Mixed feelings about this year World Championships... Organizers were really super nice and Sunday atmosphere and courses were great. But it started with a disappointment with the surface - with MANY dogs falling, especially on Thursday... First courses were not my favourite style either... - not many challenges, not many handling options. Then another unpleasant surprise on Friday: TABLE!?! After EO, it felt like we are back for a decade...

The table really killed the show - sooo boring to see a dog after a dog slide off - not a surprise given that most of these dogs never saw a table in a trial before. The table decided the team winners... In medium for example (where the table is the trickiest as medium uses the same low table as small!), the only two countries in the world that still use a table won... How crazy it is that nothing else but not sliding off the table matters???

Le never saw a table in a course before in her life... She can't do a table and we're proud of it - it shows agility did some progress... - Or maybe it didn't??? My other dogs are old enough to still know the table and had no issues with it, so it didn't bother me as much as a competitor as it bothered me as a spectator... It just adds time and shows no skill that you want to see on WC... So that was a really big disappointment and definitely killed the show for me.

Le would have won by more than 2 seconds if it weren't for those bars (that she normally never knocks...)

 I was ready to go home if there was a table also on Sunday, but fortunately, it wasn't, and it made things much more fun to watch. The courses were more fun too and the dogs got used to the turf some and were slipping less, so Sunday was certainly FUN! We could finally do some real agility!

I loved my Sunday runs a lot: not much luck, especially not with Le who never knocks bars and has been very consistently clean lately, after we got our see-saw under control 🙂 - but seeing our time and knowing she would win for more than 2s otherwise and seeing that Bi would end 3rd despite the problems with the toe that we discovered later (thanks to wonderful Canadian chiro) that probably made her slower and affected her contacts... 🙁 She is always in with 4 strides when she is o.k. - so it was her bad DW that told me she is not o.k...

Not the best weekend for Bi as her swollen toe was slowing her down (we only found it out later) and affected her DW - but still 2nd best time in agility individual

Bu had a great run on Sunday too, she actually finished 7th in that run and 8th overall - not bad at all for my slow BC! And La, well, she was by far the best 13-year old 🙂 - At that age, every run is a win! And Le was as perfect as always, but her handler was too slow and she had to wait a lot for me to get to places - while I could just tell her what to do!!! - But I seem to sometimes forget to give her verbals ever since I handle La silently, in order to remember she can't hear me... So her times were not as good as normally - until the last run where I finally handled as I would in training, trusted her and just RAN. - That sure was a super fun run! - With by far best time of course. - So proud of my super midget! She is spoiling me a bit too much with her superior speed though as it makes me run her safely rather than as good as we can, so I have to focus to get rid of it now - she is really so well trained that I can just trust her and run.

Bu, always giving her best - 7th in agility run, 8th overall

Sunday really changed our impressions of this WC and we're looking forward to next year already, trusting that we won't be seeing table that time around! And of course, hoping Bi is back to normal and that I stop playing safe with Le and run her like we can - that's our plan for next year!

La - at 13, every run is a win 🙂

photo: agility-gallery.com