Rio & Tiffany's World Agility Adventures

IFCS 2012 - Here We Come!

TNT Border Collies — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:01:22 GMT

Rio and I have the chance to represent Canada for a 5th time and I think we are just as excited as the very first time!

On May 11, 12 & 13, we will be competing at the IFCS World Agility Championships in Fort Worth, Texas. Canada is fielding an outstanding team of dogs and handlers, so we have high hopes for the podium!

This will most likely be Rio's final trip to a World Championship, so we plan to train hard, compete hard and enjoy every single minute of it!

Currently we are in the process of training hard and fundraising. So far we've hosted a Raffle Table, Nail Trim and Toy Sale at the Absolute Agility Trial in Spencerville on February 4th & 5th. A HUGE thank you to everyone who contributed.

Also in the works:
A "Gently Used Dog Item" sale (March 3 & 4th at the Spencerville AARF trial),
A "Spectacular Raffle Table" and Nail Trims (March 31st & April 1st ath the Spencerville AARF trial),
And we have tentatively scheduled "A Night at the Rideau Carleton Raceway" in April as a final send off before we head to Texas.

A HUGE thank you to all that have donated to the team! Please take a moment to check out our generous sponsors in the column to the right.

Recap On a Great Week!

TNT Border Collies — Tue, 17 May 2011 17:29:00 GMT

First of all, I have to apologize for my lack of blogging. It was a crazy week (that’s crazy in a good way!) and it just didn’t work out to have internet time. I will try to catch up on everything since mid-week.

Thursday started off with a trip to the venue where we were quickly ushered to the vet check. It was the same vet as at IFCS and luckily he found Rio’s heart-beat this year (he joked last year that she didn’t have one. Poor Ri!) We then had a 24 minute practice (yes, they go right to the minute and then chase you off) in the main indoor ring and then 24 minutes in one of the two outdoor rings. It was so windy for our outdoor practice that at one point, when Recess was trying to run, the broad, the wall and another jump completely blew over (and let me tell you, when the wall comes down, there are a LOT of pieces to pick up!). Even the teeter was blowing so much that it was stuck in the horizontal position! They told us afterwards, that if the wind continued for the competition days, they’d change the weight of the teeter. Luckily, it never came to that!

Rio loving the rubberized equipment

Back at the hotel on Thursday afternoon, I met up with Charlotte who had arrived from Moncton. Sadly, Christine wasn’t with her as planned, due to a missed connection to Halifax. It was great to do a little catching up with Char!

We then hopped on the bus and headed back to the venue for the very brief (yea!) opening ceremonies where all the countries paraded into the ring. Rio and I were selected to carry the Canadian flag J

Team Canada!

Back at the hotel, Charlotte, Rio & I went for yet another walk through the “public footpaths” to the sea. I have no idea how Char kept her eyes open!! Maybe it was due to her enthusiasm for taking pictures of the cows on the path? (Anyone ever seen a dwarf-legged cow?)

Rio & the matching red & white cow

This poor cow had half-sized legs!

Friday morning arrived way too quickly! We arrived at the venue and were very pleased to find out that everyone got their own copies of course maps! Yea!

The way this competition worked was that there were three rings and each country was divided into a group. Each group had 12 minutes to walk the course before rotating to the next ring for another 12 minute walk through. I ended up walking Snooker, Team Standard and then Individual Standard and then was quickly on the line to run Snooker! I’ve had to have three courses in my head before, but never such technical courses. Thank goodness for Charlotte for filling my Tim’s mug with coffee to keep my brain sharp!

Team Snooker strategy planning on the bus to the venue

The Snooker course only had three reds but the time was only 45 seconds. I had a slight handling blunder on the first red (Lesson #1: Do not point toward the back of the arena where there are no jumps or obstacles for that matter, and keep repeating “Go Jump! Go Jump!” while blocking your dogs view of any jump.) and ended up being one jump away from a perfect Snooker run when time ran out. We still managed to finish 5^th in the class. Team Standard was next. We had a clean run and an individual placing of 4^th. Our Team finished 5^th for that round. We had a great run in the individual Standard, but unfortunately earned 5 faults for knocking the broad jump.

The morning courses went by SO quickly! The event was so well run that we kept finishing early!

