I think it was sometime back in early April that I was talking with Christine (Neklia-Thibodeau, aka double last name), and she was telling me about spots opening up for the Canadian Team for the European Open Agility Championships. Being the supportive friend that I am, I spent probably the next 3-4 hours on the phone between Christine and Erin (Piercy) trying to convince them to go. Both are excellent handlers/trainers and their dogs are kick-ass awesome....alas, I couldn't work my magic in the first round of negotiation with them to get the "yes", but what I didn't realize until after hanging up the phone with Erin, was that I had talked myself into wanting to go - so, called Christine back, asked how to put my name in, contacted Delyth, submitted my name for the team, and all of a sudden, I'm going to Belgium!!!!!
For anyone who has known me for any amount of time, they would likely agree that I can be somewhat of a competitive person. I've always been passionate about sports. Tennis, hockey, you name it...competitive.....to be honest, up until April of this year, my agility goals were along the lines of, "I only need x amount of Q's for my ATCh," with the exception of course of doing some USDAA trials to try and qualify for USDAA Nationals (which was basically a "just in case" the AAC Nationals didn't happen and we'd still have a big event to go to this year). Now it seems like all I can think about is the next "big" competition.
Anyways, back to the EO trop - so we started all the fun of getting organized to go to the event including our team selection. Crash and I got on a team with Kim Cullen with Gossip, Fred Waters with Tanafon, and Gail Maidens with Bungee. Pretty solid team and I was excited to be a part of it. Unfortunately, Fred and Tanafon were unable to attend (we missed you guys Fred and Del :-) ), but the spot that opened up on our team did allow for Erin and Mach to cave in and join the team - I have to say that I was very happy to have Erin and Mach coming with us as we'd been travelling to the USDAA events together and always had a good time (Crash was also happy to have his "bro" with him for the ride :-) ).
So I'll save all the boring paperwork details and get right to the trip......so we were all set to fly out, just had to wait for Erin and Jeri to show up - but somehow they managed to get lost in Truro, NS and I had to meet up with them to lead them back to my place so that we could all head to the airport together.....thining back on it now, them getting lost was foreshadowing the sh** storm of directional issues we had during this trip.
We got to the airport in time, and had a bit of a conversation with the airline regarding the 6 hr layover we would have in Frankfurt. Obviously we didn't want to leave the dogs in no-man's land for 6 hrs, so we asked if there was any way we could access them during the wait. Of course the answer was no, but they said we could get them out, we would just have to check them back through before we flew to Dusseldorf - no problem right?? WRONG! When we went to check the dogs back in, they tried to charge us 150 euro to get each dog back on the plane!!! They didn't seem to understand that we actually had them checked all the way through to Dusseldorf when we boarded, so if we hadn't taken them out (because of the 6hr layover), the dogs would have gone straight through!!!! In anycase, after an extensive discussion with several different counter clerks, they seemed to have crossed their own trains of thought as they tagged our crates and loaded the dogs without taking a payment from us, HA!!
So now we finally arrived in Dusseldorf, found our rental van, and were on our way to Belgium to hit our first team practice :-) all good now right?? nope......the GPS was posessed by a directional demon that was hell bent on keeping us lost. It took us almost three hours to find the practice site, along which we realized from asking random folks in the area where to go, that no one knows where they are in Belgium, and when the give directions in English, the best you are going to get is "A little bit left, a little be right and straight up zee stairs" (as if any of that is helpful); found a completely different agility field where Erin stepped on a wasp and stung her foot; and Jeri and I went knocking on random doors in the neighborhood to see if we were at the right location.
Practice for the most part went okay (when we finally got there), but I was feeling pretty burnt out, smelly, sticky and cranky - though I'll credit myself in not showing the crankiness very much ;-). We got to meet some of the teammates briefly since we really did just get there before the practice was ending - then we were lucky to have Ann (Carrington) there to lead us back to our hotel.....where the fun continued.....
I'll spare you all the long drawn out details, but in a nutshell - the room that the four of us and the two dogs were supposed to sleep in......had 1 bed......not......ideal.....sooooo, after a few phone calls and some shuffling of the sleeping arrangements, we finally settled in for the night after a pretty intense 24hrs of travelling. My main take-away from the trip so far - stay away from connecting flights!
So the next day was interesting......started out with a lovely walk in the town we were staying in. We were joined by a down pour of rain, followed quickly by the rising sewage water that filled the streets as we hustled back to our hotel to shower 2 or 3 times before getting the smell to go away (exaggerating on the showering, but you get what I mean).
Finally, it ws time to go to our first official practice at the trial site!!
So at the actual EO site, it was safe to say that the atmosphere was much different than any of the trials we had been to previously. Seeing the international teams in their countries colours, and also some of the handlers that we'd only hear about through the agility peers in our community (i.e. the Turkman's and Darrett's of the world). It was pretty cool to see how the stage was being set for such a large international event.....even cooler that we were gonna get to play in it :-)
Practice flew by - it was a very intense but very organized 15 minutes or so. By the end of it, I was winded and soaking in sweat...Crash was looking great - sticking his contacts, running hard and jumping the wall, tire and broad jump nicely. A quick side note on the international agility tire, it's about the size of the hole you would see a groundhog crawl out of....I think Crash came within inches of hitting the top part of it with his head everytime he jumped through it.
