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2008

SLOVENIAN WINTER CUP COMPETITION - POSTOJNA
15/12/2007

At the first competition for the Slovenian Winter Cup held in school sport hall in Postojna I ran with Cita, Myf and Tanja's Rudi.
My runs with Rudi weren't very bad. Considering that we had only two training together, because of bad weather, in agility run each of us made only one mistake on the course: Rudi jumped contact zone on the dogwalk and I, still surprised with that (Rudi usually has really solid and fast contacts), forgot to tell him command for slalom (Tanja has quite different commands than I) so Rudi entered the slalom, look at me and went out. In jumping run we were better attuned so we won 1st place in that run (3rd in jumping was Rudi's "aunt" Mawlch Shay).

Rudi

From the same reasons (bad weather) I trained with my dogs even less than with Rudi, which was shown in Postojna.
In agility run I didn't even tried to make contacts with Cita, I just ran and, at the end, that came out well, Cita only knocked one bar, where I pushed her too much after sharp turn (after "pull in"), but all contacts she made corectelly... surprisingly :-)). In jumping I forgot that Cita isn't young anymore and that she is not "pushing" towards obstacles like before, so I called her too early in one semicircular part of the course. Therefore we had refusal because Cita tuned to me before she took the jump (my mistake, I handled her like I run with Myf and not like I should run with her).
Myf was DK in both runs, but because the reason for that was the lack of training and Myf's high excitement, I wasn't unhappy (results).

CROATIAN CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS - ZAPRESIC
11/11/2007

In the final competition of the Croatian Championship, which was held in the riding hall of the horse club "Trajbar team" in Zapresic near Zagreb, I ran with Cita and Myf. Sara ran the agility run with Cap and I ran jumping with him.
With Myf I made both runs without a mistake. In both agility and jumping I was 2nd and that was enough to win A3 Large class.
With Cita, although the judge didn't see that correctly :-), I was DK in both runs. But I wasn't unhappy. This, the last, competition of the Croatian Championship was just formality for me and Cita, because we were strongly in the lead and it was a sure thing that we'd remain in the lead after the last competition.
Sara and Cap were unfortunately DK in the agility run and, because she felt tired (she is pregnant again :-)), we decided that I should run jumping with Cap. We ran very nicely and won that run.
At this competition her debut had our friend Petra and her Mawlch Lars.

The points that we got in this competition were enough for Myf to become 2nd in overall placement of Croatian Championship and Cita, as suggested above, won the title of the Croatian agility Champion for 2007.

Runner-up and the Winner of Croatian Championship in Large category

In A2 Large class in overall placement of Croatian Championship our friend Janja Kanjuh won 1st place with Mawlch Glen. Also, with her mix-breed Ela, Janja again became Croatian Champion in Small category. Sincere congratulations (results).

AGILITY SEMINAR IN RAVENNA
03-04/11/2007

My visit to the dog school Dog Star Village near Ravenna was very pleasant. I was invited to come by Omar Babini, an Italian national team member.
The number of participants wasn't too big, so we had a lot of time for both theory and practice. Most of the dogs and the handlers were beginners, some of them really talented ones. The dogs were all Border Collies and one Jack Russell Terrier.
There were a few familiar faces, like Barbara and Ilenia Paschino who helped me a lot with translations (thanks :-)).
I enjoyed working with handlers very much and I hope I gave them some new ideas which will help them in their future training.

HUMANITARIAN COMPETITION - LJUBLJANA
27/10/2007

At competition in Ljubljana organized by the dog club KD Ljubljana together with the Slovenian agility committee I ran only with Myf, but not very successfully. I didn't have much time to train Myf, because Sara is preparing her for a search and rescue test. Therefore, Myf was a bit too excited and that resulted with: all the contact zones jumped, a "fly off" on the see-saw and a wrong entrance in the slalom :-). But in jumping, although Myf knocked one bar, she was the fastest. The winner of A3 Large was Myf's mother Meg. Congratulations!

Mawlch Lynn

In A1 Large, her debut had our friend Darja and her Mawlch Lynn.
All the money from the competition was aimed for help to the flood affected dog club in Skofja Loka. The sum collected was enough to buy a new set of agility obstacles (results).

