3,000 mile road trip with dogs ...
- Thread starter BTB 500
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But what idiot allowed air horns! Maybe some gamesmanship going on by competitors who had trained their dogs to tolerate the horns?
OP
OP
So a quick update.
After the end of the Junior World Champs on Sunday they moved to a local hotel (with aircon and a pool
) for a short break from camping in a dusty sports stadium car park 
Quite a few other competitors arriving for the European Open championships this week are staying there or nearby, and dogs are allowed to sleep in the rooms
On Wednesday they moved back to the event venue for 2 days of booking in, vet checks, official practice sessions, and the opening ceremony. By mutual agreement Tino the Sheltie was withdrawn from the Medium team and a travelling reserve (Ashleigh Butler, who previously won "Britain's Got Talent" with Pudsey, her first agility dog!) took his place. Tino is fine now and with hardly any noisy travelling supporters at this event might have been OK to run but it just wasn't worth the risk. Hopefully he'll be back next year older and more confident! So my son is just running Sushi the Collie in the Large GB Team.
Competition started very early today with the two qualifying classes for the Team final tomorrow. 53 teams of four dogs from all over the world took part, with the best three results out of four making up a team's result in each class. The top 12 teams overall in the combined results go forward to a final, run under floodlights tomorrow night. Lots of tactics and strategy in team classes, and pressure i.e. not wanting to let your team mates (or country!) down. My son ran brilliantly with one clear round and one round with a single fault - neither being 'dropped' from the results. His team mates also did well and they placed second overall - the other GB team came first, so they will be the last two to run in the final ... due to start sometime after midnight (i.e the very early hours of Sunday morning)
The two qualifying classes for the individual championship start at 06:20 tomorrow, so with the team final starting after midnight it's going to be a long day! Then the individual finals (for those who get through) and closing ceremony on Sunday. As a 17 year old competing against the best adults in the world (many of whom are professional handlers/trainers) for the first time we had no expectations - the aim was just to get some experience and hopefully keep in the team management's good books before selection starts for next year's squad
The Eurotunnel is booked for early on Wednesday morning so they should be back late that night. The local newspaper picked up on the press release from the Kennel Club after the Junior World Champs and has booked an interview with him once he's home
After the end of the Junior World Champs on Sunday they moved to a local hotel (with aircon and a pool
) for a short break from camping in a dusty sports stadium car park Quite a few other competitors arriving for the European Open championships this week are staying there or nearby, and dogs are allowed to sleep in the rooms
On Wednesday they moved back to the event venue for 2 days of booking in, vet checks, official practice sessions, and the opening ceremony. By mutual agreement Tino the Sheltie was withdrawn from the Medium team and a travelling reserve (Ashleigh Butler, who previously won "Britain's Got Talent" with Pudsey, her first agility dog!) took his place. Tino is fine now and with hardly any noisy travelling supporters at this event might have been OK to run but it just wasn't worth the risk. Hopefully he'll be back next year older and more confident! So my son is just running Sushi the Collie in the Large GB Team.
Competition started very early today with the two qualifying classes for the Team final tomorrow. 53 teams of four dogs from all over the world took part, with the best three results out of four making up a team's result in each class. The top 12 teams overall in the combined results go forward to a final, run under floodlights tomorrow night. Lots of tactics and strategy in team classes, and pressure i.e. not wanting to let your team mates (or country!) down. My son ran brilliantly with one clear round and one round with a single fault - neither being 'dropped' from the results. His team mates also did well and they placed second overall - the other GB team came first, so they will be the last two to run in the final ... due to start sometime after midnight (i.e the very early hours of Sunday morning)
The two qualifying classes for the individual championship start at 06:20 tomorrow, so with the team final starting after midnight it's going to be a long day! Then the individual finals (for those who get through) and closing ceremony on Sunday. As a 17 year old competing against the best adults in the world (many of whom are professional handlers/trainers) for the first time we had no expectations - the aim was just to get some experience and hopefully keep in the team management's good books before selection starts for next year's squad
The Eurotunnel is booked for early on Wednesday morning so they should be back late that night. The local newspaper picked up on the press release from the Kennel Club after the Junior World Champs and has booked an interview with him once he's home
DesireeE
Active Member
So a quick update.