After practice wrapped up, the whole Canadian team met up for supper at the "sloshtic brassarie" (this is not the correct spelling, but you are likely pronouncing it correctly if you read that as it is written). Good food and good company made for a nice evening....at least until the cheque came....I'll simply direct you to Erin Piercy's blog for the main details, but I'll give a brief play by play of what happened over the next few hours:
- if Jessica Patterson runs up to you and says something along the lines of, "stay calm, everything is okay but..." my advice is to prepare to hear something completely unbelievable, only with the exception that you need to be aware that it actually has happened
- Mach can either fly (just not accurately as he hit his chin off something in mid-flight while heading to a pool party and scratched his chin, OR, Mach's "Achilles heal" is his chin as it is the only mark we found on him after he apparently dropped a good 30-40ft out of the hotel window
- Carol kicks ass and heart hugs can make anyone feel better at any point in time (I actually used this and will explain in a blog post on another topic)
Needless to say it was quite the stressful evening, but thankfully, everyone ended up being okay (with the exception of Erin maybe losing a few hours sleep that night).
So, morning came and we were off to the trial site for our first runs of the weekend - Team Agility was up first. The course didn't look too bad really, and I felt pretty relaxed going into the main arena for our first run. Sadly, I made the mistake of only focusing on how I would be mentally going into the ring on this day and not if Crash would be affected by the atmosphere, the crowd, etc and it ended up costing me. He broke maybe his 2nd ever start line on me and took an offcourse right off the bat.....E. Gross feeling........we kept running the course and for the most part he handled it well with me. Used the opportunity to train some of his contacts (after all, how often are you gonna get the chance to proof equipment in that kind of environment right?). So, first run down, live and learn, move on to the next round.
Team Jumpers - this one will be much better for sure. Simple enough first sequence, basically a pin wheel into a tunnel, Crash's bread and butter is jumpers, so this one is bound to be better (so I thought).....we got to jump 3 and it was at this juncture that Crash decided he would ass pass me for the first time EVER and go into the wrong end of the tunnel.........E. Gross feeling back again........tried to shake it off and finish the run like we did in the standard, but to be honest, with the few nice sections that he had in this run, he had a few more bobbles with me. So our first day was not exactly as I had hoped. On the brighter side of the equation (which basically was the main reason I wasn't in a "mood", was seeing Erin and Mach run both courses CLEAN!!!!!! After the night they had, I was extremely happy for them and of course very happy that Mach was in good health.
As I watched many of the other handlers throughout this first day, something became very plainly obvious to me - anyone, absolutely anyone can have a bad day. I watched handlers that we would consider to be "invincible" having off courses, bobbles, etc with their dogs, the same as you'd see someone having a troublesome run at our local trials. Maybe everyone else already knew this, but the reason this was such a big deal for me to see was because I can be very hard on myself as a handler/trainer at times - I am just a very competitive person and I enjoy all aspects of competition, good or bad. This sport we play with our dogs (and it is a sport - Olympic calibre if I may add), is so unique and can be so unpredictable from one run to the next, that each and every time you step out onto the course, you know you are going to learn something about you and your dog. Whether it be that you've become more "in tune" with each other since the last trial you competed in, or perhaps you have a bad day (like I had in this case) and you learn important lessons that only make you that much stronger of a team the next day you step into the agility ring. No one is invincible, anyone can beat anyone on any given day - yes some teams may be more consistent than others in the "win" column, but my point is that no matter what the other competitors do, no matter how they run, the ONLY thing in your control is how you perform with your dog - that's it. This is my mentality when I step out into the ring whether it is at a local trial here in Truro, NS, or at an international competition with 400+ dogs competing in the same ring as Crash and I. It's always gonna be just him and I, and wherever we place, however the run goes, I'm cool with that.
It's safe to say that day two was a hell of a lot better. Crash and I were back in our zone - Individual Jumpers was up first and we killed it!!!! CLLLLLLLLLLLLLEAN!!!!! It was such a fun course to run, and yes, to me, this clean run felt much better than any other clean run I've ever had. Not sure exactly what made it that way, but more than likely it was a combination of the great rebound from the severely off day we had on Friday, the crowd of people standing around the ring watching, and simply the fact that it was Crash's first ever clean run at an international competition :-) (hopefully more to come). We ended up 71st out of 406 dogs. We were 2.56 sec out of 20th (top 20 make the finals).....so ya, 51 dogs within 2.56 sec of each other.....crazy. Regardless, I was very pleased with Crash and how he ran - a couple of tighter turns and no bobble while holding him on a threadle arm and we can shave off that 2.56 :-) always something to train!!!
