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ATT-Arena in Turku (Åbo), Finland
The first Top Team-camp is now over. I'm pleased with the training and I hope all people and dogs were the same. I didn't have time to watch anything of Juha or Jari's training but I'm sure it was very interesting. Jari had a fun, fast and challenging course to work with and Juha was going deep into every dogs contact behavior, what they need to train more and how they should improve.
Yesterday I had five new groups working with the same 34 obstacles course I had Saturday, including several situations with directional choices. Turning left or right, what was the fastest? In some situations we were taking time only for one turn and in others we took time how the choice affected also the coming sequense. Very interesting and quite complex. I was surprised that it for several dogs didn't matter so much which way they chose, but rather that they did it well and in an efficient way. For other dogs or some situations it could differ up to one second between turning right or left!
I made some small adjustments in their handling and I tried to push them as much as possible and supported them to do things they maybe didn't think they would manage from the beginning. The biggest difference between Finnish handling and my handling, I think, is how we make a serpenitine. As I said before, my work during these camps are not to teach them my way of handling, so for the dogs and handlers that way worked I did't point it out. But for some teams I explained how they (in my opinion) could make it easier for themselves or smoother for the dog. It worked really well for the ones who tried and I hope it will be useful for them. All teams also got some homework to measure time for different situations. Overall it was a high level on both handlers and dogs and it was a lot of fun to work with them! I'm looking forward to the coming camps and I'll figure out what to work on next time… :o)
In the Top Team it's not less than TWO Elvis pups, I'm so proud and it was so fun to see them working!! One of them is Ogin's brother "One" and the other is "Jedi", a bitch from another litter in Finland. They were both really nice dogs and ecpecially "One" looked so much like Elvis!! Unfortunately "Jedi" had gone home when I should take some photos. I will take some Jedi-photos next camp!
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One – Ogin's brother! 
The flight home went really smooth and nice, no air bumps, no storm. ;o) I think I surpassed myself as I sat on the train 22:05 and the flight landed 21:55, exactly 10 minutes earlier … I can tell you it went quickly through the airport!
