2012 was definitely a great year for us. Bu winning European Open and National Championship and then on World Championships winning a silver medal in jumping teams and bronze in individual agility and ending 4th overall - I'm really proud on how consistent she is, never setting a foot wrong. She is certainly not the fastest dog out there, but can actually be competitive thanks to her running contacts, turns, efficient jumping style and of course perfect lines. She is extra easy to run with, I really know I can trust her completely, she has really impressive commitment and we also mastered how to deal with her stress to the degree that this year, I was not worried at all about the microchip check or whatever - she handled everything brilliantly.

Here are her runs:

Team jumping - I loved this run and my handling choices, running the end and the line to the weaves all with the dog on the right, but she got stuck in weaves (we never run on such soft weaves) and lost some time:

Team agility - 5th place in that run, but I don't find any videos - please send a link if you find a video!

Individual jumping:

Individual agility - 3rd place:

Le is Bu's opposite - certainly the fastest dog out there 🙂 but at 2 years and a half, not just as consistent. She won National Championship, one run on European Open and one run on World Championships. Individual runs results actually mean more to me as cumulative results, so I was very happy about that and didn't expect more as that from her at that age. I'm really happy about all her runs, I think she was brilliant, but she was running differently on that footing as on grass, so I should have supported her more. She also still needs some more Foundations work, so we're certainly revisiting that this winter!

And last, but not the least: I'm very happy that after winning in 2003 and 2005 and 3rd place in 2011 La was back to podium - definitely the oldest dog on a podium and definitely looking great for her age! I guess she is a living proof that repetitive nature of running contacts training is NOT bad for dogs and that agility keeps them young and happy.

Here is our team agility, La running first and Le last:

And team jumping, 4th place for our team:

More of their videos in my post from yesterday. If anybody has or finds Le's individual jumping, let me know too! And oh, just a reminder in case you wanted to revisit Foundations too: October Foundation class is starting next week!!!

Photos by Anja Troha