The individual agility was again a very fun run. We did have an off course, but it was no fault of Crash, I just mishandled for a split second and that was all it took to put him into a tunnel. The run itself though felt fantastic. Stuck his contacts, nice weave entry (lost his footing sinking into the sand afterwards, but whatever). It was a very fun run and a great way to end the day.....if you ask Erin what run she liked the best over the weekend, she'll tell you this one - though it definitely wasn't hard to tell if you were around her for the next 2-3 hours as she was playing her run back with Mach on her camera in super super SUPER slow motion, hahaha ;-)
*quick note on the photo above, this was not me putting him off course into a tunnel, he was being a good boy in this shot and I wasn't leading him astray....that only came 2 obstacles after :-P.
So that pretty much wrapped up our European Open - we took the dogs for a walk along some river after we left the trial site......I was a little surprised to see some rather gross things floating in the water....we thought it best not to let the dogs go in as we were unsure as to whether or not the water was contaminated or something......didn't stop some of the locals from jumping off the bridge and into the water.....I didn't say anything at the time, but I couldn't help but think if the people in this community maybe stayed out of the potentially hazardous water, then perhaps they could come up with better directions then, "a little bit left, a little bit right and straight upstairs," when someone asks them for directions.
After our walk, we stopped in at our favourite little store in town (yes we had a favourite store..why was it our favourite you might ask? because they were of course open all hours of the night unlike every other store in the town). The gang had a few "pops" (I couldn't as I was the DD) before we headed into the Netherlands where Kayl and Dante had told us we should come out for a swim (at the hotel they were staying at, along with several other members of our team). Here is a quick play by play of how the evening went and some notes you can take down if you so desired:
- Dante likes to change hotel rooms at random
- Kim really likes giving me hugs (though she calls them headlocks....tomatoes tomAAtoes)
- the hotel works in the Netherlands are super cool
- 10pm DT (Dante Time) is really 12am AT (actual time), so plan accordingly
- wedding receptions in the Netherlands are very loud even though the majority of the people in attendance are over 90
- Erin becomes completely bilingual after having some......"orange juice"
- cool cartwheels in the courtyard (its a tounge twister, I just made it up and yes it applies to this story)
- never mess with the prowess of one Jeri Piercy.....in her words, "JE SUIS DRINK!!!!"
- every group needs its own FES.........Pierre Luc, I'm sure any one of us would be glad to be "FES" when we come hang out with you and your crew in Quebec - good times :-)
So the next morning we all got up , had some breakfast and went to cheer on our Canadian teammates in the finals - they all ran great and it was an absolutely electric atmosphere in that arena....I hope I get the opportunity to run in such conditions at some point....what a RUSH!!!! We were looking pretty awesome I must say with our "ADANAC" tatoos on (never by patriotic items at the dollar store). Closing ceremonies went rather quickly and the next thing ya new, our EO experience had come to a close - though I already have my slogan for next year............I'M HUNGRY FOR HUNGARY!!!!!!
I'd put more pictures in of all this but Erin has all the good pics on her camera.....have to remember to get her to send them to me.....in any case, we headed back to the hotel for our last night in Belgium where we relaxed and got ready to start the journey back to Canada the next day.
We spent our last few hours in Belgium hiking on a local trail which was very nice. We later drove to Dusseldorf where we stayed the night before catching our plane to Frankfurt (connecting us to Calgary) the next day. We did spend a whole day in Dusseldorf though, walking around the older part of town where all the good food spots were - we had some delicious food (for photo, see Erin's blog). It was a really relaxing day and a nice way to wrap up that portion of our two weeks of "crazy" during the summer. Nationals was coming up next and Crash and I were pumped to get at it!!!! We'll save that story for a different post though ;-).
I'm going to wrap this post up with a few thank you's...... to Sissi (Elisabeth) who supports me in all things dog (and life) related - she knows when to leave me be or put me in my place when I need to hear it - I wouldn't have been on this journey had it not been for her and I wouldn't want to do it without her support. Jeri, Erin and Mach for being kick ass travel buddies - nothing like a good agility family :-). The dog sporting community here in the Maritimes for helping us fundraise for our trip. Know that the favour will be returned to anyone looking for the same type of support - we have some awesome teams here in Atlantic Canada and it's only a matter of time before there are lots of internationally ready teams to take the world stage by storm. Dogs in Gear (John and Stephanie) for your support, as well as Betty Blackie at the Stay n Play Canine Centre and Yan Mowatt at Little Moe's K9 Academy - without you guys, practicing in the cold of winter would be impossible and its great that you provide facilities for teams to practice to some extent when the weather isn't the greatest outdoors, Central Nova Animal Hospital for supporting us as well through fundraising activities leading up to our trip :-) Last but definitely not least, our peers in the maritimes who have always been supportive with coaching and constructive criticism over the past few years.....I really love how our agility (or dog sport community in general) accepts new faces in with a smile and helping hand. I'm pretty nearly everyone has provide me with good words of advice at one point or another - to name a few that have probably had the greatest impact on me in the last year or two, John, Tony, Erin, Christine, and Jess..........I could keep going...........just know that I really appreciate you taking the time with me on whatever it is I was asking you about and would return the favour in kind to any other aspiring agility enthusiast :-)
Okay, that's all for now - thanks for reading folks......and sorry if that last part sounded like an acceptance speech of some sorts.....oh well...........
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