Bay Team Blog

(Note: Posted Tues Nov 15, 9:45 pm. Some revisions Wed Nov 16 11:47 a.m.; more to snooker and team relay Tues Nov 22, 9 am); OK, got final results for Team Overall posted Tues Nov 22, 5pm
Bay Teamers (*) & other locals
(Listings are based on placement numbers posted by USDAA; only about the top 10%, more or less, were identified)

Power and Speed (Friday)

In this class, the dog must first successfully complete all 3 contacts, the weaves, and a double jump, in any order, within a certain amount of time, to be allowed to continue to the timed jumpers portion of the course. Any fault in the first part results in elimination, which predictably caught a lot of dogs.

• 16" (about 106 dogs)
  • Luka and Ashley Deacon, 4th
• 26" (about 128 dogs)
  • Tala and Greg Leal, 7th (tie)
  • *Panic and Nancy Gyes, 7th (tie)
• 22" (about 250 dogs)
  • *Brink and Sandy Rogers, 9th (tie)
  • *Spy and Jim Basic, 2nd
  • *Bert and Bill Gignac, 6th

Performance Power and Speed (Friday)

• 8" (26 dogs)
• *Chili and Lorraine Bailey, 4th

Time Gamble (Wednesday)

In this class, the handler must register a guess as to how much time it will take for their dog to complete the course on a time-plus-faults scoring system. So, for example, if you think the dog will complete it in 25 seconds but pop a contact, you'd enter a score of 28. The closest guess t the actual time wins.

• 12" (36 dogs)
  • *Cindy and Kathy Carlsen, 2nd
• 26" (124 dogs)
  • *Zac and Eric Bruce, 2nd
• 22" (257 dogs)
  • *Rav and Sarah Johnson, 4th

Performance Time Gamble (Wednesday)

• 8" (24 dogs)
• *Chili and Lorraine Bailey, 2nd

Team Snooker (Thursday)

This was a challenging course, where the #7 looked like it might be easy because it consisted of a tunnel-jump-tunnel. However, the tunnels were on opposite sides of the ring, and all the red jumps required going around or through other obstacles from almost any numbered obstacle or combination. In addition, the time allowed was very tight. As a result, many many dogs weren't able to complete their planned opening plus the 2-through-7 closing sequence before time ran out--that is, if they didn't get whistled off early for taking one of the many possible wrong elements.

• 26" (146 dogs)
  • Fable and Rachel Sanders, 7th
  • *Tika and Ellen Finch, 11th
• 22" (253 dogs)
  • *Bert and Bill Gignac, 7th
• 16" (about 120 dogs)
  • *Jitters and Mo Strenfel, 8th
• Results that were (finally) posted online only covered those who got ribbons--just the top 8 or so--so I'm not sure who else...

Team Standard (Friday)

• 26" (146 dogs)
  • Aiko and Susan Cochrane, 1st
  • *Kidd and Tania Chadwick, 8th (tie)
  • *Thyme and Sharon Freilich, 5th
  • *Hobbes and Rob Michalski, 15th
  • Tala and Greg Leal, 4th


• 22" (253 dogs)
  • *Spy and Jim Basic, 25th (tie)
  • *Rav and Sarah Johnson, 19th

Team Gamblers (Saturday)

The opening time was only 24 seconds on this one. The gamble time was 14 seconds for big dogs; the gamble had no gamble line and you could take a certain sequence of obstacles as often as you wanted after the first whistle blew for bonus points--but if you didn't cross the finish before your 14 seconds were up, you lost all your bonus points.

• 26" (146 dogs)
  • Fable and Rachel Sanders, 7th
  • *Panic and Nancy Gyes, 3rd
  • *Kidd and Tania Chadwick, 10th
  • Tala and Greg Leal, 14th
• 22" (253 dogs)
  • *Brink and Sandy Rogers, 2nd
  • *Wicked and Nancy Gyes, 27th
  • *Bert and Bill Gignac, 6th

Team Jumpers (Saturday)

• 16" (about 120 dogs)
  • *Jitters and Maureen Strenfel, 6th
• 26" (146 dogs)
  • Aiko and Susan Cochran, 6th
• 22" (253 dogs)
  • *Riot and Nancy Gyes, 24th
  • *Spy and Jim Basic, 6th
  • *Bert and Bill Gignac, 26th

Team Relay (Saturday)

Only the top 10 relay placers were (eventually) posted online, so I don't have any other info.

