Rio & Tiffany's IFCS Worlds Adventure

Yea! Internet Connection!

2010-05-19T18:38:00Z

Yea! I'm back on line! After my last blog post, I wasn't able to connect my computer to the internet until now

Thanks to the volcanic ash, we were given one last day in Somerset to enjoy the sunshine and relax a bit. We took Cypher, Recess and Rio down to the inlet and let them have a romp along the coast. We wandered through a pasture of cows and a huge flock of sheep on the road. Cypher helped out at one point sending a lost baby back to the flock....

In the afternoon, Shona organized a mini bus to take us to the town of Cheddar. Most of the gang went and toured the caves and museums, but since I was feeling a bit cheap, I opted to stay out in the sunshine and do a walking tour of the town with Kim. We enjoyed a huge block of cheese and a couple of mini baguettes for lunch and then headed up the very narrow road through the gorge in search of a walking path. Walking along the narrow road with cars wizzing by honestly wasn't for the faint of heart! We eventually found the path that would lead us up to the top of the cliffs. With each passing rendition of the story, Kim increases the number of stairs that we climbed, but it was A LOT! Our legs had already taken a beating from the sprint courses the day before, so by the time we made it back down, we had a bad case of jelly legs The views were definitely worth it and the beer & cider at the bottom tasted even better!

A few sheep on the road

Cypher, Rio & Recess on our morning walk

A self portrait of myself & Kim resting at the top of the cliffs. What a fantastic view!

Dinner was once again at our favourite pub, the Huntspill Arms where they were starting to treat us like the locals.

Tuesday, the ash had cleared and our flight was confirmed, so after a quick breakfast of toast we headed to the airport. We arrived a bit late due to traffic, but still managed to get the dogs checked in at cargo. The check in at the airport was painless and I managed to squeeze in three in-flight movies. Kim's husband John picked us up and we eventually found the Air Canada cargo bay (how can such a big building hide?). We were told that our dogs had arrived, but couldn't be released until Ag Can and Customs paperwork had been signed and yet ANOTHER bill paid. Two hours later, all paperwork was done and we were ushered into the cargo area to pick up our dogs, but where were the dogs???? The folks in the cargo area were a little confused as to where to find the dogs and when we finally found someone who knew where they were, we were told that we'd get them in half an hour! By this point, the poor pups had been crated for 14.5 hours and their humans were pretty darn crabby. Tracy had a little 'chat' with a manager and suddenly our dogs appeared Rio hopped out of the crate, wagging her tail and very happy to relieve herself. Her crate was really wet, but I think it was due to the fact that they had kept trying to give her water through the bars of her crate. Just after 9pm (almost 4 hours after we had landed), we were on the road to Ancaster to pick up my car at Kim's place.

Bed at Aunt Nancy's house in Burlington had never felt so good.... An easy drive home in the gorgeous sunshine and now I'm very eager to go and pick Kyra up from school, see Dave and see Pipe & Rio (who I'm assuming are hanging out with Dick at the farm, since they didn't greet me at the door! I'm really hoping that they didn't run away!).

What a FABULOUS adventure with a FABULOUS group of people! Tracy and Nina did a great job of getting us where we needed to be and the rest of the gang made the trip extremely fun. I don't think I'll be taking a dog back to the UK anytime soon, but that may change when I'm not so sleep deprived

Thanks to everyone for your blog & facebook comments and your emails. Hopefully tonight I'll finally have a chance to read them!

Watch out for sheep crushed by rocks?

A Bad Blogger

2010-05-17T08:41:00Z

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!

A Trip to Bath

2010-05-13T14:51:00Z

Sorry for the lack of postings... It seems that the wireless connection is rather fickle!! All day yesterday and this morning, the connection would only allow MACs! I didn't think I'd be able to blog from my i-touch.... The lack of internet connection has also limited my uploading of photos. I apologize! I will try and add some later.... It is rather funny that the wireless is only available in the hotel's pub. Sadly, I'm not blogging with a beer right now, but I did manage to get some cash, so there's no excuses now!

