Rio & Tiffany's FCI Worlds Adventure

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.

Day Two

TNT Border Collies — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 20:27:00 GMT

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

TNT Border Collies — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 04:35:00 GMT

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

TNT Border Collies — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:05:00 GMT

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

TNT Border Collies — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:22:00 GMT

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

TNT Border Collies — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 06:03:00 GMT

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

TNT Border Collies — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:22:00 GMT

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!

TNT Border Collies — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 13:19:00 GMT

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...

TNT Border Collies — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:55:00 GMT

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!

TNT Border Collies — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:17:00 GMT

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!

Getting Closer!

TNT Border Collies — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 01:50:00 GMT

Twenty-nine days until we leave, but really, who's counting anyway?

Rio and I are starting to get things a little bit organized which includes reminding me how to post to this blog! We now have our flights confirmed and I'm totally thrilled to be able to come and go from the Ottawa airport. Unfortunately we won't be travelling with any other team members, but I know Rio will be much happier burning off pre-flight energy chasing squirrel's at The Toxic rather than hanging out in the back of the car for five hours down the 401 to Toronto.

We are still on a little bit of a high after the Nationals, but have re-focused our training efforts. No more gambling and 'safe' handling skills, we are on to speed and training for the twisty European courses. We are also brushing up on our 24" spaced weaves, the broad jump and the ascending double.

Tomorrow is a trip to see Dr. Miki and get a third rabies shot in under three years. Unfortunately the Europeans don't recognize our three year vaccine. After Rio's trips across the Atlantic, I don't think she'll ever need another rabies shot! There's also a bit of paperwork to be filled out and then I have to make an appointment with the Food Inspection Agency (I know, a little strange--but I guess they need to ensure that if I eat Rio, I won't get Rabies???) to get a little stamp on my paperwork saying that I filled it out correctly. All for the low price of $20 of course!

I'm starting to get very excited!

A New Adventure! Austria!

TNT Border Collies — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:23:00 GMT

Rio and I are so very, very pleased to have been named to the 2009 Canadian Agility Team and will be representing Canada in the Team Event at this years FCI World Championships in Dornbrin, Austria in September.

The official event site can be found at: http://www.agility-wm2009.at/
The official Canadian Agility Team site can be found at: www.CanadianAgilityTeam.com

More info to come! For now we are getting our training plan together which involves some serious conditioning of both of us as well as some improvement on Rio's obstacle skills to give ourselves a little more speed!

Back Home Again

TNT Border Collies — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:38:00 GMT

The adventure is finally over. I'm currently sitting here drinking my coffee (with cream finally!) but missing my breakfast of meat, bread, cheese and veggies (yes, I had cucumber for breakfast for the past week!).

I guess I left off last with us heading into the last day of competition. Nan, Deryl and I skipped the team bus ride to the Ice Hall so that we could get some breakfast and then have our morning walk. As soon as we stepped outdoors, it was POURING. The first cloudy sky since we arrived in Helsinki Guess that should have been a little bit of an omen for the day to come. The three of us and Rio took a cab to the venue.

Medium dogs were up first and we were all a little on edge waiting for Nitro and Lucie to run second last. Their turn finally came and all of us held our breath. There was not a sound from any of us. In a heartbreaking turn of events, Nitro & Lucie lost their connection and Nitro went into an off-course tunnel. The very first mistake of their competition. Lucie did have a girl come up afterwards and ask for her autograph however! LOL

The Small dogs ran next and Flip ran once again with no course faults, but a few time faults. For a first time at the Worlds, Suzanne looked like a veteran out there!

The Large Dog Standard (Agility) was the last event of the competition. The whole arena was absolutely packed and apparently you couldn't even purchase tickets. Even with 150+ dogs running, I was glued to my seat watching. There were so many different handling styles and course stategies, it was fascinating. As per the rest of the runs on the weekend, this course was no different for showing that even the most accomplished dogs & handlers could go off course in the blink of an eye. Fizz and Adrian were up late in the running order and were still in contention for a top place finish. Adrian looked as though he was giving it his all and Fizz was right there with him. They had beautiful contacts, tight turns, but one minor mistake as Fizz ran past the See-saw. They did get great applause from the crowd as Adrian showed off his gambling skills off the dogwalk. Encore & Susan were the final Canadians to run. Once again, everyone held their breath. They had a picture perfect run which brought all of us to our feet only to be deflated a few seconds later upon discovering that Encore's up contact was called. Five faults. Juice, the next dog to run, bettered Encore's time by a fraction and went on to be the World Champion.

All in all, what a fantastic competition. The venue and the competitors were certainly World Class! For me, now that I've had time to reflect, I'm thrilled with the way things went. I now know that I can handle almost anything a judge can throw at Rio and I and I know that we can both handle the pressure. I think both Rio and I got a great high from running in front of that big a crowd. The energy in the building is incredible and its a great rush to run a course hard, like you've got nothing to lose. I'm coming home charged up and energized to train harder. I've now got a list of things to work on (okay, its not written down yet, but I'm getting there!) to keep me busy for the next many months!

