Living Agility: Winning South African Agility Championships...

I guess I have to start blogging again at some point... and what better reason than Chinzi winning the SA Champs... a dream coming true... :)

For those who are wondering, it was not easy at all! The mental aspect of getting through this weekend certainly took a lot out of me, and yes, I was on an adrenalin high until yesterday, but today the exhaustion hit me six love. :)

My sweet miracle girl just stepped up and performed above and beyond what I ever could have expected from her.

We were running 15th in the first round draw and just before me Matthew and Tango clocked the first clear run of the round to take the lead with 39.81 sec

As he was getting congratulated from all around, it was our turn to give the course our best shot. I must admit, I absolutely LOVED the course... while walking it I got very excited and was very much looking forward to running it. It was challenging but also flowing and we were going to give it our all. We finished with a clear in 35.88 sec to take the lead.

After our run, another 20 dogs still had to run... we watched, with bated breath as only 2 other dogs managed to run clear in the time... Julie with Chace managed 3rd place after Matthew with Tango, with Chinzi winning the round! I was surprised and elated, all at the same time. This would mean taking the lead, running last in the next round and having all the pressure on!

Once again I loved the course that followed and were eager to get out there. However, after watching dog after dog exiting the poles early, wondering what on earth could be affecting them, trying to find sun reflecting off things, camera lenses, anything it could possibly be, there was nothing to do but go run our round and hope for the best. At first I suspected that it might just be the course design, as there was a jump right after the weaves your dog was not supposed to take, with a tight pull to the left out of the weaves, past one tunnel mouth into the other end... whatever the cause, there was no time to worry about it and our turn to run eventually came... I did not think for one second that Chinzi, my experienced dog, who could do weaves with me standing on my head, would pop out, but she did... I was completely baffled by it and it wasted a lot of time to have to put her back and redo the entire weave obstacle... she still did everything else clear, fluent and fast, but I was devastated. I thought that was the end for us, and that surely this year, as in previous years, 4 clear rounds, maybe with a few time faults, but no course faults, will surely win the Championship.

That evening was a very tough one for me... I went home (ok, not home, but to our very awesome accomodation at Fiddlewood) and watched the video in slow-motion, over and over again... it was as if she just did not see that 3rd last pole at all... a glitch... some dogs came out towards their handlers, which would make sense, them pulling for moving towards the tunnel, but Chinzi popped out away from me... extremely weird... it looked like the poles just moved more than she normally is used to, a true slalom effect, that caught her by surprise...

The next morning I was still battling with why on earth that could have happened when we were watching the course being built and the stakes to pin the weaves down were just put in the ground but not hammered in yet... I noticed the last base section (3 poles) had no stakes... so I asked the course overseer to please make sure all the bases gets staked... true as bob, the last base had no holes! They moved that base to the center and made a plan to stake it down properly for the last two rounds... I cannot remember any dog coming out the poles again! I am convinced that that was the reason Chinzi and a few other very experienced dogs came out... she is not used to that much movement of the poles...

Still the hardest part for me was to put that out of my mind, convince myself that there is absolutely NOTHING I can do about what had happened, it is going to make no difference and I just have to focus on the next two remaining rounds. This was extremely hard for me... you have no idea! :)

I was fortunate to speak to the right person at that time, who helped me realise this, which put me in the position where I could look into my miracle dog's amazing eyes and see that no matter what happens, she is loving every minute of this and that ultimately that is all that really mattered...

Round 3 was another Jumping round with 4 tunnel mouths all very close together... it was going to be all about handling, no verbal would help you here! :) With a go-round after a straight tunnel coming from a very fast section, this was going to prove a very very challenging course. We were lying 2nd after round 2 so we would be running 2nd last. Watching dog after dog bombing out on the tunnels and go-rounds, all I could once again do, was focus on me, my dog and the course...

Chinzi attacked this course with amazing gusto but also responded extremely well to my deceleration and ran another winning round. I was over the moon. :)

The last round was approaching and it was going to be a Contact course with once again a go-round after a dogwalk-straight- tunnel section, onto an A-frame with a u-tunnel underneath... absolutely no lack of challenge! I again loved the course and was actually very happy with the combination of difficulty the judges presented us with this year. Seeing that the qualifying rounds was a tad on the easy side, this is exactly what I expected from the SA Champs... well done to the judges!

Small ran first... dog after dog went into the tunnel instead of up the A-frame... the crowd quickly caught on to it and cheered loudly whenever a dog would correctly go up the A-frame. The Small SA Champion was decided and little Vibe won it his 5th year in a row, well done Lloyd!

Medium was next up and since I was also taking part with Kooiker Caili, I had a turn on the course... Caili LOVES tunnels and also could not resist the tunnel under the A-frame, which resulted in her only DQ of the weekend and not a very good overall result at all. Nevertheless, I think she had fun and did a perfect A-frame contact to end the round off after our elimination. :)

Now about 40 Large dogs had to run before it would be our turn... I almost couldn't watch... and well, I guess I did, but very little of what I saw actually went into my brain... I had only one thing on my mind... our run...

Chinzi obliged and gave me yet another clean smooth run... with me being far ahead of her on the dogwalk, she ran it perfectly while I could race to the end of the tunnel to get into position for the go-round... and up the A-frame she went... the end was in sight and she sailed through to the finish to make me one of the happiest handlers of the day! :)

My miracle girl did it once again... I still cannot believe that this girl who had severed toe tendons at 20 months of age, recovered so miraculously to achieve everything she has achieved thus far... I stand amazed at her courage... she sure is one special little dog!