Saturday, September 26, 2009

I had an awesome time in Austria!! Now I know that if my company moves me to Switzerland at least I will love the culture and food. And it was pretty crazy how everywhere we went we saw agility. We passed about 5 different agility training centers and 1 trial as we were sight seeing around Switzerland/Austria (but we didn't see any agility in Lichtenstein).

The event itself was amazing. I have never experienced anything like the energy and excitement, especially during the finals. Team veterans told me that last year the arena was over twice as big as this year, so it must have been even more energy last year!

I was very happy with how Icon and I did overall. Our second run (when he went under the first jump) was a huge learning experience for me. I released him quietly and he wasn't sure he heard me so he stopped right in front of the jump. I released again and he went under it. Doh! What I SHOULD have done was after he stopped the first time, go back and reset him. After all, that wasn't AKC! It is allowed to reset there so long as you don't touch them. Of course that was a nasty course and I'm not sure I could have gotten Icon passed the tunnel after jump #4 anyway :)

The other 3 runs I thought were great, just a stupid misstep on my part in individual jumpers. My biggest regret there is that I didn't save it for just a refusal instead of pushing him to the back for an off-course. After our last run I was pissed that the judge called a teeter fly-off. But after watching the video I guess I have to admit that it was a good call. :) But Icon and I had a blast on that run!

2 comments:

  1. glad you shared about why Icon stopped at the first jump. My first thought was I wondered if he really heard you as he looked a bit baffled when he stopped. oh well, you both looked absolutely fantastic and truly belonged there! Well done!

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