Compeition - Day 1

So today was the first day of the competition. They had an opening ceremony, where all the countries and their dogs walked in, just like the parade of nations at the Olympics. It was super cool.

The first dogs up were the large dogs (border collies and such) running jumpers, followed by the medium and small dogs. These courses are nothing like we have in the US, they are very fast and very technical. Each jump height had one dog that had some sort of issue where they were not 100% clean - dropped mar, refusal, etc. A wrong course eliminated your score, and we only had one of those in jumpers. My friend Jenn was clean in her run today, and Blaster was a very good boy.

The large dogs also ran the std course - 2 of 3 dogs had issue and were eliminated for off courses. It was a hard course, right from the beginning - over jump 4 with great speed looking right into the end of the WRONG tunnel. The tunnel the went into was not in their immediate line of sight, and a lot of dogs blew right into that tunnel. The one successful run we had on that course was the one dog that had trouble in jumpers - it is her first time on the team and her first run definitely did not go according to plan, so it was really nice to see her come back. Russia took gold in the large dogs competition, followed by Italy and then Great Britian.

Tomorrow, the rest of the std runs are completed and then the individual runs start. Jenn runs twice tomorrow and once Sunday. GO JENN AND BLASTER!!!

All in all, it was been a great trip so far. Got to see a ton and am learning a ton from watching all these handlers. We have a competition this weekend, and I really hope we do well. There is nothing wrong with the dog - although she might be really pissed at me because first she had to go to gramma's house then today, she had to go to Uncle Joey's house, as gramma and grandpa went to California. I told her to stay out of his trash. Anyway, my point is, there is nothing wrong with the dog, only the handler. As you know, we recently went through a spell of NQ's, which we seem to have resolved - I have concluded that this is the result of my being overconfident and complacent. I have focused a little bit more on managing her, and she has been awesome - so I am hoping for some QQ's this weekend, assuming I am not passed out on the course somewhere....

Hope all is well in the US...up to do this again tomorrow....