After the end of the Junior World Champs on Sunday they moved to a local hotel (with aircon and a pool
Quite a few other competitors arriving for the European Open championships this week are staying there or nearby, and dogs are allowed to sleep in the rooms
View attachment 175842
On Wednesday they moved back to the event venue for 2 days of booking in, vet checks, official practice sessions, and the opening ceremony. By mutual agreement Tino the Sheltie was withdrawn from the Medium team and a travelling reserve (Ashleigh Butler, who previously won "Britain's Got Talent" with Pudsey, her first agility dog!) took his place. Tino is fine now and with hardly any noisy travelling supporters at this event might have been OK to run but it just wasn't worth the risk. Hopefully he'll be back next year older and more confident! So my son is just running Sushi the Collie in the Large GB Team.
Competition started very early today with the two qualifying classes for the Team final tomorrow. 53 teams of four dogs from all over the world took part, with the best three results out of four making up a team's result in each class. The top 12 teams overall in the combined results go forward to a final, run under floodlights tomorrow night. Lots of tactics and strategy in team classes, and pressure i.e. not wanting to let your team mates (or country!) down. My son ran brilliantly with one clear round and one round with a single fault - neither being 'dropped' from the results. His team mates also did well and they placed second overall - the other GB team came first, so they will be the last two to run in the final ... due to start sometime after midnight (i.e the very early hours of Sunday morning)
View attachment 175844
The two qualifying classes for the individual championship start at 06:20 tomorrow, so with the team final starting after midnight it's going to be a long day! Then the individual finals (for those who get through) and closing ceremony on Sunday. As a 17 year old competing against the best adults in the world (many of whom are professional handlers/trainers) for the first time we had no expectations - the aim was just to get some experience and hopefully keep in the team management's good books before selection starts for next year's squad
The Eurotunnel is booked for early on Wednesday morning so they should be back late that night. The local newspaper picked up on the press release from the Kennel Club after the Junior World Champs and has booked an interview with him once he's home
Awesome, simply awesome!
OP
OP
Final 'doggy' update - more road trip content over the next few days
Yesterday's two qualifying classes for the European Open individual finals today went pretty well. Sushi didn't go through, but she did two stunning rounds just clipping a single pole on each. Without that either would have put her straight into the final. Lots of quick dogs were eliminated on the very tricky courses, so even with a fault on each run she finished 35th out of 208 Large dogs overall.
As expected the team final last night was LATE! Various delays and over-runs during the day meant that my son didn't run till gone 3AM (today) ... and he'd been up since 5:30AM. The team event is a bit strange because the qualifying rounds are normal individual runs for the four dogs in a team, with the best three results making up their total time and faults. But the final is a relay, with the four dogs in a team running one after another ... timed from the first one starting to the last ending. So the score is based on all four dogs this time. Now just to make things more interesting the final takes place in a large 40x40 metre ring, with each dog starting in a different corner and doing a different course. So there are four overlapping courses (each with a different judge), with many obstacles having multiple different numbers on them This was last night's course plan (for Intermediate and Large dogs):
The handlers within a team decide between themselves who will do which course, determining the order they will run in. My son ended up going 3rd (doing the pink numbers), because nobody else fancied the awkward angles on that course! He pulled off an incredible clear round but two of his team mates picked up faults so they finished in 7th (with the other GB team in 6th).
Super proud of my son who was the only handler to compete in both the Junior World Champs and then the European Open, having now been away from home for over two weeks. Despite that (he and the dogs are pretty frazzled) they went really well at the EOs without a single elimination (taking the wrong obstacle on a course) and no more than a single knocked pole on any run. With him now being out of Juniors this performance will hopefully stand him in good stead for the future (all runs are analysed by the GB team coaches & management and used to generate performance statistics for each handler).
Mrs BTB is really looking forward to starting the drive back home ... possibly later today (depending on when the closing ceremony finishes), but more likely tomorrow morning. BTB Jr is keen to stay tonight and get drunk with his buddies The plan is to do a first leg of about 4 hours to Salamanca in Spain, and stop there. The Eurotunnel is booked for 18:20 on Wednesday but they'll try to get an earlier train if possible. It's about 5 hours home from Folkestone.
