AWC 2014 Luxembourg

Agility World Championship is definetely my favourite competition. I love the atmosphere, the spectators, the songs, the dancing, the possibility to watch and compete against the best competitors in the world, meeting people from all over the world - everything. This year it was really great - first of all, the hall in Coque is really beautiful. Secondly, it is situated both really close to restaurants, shops etc and to a nice park, where we could walk our dogs off leash and relax. The crew was really nice and helpful and whole thing was well organised, apart from minor problems with parking.

I'm glad that measuring the dogs on AWC is getting more strict - we could see this tendency in Liberec already and now also in Luxembourg. To be really perfect, the judges should also check whether a dog is actually not too small for a given category plus of course they should be really objective and really measure all new dogs (as opposed to trying to fit them under a gate for instance or trying to make them stand in unnatural position). I am sorry for some of the teams affected (for some, I'm sure, knew already, cheated and hoped to get away with it and I'm not sorry for them at all), for it must be horrible to take all the journey in good faith and then not be allowed to compete - but then in the long run I think it will be good for everybody. I hope that people will realize the times of running (and winning) in major events with dogs too big for a given category are over. I hope it will eventually result in changing the existing regulations - I think 65 cm is far to high to jump for the dogs which are just over the medium limit and it's difficult for others as well. If it was up to me, I would change the jump heights without changing the existing division in categories, for it would be the simplest possible solution that would benefit everybody.

Anyway, coming back to pleasant things - I loved the fact that again I was able to put real faces to FB friends (especially Marcela Francoso from Brazil, who turned out to be one of the nicest persons on the planet), meet old friends (special thanks to our Norwegian and French supporters :)) and to Kirsten for the lucky pigs - they live on my windowsill now). It was fantastic to meet so many pyrsheps especially du Mourioche gang (I hope to get picture of Brego with his mummy and daddy soon (both versions of it).

I really loved most of the courses as well - the individual small jumping was actually one of the most exciting competitions to watch and it's really not easy to make challenging course for small dogs at this level. I didn't like the fact that the table was used in agility team runs - I think it's a relict of the times where agility was something like obedience, done only with the dog on your left side and with sudden stop on the table. I think now it really affected the results, for most of the dogs never ever see it in any competition (the last time Brava did it was in Lievin) and it's really difficult to release the dog in the exactly correct moment ( I think I've lost like a second because I didn't hear the fucking thing and had to go back to it).

Moreover, stupid thing actually stopped working several times! Also, the judges were not sure how to judge it and there were many bad calls on this obstacle (and some on the others, like several contacts which were clearly done or the fault for Roland Kolenko with Ammy which cost them the gold medal they deserved).

The competition started really great for us - Polish medium team took the gold medal in jumping. Great thing was our team consisted of three pyrsheps from the same litter plus NSDTR who is almost the same colour ;) and really great dog too. I was really happy about the dogs that qualified and I knew it was possible for us to be on the podium - and we did it! The first ever team podium for Poland :D :D :D Unfortunately, the table killed us in agility, but I know we could do better next time we have the chance :).

As for individual runs, I'm really proud of myself and Brava. In jumping, she knocked the wing of the second obstacle, but nevertheless I managed to run till the end and even dared to do double cross near the end. We had really great time. Evo had a nice clean run, which placed him pretty high for the next day, so we were quite hopeful. In agility - again, we missed some luck - the judge dictated a fault on the see-saw and I wouldn't mind it (it was not perfect) if he was consistent with it, but he wasn't. Some better see-saws were called and some worse weren't and it was really difficult to understand his criteria. Otherwise, again we had fantastic run with I think 3rd time (same as Martina with Kiki). Evo had super fast run with fault on the A-frame unfortunately (which is a pity since he was pretty consistently clean recently in competitions). My consolation is that I absolutely love the teams that won - Martina Klimesova with Kiki deserved it for many years and I admire Martina's work with her dogs and how she cares about them. Werner with Esmeralda are just fantastic team to watch, so much joy and such a great relationship :).

Below you can see Roman's and mine individual runs - with big thanks to Leslie Reynoard for the videos :).

Another great consolation was that Monika and Chika had absolutely fantastic agility run and took 3rd place in it, so we had another chance for the run on the green carpet with Polish flags :). Such a young dog and such a great result - I bet there is more to come in the future! :). Lisa with Hoss are class for themselves winning AWC for the 4th time - this is just amazing. Jenny Damm has been an inspiration to me for many years, I love her system, I love her positive thinking and really giving it all in every run, so I'm really happy about her silver medal as well.

We had really nice team this time and really great atmosphere - thanks to you all as well as the supporters from Poland watching us on livestream and sending positive energy.

I am really satisfied with myself this time - I did my best, I ran like the wind, I kept positive attitude and concentration throughout all my runs, so it seems that my mental preparation is working. I want to work a little bit on my condition though for the next season :). Brava was PYRFECT as always and I can always count on her doing her best :). Evo was also fantastic, with perfect sit - stays, great contacts (apart from that one A-frame unfortunately) and his inteligence saving the situation even when Roman slipped a bit and was totally out of position. We both feel so blessed with our bestest yellow doggies, who always run full speed, always find the next logical obstacle and never care about the noise, crowd or anything :). After this World Championship I can say that winning is really nice, but actually running the courses with your canine partner is the best part of it and I enjoyed every second of it :).