Friday, November 11, 2005
Pre-Steeplechase Celebrity Run
Posted Wed, Nov 16, 12:15 p.m.----
The Steeplechase finals were preceded by a new (as far as I know) event, the Celebrity run. USDAA enlisted some local media personalities and well-known agility people--such as all the National judges for this year who weren't judging the Steeplechase finals (celebrity is a relative thing--to run other people's dogs over a modified course. It was immensely fun to get to see the judges run; unless we're in their home territory, we never know whether they can actually perform. And it was humbling to see the dogs, who were clearly chosen for their flexibility and reliability as well as speed, perform miracles of recovery and beautiful course execution with handlers that they'd probably never seen before in their lives.
There were two groups, the media celebrities and the agility celebrities. The former ran a very simple course around the perimeter; the latter ran a more complex course using most of the obstacles on the field that actually required agility handling skills and included a difficult weave entry, which most dogs made despite (or sometimes due to) their unfamiliar handlers.
The Steeplechase finals were preceded by a new (as far as I know) event, the Celebrity run. USDAA enlisted some local media personalities and well-known agility people--such as all the National judges for this year who weren't judging the Steeplechase finals (celebrity is a relative thing--to run other people's dogs over a modified course. It was immensely fun to get to see the judges run; unless we're in their home territory, we never know whether they can actually perform. And it was humbling to see the dogs, who were clearly chosen for their flexibility and reliability as well as speed, perform miracles of recovery and beautiful course execution with handlers that they'd probably never seen before in their lives.
There were two groups, the media celebrities and the agility celebrities. The former ran a very simple course around the perimeter; the latter ran a more complex course using most of the obstacles on the field that actually required agility handling skills and included a difficult weave entry, which most dogs made despite (or sometimes due to) their unfamiliar handlers.
Media
- 1st place, Graham Resnick, News 12 anchor, running Ego.
- 2nd, Janie West, KTAR radio reporter, running Gumbo.
- 3rd, Linda Bashata, AZ Republic editor, running Megan.
Agility Celebs
- 1st place, Greg Louganis running Whist Sanders.
- 2nd, Carol Voelker running Detour.
- 3rd, Ken Tatsch running Marlow(?).
- Karen Gloor running Jesse Bean.
- Frank Holik running ?.
- Tom Kula running Gracie.
- Terry Felsted running Kensy.
- Carol Sworich (?) running Rumor Perdot-Goudy.