Yesterday's two qualifying classes for the European Open individual finals today went pretty well. Sushi didn't go through, but she did two stunning rounds just clipping a single pole on each. Without that either would have put her straight into the final. Lots of quick dogs were eliminated on the very tricky courses, so even with a fault on each run she finished 35th out of 208 Large dogs overall.
As expected the team final last night was LATE! Various delays and over-runs during the day meant that my son didn't run till gone 3AM (today) ... and he'd been up since 5:30AM. The team event is a bit strange because the qualifying rounds are normal individual runs for the four dogs in a team, with the best three results making up their total time and faults. But the final is a relay, with the four dogs in a team running one after another ... timed from the first one starting to the last ending. So the score is based on all four dogs this time. Now just to make things more interesting the final takes place in a large 40x40 metre ring, with each dog starting in a different corner and doing a different course. So there are four overlapping courses (each with a different judge), with many obstacles having multiple different numbers on them
This was last night's course plan (for Intermediate and Large dogs):The handlers within a team decide between themselves who will do which course, determining the order they will run in. My son ended up going 3rd (doing the pink numbers), because nobody else fancied the awkward angles on that course! He pulled off an incredible clear round but two of his team mates picked up faults so they finished in 7th (with the other GB team in 6th).
Super proud of my son who was the only handler to compete in both the Junior World Champs and then the European Open, having now been away from home for over two weeks. Despite that (he and the dogs are pretty frazzled) they went really well at the EOs without a single elimination (taking the wrong obstacle on a course) and no more than a single knocked pole on any run. With him now being out of Juniors this performance will hopefully stand him in good stead for the future (all runs are analysed by the GB team coaches & management and used to generate performance statistics for each handler).
Mrs BTB is really looking forward to starting the drive back home ... possibly later today (depending on when the closing ceremony finishes), but more likely tomorrow morning. BTB Jr is keen to stay tonight and get drunk with his buddies
The plan is to do a first leg of about 4 hours to Salamanca in Spain, and stop there. The Eurotunnel is booked for 18:20 on Wednesday but they'll try to get an earlier train if possible. It's about 5 hours home from Folkestone.
DesireeE
Active Member
Some crazy times going on in that competition and it's a wonder the competitors can keep their eyes open ... good old adrenalin eh?Final 'doggy' update - more road trip content over the next few days
Yesterday's two qualifying classes for the European Open individual finals today went pretty well. Sushi didn't go through, but she did two stunning rounds just clipping a single pole on each. Without that either would have put her straight into the final. Lots of quick dogs were eliminated on the very tricky courses, so even with a fault on each run she finished 35th out of 208 Large dogs overall.
As expected the team final last night was LATE! Various delays and over-runs during the day meant that my son didn't run till gone 3AM (today) ... and he'd been up since 5:30AM. The team event is a bit strange because the qualifying rounds are normal individual runs for the four dogs in a team, with the best three results making up their total time and faults. But the final is a relay, with the four dogs in a team running one after another ... timed from the first one starting to the last ending. So the score is based on all four dogs this time. Now just to make things more interesting the final takes place in a large 40x40 metre ring, with each dog starting in a different corner and doing a different course. So there are four overlapping courses (each with a different judge), with many obstacles having multiple different numbers on them
View attachment 175918
The handlers within a team decide between themselves who will do which course, determining the order they will run in. My son ended up going 3rd (doing the pink numbers), because nobody else fancied the awkward angles on that course! He pulled off an incredible clear round but two of his team mates picked up faults so they finished in 7th (with the other GB team in 6th).
Super proud of my son who was the only handler to compete in both the Junior World Champs and then the European Open, having now been away from home for over two weeks. Despite that (he and the dogs are pretty frazzled) they went really well at the EOs without a single elimination (taking the wrong obstacle on a course) and no more than a single knocked pole on any run. With him now being out of Juniors this performance will hopefully stand him in good stead for the future (all runs are analysed by the GB team coaches & management and used to generate performance statistics for each handler).