• *Wicked and Nancy Gyes' team, 3rd
• Dan, Coty, and Tala's team, 2nd
• Fable Sanders' team, 6th
• Pivot Gaiser's team, 5th

Team Final Placement--Cumulative of all 5 events

Note Tues Nov 22, 5pm, Oops, OK, these weren't the placements going INTO finals, these were the final placements after all, for the 36 teams who went to finals.

(Out of 205 teams)
• 3rd, *Bill Gignac and Bert's team
• 5th, *Jim Basic and Spy's team
• 7th, Rachel Sanders and Fable's team
• 11th, Candy Gaiser and Pivot's team
• 15th, *Nancy Gyes and Wicked's team
• 16th, Greg Leal/Tala, Tammy Langer/Coty, Skvorak/Dan
• 24th, *Nancy Gyes/Panic, Susan Cochran/Aiko
• 36th, *Rob Michalski/Hobbes, *Cindy Glantz/Jagger, *Mo Strenfel/Jitters

Additional Bay Team teams doing well:

• 42nd, *Erika Maurer/Chase, *Dave Grubel/Tahoe, *Tania Chadwick/Kidd

Posted Tues Nov 22, 9:30 am----

• Jumpers 22", *Kayla and Kathie Legget, 4th
• Standard 12", *Heather and Kathie Leggett, 4th
• Standard 16", *Cruiser and Sarah Johnson, 2nd

These are the final placements for bay teamers and other familiar names, cumulative over 5 rounds (71 teams):

• *Kayla & Kathie Leggett's team, 10th
• *Tucker and Nancy Campanile with Max and Patti Poindexter, 13th
• Bounce Gaiser and Tango Langer, 16th
• *Cruiser Johnson & Wog Gaiser, 26th
• *Jasmine Newman's team, 31st
• Typhoon Schneider's team, 32nd
• *Mysti Baldwin's team, 41st
• *Heather Leggett's team, 58th

Posted Wed, Nov. 16, 1 pm----
The Steeplechase finals participants were amazingly fast. All dogs had essentially running contacts, for real for the little dogs and with virtually no hesitation at the bottom of the contacts even for big dogs who might do 2-on/2-off regularly. This was important, as the course required 2 A-frame performances (rather than 2 weaves, which would be the other choice).

12" (13 dogs)

This class was dominated in speed by Papillons, who took four of the top 5 placements, beating out 3 Pembroke Welsh Corgis, 2 Jack Russell Terriers, 2 Shelties, and a token All-American and token miniature Poodle. Kimberley Sisak and Devo ran first, setting a pace of 28.29 that was not only not beaten by any other 12" dog, but also not by any 16" or 26" dog. In the end, only two 22" dogs beat that time, one by only .01 seconds.

The Bay Team had no 12ers in the finals, but other familiar CA names include:

• 1st, Devo and Kimberley Sisak, 28.29
• 2nd, Moso and Roger Coor, 30.56
• Charlie and Anne Platt, 30.72
• 5th, Phoebe and K. Sisak, 32.10

16" (16 dogs)

The 16" class was marked by tremendous speed from all competitors. The range for these 16 dogs was less than 2 seconds difference; they ranged from 29.57 for first place to only 32.33--I am discounting the two times of 32.88 and 33.97, both posted by dogs who ran past the last jump and had to circle back around to take it successfully.

The field included mostly Shelties, 3 JRTs, and one each of Miniature Aussie, Parson Russell Terrier, Swedish Vallhund, and Pyrenean Shepherd.

The thrill of the evening was when the semifinal fourth-place finisher, Bay Area's Ashley Deacon and his Pyr Shep Luka, ran 13th and became the first 16" dog to break 30 seconds, posting a time of 29.57 that even the semi's first-place dog, Susan Garrett's experienced dog, Decaff, couldn't beat, missing by .28 seconds. The crowd was excited and the questions from all directions were "who is this guy? where's he from? where does he train?" (The answers are: he's pretty new to agility, he started training with Gail Mahood at Diamond Bar and now trains with Jim Basic of Power Paws Agility.)

Bay Teamers:

• 9th, *Jitters and Mo Strenfel, 32.31
• 14th, *Xena and Marcia Walsh, 30.34 with 5 faults

22" (16 dogs)

This class and the 26" class consisted entirely of Border Collies. It would've been nice to see other breeds. As always, when I discussed the subject with others, some believe that even if the best trainer/handlers got the best dogs of other breeds, they'd never be able to compete with BCs; others believe that if the best trainers/handlers focused more on other breeds, we'd see more in the Steeplechase finals.

