Today we competed in agility in Switzerland for the first time. All in all it was a good fun day out with the family, and a good reminder for me: my nerves are always at fault.
The competition was at a small village called Fräschels at an indoor agility hall called Rund um Hund. Quite a nice new facility! It was a half day competition for levels 2 and 3 (level 1 competition was a half day in the afternoon). This meant it started early - at 7 - and we needed to leave home by 5:45 to make it there for the 7:30-7:50 lasting registration. It was early wake-up for the whole family..
I signed up for the competition through Agility Online Administration with my Finnish license and Rekku's Finnish record book. (I decided not to get a Swiss one yet, as I do not know how many competitions we can participate in, and Rekku is kinda half retired big medium dog whom I would not ask to jump maxi heights if he would get measured a few mm taller than in 2009 when we started competing in Finland.) Signing up was really easy, but I missed important information like how much does it cost - this was not available in the competition details. Luckily I have already made agility friends who are very helpful :)
Shortly after signing up I got an email with details from the organiser in German. Google translate is my everyday help ;D At the venue this morning, I showed my license and gave the record book, they did not want to see Rekku's passport for vaccinations (which is standard practice in Finland). Payment was also done only at the venue, quite a relaxed way of doing things! Actually the whole competition was nice and relaxed, and yet very professionally and efficiently run. A very good experience! The only downside was that I did not know anyone and felt shy chatting after I tried a few times and got a "I don't speak English" reply in German.. But that's ok, I had my driver and little kennel boy to keep me company :)
The morning started with a jumpers run, which we prepared for very well. So well, we nearly missed our turn as the competition progressed smoothly. Perhaps due to this, I was not so nervous and Rekku ran very well - with the exception of dropping the first bar (my fault, should not have hurried but placed him further from the jump) and the last bar (why, I don't know..). BUT, I missed jump number 16 totally!! I had missed it already when walking the course. So, disqualification because of me. (Out of 9 competitors, only one clean run.)
There was a break for us before agility, so we drove to a very nice looking town of Murten and had a short walk by the lake. Going back, I did not want to miss our turn, so I kept a close eye on the queue of dogs. Waiting in the sun tired Rekku out, and I did not focus enough on getting him excited about the run - so we went soooo slooooow... Nearly 10 secs over the standard course time! I don't think Rekku has ever before gone over the standard course time. He also suddenly hesitated at the weave poles (looking at the audience maybe..?) and that gave us 5 fault points. Thus, we placed 4th.
After the official runs came the open class that everyone could participate in. (I really like this practice, but the Australian way of having it first, before the official classes as a kind of a warm-up might be better..) We got focused a few times, but as it was difficult to know when it was our turn, we went in completely unfocused and the result was pretty hilarious. Or catastrophic.. Both maybe, as I stopped keeping track of mistakes, listened as Rekku gave me feedback on my bad handling and jogged through taking his time looking around and not jumping .. And now that I think of it, maybe he was giving me feedback on the jumps and not my handling. He was tired.
Little kennel boy was asleep, so driver videoed the horrible performance. Look how the judge also stopped paying attention after a while and is on his phone :D
As we went for lunch, Rekku fell asleep immediately. Ok, I get the message, semi-retirement in affect immediately.. And we'll give the Oldie class a thought.
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