USDAA National Agility Championships
Scottsdale, Arizona
November, 2004
Anne's Report
We just got back from the USDAA National Agility Championships held in
Scottsdale, Arizona. Long drive but well worth the trip!
This trial was huge, I heard there were 800 dogs entered in agility alone,
and they also had a Flyball tournament, Jack Russell Terrier races, Frisbee
Dogs, and the dock-Diving Dog competitions running at the same time. Truly a
doggie extravaganza.
The group from Santa Barbara did very well over the 5 day trial. I wasn't
able to see everyone's runs mainly because most of us were in different groups
and they had 5 rings of agility going at the same time. USDAA called it the"World Championships" of Dog Agility, the entries were mainly Americans but
there were teams from Russia, Japan, Canada, Spain, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and some
poor woman had a 30 hour flight from South Africa to compete with her dog.
The trial was set up so that jump heights in each group were given 7 minutes
each to walk the courses in the morning. The Performance Group always ran
last in every class so very often I was walking courses at 7:00am that I didn't
run until 3:00pm that day. I think that was one of the more challenging
aspects of this trial. You had to get a plan in your head very early, watch other
dogs run the courses, and then try to remember what you had planned for your
dog several hours earlier.
Kiwi and I were entered in the Grand Prix Quarterfinals, a game called Power
and Speed, and the Performance Dog All-Around. The All-Around competition was
for performance dogs who were not on a DAM (Dog Agility Masters) team. The
performance dogs got to participate in the DAM Team games on an individual
level and were awarded as individuals instead of the 3-dog teams that comprise the
DAM.
Kiwi and I had the best time at the Nationals, we went with the intention of
being sure to have fun and not get let down with the disappointment that comes
with errors and unrealized expectations. I was pleasantly surprised that
with every class at the Nationals Kiwi was solid and right there for me every
time. Kiwi's first class was the Team Gamble, and she hit all her contacts and
weaves and was very maneuverable. We didn't finish our gamble in time but
what I took away from the class was that Kiwi was 100% my partner and ready to do
whatever I asked.
The next day we had the Team Snooker, Team Jumpers and the Grand Prix
Quarterfinals. Kiwi had a brilliant first half in Snooker, and then we had a
hesitation on a jump which causes the judge to whistle you off the course. You have
to maintain forward momentum at all time. I tried to not get too disappointed
and had to just remind myself that it was a pilot error and Kiwi was really
doing her job very well. We then had the Grand Prix Quarterfinals, the course
was very nice and encouraging for have a good pool of dogs to choose from to
send to the Semifinal round.
The Santa Barbara Contingency made a great showing in the GP Quarters. Mia
and Max had a wonderful clean run, and she followed that up with an amazing
round with Finn. Diane Baley and Gidget had a stellar run, very fast and clean
with her talented young dog. Kim Delkener and Rayne were already qualified
into the Semifinals, so they got to bypass this round. Kiwi and I had a perfect
run and left the course happy, and then were told that the judge gave us 5
faults that caused a little bit of controversy.
Apparently we knocked one side of a bottom bar on the second to the last
jump. The top jump bar was perfectly intact, and just one side of the bottom bar
came down. The judge said that I knocked the 
jump standard and that his 5
faults would stand. I know I didn't hit the jump, and I have no idea how just
one side came down while the top bar was still on. Ken, who runs USDAA, had a
talk with the judge (who was from Spain) and said that in the USA it does not
matter what happens to the bottom bar, only the top bar is judged. So the 5
faults were removed and Kiwi and I finished in 2nd place in the Performance GP
Quarterfinals.
She followed that class with a perfect run on a tricky Jumpers course, and
she had a very fast time that was only four-tenths of a second behind the border
collie that won the class. Kiwi placed second in Team Jumpers!
Later that night we were all awarded polo shirts to advance to wear in the
Semifinals of the Grand Prix, and it was great to be there with our friends to
share the successes of the day.
The next morning we arrived early to get our course maps and walk the Grand
Prix Semifinal round. Once glance at the course and you could tell this would
be the 'weeder' round, intended to have a smaller pool of dogs to select from
to send to the Finals. The weave entry was harder, and there were tricky
angles to jumps, they also had the obstacles in corners of the ring in order to
encourage the dogs to rush to the next obstacle and incur a fault. It was
definitely a challenging course, I was hoping to just make it around safely with
Kiwi without major embarrassment.
The course definitely had its technicalities, and Kiwi was completely on and
ready to accomplish whatever I needed from her. She got the tough weave
entry, she hit all her contacts, and we made it through the course beautifully with
a solid run. We left the course just ecstatic, and I was rewarding Kiwi when
I was told that the last jump bar had come down, and we had 5 faults. I
didn't notice it, and I was so proud of Kiwi's performance that I continued to
praise her and feed her all the treats in our bag. Apparently the judge had not
seen it either and did not call the faults, she was told by somebody about the
bar but it was reset by the workers by the time it was brought to her
attention. She said that since she did not see the bar come down she could not call
it, and we got the biggest gift ever from the agility angels that day. Kiwi
and I placed 4th in our jump height in the Semifinals, and had to wait to see
if we qualified for the Finals.