11TH COMPETITION FOR SLOVENIAN CHAMPIONSHIP - NAKLO
13 /10/2007

At competition in Naklo I ran with Cita and Myf.
Unfortunately Cita knocked two bars in both runs. In jumping, though, she had a very fast time.
Myf was 2nd in the agility run and 1st in jumping, and she was 1st in overall placement in A3 Large.

Myf

In A1 Large our friend Polona with Cita's daughter Shay was 1st in jumping.
In the same class three Mawlch Border Collies had their debut: Bruna's Loch, Mario's Sky and Mateja's Sian (results).

12TH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS - HAMAR, NORWAY
28-30/09/2007

From 28th to 30th of September 2007 12th Agility World Championship was held in Hamar (Norway). The venue was Hamar OL-Amfi Arena, the largest wooden made building in the north of Europe and it was built for the Winter Olympic Games in 1994.
There were national teams from 32 countries - 28 teams in the Large category, 23 in Medium and 21 in Small. In the individual competition there were 117 dogs in the Large category, 64 in Medium and 65 in Small.
The members of our team were: (LARGE) Zeljko Gora with Djurdja Simply Divine (Malinois, female), Tanja Janes with Miska Certisa (Croatian Sheepdog, female), Alen Marekovic with Drava Certisa (Croatian Sheepdog, female) and Mawlch Myf (Border Collie, female) and Domagoj Vidovic with Tzigane's Furija Hita (Tervueren, female).

Croatian team

The organization was good, although the official veterinarian was sometimes too intrusive. Artificial grass as the surface was nice and didn't present a problem to most of the dogs. The judges were Michel Liekens, our old acquaintance from Belgium, and Yngve Sommer from Norway.
On Friday morning, after the opening ceremony, the competition started with the Large jumping individual. This year, I believe for the first time in the history of our participation in European/World Championships, all of our team members ran clear runs. So, we finally broke our "bad start" tradition. Tanja with Mishka made a fantastic run and was placed on 7th place. Cita was on the really good 19th place, Myf on 26th, Zeljko with Djurdja on 49th and Domagoj with Hita on 57th.
The last run of the first day was a nice agility run (with the table!) for the Large teams by Michel. Croatian team was the same as the last year, when we won, although I didn't run with Cap, but with Myf. Like last year, Tanja ran first, then me, then Domagoj. Unfortunately, immediately after Tanja's run, our hopes for a good result went down the hill. A bit distracted after a refusal on one jump, Tanja lost her concentration for a second and that resulted with Mishka jumped wrong jump - DK. Domagoj and I ran clear, Myf was placed 6th in that run.
Saturday later in the afternoon we had our second team run. It was not easy but fluent jumping by Yngve.
Tanja had problems similar to the one in the first team run - first refusal and latter on DK. Domagoj and I again ran clear. This time Myf was even better, she gained 4th place.
Although we were a little bit sad because of the bad team result, on Sunday our hopes were again high. We believed that a few of our dogs had a good chance for an excellent overall individual placement, especially Tanja and Mishka.
Domagoj ran first, no fault, but not so fast. Zeljko also did a clear run, a little faster than Domagoj, but they both got some time penalty (standard time was really tight). With Myf I made the same mistake as last year, I pushed her to the side from the contact zone on the dogwalk.
With Cita I started nice and fast. Fast and clean dogwalk, good see-saw (although judge didn't share that idea), but when she entered the tunnel (after slalom), I went too far ahead... when she exited the tunnel, she didn't see me, only heard me and she went back to the tunnel - DK.
Tanja and Mishka also didn't make it, Mishka knocked one bar.
Oh well... maybe next year (results).

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION - PROSECCO NEAR TRIESTE, ITALIA
23/09/2007

At the international competition in Prosecco near Trieste I ran with Cita and Myf.
Because the running surface at this competition was artificial grass for hockey, I found this competition very useful as the last training before the World Championship.
Myf ran very fast in the agility run, but she jumped the zone on the A-frame. Cita was DK in that run, because I was really just using the run to practice her contacts.
In jumping Myf was running without fault, but because she almost refused one jump (she went towards the tunnel), we lost a lot of time. Cita ran nicely and quite fast, but she knocked one bar (results).

