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Original sender: me----

Original sender: Ellen----
I've been asked how big Westworld is. It's huge. The entire site must be 100 acres or more, but we were located only on the polo grounds, which is 19 acres all by itself.




From flyball and frisbee at one end to agility at the other end, it covers a huge amount of space because it's not square--it's about 3.5 times longer than wide--so my guess is that the polo grounds are about 1/3 mile from one end to the other. Although we never went as far as the far end, still, the area in which we were most active covered about 3/4 of the space, so one could easily cover 1/4 mile from the dog exercise and crating area to, say, the far side of the main agility ring or the far vendors.

USDAA doesn't seem to have an organized page showing everything that you might want to know; you have to hunt through their news articles and blog. So here's what I've found:

Course Maps:

• Power & Speed, Relay Finals, & Versatility/GP finals.


• Team Gamble & rules, GP Semis, Steeplechase finals


• Team Std, Team Jumping, GP quarters, Perf Natl Std Finals


• Perf Natl Std quarters/Vet GP semis


• Snooker


• time gamble

Results:

• GP finals, Vet GP finals, Power & Speed, perf P&S, Team final, versatility final


• Grand Prix Semifinals, Team Gamblers, Performance Versatility Pairs Gamblers, Veterans All Around Gamblers, Steeplechase Finals, Performance Speed Jumping Finals, Team Standings after 4 Classes, Versatility Pairs Standings after 4 Classes, Veterans All Around Final Scores


• Performance National Standard Quarterfinals, Team Snooker, Versatility Pairs Snooker, Steeplechase Semifinals, Performance Speed Jumping, Veterans All Around Snooker, Veterans Grand Prix Semifinals


• Performance National Standard Championship Finals, Team Standard, Versatility Standard, Team Jumpers, Versatility Jumpers, Grand Prix Quarterfinals, Performance National Standard Semifinals, Veterans All Around Standard, Veterans All Around Jumpers, Friday's Team, Versatility Pairs and Veterans All Around Standings through three (3) classes


• time gamble & perf time gamble

Original sender: Ellen----
Here are some results from Sunday's events that I gleaned from the USDAA site. I'll try to go back and correct the bay team lists from the other events, since I see even more dogs that I missed (e.g., I know that Nancy Gyes & Ace/Mace won at least one class but I think I didn't recognize "Ace" as a bay team dog...)

Grand Prix finals ("BT"= bay team member)

• 12", 12 dogs:


• BT Whoopie & Sharon Freilich, 6th, clean run


• BT Brandy & Jeanne Nixon, 8th, 10.91 faults


• 4 dogs Eed and one no-show


• 16", 15 dogs


• (won by Susan Garrett & Decaff in 32.86)


• 22", 23 dogs


• BT Spy & Jim Basic, 7th, clean run


• BT Brink & Sandy Rogers, 14th, 1 fault


• 3 dogs Eed, one no-show


• 26", 17 dogs


• Fable & Rachel Sanders, 4th, clean


• BT Cap & Robert Yi, 10th, 1 fault


• also Aiko, Susan Cochrane, E

Veteran Grand Prix finals

• 8", 4 dogs:


• Junior & Debbie Auzenne, 4th, 2 faults


• 12", 4 dogs:


• BT Heather & Kathie Leggett, 2nd, clean


• 22", 6 dogs, swept by Bay Team!, the only 3 dogs in this height to run clean:


• BT Riot & Nancy Gyes, 1st


• BT Cruiser & Sarah Johnson, 2nd


• BT Wicked & Jim Basic, 3rd


• 26", 6 dogs:


• Pivot & Candy Gaiser, 2nd, clean


• Wog & Candy Gaiser, 4th, clean

Power and Speed

You had to design your own contacts/weaves/spread double course and complete it, clean, within 29 seconds, then you earned the right to continue to the speed portion, otherwise Eed. I skimmed the higher placements only:

• 12" (43 dogs, of whom 30 Eed):


• Roxee run by Rob Michalski, 3rd


• BT Brandy & Jeanne Nixon, 5th


• Better & Rachel Sanders, 6th


• 16" (about 100 dogs, of whom about 50 Eed and 15 noshowed)


• BT Luka & Ashley Deacon, 1st, 14.20


• BT Skye & Anne Kajava, 12th, 16.49


• BT Jagger & Cindy Glantz, 22nd, 17.54


• BT Echo & LInda White, 26th, 18.07


• 22" (about 290 dogs, of whom about 130 Eed and 50 were noshows):