This proved to be a small-dog course; more dogs in the 22" and 26" classes Eed or had trouble negotiating sequences than did the smaller dogs. At this height, 4 dogs went offcourse, but for speed, all but 2 dogs completed the course in under 30 seconds.

• 1st, Rush, L. Dewey, 28.11, one of only 2 dogs to beat Devo's time
• 2nd, Kahlua, L. Holladay, 28.28
• 5th, *Rip and Sharon Freilich, 28.99

26" (16 dogs)

The 26" dogs demonstrated the difference in speed the the extra air time ("hang time") over the 26" jumps makes. These were all fast dogs, but only 4 dogs managed to break the 30-second barrier. It would be interesting to see how these dogs competed with the 22" dogs if all were jumping 22". Again, the time range was quite narrow, from 29.13 to only 31.21--most dogs between 30 and 30.89 seconds.

• 6th, Coty and Greg Leal, 30.31
• 12th, Tala and Greg Leal, 30.87 and 5 faults
• *3rd, Panic and Nancy Gyes, 29.89
• 1st, Frazzle & T Brown, 29.14

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.

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.

Posted Nov 22, 5pm----
Performance Speed Jumping is the equivalent of the Steeplechase for Performance dogs. Here are the higher-placing bay teamers and locals:

• *Riot Gyes, 16" 1st place
• Wog Gaiser, 22" 3rd
• *Swift Basic, 22" 4th

Posted Mon, Nov 14
OK, back to Wednesday night and the 2004 Top Ten Awards. I hope I don't miss anyone's name while scanning this huge list. Of course you'll point it out to me if I do. ;-)

Top Ten points are accrued in the Masters and P3 classes based on your placement and on how many dogs competed in the class at each trial. The award year runs through the end of August, I think (or maybe September), so this covers the year through August or September 2004. The placemat doesn't specify which position the team placed within the 10.

These are current & sometime Bay Team members:

• Cindy Glantz & Jagger, 16" Masters Jumpers, 16" Masters Snooker


• David Robson & Robbie, 16" Masters Jumpers, 16" Masters Standard


• Candy Gaiser & Pivot, 22" Masters Jumpers


• Nancy Gyes & Riot, 22" Masters Jumpers, 22" Masters Standard


• Rob Michalski & Hobbes, 26" Masters Gamblers, 26" Masters Snooker


• Rachel Sanders & Trump, 12" Masters Snooker, 12" Masters Standard


• Maureen Strenfel & Jitters, 16" Masters Snooker


• Nancy Gyes & Wicked, 22" Masters Snooker, 22" Masters Standard


• Sandy Rogers & Brink, 22" Masters Snooker


• Jim Basic & Spy, 22" Masters Standard


• Ellen Finch & Jake, 16" P3 Jumpers


• Candy Gaiser & Holly, 22" P3 Jumpers, 22" P3 Gamblers, 22" P3 Snooker, 22" P3 Standard


• Jim Basic & Swift, 22" P3 Jumpers


• Erika Maurer & Chase, 22" P3 Snooker, 22" P3 Standard

Today's activities included:

• Continental breakfast at the Best Western for those of us staying here; this'll probably be the only time most of us will be here late enough to be able to take advantage of it. Tomorrow, walkthroughs start at 7 a.m.



• Check-in line—long but quick. Lots of shorts, but no kilts.

  Registration for anyone who could get here before 4:00. Mid-morning, there were 3 (4?) longish lines, but they moved quickly.


• Walkthrough for the Time Gamble from noon til 1:00 (that's in groups of about 30 at a time for 10 minutes only). Course was a simple S-curve of only about 12 obstacles. Goal was to guess how long it would take you to run it (plus any faults) and then see how close you came. You have to register your guess before anyone starts running it.


• An introduction to the high prices we're likely to pay for some of the food vendors. $5 for a large Coke--with ice? Only one food vendor was open today, and we suspect he didn't know that he'd be on the firing line, because he was pretty much out of everything shortly after 1:00.



• Wednesday's opening ceremony...

  ...included the introduction of the judges. Still no kilts in sight.

  Opening ceremonies, supposedly at 1:15 but actually started at 11:45 while they tried to assemble at least one person from each participating country. Just a brief introduction of the judges, the countries, and then the national anthem. Yes, I do know the words to the second verse.


• Running Time Gamble from about 2:15 until about 5:30. Then everyone dispersed to get ready for the welcome dinner/awards banquet. As far as I know, no results were posted today.




What the best-dressed agility competitors are wearing. I'd have kilt for an outfit like this.



• Dinner. Food was excellent and there was an abundance. Instead of announcing the Top Ten awards, they printed placemats with the names of all 2004 Top Ten winners--all 320 of them. They did announce the LAA winners, however.

