Comments (0)

By Ivette, May 9, 2013 8:54 am

Zip and I have been in a whirlwind since returning from Spain. In the last two weeks we competed at the Mid-Atlantic Agility Showcase in Palmyra, PA and last weekend we flew to Dallas, TX to compete at the Continental Championships of the Americas. Talk about no rest for the weary!! Both events were fantastic and we had a great time.

The Mid-Atlantic Showcase consisted of a three dog team event, the Mid-Atlantic Triathlon and individual titling classes. Zip was teamed with our usual team, Jeannette Hutchison and Mary Ellen Barry. Unfortunately due to injury Jeannette had to shuffle some dogs around and our usual doggie teammate, Rumble, was switched with Jeannette’s younger dog, Bert. We started the weekend with team Gamblers, where Zip managed to miss both his DW contacts…bummer!! The good news was that we opted for the harder gamble option and he got it, yay! After gamblers was team Standard where once again the DW contact was missed. I thought about trying to manage the DW a bit more but then decided to keep running it like we do in practice and see if he figures it out. The good news is that he did figure it out and didn’t miss anymore DW the rest of the weekend. I still consider myself very new to the whole running DW thing so I know my training needs tweaking. This will be a summer project for sure! Later that day we were entered in one titling class, pairs. Zip just needs a few more pairs legs to finish up his ADCh Gold. Lucky for us we were paired with Maureen Waldron and Mickle, a super solid team. Both of us ran great and ended up winning the class!! Team snooker on Saturday proved to be one of those courses that greatly benefited the small dogs. Small dogs were allowed more time and therefore able to accumulate many more points than the larger dogs. I picked a plan that was fairly challenging but I felt confident I could get through it with my little tight turning sports car. Our group was one of the last to go and I had yet to see anyone run anything even remotely similar to what I was going to do. I felt my confidence start to waiver a bit but stuck to my guns because I knew I could do what I had planned to do. Well off we went and little Zippy did not let me down!! We nailed it and won the class and ended up with more points than any dog at any height!! Here is our snooker run:

The rest of the weekend went great, Zip ended up High Scoring Dog across all heights and our team ended up in third place. We always have such a great time at the Showcase, this was certainly no exception.

It seemed like as soon as we got home and unpacked from the Showcase we were packing up and on a plane headed for Dallas, TX for the Continental Championships of the Americas. This was an important event for us because it was one of two events in which we would be earning points toward a spot on the 2014 IFCS World Team competition in the Netherlands. I came into the event knowing the courses would be challenging, but I have to say, these courses were probably some of the hardest and most challenging I have ever run. I am always eager to run challenging courses and man, did these courses ever get my adrenaline pumping! Zippy ran great, we had one off course in Individual Standard at a DW/tunnel discrimination. Pretty much the same set up we had in Cynosports in Denver in the Grand Prix semi-finals. I botched it up the same exact way too. Overall we ended up in pretty good shape with regards to points. We were 3rd overall in IFCS points and earned 4 Silver medals. Here are some runs from the weekend (gotta love the commentary from my agility buddies, they crack me up!!):

We also have another bit of amazing news to share with everyone, Zip and I will be joining Team USA in Oviedo, Spain for the World Agility Championships on May 17-19! Yup, Zip and I are headed back to Spain for another international adventure!! We are super excited to be joining the team. I am so grateful for this opportunity and also for having such supportive people in my life who allow me to follow my dreams.

Comments (0)

By Ivette, April 11, 2013 1:29 pm

On Easter Sunday, Zip, Brandon and I boarded a plane headed for Girona, Spain to compete at the IFCS Continental Championships of Europe for Team USA. Zip has had a lengthy road to recovery after his injured hip so we were thrilled to have been chosen to represent the USA at this event. Our team consisted of 10 of the best dog and handler teams in the country. Many of whom I was proud to call my friends and the others who I was looking forward to getting to know. We were also lucky enough to have our awesome coach Dave Grubel leading us and Dr. Sandy Ziemski as our team vet and physical therapist.

Sightseeing is hard work!

We arrived a day and a half early in order to be able to sight see a bit in Barcelona. The first thing I noticed is that Barcelona is an incredibly dog friendly city. Dogs are everywhere and are welcome anyplace. We had gotten some good advice from friends as to what to see while in Barcelona so we had lots to do. Being able to see the amazing architecture by Antoni Gaudi was breathtaking. My favorite place however was the waterfront. The White family was able to experience the Mediterranean for the first time together. In addition to sightseeing we also experienced lots of the outstanding cuisine that Barcelona had to offer.