SLOVENIAN EUKANUBA CUP - HRUSICA
15/09/2007

At the finals of the Slovenian cup competition, which was held in Hrusica, near the Austrian border, I participated with Cita and Myf.
With Myf I was DK in both runs (I was experimenting a bit with a different handling). With Cita I was DK in the agility run (because of training of the contact zones) and I was 2nd in the jumping run.
In A1 Large class Tanja was 1st with Rudi (Kal Con Maige) – son of Mawlch Grom and Tanja’s Mishka. Sincere congratulations (results).

10TH COMPETITION FOR SLOVENIAN CHAMPIONSHIP - LJUBLJANA
08/09/2007

At competition in Ljubljana organized by the dog club KD Krim I ran with Cita and Myf. Sara ran with Cap.
In A3 Large Myf was 2nd in the agility run with only one hundredth of a second slower time than the first placed Paolo Busan and Nika.
In the same run Cita knocked one bar and achieved a very good time considering I was asking her to lye down on the contacts (she did all the contacts and I was very happy :-)).
In jumping both Cita and Myf knocked one bar.
Cap was DK in both runs.

Ivana and Graa

In A2 Large Ivana Kirik and her Croatian Sheepdog Mawlch Graa took 1st place overall. In the same class, in the agility run Graa was 2nd and her brother Grom was 1st.
In jumping 1 Polona and her Croatian Sheepdog Mawlch Shay were 1st (they were the fastest, almost 2 seconds faster than all the other dogs). Congratulations to all (results).

9TH COMPETITION FOR SLOVENIAN CHAMPIONSHIP - LJUBLJANA
01/09/2007

At competition in Ljubljana organized by the dog club KD Ljubljana I participated with Cita and Myf, and Sara with Cap.
In A3 Large the 1st place overall was won by Myf, she was also 1st in the agility run. Cita was DK in agility and 3rd in jumping.
Cap was, unfortunately, DK in both runs (results).

INTERNATIONAL AGILITY FESTIVAL - PETERBOROUGH, UK
10-12/08/2007

To the Kennel Club International Agility Festival that took place from 10th to 12th August 2007 at the East of England Showground in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire I went together with three of my friends from KOSSP Zagreb - Tanja Janes with dogs Zvoncek (mix-breed) and Mishka (Croatian Sheepdog), Elizabeta Ferk with Tira (mix-breed) and Visnja Deci with Ysabelle (Miniature Schnauzer).
I participated only with Cita.
Probably the biggest Agility dog show ever staged in the UK was held from Friday afternoon to Sunday evening in 16 competition rings. Organization was smooth, casual, without any nervousness, with a smile on the faces. The atmosphere was fantastic.
There were over 22 countries represented, there were competitors even form Japan, New Zealand and South Africa. This year there was entered an unbelievable number of 2168 dogs, which was about 600 dogs more than last year. And the weather was fine, no typical English rainy and cold weather (oh well... except during the night).
In two days I ran 10 runs, and from significant results I can mention Cita's 4th place (out of 132 dogs) in the KC British Open, which was one of the qualifying runs for the KC British Open final, and 5th place in jumping Class 6 (in UK there are 7 classes). Although Tanja and Mishka were also 4th in one of the KC British Open runs, from our Large dogs only Cita managed to qualify for British Open finals (only 3 best placed foreign handlers had the right to participate in that run), but I didn't run good in the finals - I was DK.

First three in the finals of the KC Starters Cup Medium

In the British Open finals Medium Visnja and Ysabelle won the fantastic 2nd place. And our most successful team member was definitively Tanja, who won the 1st place 6 times with Zvoncek, including the finals of the KC Starters Cup. By the way, Zvoncek, Ysabelle and Cita got the special invitations to Crufts 2008.
On Monday after the competition, camping area was emptying, most of the competitors were moving to Ipswich for the next big event - the agility competition "Dogs In Needs", the competition from which all the income is going for dog rescue organizations. Over 600 caravans were gone, all the people and their dogs, and everything was cleaned and looked like nothing happened... not even one piece of paper was left (results).

