Some european agility stuff

A

Ashy

Forums Novice
Hello guys

Here I will show some videos from my two shelties. The most time we train and compete in Switzerland but often I am going to bigger events in the neighboring countries.

When I pick up my canadian sheltie in Miami/FL (okay, it is a long story :biggrin2:) I saw finally some american agility and it is really… different. But it seems that more and more teams "learn" the european handling and skills.

However… here are some videos finally. At first from Chaim.

WTT 2014; but unfortunately we didn't make it. Perhaps next year :yes:
https://vimeo.com/95666988

"Normal" trial in Switzerland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFXd6Yay4xs

European Open 2013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpgNtdskYRM

Some training
https://vimeo.com/88585242

And here Raichu. He is now 14 months old. I taught him Running Contacts on the dog walk! Huh, really hard work but just fun!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZndwUOsCsI8

Some other obstacles.He is doing a good job but sometimes he need to think a lot, but it's just a baby-dog and I got him with 7 months.
https://vimeo.com/100304252

Nadine
 
Yes, it is very different, the courses I have seen here are much bigger, less tight turns.
It seems to me the Americans and UK trials are much different in make up... We have a few threads in here discussing the differences.

It is very interesting, one of the things I observed between Germany and here (I am German, but immigrated to Canada many moons ago) was that the German dogs are usually smaller, tighter and no in between medium or real large dogs seem to run , the dog is either small or smaller, lol. Here it's still a hobby and something awesome you can do with your dog, the truly serious competitors are still lumped in with weekend warriors only like me... the poor dears... but they're still amazing to watch.
The classes there seem to be more standard or jumpers runs, I have not seen a lot of gamblers or snooker courses and also here you do not have to come in first to get a qualifying score.
We are hosting the Canadian Nationals nearby this year and I am very very excited to watch and hope to video some of the awesomeness :D
 
Outstanding!!!

You little sheltie is like lighting! Could not believe how fast and nimble!
Good luck in future competitions! You are one dedicated owner! Love your videos!:winkgrin:

Can't wait to see more...:pop
 
Beautiful runs and beautiful dogs.

In the US there isn't a lot of focus on backside approaches to jumps. Some venues also don't permit some challenges like threadles. This is slowly starting to change but it will be a while before changes trickle across agility venues; if they do.

One advantage with US agility, in my opinion, is the number of different venues we have to choose from. Some of highly competitive and others more laid back with a focus on "playing" with your dog for a weekend. You can focus on whatever venue you like depending on your personal agility goals. The venues with more focus on competition (USDAA and AKC - where most of our World Team competitors seem come from) are most likely to see more changes to international style handling before the less competitive venues.

Personally, as much as I enjoy the handling challenges offered by international style agility, I just want to go out on a weekend and play with my dog. That's why I prefer the more laid back, "easy" venues. I enjoy their more relaxed environments given how stressful my work life is..
 
Wow - very nice!

I really enjoyed watching your videos, I was very impressed with the stopped contacts on the DW since that is what I'm working on at the moment. Our (UK) courses are not as twisty and we don't have so much backside jumping but we do have threadles etc. Like in the US there are different organisations running shows that offer a variety of course types, but we have to win to qualify. As far as I know in the UK only small and medium height shelties seem to compete, I suppose because the large ones are in with the large collies. There are plenty of medium height shelties holding their own with small collies at the highest level though. :smile2:

I look forward to seeing more of your videos. I really liked the backing music you have chosen too. What was the music on the European Open video? It seemed perfect for agility!
 
I agree that US and European agility is very different. I love European courses, handling and all the challenges. Though sometimes I feel like people take it too seriously - often you see handlers who won't even play with the dog or praise him after the run. I've seen certain top handler from our country and dog dropped one bar in otherwise flawless run. Afterwards handler put dog under lot of pressure and forced dog to take 'practice' jumps next to the ring over and over again etc. That's just one example, but I see that a lot. So that's the only complaint I have about european agility. We could use 'take it easy' approach here :smile2:

I love your videos! Your shelties are brilliant, so fast.... I love Chaim's contacts and I'm sure the young one will be just as great. :smile2: Happy to see fellow european sheltie&agility lover.
 
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