Tuesday afternoon we had our first team practice. Coach Dave was able to arrange two practices at the venue on the equipment we would be using at the event. This was extremely helpful as some of the equipment used was quite a bit different than what we were used to a home. Some of the tunnels that were used were clear on the top so the dog was able to see the handler. It proved to be a bit distracting to the dog and dogs seemed to be a bit slower going through the tunnels. Also the tire was all white, not what we are used to seeing. It was nice to have a couple of opportunities for the dogs to get a good look and these things. Zip did great at practice, giving me some nice dogwalk and A-frame performances. The footing was ok, consisting of a rough sandy mixture. This roughness would prove to cause some issues for our dogs as the weekend progressed.

The Mediterranean!

Thursday was check in and a warm up class. The warm up class was a Grand Prix class. Zip ran this great but did miss his dogwalk contact. I was very happy with the rest of the run so I hoped that the dogwalk performance was a fluke and he had gotten it out of his system.

Friday we had Biathlon Jumping, Team Agility and Snooker. The Biathlon division would consist of two classes over the course of the weekend and there would be cumulative placements for this. There is also an individual all around division consisting of four rounds of agility throughout the weekend (jumping, standard, Snooker and Gamblers) and there would be cumulative placements for this as well. In addition to the individual awards there would also be a team division which would consist of a three dog team, two rounds of agility plus the relay. Coach Dave assigned our teams. I was teamed up with Tracy Hirsch and Silver(BC) and Greg Fontaine and Spice(BC). I was thrilled! We had a super strong team!!

Zip had a great Biathlon Jumping round, and finished in 3rd place with a Bronze medal and on the podium! Team Agility went great as well! Zip nailed his dogwalk contact and had a great run. We ended up with a Bronze and third place in this class as well!! Snooker was definitely a challenge. The high pointed obstacles were time consuming and the team decided not to try for all sevens. There simply was not enough time. I opted for a seven, a six, and a five and Zip put in a stellar run!! It was good enough for the Silver medal!! What a day we had!! So very proud of Zippy!!

Saturday was a full day of classes. We had Team Jumping, Gamblers, Steeplechase and Team relay. Zip’s feet were beginning to show some wear after running on this surface for 3 days. I opted to scratch from Steeplechase as this class did not count toward any team or individual divisions. We started the morning with Team Jumping. Zip put in another great run and we ended up in sixth place. The Gamblers class was nothing like I had ever seen before, the toy dog division had 50 seconds in our opening!! For those not familiar with Gamblers, we typically can have 25-30 seconds allowed in our opening. 50 seconds would feel like an eternity!! Needless to say we covered almost each obstacle twice in our opening. The gamble was a jump to a green tunnel, over another jump and then over the finish jump which was past the first gamble obstacle. Toy dogs only had 15 seconds to complete the gamble, not a lot of time to cover a lot of yardage. Unfortunately I had a disconnect from Zip after the first obstacle, he did manage to find the green tunnel but then I was not where I wanted to be to cue the next jump so he came in towards me and took an off course tunnel. Only one toy dog was able to complete the gamble so luckily we had accumulated enough opening points for a 4th place finish. Unfortunately our team encountered some bad luck. Silver was injured at the practice jump right before Gamblers. We discussed as a team and opted to scratch from the team relay. A total bummer for the team but we all were most worried about Silver, hoping she would feel better by tomorrow.

Sunday, our final day of competition! Zip and I had our final run in the Biathlon. At this point I was not sure where we stood in the Individual All Around but I knew I was in third place going into my second round of Biathlon. I was really hoping we would get one cumulative medal so I knew I had to make this round count! The opening sequence of Biathlon Agility was not ideal for us. It was a jump to a 180. Zip can decelerate so quickly and my lack of movement into the 180 can end up costing us a refusal and it almost did in this case. Luckily after that little bobble the rest of the course ran great!! We ended up with a Bronze in the second round of Biathlon and after the scores were tallied, a Bronze in the overall Biathlon!! I was beyond thrilled!! So very proud of my boy!! After Biathlon was over the Individual All Around scores were being tallied. You could have blown me over with a feather when Dave told me Zip and I ended up with the Bronze medal in the Individual All Around too!! I couldn’t believe it! I was so proud of Zip! I came into the event hoping for one of the two cumulative medals, I was over the moon that we received a medal in both!! I have already extensively gushed all over Facebook about how proud and blessed I am to have such a wonderful competitor and friend in Zip but I think he deserves me to say it again here. The little stray from the shelter has proven once again that great things do come in small packages!!

My wonderful teammates and husband were nice enough to tape most of my runs.  Here they are!! Enjoy!!

The entire week in Girona was filled with great memories I will treasure forever. Our team was amazing and everyone put in extraordinary runs. I was so proud to be a part of such a team. GO TEAM USA!!