The afternoon was three jumpers courses: Individual, Biathlon and Team. Rio and I only ran in the Individual Jumpers and I was very thankful that I didn’t have to have 3 jumpers courses in my head at the same time!!

We had a beautiful opening in the ind. Jumpers, but Rio missed her weave entry—twice! Ugh! I was so peeved with her and me that I accidentally put her over the backside of a jump on the homestretch. My first ever “E” on a jumpers course. I wasn’t very happy with myself and ended up playing the scenario over and over in my head all night (which really doesn’t make for a good night’s sleep!)

Enjoying a pint after competition

Saturday morning, I ended up walking/running three courses in a row again! My poor brain (and also my poor hair—my hot water disappeared in the shower that morning after I had soaped my head—wasn’t my best hair day)! Ri had a fabulous Individual Standard, but decided once again that pole #2 made a much better entry than pole one! (She is going to have to sit down and watch that DVD that someone made up on 2x2 weaves before we head to Regionals!!!). On the individual Jumpers course, for some reason the jumps were not in the same place as when I walked the course and an off course tunnel, which I never even saw as an off course possibility, sucked Rio right in. Agh! Another “E” in jumpers??? Guess Rio’s reign as Jumpers Queen is over…? LOL In the team Standard, we had a lovely run finishing 3^rd in the 650mm class and our team of Recess, Slice & Rio finished in 2^nd for that round.

Kim/Recess, Anneli/Slice & Me/Rio

In the afternoon, we ran Gamblers. We were given 32 seconds for the opening. There were no mini gambles but if you did all three tunnels and all three contacts, you were given 10 bonus points. The final gamble was a really tight one with only 12 seconds to complete. I knew I had to be on approach to jump number 1 of the gamble when the 32s whistle blew in order to have a hope of completing it, but sadly, we had a wrong turn out of the chute and we ended up not being in position. We got the gamble, but over time. Only three of the 650mm (26”) dogs got the gamble in time. We finished 4^th in that class and ended up being 4^th overall for the combined Snooker/Gamblers games title. I don’t really like standing just off the podium, but I guess I’ll take 4^th in the World for now…. J

Saturday night my best-est World Agility supporter, Anne, took me out to dinner in Cheddar (Anne, originally from Ottawa, now lives in London. She’s cheered me on at IFCS in Belgium, FCI in Finland and both IFCS and WAO in England. She has never owned a dog, but can probably tell you the snooker rules better than I could! LOL). Turns out that I got lucky getting a ride back to the hotel with Anne since the bus broke down! Thank you to Charlotte & Christine for taking Rio on a bus/cab adventure back to the hotel! Since we hadn’t had enough exercise that day, Christine, Charlotte, Kim, Recess & Rio went on yet another walk. The locals just didn’t get how much fun it is to do self timed photos and offered to take pictures for us. I think we’ve left a lot of West Huntspill-ians shaking their heads at those bizarre Canadians!

One of several shots using the camera's timer!

Funny looking gargoyles at the local church

Happy Canadians taking the Public Footpaths to the pub

Sunday’s events were the finals for the Individual Pentathlon, Four Dog Team Relay and Biathlon. Due to our little mishaps in the Individual Jumpers rounds, we didn’t get to play in the Individual Speedstakes. We had a great time cheering though!! Great agility! Great courses! In fact the whole event was top notch. The volunteers were AMAZING!! The security was great, the set-up was well thought out, things ran on time (if not early!), the judges were friendly, the equipment high quality and the courses were soooooo much fun to run!! The organizers of the WAO really outdid themselves!!

Sunday night was another relaxed dinner at the Huntspill Arms pub where I think we may be considered locals now….? Rio thinks being a pub dog is awesome J

One last night at the pub

Rio at the Huntspill Arms Pub

Monday morning we got up really early and Charlotte, Kim, Recess, Rio and I did a final walk. Guess what? After two years, I finally saw the tide in!!! Yea! The bus ride to Heathrow was uneventful and the check in at the airport was super easy. I have NEVER had such great service with a dog before!!! Even the security people were friendly and chatty and apologized profusely when they had to “seize” the bottle of water I’d forgotten about (bad me!). We then all headed our separate ways except for Charlotte and Christine who were flying with me and then on to the Maritimes. I had an empty seat beside me, so Charlotte and I had a great time catching up the whole trip home J. In the Ottawa airport, the customs officer took pity on me and didn’t make me stand in the long line to have my rabies certificate checked. I didn’t even have to pay anything!!! (In Toronto they usually charge me a fee to check my rabies cert.).

