14/10/2024
Malwch Duffy of Askenhill and her daughter Askenhill Europa recently competed at the Agility World Championships 2024 in Opglabbeek, Belgium.
It is hard to describe the joy of seeing a dog you bred (Europa in this case) competing - it means so much.
The dogs had a wonderful time - first in the Netherlands, then competing at a show in Germany and finally moving on to Belgium.
The courses where tough, but what should you expect for a world championship where 46 countries got to send their best 16 dogs to compete. I think the judges all did an amazing job of creating courses that highlighted the brilliance of dogs doing agility โ tough, exciting and nail-biting at times.
Overall, the highs well outweighed the lows. Europa exceeded all expectations and took the whole trip competing indoors and at the highest level of courses in her stride. I am very excited about her potential for improvement.
While Duffy and I didnโt quite achieve our potential (we placed 28th out of 96 intermediate dogs), this was mostly on me making a couple of silly mistakes.
Europa, being still very much a baby, was not expected to do anything other than try our best. She put in 2 lovely clear rounds and placed 38th overall out of 140 large dogs โ and to be fair to Europa I should have done better for her.
Europa got to compete in the large team with her uncle (Lex) and cousin (Sinna). We were almost an exceptional team โ with 3 clear rounds, and 3 tiny mistakes. Next timeโฆ
Both Duffy and Europa earned a 2nd place, with lovely rosettes at our warm-up show. This was Europaโs very first competition indoors and the first time she had seen artificial grass.
Here are some of the photoโs of our trip.