Yesterday morning, Deb & Marti McCann invited Kim and I to join them and Kayl on a trip to see the Roman Baths in Bath. Driving on the wrong side of the road in a big bus isn't quite as entertaining as driving with a Canadian driver in a car on the wrong side of the road! We also had to pull Kayl back in the car while on the narrow streets of Bath when she leaned her head out to take a photo. The cars pass REALLY closely and we really didn't want to have a headless handler running Ping Pong tomorrow! We had a turbo quick visit to the Baths and then had to head back quickly to our hotel ("quickly" included a quick trip the wrong way down a one way street. Suprisingly enough, no one honked or acted surprised--they just sped by us without slowing!).

Kayl & Kim happy to have arrived safely in Bath happy to have found a parking spot

Kim (& smiling mystery lady in red) outside the Roman Bath museum

Our new little friend at the Roman Baths

We headed to the venue for a quick walk-around and then we had a one hour team practice that was a bit of controlled chaos The dogs were all higher than kites and Rio was actually almost out of control, jumping long and barking her brains out! Quite amusing, but not really all that useful when you are trying to practice in a tight time frame. I reigned her in a bit and we ended with a good Standard course. The only obstacle she appears to be having issues with is the slatted dog walk--we aren't getting close to 2on 2off position, but hopefully she'll drive a bit more during the competition. Actually she had a few issues when the double was accidentally set to 40" wide! She thought it was some weird form of jump grid! LOL She did much better when it got set at the right width of 16"!

Our crating is in horse stalls! At least they are spacious with 4 dogs per stall, but they are a little cold and there's a serious lack of seating. At least they are clean! I will get some pictures.

Last night ended with a team dinner and some more Manager's Awards. Prizes were given to the dogs that finished in 2nd to 5th positions (Rio came home with a set of London shot glasses!) in the standard run at practice and the winner would carry the flag in at the opening ceremonies tomorrow morning. The honor of being the flag bearer went to Kayl and Ping Its so very fitting since this is Ping's last World Championships and she's been a member on every single Canadian team previously.

Dinner was at our 'favourite' pub in town. Nina read all the supporters comments from the aac world team blog

After another full English breakfast this morning (sad that it will probably be the last one as the breakfast room doesn't open very early), we headed back to the venue. Vet check went smoothly although the vet did say he was having a hard time finding Rio's heart (?!?) and all the dogs easily measured into their right height categories. Yea!! With that all behind us, we had a very efficient 1/2 team practice (the 26" dogs had a total of 6 minutes on the floor) and went on to get some fun photos taken by the event photographer.

The venue is quite nice although small and there's a serious lack of loo's and (I love this) "Porta-Loo's". I don't think I'll be drinking much! LOL There is very little seating in the bleachers, but plenty of viewing room from the bar and restaurant (go figure!!!). The competition floor seems to be a mixture of dirt and very fine sawdust. It is easy to run on and the dogs seem to dig in quite well. Not sure cleats are required, but I will probably wear them anyway.

We are now back at the hotel for a quiet afternoon before we head back to the venue for the "Gala" dinner. I guess I should get this posted before I run out of batteries yet again!

Thanks for all your comments! I love hearing from you guys

Comments!

2010-05-12T06:26:00Z

Thanks to Kim & Fiona, the comment section is back!

Lost at the Corner of Hen Road and Duck Lane

2010-05-12T06:22:00Z

I have to admit, yesterday I was whining that no one had posted any comments on my blog. Kim then informed me that my comment section had been turned off! WHOOPS! You are all forgiven now! LOL

Tuesday in Huntspill began with figuring out how to get more water pressure in my shower. We are all having fun trying to figure out the different technology…. In my shower I have a point of source water heater, but not only do you have to turn it on in the shower, there’s a string hanging outside the shower that you have to pull as well. I have to say, I love the one string that you pull that activates a bathroom heater! Outside the bathroom there’s another strange string hanging from the ceiling--that one turns on the bathroom light. All the power outlets in the walls also have switches. You have to plug in and then flip the switch (which of course I keep forgetting!). My overhead light has gone out and I’m almost too embarrassed to blame a burnt bulb. I’m sure I’ve hit a wrong combo of switches somewhere!!!!

