Apparently this gal was a great producer!

Lunch was had at a cheese factory….  A lunch of cheese soup & cheese schnitzel followed by cheese making and cheese & schnapps tasting was served while a cheese maker demonstrated how to make (and remove flies) from cheeese.
Watching the cheese solidify



The sampling of cheese and complimentary fruit bread (how they preserve fruits in the winter)  Adrian declares that the upper left cheese was full of fly legs....

Our drive home through the Mountains was just phenominal.  The sun was shining brightly and the scenery gorgeous.  The road, which by Canadian standards should have been a narrow one way street, was a two way 70km/h super winding road with a cliff on one side and mainly a stone wall on the other.  More than one oncoming vehicle had to back up when our bus came charging through!

**I have tons more photos, but unfortunately this wireless connection is pretty sad.  I'll have to try again tomorrow*** 

This is the first herd of cows that came into town.  For quite a while we followed them into the valley on the bus until they let us pass!  
  

I arrived at the Ottawa airport with plenty of time but still had the few moments of panic as the check in lady starts reading my file and then declares there’s no dog listed…  “Keep reading please!”  (she did eventually find a note somewhere way down my file that said Rio was cleared to accompany me).   I do have to say however, that compared to the bigger airports, the Ottawa one is soooooo nice.  For the first time ever, they told me that I didn’t need to be here this early and go and take Rio for a walk and come back in 20 minutes.  (All very nice, but try walking a dog and a crate at the same time.  Apparently security doesn’t take kindly to abandoned crates kicking around the airport!)

Rio spent a good ½ hour doing PR in the airport and getting belly rubs.  I did get lectured by an Air Canada check-in guy that I shouldn’t have drugged my dog as Rio lounged up-side-down on the airport floor.  I don’t think he believed me that she wasn’t drugged.

I ran into my old University housemate, Brian Legros, at the airport.  I haven’t seen him in ten years!  He too was on the flight to Frankfurt but was carrying on to Vienna after that.  I tried, but I don’t think I had him and his new wife quite convinced that they should be headed to Dornbirn next weekend to cheer us on!  LOL

The flight to Frankfurt was uneventful and I managed to get in a nap AND three movies!   Luckily, I didn’t get the earlier connecting flight to Zurich, as Frankfurt airport was very zoo-ish this morning and I don’t think Rio or I would have made our connection.  I definitely got my morning exercise in after walking/jogging half way across Frankfurt!    I guess the crew from Calgary were on the earlier flight and had to hustle really hard to make their connection.


I just missed getting the picture of Rio being lifted into the hold.  You can see a tiny bit of the cargo guy's vest at the rear of the plane.

I was the last to arrive this morning in Zurich.  Lucie & Maureen were on the first flight in from Montreal, followed by Jessica, & Cathy from Toronto and Seanna, Kiersten, Suzanne, Justine, Teri & Christine from Calgary.  From the airport, we were picked up by coach bus and driven about an hour to our hotel in Feldkirch, Austria.  Adrian & Susan will be arriving from Montreal tomorrow.

Our rooms really remind me of university dorm rooms.  Should be a cosy time here.


One tired pup!

For all of you who kept asking how long the trip was going to be, I finally tabulated it:

Rio was in her crate 1 hour before the flight left Ottawa.
7 hours on board from Ottawa to Frankfurt
2 hours on the ground in Frankfurt
1 hour to Zurich.

I guess that makes 11 hours in the crate for Rio.  Needless to say that she was happy to get out!  I’ve decided that flying with your dog isn’t for the faint of heart.  I'm sure she was in good hands but.... 

Anyway, we are unpacked in our hotel room, Rio is still looking great from her ‘Pooch Parlour’ groom and we are ready to rock!  Okay, maybe we’ll have a nap first and then get on with Rocking!

 
The "Dorm Room" (My roomate arrives tomorrow)

I was down at Say Yes on the weekend for Skills Camp (skills for Chill that is—I wasn't trying to pick up last minute skill training for Rio!) and a little bit of work with Rio on Susan's carpet (we will be running on carpet in Austria) and I had Susan make the draw for my Dream of a Lifetime Raffle.  As I was looking through the bin of names prior, there were so many names in there that I desperately wanted to win!  Thanks so very, very much to all of you who bought raffle tickets.  I wished I could have given out more grand prizes!!

Our Grand Prize winner of the 58 agility trial runs went to Shona Thirsk of Orleans.  Shona has been a tremendous supporter of this year's CAT team.  She has helped with so much fundraising and single handedly created and 'operated' the very successful Canadian Flag ID tag sales so I think its wonderful that her name was picked from the bin.

Our winner of the private lessons with Christine Boisvert, Janet Lundy and myself went to Jennifer Laird of Harrowsmith, Ontario.  Congratulations Jennifer!  You did say you wanted those lessons

Our winner of the Zig Zag weave poles, donated by Dream Fields, went to Ann Swanwick.  Hope Quincy enjoys his new poles!

Around here I'm scrambling a bit to get everything organized for our trip but am not panicked yet!  My CAT team uniform and a new Back on Track jacket arrived in the mail yesterday.  It was just like Christmas!  I did get a laugh at the red, white & blue stars & stripes Lupine team leash that was in the package, but then read the name of the pattern and it is called 'Superstar' which is very fitting.  Rio likes being a Superstar