AGILITY WORKSHOP IN TROISDORF, GERMANY
31/07-02/08/2007

The day after the European Open, together with my friends Zeljko, Polona and Silvia, I went directly to Germany, to a small town called Troisdorf near Bonn. There, at the dog club Hundesportgruppe Rhein-Sieg, a three-day-long agility workshop was held and I was again one of the trainers. Other trainers were: Silvia Trkman (SLO), Hinky Nickels (LUX/GER), Jan Vesaletho and Jana Lindfoors (SF) and Steffen Ruschinski (GER).
There were 33 participants divided in 7 groups and each trainer worked 45 minutes per day with each group.

Jan, Hinky, Jana, Silvia, Steffen and I

When we arrived from hot Italy to cold Germany, at first the weather difference was a big shock for us, but after we put all our clothes on, we felt better :-). It was nice to see my fellow colleagues Hinky and Steffen and always friendly Bernd and Haike, our hosts from the club.
I was also very glad that I met Maike and Florian, the owners of Myf's daughter Mawlch Ond Un/Keen (and, of course, saw little sweet Keen again).
It was nice to be in Troisdorf again, because I always meet so many new people there and I spend really nice time working and talking with them.

All together

EUROPEAN OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP - CASTELLETTO DI LENO
ITALY
28-29/07/2007

There were little more than 600 dogs from 22 countries present at the EO 2007 in Italy. The Croatian team - team of KOSSP Zagreb was participating with 13 dogs. I ran there with three - Cita, Myf and Cita's son Grom, whom I borrowed from his owner Jasna (thanks Jasna :-)).

Cita and I

Sara was also planning to participate at EO with Cap, but Cap injured his back a few weeks before the big event. Cap was swimming a lot during our vacation on an island in the Adriatic Sea and we were hoping that he'd be ready for running at EO, but we didn't want to risk a more serious injury.

Myf

In short, I didn’t run well this year at EO. I could complain about the sand being totally unfit as the surface for agility, but my main problem wasn't the sand, it was the lack of any agility training for two weeks before the competition (it is a bit irresponsible, but we were on vacation ;-)).

Grom

Despite everything (my bad results, sand in my shoes...) I enjoyed being there, like I always enjoy when I'm in Italy (results).

JUDGING IN FINLAND
06-08/07/2007

I was invited to judge at the three-day-long competition in Finland. The competition called Agirotu is a traditional all breed competition organized annually in Finland. This year Agirotu was organized in Vöyri, about 400 km north from Helsinki.
At first I was very surprised when I landed at Vaasa airport at 1.30 AM and saw that it was still daylight outside. But soon I got used to this Polar night… or should I say Polar day situation. I had more problems with the typical Finnish summer weather. I was informed by the organizers that they were expecting nice sunny weather all three days, so I packed lightly, only a few T-shirts, two shorts and jeans. And one light jacket. But the weather was not sunny, it was cold, windy and mostly rainy, so if they hadn’t borrowed me some clothes and a raincoat… well, I'll remember my Finnish summer well:-).
Don't get me wrong, altogether the experience was great.
I was judging Agility 3 Large and Jumping 3 Medium on the Friday, Agility 1 Small and Medium, Agility 2 and 3 Large on the Saturday and Agility 2 Small and Medium on the Sunday. The dogs in the higher level really impressed me, especially how strong the competition was in Medium and Small categories. There was almost the same number of dogs in all three categories (that's never the case at the competitions that I'm going to). For example, on Saturday there were 197 Small dogs, 175 Medium and 202 Large dogs. And I got a feeling that there weren't many Border Collies or Shelties… the variety of breeds running was really amazing (to be honest, I was most fascinated with crazy fast Kromfohrländers, but you must admit that it is also very interesting to see Saluki running).
The most difficult thing was judging "the costume parade" where my Swedish college, Marie Hansson, and I needed to choose the best dressed group of handlers. There were Vikings, Rat-killers, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Professional dancers, Lab-animals, Lucky Luke and the Daltons… about 40 different groups and the choice really wasn't easy.

I was very happy to see Anne Savioja again. I meet her and Mia (Laamanen) when I was at AWC in Helsinki in 2000. The Croatian team encountered some problems and Mia and Anne really gave us a lot of support when we need it the most.
Anne was, like me, one of the judges, but she also ran a few runs with her dog.
It was also great to meet Tarja and Tommi and to see their Croatian Sheepdogs Satiainen and Puubi. Puubi was the first Croatian Sheepdog imported in Finland and I’m very happy that I helped Tarja and Tommi to get her. Satiainen (Mawlch Satir) is a lovely young male from Cita's 2nd litter. I was very impressed how Tommi ran with Puubi and I was happy to hear that young Satiainen is following in her footsteps.