Our hotel features a hot English Breakfast. When I came into the dining room, the lady asked if I would like Fried Eggs with sausage, bacon, ham, fried toast, beans, mushrooms and tomatoes or poached eggs. I thought it was a little strange that it was an “or” meal--guess one is healthy and one not so much? I couldn’t handle the thought of so much meat and fried toast, so I opted for the poached eggs…. Today I may get braver!

After breakfast, Kim, Recess, Rio and I took a long walk along the public paths by our hotel. Its so great to have these here for us to go out and stretch our legs! Recess did her best to get Rio to play with her, but Rio just didn’t get it. Poor Recess.

After lunch we headed to a local agility club for some practice time. On our way there we got lost and the bus ended up following the McCann’s rented car (yes, having a bus following a Canadian driver who’s on the wrong side of the road was a little adventuresome) and at one point we got a little lost on a cute little country road where every house had its own name instead of street number. In the bus I overheard Tracy calling for directions and saying that we were at the corner of “Hen” road and Duck Lane (which I thought was totally appropriate and very funny because we’d past lots of homes with wandering ducks and chickens.) Turns out it was something like Kenn Road not Hen Road, but I like the other name better J Our hosts at the field greeted us with coffee, juice, pop and plenty of biscuits. I think I could be very large if I lived here between the breakfast (where else is fried bread on a menu??), the biscuits in my room and of course the beer. Practice ended with a Manager’s Challenge where Tracy & Nina offered a drink a day for the rest of the trip for anyone who ran the course clean and their supporters. I finally cracked under the pressure and earned myself a refusal on jump #4. Agh! It also could have been that I had just given Rio a cool down massage. Whoops. Guess I really needed Carol Smorch and her 220 volt energy work (Speaking of Carol, she arrived just before dinner. Totally off topic, but a huge congrats to her husband Terry and their dog Presto on earning a FCI spot at the AKC tryouts on the weekend!!!)

Dinner was organized by the agility group that hosted us. We had a very, very yummy dinner in the Gate House of an old castle. It was a great relaxing evening! Today things get slightly more ‘serious’. We have an hour practice at the facility mid-afternoon a team dinner and then hopefully an early to bed night!

This morning, I’m hoping to get in another good walk and hopefully find a bank machine. I still can’t seem to get cash with my interac card and buying cheap beer with my credit card seems wrong!

Planes, Trains & Buses (and very little sleep!)

2010-05-11T09:03:00Z

We have arrived and all is fantastic! I'm feeling rested and ready to go.

Yesterday, was one of those days that lasted forever... Oh wait! I think it did last forever! Kim just calculated that we were awake for 35 hours. Yikes!

Sunday started with another practice at McCann's and I did my best to wear Rio out before the plane ride. It was then onto the airport where we hunted down Air Canada Cargo. Who knew they could hide a big cargo bay so well! The dogs & crates were all weighed on huge cargo scales and then all the crates were fastened securely to a cargo pallet so all the pups could travel together. When we got our bills for the dogs, we did have a good laugh, because it was as though they had a random number generator for calculating the costs! Rio & her new crate cost $300 more than Encore & Feature in their identical crates even though they all apparently weighed the same amount.

Don't worry, the girls didn't ride this way to England! (l-r Recess, Rio, Encore & Feature)

Everything else went very smoothly and the airplane ride seemed very quick with lots of good friends to chat with (it also helped that the wine was very plentiful). I made it though a grand total of 5 minutes of a movie.... So much for catching up on my movie watching!!

After 10 hours of the dogs being in crates, we finally landed at Heathrow. We had a bonus hour in the air as our plane had to be rerouted over Greenland to avoid the ash cloud. It was really cool because you could see Greenland really well.

Pallet of dogs being un-wrapped at Heathrow

Once at the airport, the waiting for news from "Animal Reception" (aka quarentine) began. We sat for several hours in the terminal eating a big English breakfast and then got restless so as a group, we decided to go on an adventure to find the animal recpetion on our own. All 20 of us, all will lots of luggage, travelled by train, bus and foot and managed to find our team bus just outside the quarentine building. Another couple of hours of sleeping on comfy couches there and our dogs were happily cleared. In total, it took close to 6 hours for the dogs to be cleared.

Our group making sure we didn't lose anyone in the mazes under Heathrow's Terminals

One exhausted Rio.... Poor girl had very red rimmed eyes but is now fully recovered

Recess & Rio on the bus and ready for a long nap.

