World Championships Lievin 2011
I guess it doesn't happen every day to be so close to winning World Championships with two dogs! I guess that makes Lievin 2011, my 14th World Championships, for the most successful one ever - followed by Lievin 2003 when La won both runs and her first World Champion title, at only 2 years of age, with Lo on a 2nd place in jumping course and Valladolid 2005 when La won both runs again and won her second title, with Lo on 4th place.
This year started as good as it gets, with La winning jumping individual run, her 11th winning run on WCs - definitely a very unique number in the history of agility World Championships. What made it especially cool is that she was one of the oldest dogs there and one of the smallest medium dogs, beating much bigger "medium" dogs and all the BCs with ease.
To make the day even better, my sweet Bu ended 7th in individual jumping large, what was a really big surprise after she got scared in the preparation ring and started off really slowly. Seeing her time after the run was the nicest surprise ever, it proved again how much one can win (or loose) on tight turns that are definitely Bu's trademark.
Saturday morning started with agility team medium - and I'm not a morning person, that's for sure. La however was full of energy and very excited to run... I was sure happy with her speed and that brilliant weave pole entry, but popping out of the weaves was a big surprise, I don't think she ever popped out of weaves in her life... We sure went for a very long walk after, to burn some of that energy off.
Than Bu's turn again. She again started off slow and the course was not really good for her - too many straight lines and not enough turns where she wins the most - but she again surprised with 4th place. More than amazing for my autistic, no-drive BC!
Our medium team finished as 2nd in jumping run. La again had another nice run - that could be much better though, but I was not as focused as I found a course somewhat boring, way too easy for that level. Despite not so perfect lines, La was amazingly 2nd in that run! Doesn't get much better as that!
And then Bu made my day again, by winning agility team run for almost a second before the 2nd one! Winning two runs on WC, with two so very different dogs, is definitely more important for me as a combination result, so this winning run sure made me very very proud. This is Bu's 4th time to set the best time of all dogs on World Championships!!! Not bad for my slow, no-drive BC 🙂
Sunday was the day of wrong decisions - but some great runs again. I was sure La has enough advantage we can take it easy, so I calmed her down a lot before the run and handled without taking any risks - but we ended up being 0.09s too slow for 3rd World Champion title... If only I pushed better for that tunnel or at least said "La" after dog-walk instead of saying "good girl" first, seeing her perfect contact 🙂 But I guess 3rd place is pretty cool too 🙂
La's two 1st places, one 3rd and one 4th place on WCs will be very hard to beat, she sure is the greatest. And even better as her 3rd place at 10 years was that both, Ashley&Luka on 1st place and Olga&Brava on 4th place, are old friends from my seminars - how cool is that! I know Luka from the times she was hiding in tunnels, lacking confidence to run... And look at her now!
Anyway, after loosing a win with La by 0.09s thanks to taking it easy, I decided to push Bu as much as I can. She was sure running her fastest in this run, it was so much fun to see her so fast and happy in that scary hall. Unfortunately, pushing her that much got me too far on the second jump after dog-walk - much further as I planned, so when I turned around, I had no idea where I am and where we are going. By the time I remembered, I got too much behind her to still handle the following sequence as I planned, so we got off course there... But the rest went well again and it turned out we could easily win even if we took it easy... Oh well.
All in all, I'm very happy with our runs as we had no problems with the courses as such. They were actually very easy for the dogs understanding cik&cap and back/out. As some of my Foundation students noticed: we learn all the skills necessary to run those courses in Foundation class already. To see the importance of cik&cap, see the comparison videos I posted to my Facebook profile.
Silvia, you are the best!
What an amazing achievement Silvia congratulations! I love watching La run she just has the most amazing energy! I really can’t wait for the day I win lotto so I can fly you out here to Australia for 6 months to work with us (coz I can’t take my dogs to you! No amount of money will bribe the border security here!) You should be so proud of what you have achieved and must be busting out of the seams with pride for La and Bu!
Thanks! But no money can make me go somewhere without my dogs for 6 months 🙂
Ha figured you’d say that! Ok well I’ll win enough money so I can buy my own country and we can all live together in one big dog happy agility land!
🙂
Congratulations Silivia, La and Bu! That is an incredible achievement. I just love watching you run with your dogs. You are an incredible inspiration.
Congratulations Silvia,La and Bu, awesome awesome awesome!!!!!
WOW 🙂 🙂 🙂
Congratulations! Very fun to watch those runs! LOVE the relationship you have with your dogs 🙂
I love the videos Silvia, you and your dogs are amazing!
I just think of one thing when I read your text and that is that after setting best time in WC so many times, Bu should not be called slow anymore 😉
But her times are still a surprise every time 🙂 She still looks and feels slow when I run her, but thanks to her perfect lines, her times are actually great, it amazes me over and over again how important turns are.
Wow!! You sure had lots of FUN FUN FUN!! Congratulations!!
OH my, and you can run soooo fast!
What a great team 🙂 🙂
I was very happy to meet you in Lievin Silvia ,I see your run in the french supporters area and its time it was your turn I take a video cause for me La and Silvia is the best team in the world..
Congratulation once more for La, Bu and Silvia,waiting for Le…
Hope to go to your place as soon as possible.
Elton is on the good way and this is mainly cause once he meet Sivia Trkman.
JP
a link to video to compare The 1rst,The second and the third:
httpv://activites-canines.com/Blog_Photos/test-videos
Thanks! See you!
Ahhh -- SO MUCH FUN TO WATCH YOUR VIDS!!! Not only are you and your dogs the very best (in my mind), you also set the very best example of never giving up on your dogs (or your dreams). Sadly, I know too many people that keep going through dogs hoping to one day buy the “WC dog”. You simply bring out the WC from within your dogs. AMAZING 🙂
I guess the thing is that WC dogs can’t be bought… They are trained and that allows us to work through their weaknesses -- it might take some patience, but that’s the lesson my Samoyed taught me very well 🙂
Aha, so that was the explanation for the final run with La…you know I said to Dorte; “why does she not run faster, she ran faster in the other runs?” Now I know:)
Anyway, I loved your runs with both dogs! And that first one with La, amazing -- good, old girl! And for Ashley and Luka, since you were 0,09 sec too slow:P, they really deserved standing on top of the podium! I was relieved it wasn`t a BC;)
(You will recieve a mail from me in a couple of days, I have e few questions…)
Yea, that was certainly not our fastest 🙂 And considering how much we lost before that tunnel and after DW, we could really win easily 🙂