Received 09/17/2009 13:56
Thu, Sep 17 - Ready, Set ...
Ready, Set…
I got to sleep in today!!! This is the first day since I’ve left that I actually got to sleep in. All the way to 8:00! Wow. It was a great start to a busy day.
Thursday is always given over to practice at the site and team photographs. Normally, we do practice in the morning and then back to the hotel, change and go somewhere for team pictures. But this year, Team USA was the last team on the practice schedule, with our veterinary check time at 3:30 and our practice scheduled for 4:30. SO, that means we had to do team photos in the morning. With the periodic rains, last night at the team meeting, we couldn’t tell the team for sure that they would have photos this morning because we definitely wouldn’t have them out in the rain for it. So we left it hanging until this morning when we could check the weather. This morning dawned cloudy but dry, so the photos were scheduled for 10:00 am. Finding a place within walking distance of the hotel was tough, but we eventually found a quaint looking building, white with red shutters, that made a nice backdrop for the group photos. It felt really awkward walking to the site: 14 Americans in full uniform, carrying an American flag on a flagpole. Not exactly inconspicuous! The site was on a narrow side street, so it was a little challenging to get the teams set up and photos taken in between the occasional car coming down the street. But it worked out just fine. The cars passing seemed to take it in stride and slowed way down, crept past us and went on.
After we had taken the first batch of photos, our team photographer (and team member) Dee Anna Gamel, asked us to stay in formation (so to speak) and for the front row (which was mostly the large dog team) to make a noticeable space; a missing man formation—in honor of the teammate who is not with us any longer. We were all very somber during this part of the shoot as we thought of Geri and Focus.
Once the team photos were done, we went to another site near the hotel where there was a very cute little wishing well. This is where the individual photos were shot. It was right on the edge of a very busy street, so we were getting a lot of strange looks from the drivers going by and not a few horn honks! We finally got done with the photos around 11:30 or so.
The onsite practices had started with Team Austria at 8:00 am and many of our Team members wanted to go over and watch, so we arranged for the 3 vans to go over on a staggered schedule: Nancy’s van at 12:30; mine at 1:30; and Andy’s at 2:00. That way, people had some options. Some of the team watched the practice over the internet right here in the hotel, thanks to Agility Vision. But there’s nothing that can compare to watching it in person!
As we have done every years since 2001, Team USA has a private locker room. Some years they have just given it to us; this year we paid for it--something the Europeans find absolutely absurd. This allows our handlers to have a quiet, secure place to rest and for the dogs to relax. This year, our locker room is the closest one to where the competitors will enter the ring, which is really great. Its not so good for getting up into the stands. Our supporter section is about as far from our locker room as possible so it will take a bit more time and effort for team members to go spend time with the supporters after they run, but they will get there.
After everyone arrived at the site,they spent time buying their souvenirs: event shirts, caps, bags, etc. You always need to do this the irst day because they inevitably run out of sizes and choices. Our vet check was scheduled for 3:23 pm, but at 3:10, they came calling for us. Not all our handlers were in our locker room, so Nancy took the ones that were there, and I headed out to find the ones that weren’t. The ones missing was the big dog team, so I had a pretty good idea where they were. Sure enough, I found them high up in the bleachers, watching the other teams practice and working on what they would do. I hustled them down to get teir dogs and get to vet check. It all went very smoothly; the only question I heard about was one vet asked Channnan about Icon’s feet (they are a bit red from allergies), but nothing more. All of our small and medium dogs who had not been measured last year were sent to the measuring room (as was done with all the teams). Out of our 8 small/medium dogs, two had been done last year. But the rest passed with flying colors; now they won’t have to do that again. So, now we had about 30 minutes before our scheduled practice time. People spent the time walking their dogs out, stretching or massaging them, and just getting their dogs and themselves ready for a very intensive 16 ½ minutes. We are given 1.5 minutes per dog running, so with our 11 dogs, that added up to 16 ½ minutes.
Out on the floor, there were three sections set up on the floor. Each section had a defined set up that could not be changed: section 1 had the dogwalk and weaves along with jumps and the chute; section 2 had the AFrame, tire, and broad jump along with other jumps; and Section 3 had the see saw, a straight tunnel, table and spread jump. We had seen the set up last night while we were waiting for the coaches meeting and so were able to sketch it out on Clean Run, get it printed off for our teams, and they used that to plan their practices sequences. This way, when they got out on the floor, they could make the best use of the 5 ½ minutes they had in each section. We had a number of USA volunteers down on the floor to reset bars, chutes and change jump heights as well as one person in each ring assigned as a “traffic cop” to make sure only one dog was out working at a time in each section. Nancy and I floated and watched each section. Our teams did a fantastic job working out the sequences for themselves. They all knew what they wanted to work on during this time and set up the sequences to meet their needs. In total we had 16 ½ minutes of working time on the floor, so each team had 5 ½ minutes on each section. That may not sound like a lot of time, but try it sometime: find three other fiends, set up 3, 6-8 obstacle sequences, and work them for 16 ½ minutes. You’ll discover that this is a LOT of time. All the dogs were definitely tired by the time the final whistle blew!
The teams returned to the hotel about 5:30 in time to take care of the dogs and get ready for a 6:20 pm departure for team dinner. This is the one time during the trip that the team, and only the team (members, coaches, and Captain) has dinner alone. We went to a wonderful Italian restaurant. Nancy had preordered 8 different pizzas and 4 different pastas for a 6:45 delivery time and that restaurant had everything out exactly on time. And it as all really good! We had a good time socializing and laughing, relaxing before getting down to business tomorrow.
I ended my night taking long walk with Ashley and Luka; Channan and Icon; Marcus and Juice; Katie and Twix; along with Nancy and Ingrid. We walked down to and along the bike path that runs along the Rheine (the dogs couldn’t get to the water). It was a nice relaxing way to end the evening and really helped settle dinner.
Tomorrow things get serious—competition starts. Opening ceremonies begin at 8:30 and the first dog will be on the line at 10:22 (according to their schedule). First up will be Large Team Jumping. Following that will be Medium Team Jumping, Small Team Jumping; and Large Team Agility (Standard). So, by the end of the day tomorrow, we will know who the Large Team Champions are!
