Description: A high-quality video, professionally produced by Media Studio of Germany, showing the best of European agility.

Features include:-

• Lots of runs in the Individuam and Team events (Standard & Mini)
• A slow motion preview of every course
• Interviews with Christine Charpentier, Mika Mätö, Silvia Vaanholt and the USA, German and Finnish teams
• VHS video available in NTSC & PAL/SECAM format
• English or German translations

Best Features: WOW! There are many, many breathtaking and inspirational runs. Guy Blancke is the commentator and does a very nice job. His runs are spectacular too and if wasn't for a hesitation on the A-frame he would have won the Individual Combined instead of his still very wonderful second place.

Besides showcasing many of the fantastic runs, there are interviews, opening and closing ceremonies with all it's music and dancing, awards/national anthems and slow motion course analyses with a dog and handler so you really get to understand the course that is about to be run. Times, faults and placings are overlaid for each dog as well.

The top runs were shown in reverse order leading up to the exciting first place in each group which added excitement.

Not all runs were shown of course of the twenty-eight or so teams that are represented, but there are many shown and from many countries. For the USA, we get to see Nancy Gyes/Scud, Kathie Leggett/Heather, Elicia Calhoun/Suni, Stuart Mah/Recce, Steve Frick/Maggie and Diane Bauman/Torville. Six of the nine that competed overall.

Perhaps the most impressive run was by Christine Charpentier of France (all the French handlers are lightning quick) with her Border Collie in the Individual (Standard) Agility where she moves all the way from 15th in Jumpers to 1st with an incredible winning performance in Standard. It is the best Dogwalk I have ever seen and probably ever will. The dog never stops running. Although it's not the best angle to view the downside, it looks as though the dog may have gotten ALL 4four feet in the 36" zone. A riveting performance. Unfortunately, she doesn't share her training secrets when interviewed by Pascal Peng - try as he may to get it out of her!

Worst Features: Not much wrong with this tape. It's a bit long for one sitting, but you get your money's worth.

I originally tried to order through Guy Blancke's website and that would have worked out, but my bank wanted a ridiculous amount of funds to conduct a wire transfer.

Production 172 minutes of nothing less than superb agility!

Overall Rating: Outstanding! This is a tape we'll be watching many, many times - the Olympic fever, the many keen skills of dogs and handlers. It's electric!

Value for Money: It is easily the best $39.95 + s/h, (approx. £20 + p&p in the UK) we have ever spent for anything agility related. Order your copy today; you won't be disappointed.

About the Authors
Marq and Rebecca Cheek have been in agility for five years. They have five Shelties and no kids.

Marq judges agility for the American Kennel Club (AKC), and they both have had National placements at the AKC Nationals Marq's dog Wyatt also finished 3rd at the USDAA 1998 Finals. Wyatt, a blue merle sheltie, also was the first dog ever to earn the AKC Master Agility Championship (MACH) title in June 1999.

They have attended many seminars and were fortunate enough to attend a seminar conducted by Jeff and Chris Bolton of Great Britain. Marq instructed at the 1999 Clean Run Camp and will do so in 2000 as well as instructing at Nancy Gyes and Jim Basic's Power Paws Camp 2000.

Comments from Richard Wallace: received my copy of the world agility championships in Dortmund Germany last week, and all I can say is "wow!" The production standards were not as glitzy and smooth as AP's, but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute (and it runs around two and a half hours.) The whole event struck me as being like the Olympics of "Chariots of Fire" before everything became so heavily commercialized and professionalised. I also found it charming at one point when an interviewer of some Finnish competitors was translating their conversation into German, and the narrator of the tape was translating her German translation of the Finnish into English.

I am as bad as Gideons with their bibles, insisting that all my friends borrow the tape and watch it.

More from Cathy Pronzini: I watched the FCI Video and I really thought that the coverage was superb. I like the high camera angle where you can see the entire course and handler. I think that this video was so much more fun to watch than Animal Planet's coverage. It's cute to see a dog race through a tunnel, but how many do you have to see to get the point? I much preferred seeing the entire course and handler strategy on the FCI Video. I think the FCI Video treats agility more like a sporting event than AnimalPlanet that shows it like a ' gee wiz' novelty.

If you would like to comment on this product or add your name to the Agilitynet list of reviewers, email your name and details to Ellen Rocco at Agilitynet today.

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