• BT Spy & Jim Basic, 1st, 14.13 seconds in speed portion


• BT Bert & Bill Gignac, 15th, 15.22 seconds


• 26" (about 130 dogs of whom about 65 Eed and 27 were noshows)


• BT Thyme and Sharon Freilich, 8th, 15.96


• BT Tika and Ellen Finch, 10th, 16.29


• BT CateE and Leslie Bickel, 16th, 17.05


• BT Cappuccino & Pam Richards, 22nd, 18.08

Original sender: Ellen----
I didn't take any notes on Sunday and not many for the daily events on Saturday, sorry, too busy. I did notice that I probably left out a few Bay Teamers on some of the earlier lists--not familiar with all the dogs' names--e.g., I believe that I saw Cap (Robert Yi) on some of the placement lists, but translated it to "Capuccino" and, when the numbers didn't match, let it go...

Those of us entered in Power and Speed on Sunday did not get to sleep in, showing up once again for 7:00 walkthroughs. After the walkthroughs, P&S ran in 5 different rings (I think) until about 10:30. The only results I ever looked at for P&S were for 26" dogs, where my Tika took a 10th place ribbon out of of something less than 130 dogs (several scratched, probably left for home early or saved up for later runs, but I wanted to repair my contacts damaged by Saturday's fast releases).

, then around 11:00 they let the finalist relay teams for championship & versatility walk their course. I know I'll forget people because I just drove in from Scottsdale, but Luka/Maja/Heath were in 2nd going into the finals but had some course bobbles and were not abe to overtake 1st place--but I'd say that 2nd out of 208 competing teams in this crowd is an amazing accomplishment. Other Bay Teamers among the 30 championship finalist teams included Boost/Annie/Piper and Brenn/Skeeter/Tika (yes, my Tika); Bert Gignac; and my brain is sort of jello otherwise.

I went to the USDAA site to try to get more detailed info to refresh my memory, but it's currently displaying:

"An overload on the system has caused temporarily interruption" -- Huh, wonder what could POSSIBLY be of interest on their site that everyone wants to look at? ;-)

Bay Teamers & friends had lots of representation in the grand prix finals and veterans grand prix finals (dogs 8 and older who had previously been in at least the GP semis). Nancy Gyes and Riot won in Veterans; Nancy was also in the championship finals with Panic. Jim Basic was in championship with Spy. Other BTers and local FOBT included: Rachel Sanders with Fable, Sandy Rogers with Brrrrrink, Sharon Freilich with Whoopie, Rob Michalski with Hobbes, Silvina Bruera with Maja, Sarah Johnson with Cruiser, Robert Yi with Cap, Debbie Auzenne with Junior, Jeanne Nixon with Brandy, Greg Leal with Coty, Susan Cochrane with Aiko, Kathie Leggett with Heather, Dave Grubel and Tahoe, all to the best of my fading memory appeared in one or the other yesterday afternoon.

Quite a few Bay Teamers had made it to the semifinals but the times were really really tight to get into the finals; e.g., FOBT Greg Leal and Tala missed by hundredths of a second, I believe.

The runs were exciting and the course was quite challenging, with a hard calloff choice between the dogwalk and teeter doing in many handlers; a difficult weave entry was taken full speed by most of these phenomenal dogs without an eyelash twitching.

The whole thing finished about 4:30, and competitors poured out of the arena, into the crating areas, and then into the cars, and the place was pretty much a ghost town by 6:15, with no one left but the show committee and course tearer-downers (thanks, Duncan & team, for the equipment!).

For the lighter (or more pathetic) side of the weekend, read this.)

Original sender: Ellen----

The Performance Speed Jumping and Championship Steeplechase finals were this evening, and it was quite a show of speed and handling. The weather was sweater-cool but calm, perfect for sitting in bleachers and cheering your favortie dogs and handlers.

In fact, it's been sunny and in the high 70s to low 80s all week--sorry all you Bay Areans who are apparently enduring rain. Sunrises and sunsets have been gorgeous every time. I have a couple of photos--actually I have about 500, but who knows when I'll actually sort through them and post them online. Maybe Monday if I'm not wiped from the trip home.

I wrote all the dogs' names and times and places, but it's already 11:30 and I have to be up at 5:30 to shower, pack everything out of the hotel room, stop for ice and cash, and be at the site at 6:30 with enough time to get the dogs settled in, pick up course maps, and be ready for walkthroughs of Power and Speed at 7:00. So I'll just hit some highlights.

