Stavanger - 10-12 May 2013

In any team sport, the best teams have consistency and chemistry - Roger Staubach

Now we've just finished this weekend's competition. Stavanger-stevnet 10-12 May.

 

This was our first competition this year where we decided to run the team competition also. That gave us a total of nine (9) runs during the weekend. At the end of the third day, this was very clear that it was a few runs too many.

 

I started the weekend on friday morning, taking the judges on a sightseeing trip in downtown Stavanger and for some lunch. It was a relaxing start to a tough weekend.

 

Our competition started on Friday evening, and we had a "perfect" weather for agility;

It seemed that the judges were prepared atleast and Lene Cecilie & me had our tent to sit under. That was a life-saver ;)

 

Friday:

My first run of the day was Jumping 1, with Pertti Siimes as a judge. It was a super cool course, with great lines and alot of speed for me and Leija. Unfortunately we did not manage to finish the course, but I really liked the course ;)

After we finished this part, Leija and me started our first team-run in a year. It was a "schmashing" success :) We managed the entire course with nothing more than five faults, due to me testing something in competition that I haven't tried before; wrong side weaves :) But how can you improve if you are afraid of trying? ;)

In agility 1 it didn't go so well, and both me and Leija were tired and soaking wet....

I would like to have had some movies of the runs, but I was on my own and thus no movies :) Probably the best, as I don't need to re-live those horrible runs :P hahaha...

 

Saturday:

The day started wet. It was raining in waves all day, but that didn't prevent the sun from poking through from time to time. Todays judge was Michel Liekens, from Belgium. One of the strangest things about this judge, was the fact that he had NO COURSE DRAWINGS, what-so-ever.. He designed them during building and then had a small writing pad he drew them on after he was done, so that he would design them when he got home :) It was some GREAT courses, with a few traps and mistakes that I fell for, but 100% handler mistakes..

 

Jump 1:

This was a fun-filled speed course with alot of good speed in both Leija and me. I wish I had a video of this run, because it was a great run, and only microscopic error by myself made this a disqualify.

Agility 1;

After a long day, we finally had the last agility run of the day. I spent a few extra seconds on the contacts just to make sure I got them all, but then again, it didn't look like I had to :)

Unfortunately there seems to be a problem with Youtube and matching videos to my account, so if you would like to watch some of the runs, please go to this address, it will take you directly to my user, where all videos are listed :)

But back to the run; we did great. Finished first with a clean run and the last one we needed to go onwards into Grade 2 :)

After the competition, myself and Lene Cecilie took the judges out for a nice walk and dinner downtown. We had a very good evening, some good food and wine, together with alot of agility discussions :)

Sunday:

This was a great start of the last day :) We saw the sun :) The area was dry and there was even some t-shirts out in the world :)

Jump 1:

If there was ever a time to say almost, this was the run. Both myself and the judge are 100% conviced that if I had been 5 millisecond slower in the handling, then I would have nailed the run :) Atleast up to that point :) Then maybe, just maybe I could start in jump 2 in Bergen, which will be our next competition.

 

Agility 2:

This was our debut in grade 2. As we have trained alot on more complicated courses than grade 1 & 2, this was not too difficult to find good lines and know where to do changes. However, what I need to do in these situations, is give Leija the room she needs to do the obstacles correct. Otherwise I will get these unnescessary denials that we got in this run. Again, Youtube is fu***** up, so please go to this address if you want to see the run.

 

Teams;

Teams on Sunday was the last run of the weekend and it showed. Leija disqualifed herself on purpose, 100% disregarding my handling or actions, ran past my legs and on to the dogwalk. Easy, simple and relaxing for her :P hahaha..

 

All in all I am very happy with the weekend. I reached my goals and I got some stuff I need to work on. Now we have a quiet week with long walks to get the competition out of our feet, paws and minds before we start again next week preparing for the next competition, 21-23 June in Bergen, where the judge will be Manuel Alff.

 

I finish this post with a super good photo by Åsta Viksøy, of Leija and me doing the weaves:

© Åsta Viksøy / Fotolykke

Tommy & Leija