We then had a two hour bus ride to our hotel where we all checked in and then quickly headed to a local pub for beer and good English food Even Rio, Recess, Cypher and Setna had dinner with us (the waiter brought them a big bowl of water which Rio figured she should drain and not share).

Outside the pub (don't know why I didn't take photos IN the pub....)

Our hotel has a great open path that seems to go forever and both Rio and Recess have already had several long off leash romps.

We are taking it easy this morning before heading out for a little practice at a local facility.

I'm a little behind on the photos I will try to add them in shortly. Check out the www.aacwt.com blog for a better account of our day yesterday and some photos (Nina borrowed my memory card, so there are quite a few of Rio).

Team Practice Saturday

2010-05-09T01:31:00Z

Many thanks to John Cullen who 'healed' my internet connection. I have no idea how he did it (I don't think he knows either!)

Today was team practice at the McCann's indoor facility. I'm SO thankful that it was an indoor practice! What crazy weather!!! Last night was a huge lightning storm and today the wind was unbelieveable!! We watched the big metal shed across the road from McCann's blow over and then even roll!

As I loaded my crate this morning, John B. casually told me that Rio's crate would be declared too small at the airport. Apparently the folks in the UK are huge sticklers regarding crate size and that she would never be allowed to fly in her crate that she'd previously flown to Europe in twice! We decided that a trip to Ren's Depot later in the day would be required...

The day started with a team meeting and we had a question and answer period regarding our trip and some competition rules. That was followed by a visit from the Sasha's Blend folks who brought us all really cool personalized crate ID plates and some Sasha's water bottles. We then got the jitters out with a jumpers course. Unfortunately Rio & I missed the next course, Snooker (OOOOPPPPS!) because we took a trip to the pet store in Guelph, but were back in time to run a Standard course and then have lunch.

I really wish that we'd had a bit more time to shop at Ren's. What a fun store! Anyway, Rio is now the proud new owner of a larger crate and of course the new crate required a new crate mat.....

After lunch, it was time to distribute the team uniforms and then we were back in the barn to do some small drills. We had brought over Susan G's wall & broad jump and everyone got a bit of experience with both of those.

We headed back to Say Yes for team photos and then a team dinner of Indian/Chinese/Thai (don't worry, Susan didn't cook, but she and John are fabulous hosts!!!)

I'm now off to re-decorate Rio's crate with Canada flags and re-sort my suitcases yet again.

Tomorrow is another short practice at McCann's and then we have to head to the Cargo area at the airport. The UK rules state that the dogs MUST be checked in no more than 48 hours after their tick/flea/worm treatment, so that means that the first dogs can't be checked in any later than 3:30 or else they won't be allowed on. At least me being late for Rio's vet appointment gives me until at least 5:30pm!

Send all your good vibes for smooth travelling tomorrow! We need all of the dogs to make it safely to the UK and be able to stay there!!

The Trip Has Begun!

2010-05-09T01:29:00Z

I had a successful Mother’s Day Tea at Kyra’s school and managed to hit the road straight from there. I had smooth sailing the whole way, but decided to play it safe and take the 407 across Toronto. Well, that was a mistake L I ended up sitting for about 45 minutes in construction traffic. I HATE paying to sit in traffic!! I ended up being a bit late for the vet check, but they still took me anyway. Rio got her required tick/flea/worm/health check and her final paperwork signed.

We had an informal team dinner and then headed over to Susan & John’s place. They graciously opened their home to any out-of-town guests. We had a fantastic thunderstorm all night, but Rio and I slept really well.

I’m about to head out to our day of team meetings/ practice at McCann’s. Rio is rarin’ to go and looking fabulous thanks to her absolute favourite groomers at Pam’s Pooch Parlour!! (Okay, she now has a greasy spot on her back from where the vet applied Avantix to her, but the rest of her looks great!).

I’m having internet connection problems right now, but hopefully will be able to send this at some point today…..

A Fourth Trip Across the Atlantic

2010-05-02T18:30:00Z

This is the fourth time I'll have flown a dog across the Atlantic for a World Championships and the fourth time this blog has come to life! Crazy! I can't believe how fortunate I am to have all these great experiences.