Right after the GP we had the Team Standard class, and Kiwi was solid. She
won the Team Standard class with a fast clean run in the 16" jump height. Soon
after we had the Power and Speed class. This is a game where you do the
'Power' round first, all of the contact obstacles and then the weave poles, and if
you go clean you go onto the 'Speed' portion which is a fast jumpers course
and is timed. I was thrilled to have contact practice as the last thing we did
that day, and we were clean so we continued on to the speed round. Kiwi was
full of herself and barked at me when one of my commands was late, but she
finished the run clean with a very decent time.
That night we waited in the cold wind for the award ceremonies. Kiwi and I
got to go up to the podium twice to get our awards for the second place in
Jumpers and the first place finish in Standard. Then after what felt like an
eternity the Grand Prix Finalists were announced, and words cannot describe the
feeling that I had when I heard the announcer say that "Anne Swan and Kiwi" had
advanced to the Grand Prix Finals in Performance. It was basically a
combination of jumping up and down screaming "WOOO HOOO!!" inside and "Oh man, what
have I gotten myself into?" I collected my spiffy black polo shirt with the red
checkered collar and sleeves for Performance Dogs, and I cannot tell if I was
trembling with excitement or the extreme cold that the desert wind had
brought to the stadium.
I was so thrilled with Kiwi and I as a team and happy to go home at that
point, completely satisfied with all of our runs so far as they had exceeded my expectations and plans. A couple of times I asked Mike if we could go home, I
had my Finalist polo shirt so I was set for life. He gave me a few looks and I
laughed nervously and then realized that I had to show up for the Finals. We
were in excellent company with dogs that had enjoyed winning the top awards
in agility and also several former World Team members, there was tough competition in the 16" Performance class and Kiwi and I were just thrilled to be
invited to play.
I was pretty relaxed on the next day for the most part, and then I saw the
Finals course. In hindsight it was not that difficult, but I was so anxious
that morning I as convinced it was the hardest agility course I had ever seen.
There were the USDAA-characteristic odd angles to jumps, technical handling
spots, challenging weave entry, and the jump sequence in the opening and closing
were not to be taken for granted. I think I would have passed out if Mike
hadn't given me some tips on breathing for relaxation and athletics. I was
doing the shallow Lamaze breaths and was depriving my brain of oxygen, luckily
Mike knew how to counteract that and I was able to relax a little and breathe
normally while waiting to run. After pondering the course from every angle and
being truly grateful for a hard-working antiperspirant, I had a plan for the
course and I was determined to stick to it. It was just going to be another run
for Kiwi and I and she hadn't let me down yet so I knew that she would
continue to try her heart out for us.
While the dog in front of us was still on the course I paced out my steps to
the first jump and got the angle that I wanted. I called Kiwi to me and
removed her collar. I heard the mechanical machine voice we had been listening to
all week to tell us when to start, the machine voice said "GO" and I led out
to the second jump. I released Kiwi and off she went, clearing the first two
jumps nicely, I was a touch late on my front cross after the third jump (the
tire) but Kiwi is an expert of dodging my fumbling feet and we had a nice line
over jump four and into the tight tunnel entry. I ran hard to make the front
cross out of the tunnel and then it was over the two jumps and a slight push
out to the weave entry. Kiwi nailed her entry perfectly and I stayed with her
because the weaves were going into a corner of the ring into nothing,
encouraging the dogs to rush the next obstacle.
We finished the poles and then ran up the long dog walk, and again it was a
split second of patience to ensure the contact as the chute was there off to
the side, its gravitational pull encouraging a missed yellow zone on the dog
walk. After the chute was a push out to 2 jumps in an arc to the right, then up
the A-frame. I think in my anticipation of the A-frame and the odd angle of
the jump I got a touch ahead of Kiwi, and the jump before the A-frame came
down. No problem, we were in the Finals and we were just happy to be there. Kiwi
got her A-frame contact and then it was over a jump and a tight turn back
into a tunnel, then another jump and the teeter. Kiwi was very accurate and all
was going well when I sent Kiwi up the teeter.
Many agility people will tell you to walk the course from the dog's
perspective, and many agility competitors do this as part of their course walk-t
hrough. Even though I had inspected several of Kiwi's vantage points on this course,
I was not prepared for what she would see when she went up the teeter. As it
turns out, it was the full-blown Arizona sun right in her eyes. The sounds
of the stadium was completely tuned out, I could hear nothing, and all I saw
was the bright blue sky under Kiwi's feet in slow motion as she lept into the
air.
I heard the crowd in the stadium gasp as Kiwi was airborne, and she plummeted
to the ground but landed on her feet ready to go. The USDAA old wooden
teeter is a notorious obstacle, it is heavy and does not drop very quickly and can
sometimes confuse dogs into thinking they are running up the dog walk. The
sun in Kiwi's eyes prevented her from seeing the yellow zone and she honestly
thought she was running up another dog walk. She was clearly fine and I could
not hide my smile at Kiwi's spectacular fly-off the teeter, and we regrouped
ourselves to finish the final three jumps. Clearing that final obstacle was
like completing a speech in front of your high school class or taking the SAT's,
there is tremendous relief once you are done. We had 10 faults but it was an
honest visual mistake on the teeter and one jump bar. I was so proud of Kiwi
that we had made it that far, and extremely pleased with every performance at
the USDAA World Agility Championships for Team Swan!
I went with the goal of having fun, and we certainly accomplished that.
Every thing else was gravy. There was a lot of gravy!
:-) Anne and Kiwi, 2004 Grand Prix Finalists