Matthew: The best Air Canada baggage guy ever!

Rio came out of her crate happy. What a fantastic traveller she is!!! I can’t say enough about my wonderful red girl who has taken me on so many fantastic adventures. She really is the best!

A HUGE thank you:

To my family for taking good care of things while I was away. It’s so wonderful to know that I don’t need to worry about anything on the home front while I’m competing.

To my great friends for their support, encouraging messages and good wishes! Rio & I are lucky to have you as friends.

To my sponsors, especially All Dog Sports Club and Omega Alpha, for the financial help! You have no idea how much your support made our journey so much easier!

And to the Team Canada Coach & Management for donating their time. You made everything run so smoothly!

What a great trip, great memories, great people and great support. Thanks everyone!

More on Wednesday

TNT Border Collies — Wed, 11 May 2011 15:39:00 GMT

I'm sitting here in the pub/lobby (the only place where there's wireless access) with my cup of tea and actually have a great connection! It seems as though if no one else has logged on to the wireless, it works great for me

We are just back from the venue and a two hour practice. Miss Rio took a little bit to get her going, but in the end had a very good practice and her contacts were awesome on the rubber (she's been sliding her teeter and dogwalk recently, so I wasn't sure she'd make it all the way down to a 2on 2off when she couldn't slide).

Our Canadian crating area at the venue. For some reason the "Moose Crossing" sign never got put up.... Not sure why?

Our TTL inspired artwork in the crating stalls

Tonight is a team dinner at the pub in town... How many times can I eat in the same restaurant?? Good thing they have a very varied menu!

Rio's favourite local pub. Okay, its the only local pub!

Now I just need Charlotte to hurry up and get here!

It's Wednesday!

TNT Border Collies — Wed, 11 May 2011 15:38:00 GMT

Today started out with another long walk to the sea to visit the sheep and the cows and then a trip through the farmers pastures and over the stiles (Rio is improving on negotiating these!). We love our walks through the countryside!! Rio is discovering a love for sheep--she is now actually liking the sheep MORE than their droppings! Maybe she is a Border Collie after all?

Recess & Rio learning that they have the power to move the flock!

Yesterday was a “free day”, so after Rio & Recess’ walk, we joined most of the gang for a taxi ride to a nearby town for some shopping and then a trip to a Cider mill. Then it was another walk to the sea for Rio & Recess and a trip to the pub for dinner. I’m loving the “Public Paths” that wind their way between walled yards and through farmers fields. Its so much fun exploring J . You don’t even need to go on a road to get to the pub which is about 1.5km away! You never know what will be on the other side of the stiles. We’ve shared our walks with many a cow and sheep (and yes, I’m very thankful that I brought boots!).

One of the many stiles linking field to field. Most were also over large stinky water ditches. Don't fall in Rio!

Today we head to the venue for the first time. From the WAO pictures posted on Facebook, it looks as though things are completely under control. Can’t wait to check it out. Team Canada has a two hour practice slot today and then a couple of shorter practices in both the indoor and outdoor rings tomorrow.

So far everything is going great and we are raring to get into the agility ring!

A Test

TNT Border Collies — Tue, 10 May 2011 10:17:00 GMT

I've uploaded some photos to Facebook... Hopefully everyone can view these...https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150250699855767.374393.633720766&saved#!/media/set/?set=a.10150250699855767.374393.633720766&saved#!/photo.php?fbid=10150250711665767&set=a.10150250699855767.374393.633720766&type=1&theater

Our fancy 2 star hotel...
This is from the day we arrived. We never saw a puddle after that!

Monday in the UK!

TNT Border Collies — Tue, 10 May 2011 09:35:00 GMT

Rio & Recess had a VERY easy check in at the tiny Air Canada Cargo center in Ottawa. It was much more civilized and relaxing than the year before at the monstrous Cargo building in Toronto.