Around this time next week, we'll be heading to the airport. I can't wait!

On Friday (after celebrating a Mother's Day Tea at Kyra's school), Rio and I will be driving (quickly!) to Dundas where we will be getting our last vet check at 5pm (I'm praying not to hit traffic in Toronto!). The rules are so strict for the UK, that the timing has to be almost exact for the vet check. We have been checking, double checking and then checking our paperwork again. Just ask the poor staff at Rideau--how many times can I be in asking for my paperwork to be modified again....? After the vet check, we will be having an informal team dinner. All day Saturday we will be having a team practice at the McCann's indoor facility. The competition in the UK will be held on dirt--hopefully similar to the McCann's floor. Sunday morning will also be more practice time and hopefully it'll tire Rio out a bit before the big flight.

Once again, I can't stress enough how supportive you have all been! Thanks to all of you who let me pester you to buy raffle tickets, more raffle tickets and t-shirts and to all of you who came to Kim & my seminars. Thanks again to Nathalie Lafleur for the work on her fundraising e-book and to Shona Thirsk for her really cool Christmas wreath photos and ID tag sales. A big thank you to all the wonderful sponsors who made my two fundraising raffle tables a huge success. You are all beyond fabulous!!

For more info on the event, click on the banner below.

Also, please check out the new Canadian World Team Blog at: www.aacwt.com

One Last Day in Europe

2009-09-21T18:08:00Z

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!

Day Three of Competition

2009-09-21T04:53:00Z

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.

Day Two

2009-09-19T20:27:00Z

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!

Day One of Competition

2009-09-19T04:35:00Z

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….

Vet Check & Team Practice

2009-09-17T13:05:00Z

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!!!!!

A Lot of Time Spent on Boats and Buses

2009-09-16T19:22:00Z

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....

Photos added

2009-09-16T06:03:00Z

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!

A Trip to Town & the Running of the Cows

2009-09-15T17:22:00Z

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!

Ahhhh.... Airports. What Fun!

2009-09-13T13:19:00Z

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)

The Winners Are...

2009-09-09T13:55:00Z

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

Fourteen Days!

2009-08-30T00:17:00Z

Yes, I said I wasn't counting down, but I lied! In two weeks from tonight, we will be sitting on our plane to Frankfurt! Yea!

Today we finished up our last trial before Worlds. We had two great days at the Stormont, Dundas & Glengarry CKC trials. Rio was very full of herself, barking through most of the courses (!?!), but ran them really well save the last course of the day, where I think she *may* have lost her brain! Hopefully she got that out of her system! I really want to thank all of the wonderful folks there that supported the CAT team by purchasing raffle tickets and t-shirts from me today. You are all wonderful! Even more so, thanks for your good wishes and and kind words!! We will aim to do you proud.

I do have to admit, I'm very happy that the fundraising will be coming to a close. I think people may start to avoid me shortly if I come at them with any more raffle tickets! That said, the Agility Enthusiast's Dream of a Lifetime draw is quickly approaching. Don't forget to get your tickets in for a chance to win a whole season (if not more) of agility runs from all the very generous clubs in Eastern Ontario & Western Quebec, private lessons or a set of weave poles! (Yes, I know, another shameless plug. Those of you on Facebook have seen many already!!). I also have a few t-shirts left -- ladies medium & large in white and ladies xl & unisex medium in black

Training this week will be focusing on some of the more European elements rather than full courses. We need to brush up on our push throughs and the broad jump from any angle possible. Next week we'll focus more on long walks and a few skills and less on 'real' agility. Next Friday is a trip to Pam's Pooch Parlour where we hopefully will lose some of Rio's summer highlights..?

This week will also involve getting the household prepared for my absence! Dave will be in charge of getting Kyra to and from school, dealing with lunches and taking her to dance lessons--this may require a few lists and reminders on my behalf Thankfully Chill will be going to hang out with Liane and Zephyr for the week, so that should be one less worry. I'm not worried about Piper, she will bark if someone just happens to try to leave her outside all night.....

I really can't say thank you enough to my wonderful friends and my very supportive family. Thanks for your time, your encouragement, your words of wisdom and your financial assistance. You guys are fabulous and I really couldn't be doing any of this without you!