Yes! I am still alive! I apologize for the lack of blogging. Internet service here is a little on the frustrating side!

Competition is now over and I have a few minutes to do some catch up(okay, its actually 5am English time and I can't sleep!).

I think last update was from Thursday. So much has happened since then! On Thursday night, we enjoyed the “Gala” dinner at the venue although the Canadian team left before dessert so that we could be back at the hotel before 10:30 in order to prepare for the next day. The short speeches at the gala were entertaining, especially when we kept being re-told that this event “wasn’t about the dog but about the human athlete”! Ha ha ha J


The Dutch Team won the award for best dressed!  Not really sure how Tulip-Head got herself into the pic....

Competition began early on Friday morning after the opening ceremonies. Our two Canadian Teams were named: Canada 1 consisted of two Maxi dogs, Rio & Feature, and one Mini dog, Ping Pong. Canada 2 was made up of one Midi dog, Recess, and two Toy dogs, Blitz & Minnie. The team jumpers course was the first event and it proved to be a challenging one that ate up most of the competition with off courses!!! It will definitely be a course that I will have to set up again some time. Only the two Russian teams made it through with no eliminations and after the event, Canada 1, even though we had one ‘E’, was still in third with Canada 2, not too far behind.


Team Canada "mustering" for the Opening ceremonies

The next event was the all-round Snooker event or “Individual” Snooker. Rio and I had a great plan and were ready to rock the course, but it wasn’t to be L We never even made it to the second red! Thankfully the course was kinder to many of the other Canadians and Chris & Susan made the podium. Having a not-so-great Snooker run, really rattled me but we got focused again for the all-round/Individual Standard. Rio had a beautiful run, but was called for a dog walk contact. I can’t ever remember her missing a dog walk contact! Guess I’ve been getting a little too relaxed on those L




Feature's victory lap with Encore for finishing first in the Individual Standard.  Gotta love the disco lights!  (I have yet to figure out why a horse arena had such elaborate dance lighting!!)


Kim & Nina hanging out in front of one of three crating stalls.  It was a bit chilly most mornings.  I believe the dogs were actually sort of happy to have their Back on Track coats!

Saturday began with Biathalon Jumpers. Once again it was a pretty technical course, but Rio and I made it through nicely with a clean round. All-round Gamblers was next and I figured I had a good course and could make a good run for the podium, but once again, Miss Rio-I-Can-Do-No-Wrong & I had another setback when on the approach to the final gamble, I pulled back and caused her to run by the first jump of the gamble. Grrr.   Team Standard was next and my teammates went before me and ran two flawless runs. It was a pretty straightforward course but Rio knocked a bar. When we came back to that spot on the second loop around, I didn’t adjust my handling for the ground bar and she turned waaaaay too tight and took an off course chute. AAAAAAGGGGHHHH. My first ‘E’ at Worlds L At least they don’t do the courtesy clap like they do at FCI. Despite that, the Canada 1 team only fell to 4^th place, but were quite a bit behind Canada 2, who had three clean runs, and moved up to third place! J

Saturday night, after the awards ceremony for Lucie & Nitro’s Gamble medal, I went out to dinner with my friend Anne, who came from London for the weekend. Anne is one of my oldest friends and one of my greatest World even supporters, having come to cheer me on in both Belgium and Finland despite not really being an agility enthusiast!


Anne hanging out in front of her trailer at the Vacation Park

Sunday morning had me in a totally different headspace then I’d ever been in before. I was having a hard time walking courses and trusting my handling and my dog. I have never been in the position of having bad runs at a big event (I know, I know. Poor me.) and I knew I needed to get over it and move on. I had to tell myself that I could get through the courses and that we did deserve to be here.

All of Sunday’s events had us running in placement order, so the whole day was fully of excitement as you got close to the last dogs in each height category.

The day began with yet another jumpers course—all round/individual. As the previous mornings, the jumpers course was very kind to us. Rio had a very fun run and I was thrilled to find out that we’d earned ourselves a Bronze medal! Jumpers has never been our strong class. Yes, we can get around a course easily, but usually we are a bit behind in the power department. Perhaps all of Rio’s winter core & leg strength exercises paid off?? I’m embarrassed to say that I had pretty much written off the thought of getting onto the podium after the events from the day before, so that made the run extra sweet! 

Fellow red dog owner Kim also had a beautiful Jumpers run and earned herself her first Worlds medal with a second place finish!

Three dog team relay was next and Canada 1 and Canada 2 were running back to back. We had been practicing our baton exchanges in the warm up area because the relay called for a reverse baton exchange. As Kayl took the hand-off of the baton from me in the warm up, she excitedly yelled “GO!!!!!!” We decided that *may* send Rio blasting off onto the course so we told her she had to come up with something else. Susan & Feature were to run first and then accept the baton from Kayl before she took off on course. At the handoff, instead of a “go” or “ok”, Susan accepted the baton with a “Spank it!”. Of course on the next exchange, Kayl, who may have been a little excited, took the hand off with a very loud “SPANK IT!”, which had the whole audience roaring (the venue is so small that you can hear every noise and every comment made on the field).


View from the top row of seating.  As you can see, spectators are VERY close!

All three teams after us (Canada 2 and the two Russian teams) had beautiful team runs, which earned Canada 2 a spot on the podium! Canada 1 finished just off the podium in 4^th place.

The final event of the competition was the second part of the Biathlon completion—a standard round. Once again, the course ate up a lot of the competitors. Rio was in the ring early, so I had no idea how others were fairing. Rio flew around the course (with me making sure she hit the yellow’s this time!) and I sprinted to catch up. It was definitely a runners course and we all know how I like to run! LOL We had a clean round that left us on a high again and a great feeling of being a team. Our efforts in the combined Jumpers/Standard earned us a SILVER in Biathalon!!!

The closing ceremonies had a few Canadians on the podium (Lucie & Nitro, Kayl & Ping, Kim & Recess, Ken & Blitz, Marie Pierre & Minnie and myself and Ri) but mainly we all learned to hum along to the Russian National anthem (those Russians are agility machines!!!)

It was a late night at the hotel and then back to the room to pack for a potential departure. 4:15 am we found out that our flight was cancelled due to ash, so we all went gladly back to bed. We will stay at the hotel until the ash clears. Right now the BBC says it should be tomorrow and as of 4am this morning, we are booked on a Tuesday flight. The dogs have yet to be confirmed but I’m sure they will once the cargo office opens!

Today, I’m going to go for a big English breakfast finally going to take a really, really long walk and not worry about any time schedules!

　
Sharing course maps.  Each country is only given three course maps for all twelve handlers!