Friday's agility 3 Large course

Friday's jumping 3 Medium course

THERMENLAND TURNIER - AUSTRIA
01/07/2007

Immediately after the competition in Domzale I, with some friends from my Club, went to Austria where, in a little village named Unterweissenbach near Feldbach, another competition was held. The kynological event "Thermenland turnier" consisted of a competition in BGH (basic or lower obedience), GH (obedience), agility and breitensport. Breitensport is a very popular dog sport in Austria, but it is a little bit too difficult for me to explain what it is about - there are obedience exercises, running exercises, obstacle exercises...
I participated with Myf in agility and BGH, with Cita and Cita's son Grom in agility.
I didn't plan to take Grom to Austria but that seemed a good opportunity for one of our rare trainings together, before our participation at the European Open (I'm very happy that Grom's owner Jasna offered me to run with Grom at the EO). In the agility run we misunderstood each other a few times, which resulted with DK, but in jumping Grom and I ran a clear run and won. In the overall placement in A2 Large class we were 4th.
With Cita I was overall 3rd in A3 Large class. In jumping she was the fastest, but she knocked two bars.
With Myf I won in both agility and BGH competition and was pronounced the overall winner of Thermenland turnier (more about BGH competition).

7TH COMPETITION FOR SLOVENIAN CHAMPIONSHIP
CACIAG DOMZALE
30/06/2007

At the competition in Domzale I ran with Cita and Myf.
In CACIAg (agility) run Myf unfortunately knocked the spread jump. But she was 1st in jumping and 3rd overall.

Myf on spread jump

Cita was quite fast in CACIAg run, but she surprisingly jumped the zone on the A-frame in the agility run (and I thought that her weak spot is the dog walk contact :-)). In the jumping run she started excellently, but at the end of the run, she either slipped down or hit something by the entrance into the tunnel, because she exited that tunnel on three legs. She was running some more and even jumped the next hurdle before I noticed that something was wrong. Fortunately, after a short examination, I realised that it wasn’t anything serious (results).

6TH COMPETITION FOR SLOVENIAN CHAMPIONSHIP - SELCA
23/06/2007

At the competition in Selca near Skofja Loka I ran with Cita and Myf.
Myf knocked one bar in the agility run and in jumping she was 4th (I believe because I miss-handled her before the entrance of the slalom and lost a lot of time).
She was 3rd in the jumping run and 3rd overall, but in the agility run she knocked the spread jump.
Cita was DK in the agility run and in jumping she knocked one bar.

Cita and I

In the A1 class, Tina Solar with Mawlch Mac, Myf’s brother, won in overall placement. In the same class Cita’s young daughter, Mawlch Siva won 3rd place in the jumping run. Sincere congratulations (results).

13TH INTERNATIONAL AGILITY WEEKEND - GEEL, BELGIUM
16-17/06/2007

For me, it is always a pleasure to come to Geel, a little place in Belgium, where every year an International agility weekend competition is held. This year it was the 13th year and the organizer was, like the previous years, the dog club DDV Herentals.
On both days of the competition there were about 450 competitors form a lot of European countries.
Among the judges there were two judges who will judge this year's World Championship in Hamar - Michel Liekens from Belgium and Yngve Sommer from Norway.
I ran with Cita and Myf. From better results I could only mention Myf's 3rd place in Open on Sunday.

AGILITY WORKSHOP - GEEL, BELGIUM
14-15/06/2007

On Thursday and Friday, before the big international weekend competition, an agility workshop with about 40 participants was held at the same place - at the domain "Zonnedauw", a youth hostel of 5 hectares.
I was one of the four trainers. Other trainers were: Sylvain Jacquemin (France), Heidi Zahn (Germany) and Tina-Marie Jørgensen (Denmark).
The participants were able to choose the trainer with whom they wanted to work and according to that they were divided into eight groups each day. There were handlers from Belgium, Poland, Slovenia, Germany... some of them were beginners, while some were much more experienced. Although the sessions were short, it was very nice to work with them.

