2009 World Agility Championships

Day Two – September 19, 2009

AKC Medium Dog Team wins Silver Medal!!!!

The Medium dog team of Jennifer Crank and Shetland Sheepdog "Blaster," Ashley Deacon & Pyrenean Shepherd "Luka," and Karen Holik with Shetland Sheepdog "Sizzle" made a come from behind move to capture the Silver medal in the Medium Team Competition. The team started in 9th place at the beginning of this final round for them. After three textbook perfect runs they moved into 1st place. It was not until Finland ran, that the team moved down to 2nd place. This held while the other top teams finished their runs. At the end of the round Finland won Gold, AKC/USA Silver and Slovenia Bronze. In the actual Standard round the AKC team was 1st place overall with three perfect runs. They were the only team, of the 26 competing that had three clear runs in this final class.

Small Dog Individual

Day two of the 2009 FCI Agility Championships started with the Small Dog Individual walk throughs at 8 am. The AKC/USA Team sponsored by I Love Dogs, Inc. has four individuals entered in this competition. The course designed by Judge Manuel Alff, once again provided a continual series of challenges for the handlers and dogs. The closing sequence from #17-20 did allow the dogs to fly off the course and provided a lot of excitement for the crowd as dogs raced for the finish.

Melanie Del Villagio and her Shetland Sheepdog Dara were one of the early teams to run the course clean. Dara and Melanie worked very deftly through the course and were one of the teams that really used the closing sequence to pick up time. Their time of 33.00 seconds put them in 26th place out of the 73 dogs that ran.

Marcy Mantell and Wave ran next for the AKC/USA Team. They started the course very strongly but ran into a very common problem at jump #10. Wave did not go deep enough after the broad jump and took #10 from the backside. This caused an elimination fault for this team.

New team member Katie Conn with her Shetland Sheepdog "Twix" had a smooth run through the course and made it look like something they did everyday. Their final time was 31.45 which had them in 20th place out of the 73 dogs entered.

The last dog from the USA in this class was Kelsi being handled by Dee Anna Gamel. Kelsi flew from #1-4; then at #5 she did not complete the pull through for the threadle and took #5 in the wrong direction, which was an elimination. The threadle at #4-5 was the cause of many faults on this course (both wrong courses and refusals) as the handlers were also working to get into position to take their dogs to the #6 jump in the 270o turn and keep their dogs off of jump #13.

The winner was from Switzerland – Giraudi Nicola and her Parson Russell Terrier "Twister" with a time of 28.97 seconds.

Medium Individual Jumping

The second class of the day was Medium Individual Jumping. This course was designed by Judge Bernd Huppe and it had many of the same types of challenges that have been seen throughout the weekend. These challenges include, pull throughs, threadles and 270 degree turns. The course time was 35 seconds, for a 4.31 YPS over this 20 obstacle course.

"Sizzle" a.k.a. MACH4 Triune's Feel in Hot Hot Hot was first up for the AKC/USA Team with his handler Karen Holik. Sizzle lived up to his name and was on fire as he ran the course. His clean run earned a time of 28.29 seconds and an overall placement of 17th out of 75 dogs.

Paulette Swartzendruber and Rush found trouble out on the course. They had an elimination fault, but continued on the course to the enthusiastic clapping of the crowd. At the World Championships, teams that have eliminated are cheered on to finish the course by the crowd that claps until they reach the finish obstacle. It’s a great show of sportsmanship.

Ashley Deacon and his Pyrenean Shepherd "Luka" had a quick start to the course. The more they ran, the faster Luka went. When they got to jump #11 Luka landed wide and was clearly looking at the wrong side of jump #12. Ashley held his ground and calmly redirected and pulled her to the correct side of #12. From that point on they flew through the course, finishing in 4th place and with a time of 27.08 seconds.

The last of the AKC/USA teams to run was Blaster and Jennifer Crank. The weave poles were not meant to be today. Blaster popped out of the weaves and had to be restarted twice for a cumulative 10 points in faults.

Exhibitors Receive Gifts

The AKC/USA team sponsor ilovedogs.com sent gift bags for all the exhibitors at the 2009 FCI Agility World Championships. AKC Agility Director Andy Hartman, team members and USA fans helped pass these out to all the countries. It was a great way to get to meet the many countries and give them a souvenir from ilovedogs.com.