Ripper's page is updated with new pictures and I added his weight and height since I don't think that he will grow much anymore (luckily he is a very thin and light male with a great body structure (I love his loong legs :)) just like Rooney). And I will add a new description about him soon too, but in many aspects he is still a big puppy and we have just started the grown up trainings in many sports. ;-)
Yesterday night we arrived home from 2nd CSWC. It is so hard to summarize it since I met so many people and dogs, did so many things and the whole thing was so emotional and awesome that I could write a lot about it, but I will try to be short :) :
We left for Zagreb from Budapest very early in the morning on Friday, 16th of November. We arrived at 10 am in Zagreb at place of the herding, I was helping with the translation for the herding judge (Rooney's breeder, Józsi), I was watching herding, and I show Ripper to Alen, Polona, Nina. After watching herding Nina took me and my doggies back to our accommodation, to Funk Hostel, It was already around 6-7 pm so I fed the dogs and then I went out to shop and see a bit of Zagreb.
Nina come for me at 5:30 (am) on Saturday and we went out to set things up for area search, I went with Tanja and Mishka (Ripper's grandmother) and with Nina and Ris (Ripper's litter-brother) and watched their area search. After that we went to the hall where agility and frisbee competition was held. I watched the agility, played with Ripper in the hall, and in the breaks we did a few tunnels and some cik&cap around jump wings, Ripper played a bit with his brothers and we shoot family photos with the four brothers and with their mother, Kisha. So I had the chance to see Runo, Ris and Odi (Rum), Ripper's litter-brothers, Kisha, Ripper's mother, Grom and Misha, Ripper's grandparents, and also many cousins of Ripper. I loved all of them, they are such fantastic dogs! And Kisha and Rudi won or was 2nd almost in everything! Then I competed with Ripper in frisbee, which was fun, but I was nervous and had catastrophic throws (even on my good days I'm not a too good thrower, so ...... ). After that we went back to the Hostel, and then went to Kossp Zagreb dog-school and had an amazing dinner with all of the other competitors at the club house! :)
On Saturday we went to the place ( a dog-show hall) where obedience, protection, Tunnel cup and speciality show was held. I watched obedience and then protection work (Rudi and Kisha were only competing in that, but they were so great! And amazing Kisha won in that too!) and then Ripper and I competed in Tunnel cup. The Tunnel cup was 20 obstacles so I knew that would be too much for Ripper since we never did a course longer than 7 obstacle, and I forgot the course a bit, but we had fun, and Ripper was fast and crazy and wanted to work despite the noisy, crowded place and the slippery carpet, I was satisfied with him and very proud that he did so well at a so young age! Then we watched speciality show (that was a bit boring for me, I don't find any joy in dog-shows............) and than we had closing ceremony and photo-shooting with all of the competitors.
And than we had to say goodbye and came home. The whole thing was so amazing, the organizers did a fantastic job, everything went so smoothly and everybody had a great time! It was really great to meet so many CS fans and owners and so many great Croatian Sheepdogs! I'm looking forward for 3rd CSWC, Ripper and I will be definitely there (and I hope that than we will be able to start in every discipline just like mommy Kisha did this time :) )!
And here is Ripper's Birthday agility training, since I had time now to edit it:
On the 11th of November I went with Rooney to the National agility Championship which was held at TordasZoo. We had a team tunnel cup race and an open agility run. Both were dis., but I was so proud on the red devil since every mistake we had was either my bad handling or because of the lack of training. Rooney was quite clear minded and very concentrated. And we also had a Kelpie-meeting there since there were 8 Kelpies and one Kelpie-Border Collie mix, it was so great to see so many crazy workaholic at once :) <3 Of-course Ripper also came with us, he was very brave and had no problems with the noisy hall, and I did play and did some agility with him on the warming-up obstacle and he was doing everything just like on trainings. Here are my runs with Rooney:
As it turns out we shall have much more agility in our life again (sadly in the past three months we did not compete or train at all) and I'm very-very happy about it! :)) Tomorrow we are going to go to National Championship to TordasZoo, I'm going to compete with Rooney in both individual and in team (in team we are going to have a team tunnel cup competition). But this is going to be much more than a simple competition as there will be 10 (!) Kelpies, all of them competing! How cool is that! :) So we will also have a "little" Kelpie-meeting. And the next weekend will be about Croatian Sheepdogs as we will travel (with Ripper and of-course Rooney is coming too) to Zagreb to 2nd Croatian Sheepdog Championship. We will compete in frisbee on Saturday and on Tunnel cup on Sunday with Ripper. I'm looking forward to see more of Ripper's litter brothers and to finally see Kisha, Mishka and Grom (Ripper's mother, grandmother and grandfather)! In January we are going to go to Germany, to the B.A.C.K., three day long agility competition, where quite a few top agility handlers will compete and there will be 600 (!!) competitors per day, I will compete there with Rooney on all the three day (but of-course my loud little genius will also accompany us), can't wait it! And after that it looks like we are going to have finally a new team and begin to train again (more on that after we are back from Zagreb, when everything will be sure). ;)
So today is Ripper's first birthday. He was celebrating with a big walk (big running with bro Rooney :) ) and agility training. We did not train for 3 months and this was his first "grown up agility training". And he really is a genius, fast but concentrated and he is watching his legs, turns tight and he is able to correct my movements even if he hasn't been really doing agility before now, so I'm in love with his work also on the agility course. :) <3 Ripper is really the dog I have always wished for, he unites all the qualities I admire in my dogs: He is a devoted one person dog, a great watchdog, who keeps a distance with strangers just like Vitamin, He has a naturally strong character and he is very self confident just like Florida was and He is workaholic, toy-maniac, always ready for work, fast and crazy just like Rooney. And as I said before I also love his appearance: his very athletic body, his thin bones, his hair and his strong head with the big standing ears. He really is perfect for me, my soul-mate, my once-in-a-lifetime dog, my dream-dog. So very-very happy first birthday my little genius! <3<3<3