2009 World Agility Championships

Day Three – September 20, 2009

Small Dog Individual Agility

Looking up into the stands you can tell that today is the final day of the 2009 FCI Agility World Championships in Dornbirn, Austria. The stands are packed. People are sitting in the aisles, in the stands, sitting on the stairs and have brought in their own chairs to sit in the upper level. To say it is a packed house would be an understatement. Lots of cheering and enthusiasm from the crowd right from the start of the day.

Today started with the Small Dog Individual Agility class on a course designed by judge Bernd Huppe from Austria. This course continued the theme of testing handler’s skills on pushouts, wraps, threadles, pull throughs and challenging approaches to obstacles. The course distance was 180 yards with a YPS of 4.10 and a course time of 44 seconds.

The 1st dog to the line for the AKC/USA Team was Dee Anna Gamel and her Shetland Sheepdog, Kelsi. This was a good course for them to show their skills on. Kelsi responded to all of Dee Anna’s direction and as the third dog in for the morning they made the course look easy. But as we saw many times afterward – it was not an easy course. Their time of 38.36 put them in 8th place overall in the Agility (Standard) round out of 71 teams.

Next up was Marcy Mantell and Wave. Marcy took Wave over the #2 jump by turning Wave to her left; this set her up to take the broad jump at an angle. Many handlers choose to slice through the broad jump to give their dogs a better line to the #4 tunnel, working to avoid the dog walk and the wrong side of the tunnel. Wave unfortunately found a wrong course after #3 and they were eliminated. The crowd cheered them on to the end.

Shetland Sheepdog "Dara" with her handler Melanie Del Villaggio were next from the USA to challenge the Agility course. Dara came over the broad jump at the same angle most dogs took on her way to tunnel #4. This put the #5 jump into her view, which she took before Melanie had a chance to say anything. This caused an elimination fault. Dara had fun completing the rest of the course and the crowd responded to her enthusiasm with plenty of their own.

Coming to the line in 20th place over all was new team members Katie Conn and her Shetland Sheepdog, "Twix". Twix was excited at the line and bounced forward a few inches waiting for Katie to call him off of it. Once he took off they worked in perfect harmony and avoided all of the challenges that so many before them had encountered. At the end of their run they had a time of 39.41 seconds, which placed them with their combined score from Jumping yesterday in 1st place. There were still 19 dogs left to go. The course continued to cause problems for many of them. At the end of the class Katie and Twix finished in 5th place in the Small Dog Individual Competition at the 2009 FCI Agility World Championships. A great way to debut on the AKC/USA World Team!

Medium Dog Individual Agility

The next round was the Medium Dog Individual Agility. The 20 obstacle course was designed by judge Manual Alff from Luxemburg. This course was 192 yards long, with a course time of 45 seconds, putting the YPS at 4.28. 17 dogs out of the 75 who started had clear rounds. There were many places on the course that teams had problems, but many of the wrong courses occurred between obstacle #11 and #16 due to the many discriminations in this corner of the course. The A-Frame proved to be quite a draw as dogs went from #11 to #12. Two of the AKC/USA Team dogs, Rush and Blaster, were caught by this discrimination. Sizzle found his way over jump #15 on the way to tunnel #13, despite Karen Holik’s calls to him. Our final Medium Individual dog, Luka, with Ashley Deacon, slipped right past the slice jump at #2 for a refusal and a 5 point fault. This effort, combined with their Jumping round from yesterday, put them 14th overall for the two days of competition out of the 75 teams.

Large Dog Individual Agility and Wrap Up

The final class of the 2009 FCA Agility Championships was the Large Dog Individual, as has been tradition. Judge Bernd Huppt designed this course to close out this year’s event. The course time was 43 seconds for a 183 yard course. That put the yards per second at 4.24.

Channan Fosty and Icon were early on in the field of 115 teams. Icon powered through the course and followed Channan’s clear direction at each turn. When they got to the teeter he drove a little too much and received a fly off call for 5 faults. They had a great time of 33.72 seconds.

Denise Thomas and Zippity took their turn on this course. There was no doubt that Zippity was very comfortable in this show environment as she took off from the line. She just barely went over the up contact on the dog walk for a 5 fault call. She continued strong on the course until the teeter, that she approached from an angle, and missed the upside contact for another 5 fault penalty. There were a good amount of contact calls made in this class. They used the 2 judge method to judge the dog walk, one at the upside and one at the downside.

Finally it was time for the 2008 Gold Medal Winners Marcus Topps and Juice to take their turn. They came into this final run in 9th place from the Jumpers round on Saturday. Marcus started with a lead out between jumps 1 and 2 and then off they went. Juice showed her experience of 9 years as she worked flawlessly with Marcus to finish the course in 33.70 seconds. This put them in 1st place with 8 more dogs to go. The only dog that could best their time was the eventual Gold Medal winner, Lisa Frick from Austria and her Border Collie, who had a time of 33.31 seconds on the agility course.

Marcus and Juice took away the Silver Medal in the Large Dog Individual Competition, to add to the Gold Medal they won last year at this event. They placed 2nd in the Agility class too. They were 0.41 seconds behind the Gold Medal winner, whose dog is two years old. Juice, at nine years of age, showed the world she still had what it takes to be competing at the highest level of agility.

That concluded the 2009 FCI Agility World Championships. To start the closing ceremonies was a wonderful freestyle routine, with a nod to the famous Lipizzaner stallions in Vienna, performed by a handler with her Border Collie. The AKC/USA Team, sponsored by ilovedogs.com, marched back in the arena with the other 32 countries that they competed with all weekend for the closing ceremonies.

Then all of the winners for the weekend were recognized for their achievements. The AKC/USA Medium Team and Marcus Topps with Juice were awarded their prizes for their Silver Medal achievements.

Later that evening the team and fans returned to the Gasthof Kronele Hotel in Lustenau for a celebration. Thanks to the efforts of Susan Crank, the team and fans were able to take over a whole outdoor patio for the festivities. AKC Agility Director, Andy Hartman, toasted the team for all their efforts over the weekend and for the favorable impression they left with both the event organizer and the other competitors. We heard more than a few times how nice the Americans were at this event. Team Coach Nancy Gyes and Assistant Team Coach Kathie Leggett also had toasts for all of the 2009 team and their efforts, since their selection back in May.

This will wrap up this year’s World Team event. The location for next year has not been announced, but keep an eye on the AKC website and it will be posted as soon as it is confirmed.