Action!

Last time I forgot to add a shortened clip of the show in Kočevje, where you can see Sambo's tail set almost on perpetuum mobile mode. Due to the lenght of the clip I cut out the parts where Sambo is stamping his feet like a ram before the attack and deprived you of some good fun (the lesson of the sotry being that it is not wise to click a dog with some footwork tricks a week before a show because he can perform a Footlose scene, like Sambo did; the only thing missing was a good soundtrack…).

As you can see I forgot to pack things three days in advance on Friday so I showed Sambo in very sporty clothes for a change (euphemism for 'the same rags I wore all 4 days with only one shower along the way'; now you know why the shower before going to bed on Thursday was such a good investment…), but thinking it through it's better to show in raggy pants than to run agility in summer linen pants and flip-flops…

On Saturday we went to the agility trial in Žalec where the last requirement for the advance to the highest level escaped from us in a most imbecile way – when we make all 6 contacts, when no bars fall off we get a refusal in a really stupid place and 5 points for it. Ok, the run wasn't perfect – towards the end I sent Sambo to a jump, yelled at him because I thought I got the jump wrong and then tried to start him up again, which is quite difficult with a dog that doesn't know (or doesn't admit to know, I'm not sure) the command Forward, especially if your course ends with three jumps in a straight line and uphill (you can't see it in the clip, but the field is quite inclined and the finish was uphill, of course). It's interesting that I actually find the run quite good, even though we managed to make a refusal, even though I almost killed myself a few obstacles after that (when we had to make a 180 degree turn while running downhill) and even though we really looked like Dumb & Dumber on the finish line – first I got wrong that I got the obstacles wrong and then Sambo turned towards me after every jump and roared at me to say 'where the hell are you, speed up!'. Oh well, we do make sure that the audience is entertained. Judge for yourselves, here's our first run.

We had one refusal in jumping too – Sambo thought I didn't show the entrance to the tunnel clearly enough, so he did one spin, but otherwise we did a good job and ended up sixth.

Yesterday we went to our first RO trial this year. The working atmosphere wasn't the best and Sambo followed the mainstream; on the start he yelled as if he were on agility, but as soon as we started with our performance his enthusiasm vanished. He had a very bad concentration and to be honest, we didn't do well; the judge's opinion was that we didn't do three of the tasks so we were disqualified (as many other competitors, even from more banal reasons). Oh well, our rally career sp far was too good to be true anyway, we made three requirements in three trials, so we'll try to prepare better for next time.

The season is in its peek and we have quite some things ahead of us – this weekend there's a double show in Hrušica where I work both days (on Saturday the Black Death and Gregor will be accompanying me), next weekend we have a RO trial in Domžale and the weekend after that there's CACIB Portorož, where I'll probably be working one day and on Sunday I'll probably go to RO in Žalec. Still plenty of action to come!