Performance 12" won by Spike, a JRT, with a time of 33.75. No Bay Teamers involved.

Performance 8" I didn't write down, shame on me. No Bay Teamers involved.

Performance 16" was particularly exciting for the handlers' drive, the speed of the dogs, and the bay teamers competing. Steeplechase events run in reverse seed order based on their earlier placements, and the first two dogs Eed, then Tooney the Aussie set a pace of 36.98, beaten two dogs later by Bay Team's Dave Grubel in another athletic handling experience with Tahoe, coming in clean at 35.37. Mesa the ?? gave it a good shot but couldn't beat Dave & Tahoe with a time of 35.99, then Bay Team's Jim Basic ran Wicked with a smooth and experienced handling style, racking up a beautiful 34.42 time with 1 dog left to go--who had problems with the weaves and fell way back, placing Wicked 1st, Tahoe 2nd, Mesa 3rd, Tooney 4th, and Max 5th.

Performance 22" had several Es, including Linda Mecklinberg's experienced champion Awesome and Bay Team's Sandy Roger's young but zippy Ty. The interesting thing about this class was that not one of the three top placers onthe finalist's podium was a border collie--Jazz the flat-coat was first at 35.17, followed by Gracie the Aussie and Player the Golden.

Steeplechase 12" had 8 dogs, none of them bay teamers. The class was won by Whim the JRT at 34.64; 2nd with Bailey the JRT at 34.77; 3rd with Charlie the papillon at 34.92.

Steeplechase 16" had 12 competitors. Dustin the sheltie ran first with a time of 35.62, which the next 4 dogs failed to beat. Susan Garret with Decaff finally bested them at 35.24, but immediately followed by Marvel the Sheltie (Joe Lavalle) with 34.89 and, 2 dogs later, Taz the Sheltie (Jean Lavalle) at 34.67, and the final dog, Sizzle, stunning the audience with a flawless 33.07 second run.

22" was the largest class with 20 dogs. Razzle the BC started the class with a challenging 33.28, which QUick tried to beat but missed at 33.55. Argos was slower, then a little black dog (Annie?) came in at 33.40. Three dogs later, Bay Team's Silvina Bruera and Maja displayed lovely teamwork with a run of 32.62, raising more cheers from the rowdy crowd. Flash the BC follwed, also breaking 32, at 32.84, leaving Maja the leader even when Bay Team's Jim Basic and Wicked blazed through the course at 32.75, with 11 dogs stilll to go. How low can you go? The next 6 dogs either had bobbles or Es, including Bay Team's Nancy Gyes' youngster Mace, who Eed early, but Nancy showed the amazing resilience and resolve of an experienced handler and used the rest of the run to proof their Aframe contact and handling around the course. With 4 dogs to go, Lightning, purportedly a Sheltie, broke the bank at 31.96 with no faults, and although Typhoon the BC came in at 32.64 and Sybil the BC at 31.10 (but got called on the Aframe) and Pickle at 32.51 gave it a try, Lightning held the 1st place, followed by Pickle, Maja, Typhoon, Spy, Flash, Jazz, Annie, Quick, and Sterling.

26" had 12 competitors, with lots of Friends of Bay Team (FOBT) and Bay Teamers. BTer Rob Michalski and Hobbes started the group with a time of 39.19, followed by FOBT Greg Leal and Coty (father of Bay Team dogs Boost and Bette and who knows how many others) at 36.28. FOBT Aiko ran at 36.37 but got an Aframe call, FLash got an Aframe call, then Linda Mecklinberg and Steller came in at 33.11, setting a new pace for the 26ers; the next 2 dogs couldn't beat it, then BT Nancy Gyes and Panic drove the audience to a frenzy with a time of 32.69; FOBT Rachel Sanders and Fable drove hard and handled smoothly all the way through but just missed Panic's time, coming in at 32.86. Slick followed with a bar down, and then Juice shut them all down with a clean 31.69 for 1st, putting Panic 2nd, Fable 3rd, Stellar 4th, Jester 5th, Coty 6th.

Several Bay Teamer teams will be among the 30 championshipi and 10 Versatility teams advancing to the final relay rounds tomorrow. I just couldn't keep up with everything going on, but if you want to read about my own personal experiences and how our team is doing, you can do so at http://www.finchester.org/dogs/dog_diary/