Messy weekend of agility!

Wow, what a messy weekend of agility. Saturday's courses looked incredibly promising. I don't think I've seen courses that open and flowing since I was in novice and starters, which we thought would fun for a change.

Awww, but our unlucky streak continues. Everything was hopeful until Mum got me out of the car. Seemed there had been some kind of a children's circus thing with elephant ride where our ring was on Wednesday, so there were an incredible amount of smells. Mum even had to pull an unpopped kernel of corn out of my mouth just before we went into the ring - something I had picked up off the ground.

I started off great, but then on the third jump the smells just started to over take me, Mum called a big come and I started off again, but as we rounded the jumps where I found the first smell, I became determined. Mum was watching me so much she got lost on the course which I don't think has ever happened, except for that one time she ran me when she was hurt.

So Mum did the unthinkable, she picked me up off the course, and hoped for a better standard run.

All was going very well, and pretty speedy for our Standard run, then about 15 obstacles in after the teeter, another smell just overwhelmed me, I back jumped a jump and no Q.

Now I have to say that not all the dogs sniffed, but many, many did and there were far fewer Q's than expected on Saturday. Oh and did I mention the horses just about 50-60 feet from the ring, yep had that to contend with too, which threw a lot of dogs. Me, I love horses, I always try to herd them, so they didn't bother me.

Woke up Sunday, it was raining. OK, we can deal with that. Windy, hmmmm. Decisions, desions. Mum thought we could maybe do jumpers, even though she had no plans on putting me on muddy wet contacts on a windy day. We drove to the site in one of the biggest downpours Mum has ever experienced. By the time we got to the site it was thundering and lightening. That subsided, so Mum walked the JWW course. The first part of the course was very soppy, it was still raining, and Mum knew by the time the bigs dog ran, the course would just be a slippery mess.

So we packed up our luggage and went home. The course may have been fine for some dogs, but not dogs like me that just recovered from an iliopsoas pull. It was a NQ weekend again. Hope this nasty streak of our subsides soon, it's getting kind of boring.

BTW, the IFCS World Agility Championships have concluded with Russia coming in first place, Canada second, and USA fifth, after dominating the past three championships. Members of the US team took away some nice medals throughout the weekend, big congratulations to them. Here are some vids from Guy Blancke, and here are the final results and the courses.