AGILITY SEMINAR IN BASOVIZZA
02-03/06/2007

I was invited by Luciana Ierneti, a member of the Agility Club La Bora, to come and hold an agility seminar in Basovizza, a town basically on the Slovenian-Italian border. Luciana is an agility handler whom I have known for many, many years. We meet regularly at competitions in Slovenia and sometimes she, together with some other members of her Club, also participates at Croatian competitions. I was very happy to accept her invitation. I was also looking forward to see Masa Stranj and Paolo Busan there, another two agility friends with whom I compete regularly.
The atmosphere at the seminar was really friendly because a lot of the participants, like the above mentioned Masa and Paolo or, for example, Lorenzo Celic and Carlo Marcato, I knew well.
I really enjoyed working with them and I hope they learned something they'll be able to use in their future training.
Thanks to Masa and Laura (Ceccolini) for translation.

Participants

5TH COMPETITION FOR SLOVENIAN CHAMPIONSHIP - SLOVENSKA BISTRICA
26/05/2007

At the competition in Slovenska Bistrica I ran with Cita and Myf, and Sara ran with Cap.
Myf was 3rd in the jumping run and 3rd overall, but in the agility run she knocked the spread jump.
Cita was DK in both runs. In the jumping run she again knocked the first bar (that was the third consecutive competition in which she had done that) so I replaced the bar and started from scratch. She then made a fast and clear run, but of course it was officially DK.
Cap had two faults in the agility run (spread jump and bar) and he was DK in jumping.

Mawlch Mist

In the A1 class, Iztok Hirsenfelder and Mawlch Mist, sister of my Myf, won in both agility and the jumping run. In the A3 class, overall winner was Mist and Myf’s mother, Meg, with her handler, Andrea Jakopic. Sincere congratulations to both (results).

FRONTLINE COMBO - MONZA
20/05/2007

At the great competition in Monza, Italy, sponsored by Frontline, I participated with Cita, Myf and Cap.
Although I had not trained with Cap since the end of last year, I achieved a much better result with him than I did with either Myf or Cita.
Cap was 3rd in the agility run and 12th in jumping. This resulted in an ever unpopular 4th place overall (especially unpopular at this competition, where only the first three places in the overall competition received prize money).
Myf was 37th in the agility run (she jumped a contact zone on the dogwalk) and was DK in jumping.
Cita was 72nd in the agility run (among other mistakes that we made, poor old Cita fell from the dogwalk) and, like Myf, she was DK in jumping (results).

4TH COMPETITION FOR SLOVENIAN CHAMPIONSHIP - MARIBOR
19/05/2007

At the competition in Maribor I ran with Cita, Myf and Cap (Sara was supposed to run with Cap, but she had to remain at home due to Vilim being unfortunately ill).
In the agility run I was 1st with Cap, and we gained 3rd place overall (in jumping, Cap surprisingly had a refusal at the slalom entrance).

Cap and I

Cita knocked the first bar and barely made the contact zone on the A frame, so I decided to repeat the A frame, even though it would result in DK. In jumping she ran well and was placed 2nd.
Myf was DK in the agility run (she fell from the dog walk!?, after which I repeated the sequence before the dog walk), and in jumping she knocked one bar (she had a time one hundredth of a second faster than Cita :-)) (results).

AUSTRIAN SELECTION FINALS - BADEN
12-13/05/2007

Together with two other members of the Croatian national team that won the AWC 2006 in Basel - Tanja Janes and Domagoj Vidovic - I was invited to participate as a guest in the finals of the Austrian selection for their national team (which would represent Austria at the AWC in Norway this year). Unfortunately, however, Tanja was unable to attend with Domagoj and me.
The competition was held indoors and the eight runs that we ran over the two days I used mainly as carpet practice for my dogs (they were really slipping a lot).
A specific aspect of this competition was that "guest handlers", about two dozen of us, from Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Austria, were running the same courses, but separately from the candidates for the Austrian national team. Also, our results were counted separately. So there were actually two competitions: a “Selection Competition” and an “Invitation Competition”.
I ran with Cita and Myf. Although I was not very successful, Domagoj managed to win the “Invitation Competition”. Congratulations.