Our trip home on Monday was un-eventful although very long! We got up at 4am and had a mini bus take Lynda, John, Spirit, Daryl, Adrian, Susan, Fizz, Rio and I to the airport (the rest of the team followed the next day as we could only fit a limited amount of dogs on each flight). We got a little scare when the security guy gave Spirit some hard looks and made sure she 'fit' in her crate (Rio's crate was smaller, so I started to get nervous). He finally approved of Spirit's crate set up, although he did make her take off her collar. When he asked me to put Rio in the crate, it was like shoving an angry cat into a small carrier and she fought me like she never had before (Lynda thinks that she can be the poster girl for "Crate Games 2 - The Airport"). Once I finally got her in, she immediately started happily eating her stuffed Kong. The security guy didn't say a thing .

We flew Helsinki to Frankfurt and then on to Toronto. We passed through customs easily after they checked our Rabies papers. The customs agent asked me "You know there's around a $30 fee?" I said yes, where do I pay? He said "You can pay next time." LOL

My Uncle Bill picked me up at the Toronto airport and then I spent the night in Burlington before driving home on Tuesday. I made it home in time to pick up the very excited Kyra from school. Until the time when she fell asleep, she was talking a mile a minute about all that she had done. Piper too, was excited to see both Rio and I and hasn't let me out of her sight except to run like a fool with Rio all over the house. Rio is happy to be reunited with her beloved cat We both are suffering from the time change and have been wide awake at 3am--never thought that the dogs would care about time change, but apparently that's not so!

I have so many of you to thank for all your support. I absolutely loved all the notes that you all sent and all the support you gave me. I've been going through all my emails and notes again this morning and can't tell you how much they all meant. I got the biggest kick out of the OVBCC list that was giving up to the minute results--even I got caught up in the excited emails this morning!

Hopefully there will be another World Championship Adventure in our future, but if not, I'm definitely going to treasure the memories from the two World opportunities I've had this year!

Here's a video of Rio's standard run posted by Gail, one of our excellent Canadian supporters. I'm just posting the link because if you go to the page and click on "watch in high quality" (which is under the video on the right), you can get a much clearer view of the run. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9A2IycokSE I'm still laughing at Rio barking at me during the run!!

We Are Down to the Last Day!

TNT Border Collies — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 03:37:00 GMT

We are down to the last full day of competition and my last full day in Finland. I head to the airport at 5am tomorrow morning to fly home with Lynda Orton-Hill and her husband John. The rest of the team will follow on Tuesday. Apparently we couldn't get all the dogs on one flight.

Last night, the battle of the Medium team dogs was great to watch. I really love the excitement of the team. Having the team dogs running one after the other really gets the excitement level going. They also post on the big screen the time/score each dog needs to run on the team in order to take first place.

Our medium team of Stevie, Flip & Nitro were in the middle of the pack after having a heartbreaking off course in the first round. Stevie ran a beautiful Standard course, clean but with a few time faults. Unfortunately Flip got trapped by the decivingly challenging opening. Nitro & Lucie were the third team in and Lucie worked Nitro in the ring, making him stick his contacts, in preparation for today's final round of Standard events.

Suzanne & Copine, Lucie & Nitro, Adrian & Fizz and Susan & Encore are all standing in really good positions and a good run today could put them on the podium. So please, please, please send them the great vibes you sent Rio and I on Friday!

Off for my walk to the Ice Hall!

Saturday Morning at the Ice Hall

TNT Border Collies — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 13:51:03 GMT

Rio & I decided to skip the bus this morning and walk the 20 minute trip to the Ice Hall.

First run of the day was the Individual Jumpers, small class. Suzanne & Copine had a beautiful run and we were all very impressed on how hard Suzanne was running, she really gave it her all and had a clean round. Justine & Bounder had a little blip and ended up with a few faults.

Second run was the Individual Jumpers, medium class. Lucie & Nitro had another gorgeous run and finished in second place behind a really short Border Collie (the Brits have 3 'midget' BCs!). Lucie & Nitro are really a treat to watch Suzanne and Flip also had a beautiful, clean round on a challenging course. They really are giving the tough courses to the poor medium dogs!

The HUGE Individual Jumpers, large class went next. Adrian and Fizz were the first Canadians up and after about 20 dogs, they were the first team to have a clean round. Fizz had a beautiful startline stay and it just got better from there with some nice turns and some quick handling on Adrian's behalf. They kept their first place standing for quite a while! Encore gave us quite a scare by ticking the first bar and then heading to an off course tunnel early on in the course, but both Susan & she settled down after the weave polls and had a beautiful finish to give her the lead which she held for several dozen runs, but finished in 5th overall. Kaizen & Wendy had a smooth, clean run as well.

I watched our small team (Copine & Bounder) run their team standard--both ran beautifully--and then headed back to the hotel for a little break. The Medium Team dogs take the field for their standard run at 6:10pm, so I'll walk back over to watch Stevie Ray, Nitro & Flip in action

Hopefully after that I will get a chance to have dinner with my friend Anne who flew from London for a visit.

