18 days and counting

Holy cow, only 18 days left until the World Championships in Austria! I think I should start training for it!?!

Haha, just kidding. I don't blog about it much but Icon and I have been training and cross-training very hard since June. I wobble between feeling ready for anything and feeling totally unprepared. I guess it's natural though :). Most of the training we do involves setting up courses from this years WC judges, Bernd Hueppe and Manuel Alff, and running them. Now I'm worried I spent too much time on course work and not enough time on individual skills. I guess there will always be regrets!

The host country had posted the running order for worlds and they have also posted our photos!

Boy, this is starting to seem real to me now!!!

Time Table:
Friday
Team Jumping Large
Team Jumping Medium
Team Jumping Small
Team Agility Large (this will determine the final country rankings for Large dogs)

Saturday
Individual Jumping Small
Individual Jumping Medium
Individual Jumping Large
Team Agility Medium (this will determine the final country rankings for Medium dogs)
Team Agility Small (this will determine the final country rankings for Small dogs)

Sunday: Individual finals for all heights.
Individual Agility Small
Individual Agility Medium
Individual Agility Large

Team USA got really lucky on the start list (run order)! The worst placements are Karen and Sizzle (running 13th in Individual Medium) and Denise and Zippity (running 14th in Individual Large.) Karen is a veteran so it she'll handle it with grace as she does everything, but I feel bad for Denise and Zippity since it's their first time at worlds... I am very grateful for my number midway into the pack.

Team events:

Team Jumpers
Large- 13th out of 29 countries (this means Focus will be 39th to run, Icon 40th and Juice 41st)
Medium - 16th out of 25 countries
Small- 26th out of 26 countries! (Marcy and Wave will be the last small dog to run in Team Jumpers)

Team Standard - all heights run in order of reverse placement (1st place after Team Jumpers runs last in Team Standard)

Individual events:

Individual Jumpers
Large dogs (125 dogs total)
Denise and Zippity - 14th
Geri and Focus - 48
Channan and Icon - 52
Marcus and Juice - 78
(and deserving honorable mention are Silvina and Maja for Argentina running 90th)

Medium dogs (77 dogs total)
Karen and Sizzle - 13th
Paulette and Rush - 37
Ashely and Luka - 63

Small dogs (79 dogs total)
Dee Anna and Dara - 16th
Marcy and Wave - 51
Katie and Twix -68
Melanie and Kelsi- 73

Individual Standard - all heights run in order of reverse placement (1st place after Individual Jumpers runs last in Individual Standard)