Year 2014 in Club Sportkoer
Similar to previous years 2014 has passed quickly and left us lots of memorable moments and great results. An Estonian proverb actually also says that there is rarely 2 without a third :). This year there were 13 teams from Sportkoer starting in IPO and FH and also 13 first time results were achieved! We actually also counted all numbers from passed 3 years and have to admit that they were quite impressive - during the last 3 years all together 19 dogs have achieved 47!! first time results! First time result means that the dog passed IPO-1, IPO-2 etc for the first time and is great indicator of successful training process. There were 77 starts at trials and competitions, which is more than 1/3 of all the starts made in Estonia (221). Of course all of this this could not have been possible without lots of work and dedication.
We would like to start with the most memorable moments from this year. Most certainly one of the highlights was taking part in FCI IPO-FH World Championships in Oberdorla, Germany. Estonian team consisted of Aarne with Sannu and Merike with Käbi, team captain and trainer was Aivo Oblikas. Estonian team had travelled to IPO-FH WC many times, but only Kairi with Apollon came back with positive result and team result had never been achieved. As soon as the qualification trial was successfully passed in last October, the very intense and determined preparation for World Championships started with the whole team working as one. As Aivo had trained one of the dogs nearly from the start and also helped fine-tuning the other team, he was very convinced that the team result would become reality this time. Considering the demanding conditions where one of the tracks was unexpectedly laid on a hard dirt, where no training could be done and Merike and Käbi unfortunately had to work a track that was messed with after laying Estonian team did really a super job! Aarne and Sannu placed 11th in tough competition and Merike and Käbi finished 31st. As a team Estonia achieved 10th place among 22 participating countries. We are extremely happy and proud!
FCI IPO-FH WC did not remain the only World Championship of 2014 for Sportkoer. In spite of starting health problems of Hundu, Anu managed to qualify to FCI IPO World Championships in Malmö, Sweden with her. Aivo supervised their trainings in tracking and obedience and helped to prepare them as much as Hundu's health allowed. Anu and Hundu trained protectionwork with Tõnu Mägi. Unfortunately it was not possible to maintain their top level at obedience, but at the same time this allowed to spare more time for tracking. Anu and Hundu achieved a good result with 247 points at FCI IPO WC. Tracking result - 96 points made us especially glad! This time the WC fields were little harder than usual and there were failures even from quite experienced sportsmen. Considering the quality of the work done in training Aivo was strong believer that Anu and Hundu could show nice tracking, but placing among top 10 of this year's tracks was still surprising! Great, just great!
Estonian German Shepherd's Accociation's Universal Sieger 2014 is also surely worth mentioning. Both titles belonged to dogs from our club - Toomas and Joop won second year in a row among males and Merike and Käbi first time among females.
Summer was celebrated with Estonian IPO Championships, where Reelika with Fiona and Anu with Hundu gave a good competition to others. They both gained 98 points in tracking, that were the top tracking scores this time. Reelika and Fiona were also best at protection part with 93 points. All in all Reelika and Fiona placed 3rd and Anu and Hundu 4th. So during all 3 years of our club's existence we have had our teams at podium of the Estonian IPO Championships every time.
Another important IPO event in Estonia is Estonian German Shepherd's Accociation's IPO Championships. This time the competition was especially thrilling for us as Taivo and Ruudi made their very first appearance in IPO-3. We have published many stories and videos of this team's training process, as they are the very first ones we have supervised in all three disciplines from the start. Considering the quite young age of Ruudi (2 years and 8 monts at the time) we thought that it was quite a bold and risky move to choose this kind of big competition as their first tryout - neither the dog or handler had much previous experience. The risk taken justified itself as Taivo and Ruudi showed themselves at their true level, achieving 2nd place with 277 points (96/85/93). Unfortunately they had one wrong position in obedience that cost 5 points and kept the score below 90 this time. As Taivo and Ruudi completed IPO-1 with 279 points and IPO-2 with 270 points (-10 for long down) this was a nice addition to their series. Nice performance was also shown from Reelika and Fiona who had once again best tracking score (98 points) and placed 4th with total 270 points. In September Reelika and Fiona had also successful day at Estonian Dobermann Association's open IPO championships - they placed first in IPO-3!
Autumn arrived with FH competitions. At Estonian FH Championships Reelika and Fiona achieved 3rd place and at Estonian German Shepherd's Accociation's FH Championships Merike and Käbi were 2nd among german shepherds.
Estonian Kennel Union has also made their summaries of the year and given awards to best sportdogs and their handlers. We are very proud that again the top 2 IPO dogs of Estonia came from our club:
1. Reelika and Fiona
2. Anu and Hundu
Reelika and Fiona also placed 4th at PJK/FH category.
Looking back to all of this it is quite clear that the year has been a good one :). 2014 was also the year when Aivo himself went out there as a handler again. Aivo's dog Tüüp (Daneskjold Hawk) showed nice tracking in trainings and Aivo decided to participate in FH trial. As the winter break was getting near, this was a good oppurtunity to test the dog and his training level. As Aivo has trained Tüüp in a quite unconventional way and carried out trainings that were "normally" intoduced at much older age, he was tracking really nicely at 18 months of age. For some years now, Aivo had only an oppurtunity to spend time beside competition grounds and support his trainees, but not participate himself. So now there was time for comeback :). This time Tüüp chose to follow the cross-track and no result could be achieved, but he made nevertheless beautiful tracking until the wrong turn and showed much maturer work than could be expected from his age. So next year will be also exciting for Aivo and Tüüp.
In 2014 we also continued with traditional Sportkoer's events. There was already 5th tracking competition for puppies and young dogs (Jäljehunt) and also an obedience competition for children (Junior Cup). Our annual (international) summer camp was once again filled with good company and lots of training! This time there were Evija with Li and Peteris with Zuv from Latvia training together with us.
We expect much also from year 2015! This year we had some puppies joining the club and we expect even more to come next year. There are also many other exciting things happening at Sportkoer. Stay tuned!!!