Entertaining ourselves with photos at the Air Canada Cargo building. Recess & Rio are both happily chowing down on their stuffed kongs

Our flight to London was uneventful until right before we got off--they announced that there was an altercation on the plane and that the police would be boarding and escorting someone off. Turns out it was a very young mother who allegedly wouldn’t wake her young child who was sleeping on the floor when the seat belt sign came on. Two police officers escorted her off carrying sippy cups, toys and a diaper bag!

While waiting for Lucie Robertson, who flew in from Montreal, we had a good English breakfast at the same airport restaurant as the year before J . After meeting up with Lucie at the Heathrow terminal, we found our bus and headed to Animal Reception. We are all currently waiting for our dogs to be cleared. They‘ve told us our paperwork was all good, but so far we have been sitting here almost two hours… They say our dogs will be cleared soon! They just took my credit card and charged me 350 pounds tax on Rio. She’s one expensive dog today! Apparently we can get the tax money back once we prove that our dogs have left the country.

All the Canadian dogs that came through Animal Reception at Heathrow (Britt, Recess, Dune, Rio & Fia)

Rio came out of "quarantine" happy and relaxed! She travels so well!

I think I’m ready for a nap shortly!

Ug.

TNT Border Collies — Mon, 09 May 2011 20:04:00 GMT

Sadly, the internet connection at the hotel is no better than last year. It is an exercise in frustration to upload blog posts. I will try my best to keep the updates coming when the internet connection is working.

We Are On Our Way!

TNT Border Collies — Sun, 08 May 2011 22:14:00 GMT

Kim, John and I are currently waiting to board our flight to London. Love the free wireless in the Ottawa airport!

Wait! Bording! See you in the UK!

World Agility Open Here We Come!

TNT Border Collies — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 01:06:00 GMT

Rio and I are extremely happy that we have been chosen to represent Canada at the first World Agility Open this coming May!

We are so very, very thankful to have so many generous people help us on our quest to represent Canada at the World level!

Omega Alpha is very generously helping with the costs of Rio's flights as well as supplying us with some of our favourite supplements! Rio says she will never fly again without her Kong filled with EZ Rest soaked kibble!

The Ottawa Valley Border Collie Club has once again awarded us one of their grants. Thanks for being so supportive!

Many thanks to Clean Run, the Adrenaline Dog Store , Bark & Fitz Barrhaven , DOGSport Magazine , Handmade Jammies by Elise Bonder, Greenhawk Equestrian , Tri-Natural Products Inc. & Fromm Four Star Nutritionals , Shake-A-Paw Dog Training, TLC Grooming , Omega Alpha and Sasha's Blend for their very kind product donations for our fundraising raffle tables and a big thank you to Jennifer Laird & Absolute Agility for letting me host the raffles at their Winter AAC trials. Jennifer--You are fantastic at supporting Canadian Agility. Thank you!!

A huge thank you to my very first agility school, All Dog Sports Club, for their generous grant.

Another thanks goes to all the businesses helping me with my t-shirt campaign: Adrenaline Dog Store , Dream Fields , Absolute Agility , Canine Athletica/Cedarview Animal Hospital , Gus's Custom Creations and Greenbank & Rideau Animal Hospitals . T-shirts should be available soon!

Yea! Internet Connection!

TNT Border Collies — Wed, 19 May 2010 18:38:00 GMT

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

TNT Border Collies — Mon, 17 May 2010 08:41:00 GMT

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

TNT Border Collies — Thu, 13 May 2010 14:51:00 GMT

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!

TNT Border Collies — Wed, 12 May 2010 06:26:00 GMT

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

Lost at the Corner of Hen Road and Duck Lane

TNT Border Collies — Wed, 12 May 2010 06:22:00 GMT

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!)

TNT Border Collies — Tue, 11 May 2010 09:03:00 GMT

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

TNT Border Collies — Sun, 09 May 2010 01:31:00 GMT

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!

TNT Border Collies — Sun, 09 May 2010 01:29:00 GMT

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

TNT Border Collies — Sun, 02 May 2010 18:30:00 GMT

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

TNT Border Collies — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:08:00 GMT

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

TNT Border Collies — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 04:53:00 GMT

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.