My sport, my passion, my obsession...
It's been three days now since the end of the 2010 Australian Agility Nationals held here in Perth this year.
And I'm still in a funk...I got up Monday morning to go back to work after taking most of the previous week off in order to compete and was beset with this feeling of BLAH. I so wanted to go back to the showgrounds and do it all over again!
I have never had so much fun with four days of my favourite sport EVER! Perth saw over 180 handlers arrive from every state in Australia (including Tasmania and the Northern Territory) and nearly 300 dogs of all shapes, breeds, cross breeds and sizes. Nearly 3000 runs were completed by the end of the four day event.
I was running with three dogs this year - my young girl Spryte (3 years old), my boy Cypher (5 years old) and my borrowed playmate Mr Axl (The Koolie who is just three). Over the course of the four days I ran 46 different courses and competed in three different finals.
The upshoot of it all was my little girl Spryte - made three finals - she came second in two of them. One of them we came second by 0.08 of a second (it's that accurate because we have laser electronic timing gates). I'd love to do it all again but now we have to wait another two years - June 2012 - in Sydney.
Highlights of the weekend was the event being so well organised I was able to watch so many of my fellow competitor runs - seeing dogs from all over the country compete was a real treat. And here I give the photographic highlights.
Spryte - finishing her run in the Masters Jumping final - she knocked the first bar down
but finished in style.
Spryte in the Open Jumping Final - now I just wonder where could we have shaved 0.08 of a second on our time!
My friend's dog - Terra who won two finals - an awesome dog to run, such an adrenaline rush!
A bearded collie - aka A Beardie known as Sonic. All the way from Queensland he was magnificent to watch!
Snazzy - a blue merle Border Collie who is doing his best to hug those weave poles tight.
Merlot - A big chocolate and white Border Collie telling his handler how he really feels!
Jezabel - the Smithfield, from Canberra she was a delightfully happy dog to watch - always had a smile on her face.
Once all the gear is packed away - puppy Neala is allowed out to play with her big sister Kwyk.
I managed to finish off three masters titles - one with Spryte and two with Axl - and over the whole weekend qualified in around 15 runs. The courses were great, the judges very nice and the socialising with friends from all over the country fantastic. I talked nothing but dogs and agility for four whole days and never got tired of it. Admittedly by the finals day I was feeling my energy levels drop but a can of Red Bull fixed all that straight away. Mr Redteekal spent four days taking photos ringside and is currently busy fulfilling everyone's orders.
The event has inspired me to work even harder towards the next one - there's no such thing as too much training or conditioning or learning when it comes to this sport and I hope to have young Savvy (a Spryte daughter) competing by then - who knows - maybe she'll even make the Masters class by then? We can but try. So now it's back to reality and daydreaming about how I could make this sport my well paying job!