I'm finally back in the room after a very long day and have just had a quick read of all your wonderful comments on the blog.  I was really just wanting to climb in bed, but now I'm energized (okay that might be a bit of a strong word) from all your comments that gave me a great smile.

Today was a lot of fun.  The Large version of Team Canada ran really early in the running order this morning, so I hadn't had a chance to watch a single team in the ring prior to us going in.  Spirit led the way with a great run while I tried to contain Miss Rio in the holding area.  There are 3 holding areas and you move forward with your team as you get closer to run.  Needless to say, the dogs are in full view of the ring and there's no food or playing in the waiting area.  They even have video cameras to monitor!!!  After watching 10 dogs before her run, Rio was pretty much foaming at the mouth.

The jumpers course wasn't terribly technical, but had some interesting portions and of course with the large dogs, anytime there's jumps to be knocked down, it's always challenging   I led out a couple of jumps and Rio had a bit of a slow approach to the weaves at #3.  I'm not sure if it was her being nervous or me or a combo of both of us.  I sure didn't feel very nervous for some reason—maybe I'm just to naiive?  After the weaves, Rio & I both picked it up and had a great run.  I need to learn however that the chute is a lot faster since its shorter.  Call my dog!! 



Rio's Jumpers Run

Course Time for the jumpers course was very, very, very fast.  Of the 40ish teams of 3 dogs, only two dogs made it without time faults!  Marcus Topps and Juice had a phenominal run (you can see it at:  http://fciagility2008.cleanrun.com/)


Spirit & Lynda also made a whole bunch of new fans with their jumpers run.



Unfortunately, Encore was a little bit Sky-High with all the clapping and cheering and had a few faults on course.

Our medium team all had FANTASTIC runs on a Jumpers course that I was very, very thankful not to have been running!  Most teams had at least one elimination, if not the whole team!  A seemingly innocent weave entry caused about 70% of the competitors a refusal.  Our three Medium dogs, ran the course beautifully.  Unfortunately Suzanne and Flip had an off course on the second last jump of a perfect jumpers round, but we all know—that's agility!  Sometimes the agility Gods shine on you and other times, well, you know



Nitro & Lucie's Team Jumpers Round - Second Fastest Time Overall - What a Run!!!!



Stevie Ray & Richard—Making it look easy!

The last run of the day was the Large Dog Agility (Standard).  It was run in reverse order of how our team had finished in the Jumpers round (we were in 14th after Jumpers with 25 course faults and around 10 time faults).  As usual, our trio of red dogs were bouncing off the walls before they hit the ring and the crowd was a little livelier.  Spirit lead the team off with a beautiful & clean run and even the announcer was commenting on Spirit's contacts   Rio, after not responding to my first two attempts to release her from the start line, started off flying and barking!  It's not normal for Rio to bark her way around the course—if she's really high, she'll give me a few woofs at the end of a course.  When she started off this way (maybe I should have been warned by the weird howling she was doing in the holding area???), I knew I was in a bit of trouble, so I just ran and ran fast   We had a clean run—okay there was a bit of a loud call off near the end—and under time.  It took a good 20-30 seconds to get Rio off her little cloud of hyperness?  happiness? as she ran around like a crazed animal in the exit area, woofing at me.  Guess she had fun?  Encore had a warp-speed run and finished the course with one of the fastest times, but unfortunately got called on an A-frame contact. 

After the dogs were cooled, we had the chance to watch the last few teams duke it out for top placements.  What a competition!  In the end, the Brazilians took the title with their all red team of BC's (there aren't many red BCs here btw).  Our team got moved up to 8th place overall   Apparently this is the best showing of a Canadian Large Team.  The next closest was a 10th place finish in 2003.

As usual, I have plenty more to add, but its getting late and my roomates, Theresa & Phoenix, have their first runs tomorrow.  It's time to close our window the the drunken Finns at the pubs outside our window (we were told that Finns are quiet by nature—guess this doesn't apply for Finns under the influence?)  and hit the hay

Thanks again to all of you who wore red today—it did bring us good luck! 

If anyone is looking for more FCI updates, check out the front page of the CAT website (www.canadianagilityteam.com), there are all the links to the various info and video pages. 

Go Canada Go!

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