Looking back on our first big international tournament — a rollercoaster of ups and downs, some bad luck, some good luck, believing in your dog and bringing it on!

The prelude

Our WAO journey started back in December 2023, when we qualified for the Games at the Dutch tryouts.
This was also a first for me. San is my first dog of this calibre, and although he showed promise straight away, we've been battling long episodes of bad luck primarily due to my own ongoing injuries which have really limited my ability to train and run trials.
San is awesome and we've found a way to stay competitive despite my limited mobility, but that's not always enough when you need to perform and run well consistently, as is the case for these tryout events.

However, at that moment back in December, we'd been able to get back into a trialing flow for a bit and my hip injury seemed to be on the mend, after 14 months of tendon strain. Finally, things seemed to be looking up! ☀️

Unfortunately, that feeling didn't last long. 😅

My hip took a turn for the worse again over the Christmas holidays — triggered by gardening work, of course — and my trial rhythm went back to resembling a flickering light bulb. Sometimes it was on, but mostly off. 😅

Then at the end of February, San injured himself. We believed it to be his right front foot, probably a bruised toe, although assessing pain in my Aussies is always a challenge because they're so hard on themselves. 😬 He was put on rest for a month, until the European Open tryouts. I watched him closely and he seemed fine and showed no further discomfort, so I picked up training and trialing again.

Fast-forward a few weeks, right after the first weekend of the Agility World Championship tryouts. After the tryouts, San was fine, but a few days later after training, San was limping again. Shit 😬 We were less than 4 weeks away from the WAO at this point, and then realising you have a recurring injury... I feared for the worst. I know myself how persistent soft tissue injuries can be, having dealt with one for well over 1.5 years now, so my heart sank when I saw my poor boy in pain. Not just because I saw our dream of participating at a world event shatter, but most of all because I was worried for his well-being.

I'll spare you the details but long story short, it took a while to get a diagnosis as x-rays were inconclusive at first, but an ultrasound confirmed that San had a partially healed hairline fracture in one of the metatarsal bones. The weeks of rest had healed it for the most part, but not quite fully, so now it had started to cause him discomfort again.

Honestly, it was a good diagnosis. The ultrasound had also confirmed that all the soft tissue in his wrists was undamaged, and bones do heal, and once they're healed, they're fine.
The timing just royally sucked.

We were about 2.5 weeks before WAO at this point. It would be tight, and I assumed we wouldn't be able to go. But we started treating San with EMTT and all the bone healing supplements I could find 😅 And planned a new x-ray the day before we'd be leaving for the WAO to see how the healing was progressing.

I was so sure there wouldn't be enough time. So when the vet told me, as he was looking at the new x-rays, he loved what he was seeing, that the fracture had fully healed and that San was good to go, my first thought was...

Well shit. I'd better start packing.

I went to the World Agility Open and all I got was this lousy T-shirt...

...and a head full of wonderful memories and so many new experiences!
(And shirts from England and the US)

I don't even know where to start! These events are something else. I loved everything (well, most things) about it. The sheer scale of it is indescribable.

Of course we were there to perform, and with San having been on rest for the better part of the year and me still coping with my tendon injury, I wasn't too sure what to expect. But despite the really, really shitty preparation (none), I know I could trust San on his great foundations and eagerness and focus for the game. After all, I eat my challenges like I eat my energy bars: to energise me so I can give it my best. 💪🏻

We were in the last group for our Snooker run on Thursday, which meant we walked the course at 6:20 in the morning and then wouldn't run until something like 6 in the evening. I like to see my glass half full, and while such a long wait could potentially hurt your focus, I took it as an opportunity to watch the other groups and see how other large combinations were doing.

I saw fast — and I mean FAST — dogs not being able to clear the final 7abc in the closing sequence if they tried to go for 6-5-7 or 7-5-6. 44 seconds was incredibly tight, and while it had been my plan A to go for a 6-5-7 or 7-5-6, I knew almost certainly that I would not be able to get the final 7 points, like so many of my fellow competitors.

I had two options:

1. Go for 6-5-7 and in the closing sequence, go straight to the finish jump after completing 6, so I would finish with 38 points as a LOT of other people did, but finish with a faster time and hopefully make the cut-off to place for the finals.
2. Go for 4-5-7, which is 2 points less in the opening but a bit faster, so more chance of clearing 7 in the closing sequence, and landing on 43 points total. That would definitely place us for the finals. The caveat was, if we didn't make 7abc, we'd definitely NOT make the cut.

I decided to go for option #2.



Unfortunately, San misunderstood my threadle cue on 7b, and flicked away towards the finish jump in the opening 🫣 I managed to call him back, but this cost us so much time, that we didn't get to clear 7c before the buzzer went.





Bummer! That meant no Gambling for us! 😔 But...
Except for that little misunderstanding, San was so awesome!! 🤩🤩🤩
I was SO happy with how he performed! To him, it was just like any other trial, so he was full focus and not bothered by all the hubbub! He listened so well, jumped beautifully and most importantly: showed no signs of discomfort afterwards! 🥳 I was so proud!

And then the Bonus Speedstakes...

Then on Saturday, we got to run the Bonus Speedstakes. This time nice and early, before the real heat, at 8 in the morning. 😉

There were a couple of things in this round to be mindful of, particularly at the start. The dog's path didn't really allow for handling some of the jumps as threadles, unless you were really far ahead. I have a bit of a fear for blind crossing after tunnels though, because San's head is made of diamond and my kneecaps are not 😬 Because I can't run at training, I rarely train blind crosses after tunnels and I find it really hard to judge if I'll be out of my cannon ball's way in time.



But eh, who needs kneecaps anyway. Even though I hadn't practised it when walking the course, I decided to try a blind anyway. Yes I'm one of those people that's not afraid to change their plan later. 😜

The result? Well... watch for yourself!





I'm so, SO happy we finished this amazing event with a clear run!
Other than that first A-frame 😬 (I blame the fact that it's Galican soft line, plus we weren't able to train the A-frame during team training)... I don't think we could have run it faster or tighter with the preparation that we've had. San must have lost some muscle mass during the periods he was on rest. So I'm super, super pleased that despite the many challenges, we didn't back down. No, we showed up, saying to ourselves "Bring it on!" as we walked to that start line, not anxious about the bad preparation but instead excited and ready to give it our best shot, with the whole world watching.



It was awesome, and I can't wait to do this again, with my best Aussie boy San, who never ceases to amaze me!



(Don't let San's face fool you there — he loved the event a LOT more than he loved getting picked up and photographed 😂).