Quick Upload of Pictures

TNT Border Collies — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 04:04:00 GMT

Here are a few pictures from the Opening Cermonies...

Team Canada

Rio, Phoenix & Nitro in their red & whites!

Our dogs felt less embarrassed in the clothing after seeing what the Japanese dogs had to wear!
Note the guy in the background, during his jumpers round, he lost a shoe and still managed to finish his run clean!!

Team paraded around the field and out the door again with only the flag bearers remaining. It was very kind of one of the A or B countries in front of us to let one of their dogs have a giant, poop & walk all the way down one side of the field. YUCK!!!!

A happy Large Dog Team (Sorry, no cropping to make pictures look pretty!)

Thanks Everyone!

TNT Border Collies — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:47:00 GMT

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

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

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

Rio's Jumpers Run

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

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

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

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

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

Stevie Ray & Richard--Making it look easy!

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

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

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

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

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

Go Canada Go!

ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Vet Check & Practice

TNT Border Collies — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:38:00 GMT

This aft was our vet check at the trial site. They checked our rabies certificate, tested our microchip and then did an examination which involved checking the paw pads very closely, feeling the dog's spine and then watching them walk. They also measured all the 'Medium' dogs (Nitro, Chase, Flip & Stevie Ray). Sadly, little JRT Monroe, who has bad allergies and is off her medication due to the really strict drugging rules at FCI, was told that her dog had eye, ear and skin infections and was not allowed in the building! They didn't do any sort of testing other than a visual exam (no swabs, no temperature, nothing). Roxanne, Monroe's owner, is even a vet, but the FCI vet wouldn't believe that it was allergies We are all quite devestated by the news as Monroe, Roxanne and her husband Chad have been wonderful assets to the Canadian team. This also leaves us short a dog in the Mini division, so we won't be able to field a Mini Team. Bounder & Copine will still run in the Individual events on Saturday & Sunday however.

We had 16 minutes for our team practice. The ring was divided into 3 sections, each with one of the contacts. The jumps were able to be moved if desired, but not the weaves, tunnels or contacts. A few minutes prior to our practice, Susan G. & Adrian came up with some great little exercises based on how the course was set. Our team dogs were divided into Mini & Medium dogs, Black "large" dogs and Red "large" dogs. Team 'Red Dog' (Spirit, Rio, Encore) had our own section and we had a phenominal practice session although I've never had 16 minutes go so fast! Our poor dogs were begging for water when our time was up.

Crating of our dogs is very 'interesting' to say the least!!! Almost all the countries are packed together on the concourse level around the stands. It really doesn't appear very secure at all as they are right at the access point to the upper levels of the bleachers! Team Canada is squished between Italy & Russia and thankfully doesn't have any windows like other teams do as the sun was really beating down on most other teams areas. The most interesting part is that we are right in front of the beer kiosk! We have beer taps in our crating area!!!! Yes, of course I tried. They aren't turned on

A little bit tight for crating.... Sort of feels like Flyball!

"I'll take a pint please!"

It turns out that the Americans, Brits and one other country (that I can't remember!) have change rooms under the arena because the organizers were afraid of terrorist threats against those countries..... We're a little jealous of their crating arrangements, but are happy not to be thought of as being in the crosshares of some doggie terroist!

We met up with Fred Waters after watching practices this morning and then Jane Buckley as we headed back to the Ice Hall. It was wonderful to see some familiar faces and they were a very welcome addition during our quick practice time.

I think I've forgotten to mention the weather here. Since the moment we landed in Helsinki, the skies have been cloud free and the sun shining. Apparently this is a bit unheard of around here. Everyone is out walking and the patios are fully populated even though it is around the 15C mark. It's perfect walking weather. The only problem with the warm weather is that we don't appear to have airconditioning in our room and have to keep the window open (even that doesn't cool down our room). With the open window, we are treated to plenty of downtown city noises (which Rio, the country dog, really couldn't figure out the first night), many drunk Finns leaving the pubs (there are very few restaurants around our hotel, but TONS of pubs that don't serve food?!), fighting pigeons and this morning, very loud street sweepers.

Tonight we are having a team dinner, with just the team members. Tomorrow is our big day--we run first in the morning and then last in the evening. For now, I think its time to have a little R&R.

Send some good vibes our way tomorrow and don't forget to wear your red CAT shirts!!! Hey--if anyone questions you at the office, just claim your are supporting the troops' wear red on Friday 'campaign' (I know that's not the right term, but I'm too tired and can't think lol). Hmmmmm..... Some of you on the West Coast may have to sleep in your red shirts to ensure I have good luck while running!!!

Rio & I are ready to rock and feel like we are peaking at the perfect time Go Red Dogs & Team Canada!

Pictures of the venue

TNT Border Collies — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 07:10:00 GMT

We did a very quick trip without the dogs to the venue this morning and watched the Suiss, Sweedish and American teams practice. We are headed out in a few minutes for our vet check and practice at 1pm. Here's a couple of quick shots of the venue.

Many, many, many thanks to all of you for your replies to the blog! I love hearing from you. I keep meaning to write back to each, but for some reason, time has been flying by and its always busy.