3RD COMPETITION FOR CROATIAN CHAMPIONSHIP - ZAGREB
05/05/2007

At the third competition for the Croatian Championship, which was held at our club (KOSSP Zagreb), I ran with Myf and Cita. Sara did not participate with Cap because he had injured a nail during the training session prior to the competition.
Although Cita knocked one bar in both agility and jumping (I need to work harder on Cita's fitness) she came 3rd in the agility run, and she won in the overall placement. Funny, isn't it? :-).
Myf was 1st in the agility run and 2nd in the overall placement. In jumping, Myf did something which is beginning to be typical of her - she ran into the entrance of "U" tunnel that was furthest away from me - and she was DK.

Jasna Sen, owner of Mawlch Grom (Cita's son) asked me to run with Grom, jumping 3 course, after the last dog in the official competition, just to see how things would go. And it went quite well - Grom made the course without a mistake and was almost two seconds faster than all other dogs in the official competition :-).

In the A2 class, Janja was 1st in the agility run with Glen, and they won again in the overall placement. Sincere congratulations!

2ND COMPETITION FOR CROATIAN CHAMPIONSHIP - VARAZDIN
29/04/2007

At the second competition for the Croatian Championship, organized by the KD Varazdin 1181 Club, I ran with Myf and Cita, and Sara ran with Cap.
Cita was 1st in the agility run; she knocked one bar in jumping and gained 2nd place in the overall placement.
Myf was unfortunately DK.
Sara and Cap were DK in the agility run and they incurred two faults in jumping.

Cap

Janja Kanjuh, who was also the chief organizer of the competition in Varazdin, won 1st place in both agility 2 and jumping 2 run with Glen. She therefore won in that class. Sincere congratulations!

3RD COMPETITION FOR SLOVENIAN CHAMPIONSHIP - PTUJ
28/04/2007

At the competition in Ptuj I ran with Cita and Myf, and Sara ran with Cap, although we were not very successful.

Cap

In the agility 3 all our dogs ran - Cita, Myf and Cap – all were DK.
In jumping 3 run Cita came only 4th, and both Myf and Cap knocked one bar (results).

JUDGING IN ITALY
21-22/04/2007

I was again invited by my dear agility friend, Irma Bertolini, to judge at the two-day-long competition organized by her dog club "Why Not! Dog". The competition was held in a pleasant park area in Sant'Ilario d'Enza, a town situated between Reggio Emilia and Parma. Besides me, judges were Fulvio Frixione, Bruno Piccinelli and my close friend from the FCI Agility Committee, Paolo Meroni.
There were about 200 dogs on Saturday and about 340 dogs on Sunday (from that number 190 dogs were from the 3rd degree, because Sunday's competition was counted as qualification for the Italian teams that would participate at the EO and IMCA Championships).
I built the courses for Jumping 1 and Agility 3 on the Saturday and Agility 2 and 3 on the Sunday.

Saturday's agility 3 course

Sunday's agility 3 course

AGILITY SEMINAR IN SIÓFOK
09-10/04/2007

I was invited by Zsuzsa Veres, Hungarian team member and owner of the young Croatian Sheepdog, Kaj Con Maige, to hold an agility seminar in Hungary. The seminar was held in Siófok, near Lake Balaton. That was my first seminar in Hungary.
The level of participants was very varied - from the top Hungarian handlers to real beginners. I enjoyed working with all of them and I hope that they will be able to use some of the things I showed them in their further training.
I really enjoyed spending some time with Zsuzsa Veres and Kriszta Kabai; they helped me more than just with translations.

Participants

I was also very pleased to see Zsuzsa Pappne Fejes and her Mawlch Goss, a pup from our "G litter", and also Goss's promising son, Tod.

Mawlch Goss & his son Tod

2ND COMPETITION FOR SLOVENIAN CHAMPIONSHIP - AJDOVSCINA
07/04/2007

At the competition in Ajdovscina I ran with Cita and Myf.
In agility 3 run, which was really too easy, I had a clear run with Cita, while with Myf I incurred a fault in the slalom. Myf stumble over the slalom base and missed the second gate.
In jumping 3, Cita was 3rd, winning 3rd place overall. In the same run Myf was really fast, but she knocked one jump (results).

