WUSV 2007

Thanks for all the good wishes and support over the last few weeks. Also thanks to all who travelled to Bratislava; in the end, it was a great venue for this event, the best for spectators that I’ve been to by some way.

Bit of background on what went off and my ups and downs with Arnie. Left for Holland on the preceding Friday, went to Ad’s club on Saturday, meaning to spend at least a couple of days doing some serious training, as Arnie had got a bit too “free” at the helper licensing event the weekend before. Ad’s club has been the launch pad for all my tilts at this event; I cannot over-express my gratitude to the club and it’s members for the help over the years.

Training though, was not to be; I walked on to the protection field, sent the dog to hide 1, he winced, yipped and limped back to me. It appeared he had pulled a muscle. No chance of work, possibility of not being able to work dog at WUSV at all. Got an anti-inflammatory, crossed my fingers and headed for Bratislava on Sunday evening.

Dog took a while to recover and as a consequence did no work with him at all until first discipline (A) on Thursday; I just made him do a down in the practice on Tuesday.

I was dreading the jumps on Thursday, but the dog seemed OK, just a little slow on the return over the “A” frame. Got 87 points, real bonus.

Friday Protection; I paid the penalty then for the lack of work. Dog was not as disciplined as normal, poor hide search, (unusual) though bites and guarding good. Back transport also messy. On final side transport dog decided to grip helper seriously, had to struggle to get him to out, big point loss, 78.

Saturday tracking; (which was said to be VERY difficult) on way to track dog threw up, evidenced "Delhi belly” and did not look too bight….. Started track badly, uncharacteristically, (frightened me to death) went for a wander, decide he should do it and made no further errors, 92 points. Given above problems, not so bad.

When I consider overall team performance, however, it is certain that we as a nation are making excellent progress in the sport. 3 dogs, with a bit more god fortune, could have been pushing 270 points, and the other two gave solid performances that saw them do well; Dorothy Luking, the 1st time away from home, made 247 with her young dog, and Louise Jollyman qualified also. That was not a possibility 4 years ago. Henrietta had the misfortune of encountering a very difficult track and was blown off whilst still working it, which happened to a number of dogs. This dog has never failed a track before and generally scores high excellent, her obedience and protection scores were 87 and 94 respectively. Very promising performances; she will be back.

Thomas Nye made 99 in tracking and 93 in protection with two impressive performances. Unfortunately his dog did not return over the “A” frame in obedience, which cost him dear, and reduced his score to the low seventies. The non return would have cost him 5 points, which would have seen him nearing the 270 mark.

I was pleased with Arnie, and genuinely believe that he would have been around the 90 mark in protection in different circumstances . This would have given me the 270 ish that I have always sort to achieve, especially if he had aproaced the track in his normal manner.

All in all we are not now that far off, and I am encouraged by this. I am sure that we will “get the breaks” in the event in the near future. People should understand that this is necessary; for example, this year saw some variation in the tracking conditions, which can make a serious difference to overall outcome.

All in All a cracking event and very encouraging for GSDL/BSA. Chris Bows