Mrs BTB is really looking forward to starting the drive back home ... possibly later today (depending on when the closing ceremony finishes), but more likely tomorrow morning. BTB Jr is keen to stay tonight and get drunk with his buddies
Loving that final 'relay' course, is that mind blowing or what? I think your lad certainly got the short straw with the pink course, his compadres new what they were doing I'm thinking, with theirs having 12 or 13 obstacles and him 14 AND the trickier run at that.
Still, he showed 'em how it's done all in the best possible taste of course or is that on course but darn good team effort all round to come 7th so big congratulations to your son, other 3 members and their dogs.I hope they start their journey home tomorrow, as it would be really great for your lad to be able to join in the celebrations today after such stonking results and achievements, all part of the kudos of his success me thinks.
OP
OP
Speaking of times, it was interesting that the equipment they were using only measured seconds to 2 decimal places. If Sushi had kept that pesky pole up in the individual agility qualifier she'd have had to do a runoff as someone else had the same time. In the UK we've timed normal domestic competitions to 3 decimal places for years. When I started in 1991 it was someone holding a stopwatch with wooden poles marking the start/finish lines
It's quite standard now for results to be available online pretty much instantly - I was sitting there till 03:20 this morning watching the scores as each dog ran. There was a video live stream too but that was an expensive service which historically hasn't been that reliable so I didn't buy it.
It's quite standard now for results to be available online pretty much instantly - I was sitting there till 03:20 this morning watching the scores as each dog ran. There was a video live stream too but that was an expensive service which historically hasn't been that reliable so I didn't buy it.
OP
OP
The run home is under way. They left Abrantes yesterday morning, pushing on through Portugal and Spain to stop for the night in France. Approximately 500 miles done with a stop for brunch in Salamanca and another for diesel later on. The borrowed camper van has tags for the common toll roads on the way so father-in-law is picking up the tab for those, which is nice Spain is a regular destination for him.
Hoping the 'start of summer holidays' mayhem around Calais and the Eurotunnel has died down by Wednesday ... probably less Europeans travelling to the UK than Brits on their way to Europe though?!
Spain is a regular destination for him.Hoping the 'start of summer holidays' mayhem around Calais and the Eurotunnel has died down by Wednesday ... probably less Europeans travelling to the UK than Brits on their way to Europe though?!
OP
OP
The run home is under way. They left Abrantes yesterday morning, pushing on through Portugal and Spain to stop for the night in France. Approximately 500 miles done with a stop for brunch in Salamanca and another for diesel later on. The borrowed camper van has tags for the common toll roads on the way so father-in-law is picking up the tab for those, which is nice
Hoping the 'start of summer holidays' mayhem around Calais and the Eurotunnel has died down by Wednesday ... probably less Europeans travelling to the UK than Brits on their way to Europe though?!
Minor update ... they turned up at home just after mid-day today!!
Mrs BTB decided not to sleep after all and drove 1,500 miles back in 28 hours ... a door-to-door average of 53.4 mph. She was able to change the Eurotunnel booking from tomorrow to today for £50.
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Amazing stuff. You must be very proud indeed.
OP
OP
I am, and pleased to have them back in one piece a lot earlier than I was expecting!
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Bet you are. All's well that end's well
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DesireeE
Active Member
Wow! What a gal your good lady wife is for sure!Minor update ... they turned up at home just after mid-day today!!
Mrs BTB decided not to sleep after all and drove 1,500 miles back in 28 hours ... a door-to-door average of 53.4 mph. She was able to change the Eurotunnel booking from tomorrow to today for £50.
50 smakeroos well spent and so glad to hear all are home safe and sound. What an amazing and successful trip they had and thank you for keeping us in the loop. It'll be a long good night for everyone, but maybe not so quiet with the amount of zzzzzzzz going on: happy days and well done to all!
SpikyMikey
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Did you manage to hide all the takeaway packaging and beer bottles in time ?
I've done a few mad runs home from far flung places in Europe, and that is seriously good goingMinor update ... they turned up at home just after mid-day today!!
Mrs BTB decided not to sleep after all and drove 1,500 miles back in 28 hours ... a door-to-door average of 53.4 mph. She was able to change the Eurotunnel booking from tomorrow to today for £50.
I hope Mrs BTB wakes up before Thursday