1ST COMPETITION FOR CROATIAN CHAMPIONSHIP - KUTINA
01/04/2007

At the first competition for the Croatian Championship, organized by the KD Kutina Club, I ran with Myf and Cita, and Sara ran with Cap.
I was competing with Myf for the first time for a long time (the last time I competed with her was at the beginning of December, 2006). She was 2nd in the agility run and the fastest in jumping, but she knocked one bar. She was 3rd in the overall placement.

Myf

I came 3rd with Cita in the agility, 4th in jumping and 2nd in the overall placement.

Cita

Sara was DK in agility with Cap and 1st in jumping (results).

1ST COMPETITION FOR SLOVENIAN CHAMPIONSHIP - PRESTRANEK
17/03/2007

At the competition in Prestranek, which was held in riding hall, I ran with Cita and Sara ran with Cap.
Before competition started I noticed that Cita had broken a nail, so the only thing to do was to cut it there and then. Fortunately, it did not influence her high spirits to any great degree.
In the agility 3 run both Cita and Cap knocked the spread jump. But because of the fact that, for the first couple of dogs (including Cap) the spread jump was placed too widely, Sara had the opportunity to run one more time. Unfortunately, she did not benefit from that, and she was DK at her second attempt. I believe that this really disappointed Sara, so she did not really concentrate in the jumping 3 run. This resulted with another bad run (but I think that it was no big deal because this was Sara and Cap's first competition after an almost 18-month break).
In the jumping 3 run, although Cita and I incurred no faults, we were placed only 4th.

In this competition Myf's mum, Meg, was first in both the agility 3 and jumping 3 runs. Sincere congratulations (results).

AGILITY SEMINAR IN REGGIO EMILIA
23-24-25/02/2007

The three-day-long seminar that was held in Reggio Emilia was organized by the "Why Not! Dog" Club. I was very happy to meet up again with some of my Italian agility friends: Andrea, Irma, Barbara, Ilenia, Erika, Luka...
As I had previously known most of the handlers that participated at my seminar it really felt like home and I enjoyed every minute of the time I spent working with them.
I hope that the feeling was mutual :-).

Some of participants (Sunday's group)

AGILITY SEMINAR IN AREZZO
27-28/01/2007

The weekend seminar that was held in Arezzo was organized by the Dakota Dog Club. My kind hosts were Massimo Campini, the club's agility trainer, and Simonetta Feri, through whom the seminar was arranged. Besides Simonetta, my acquaintance Giovanna Mancini (who also participated in the seminar) helped with English-Italian translations.
I enjoyed working with the handlers and I also believe that they were satisfied with my lectures (they have already asked me to come to Arezzo again). I think that I managed to show them a somewhat different approach to agility training from that which they are used to. I hope that they will be able to use some of what I passed on in their further training.

The participants

COMPETITION IN GORNJA RADGONA
20/01/2007

At the competition in Gornja Radgona, which was held in one of the halls of the fair complex, I ran with Cita.
Maybe (too) anxious after a long break, Cita failed to wait at the start and knocked the first jump in the first run. As you can imagine, that upset me considerably, and so we finished that run with DK.
In the jumping 3 run, both Cita and I knocked one bar, but because the dear judge did not disqualify me we were the fastest in that run.

At this competition Myf's brother, Mac, and his owner Tina, made their agility debut (results).

AGILITY SEMINAR IN BELGIUM
13-14/01/2007

At the invitation of my long-time agility friend, Ivo Tielens, from the K.V. Genebos – Ham Dog Club, I participated in the agility workshop as one of the instructors. The workshop was held in the small town of Merksplas, near Turnhout, Belgium (near Turnhout is also Geel, where an annual International agility weekend competition is held and in which Croatian competitors regularly participate).
Besides me there were three other instructors - Matthias Lohse and Rene Blank from Germany, and Werner Rousseau from the Netherlands.

Rene, Matthias (kneeling), me and Werner

Participants were mostly well known Belgian agility competitors who are themselves agility trainers in their own clubs. I know most of them very well and with some, like Carl De Rouck or Alex Kimps, I have competed for more than 10 years.
Handlers were divided into four groups, and with each instructor they had one hour of training every day. I hope that even in that short time they learnt something that will prove useful for training their dogs, as well as for training other agility handlers.

I used this trip to visit Falcon (Mawlch Sweep), a pup from our last litter, who lives in Belgium with his owner and handler, Michael Meznar.

Workshop participants

2006

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