LAA Award winners

CUrrent Bay Teamers: Dave Grubel and Tahoe, Bronze; Jim Basic and Spy, Bronze; Nancy Gyes and Wicked, Gold. Assorted familiar names: Candy Gaiser and Bounce, Bronze; Dave Robson and Robbie, Bronze. Sharon Harris and Lucy, Bronze. Candy and Pivot, Silver. Olga Chaiko and Luz, Silver and Gold.

Top Ten winners

Too late, too tired to go through and list them. They've been posted on the USDAA web site for a while, I think, so maybe at some point we can add a link there and then, eventually, ID the Bay Teamers on the list.

.
We covered 720 miles in just about 10 hours plus a total of 3 hours worth of stops. Not bad. We took 85 south to 101 to 152 (Pacheco Pass) to 5 south to 210 through LA, then 59 briefly to 210 and then all the way in to Scottsdale. Encountered very little traffic.

Still, at 5:00 we were still 71 miles from Blythe--and wondering what "other desert cities" qualified as.


Traveling with 4 dogs, 2 of whom have no concept of how to walk nicely on a leash (not my fault--must be their genetics) was fine as long as we were all in the car; getting out to walk around and potty was challenging not only for the leashes going every which way but also I suspect that the dogs had figured out that, if they pottied, they'd have to go back into those borrrring crates. However, they were all very well behaved (i.e., sleeping) for such a long drive.

There were high winds on Interstate 5 in the hour or so before the Grapevine, but the "high wind" area along 10 packed with windmills was silent, and the windmills all were stilled.

Arrived 9:30ish California time this evening; left south San Jose at about 8:20 this morning. With about 4 stops for food, pottying, and so on, I think we made pretty good time. Traffic through L.A. was a little slowish through the Pasadena area, but never anything that I'd call bad.

Weather is quite warm out; the van's temperature readout said that it was 77 outside when we arrived. So much for the chilling evening winds that I predicted after last year's experience.

We took some photos on route but it's late and I think those'll have to wait until tomorrow. And the hotel reports that "because of the dog show, the hotel is completely full and it might be hard to get an Internet connection." Plus they didn't tell me it was a wireless connection when I called and asked. So luckily we have one computer with a wireless card and the other (the one with photoshop on it) might work dialup (they claim), so we'll have to experiment.

Meanwhile, good night.

-ellen

Original sender: Erika M.----As I was one of the few CA folks who drove out for the Good Dog trial this past weekend, I'm sending greetings to the Bay Area from sunny Scottsdale.

On the way I stayed at the Thousand Palms Red Roof, which is still decent, but I have to admit that the Motel 6 on Indian Road in Palm Springs (Ellen notes: There isn't one on Indian road but a couple near; see listings...Erika reports now "I think it's #1262, the one closest to the freeway.") looked appealing (and a tad fewer miles as I was pretty tired by the time I rolled into town). The winds were brutal through Palm Springs so good luck to all of those towing trailers! Drive carefully!

The camping at Westworld has been modified somewhat—the F lot is still dirt, but the rest of the areas (farther from the rings) have all been paved. Also the bathrooms and showers are "new" (I didn't camp last year so don't have anything to compare them to)—they're nice but the showers don't get hot enough . :-(

The ring layout is going to be different this year—parts of the fields have been paved over (looks bizarre right now) so there are strips of asphalt running through the fields. The ring flags went up today and I saw the bleachers being towed in as well. The stage is being set!

That's it for now. Weather is beautiful—cool in the shade, hot in the sun, but not unbearable. And dry—the dogs' coats are already crackling with static.

Safe travels to everyone—see you on Thursday!

-Erika
and new LAA-S Chase :-)

Just confirming that this works OK.

Some Bay Teamers left town early to attend an agility trial this past weekend in Arizona and then rest up for 3 days before the Main Event (the 2005 World Cynosports Games; AKA among us noncognoscenti, "the USDAA Nationals").

Some people are leaving today.

Most Bay Teamers, like Jackie and me and our collective 4 dogs (Babar's staying home to relax and watch Frenchie TV), are leaving tomorrow (Tuesday).

If my Macintosh continues to power up correctly (unlike last week) and if our Best Western really does have a free Internet connection in the room, then I'll be able to post every evening when we get back to the hotel.

It might be late. I might be tired. Maybe I'll make Jackie do all the typing.

And, fair warning, it's unlikely that that'll include Sunday evening, as we plan on hitting the road as soon as the last final-round run is run.

-ellen