Mia's Report:
This is just for my dogs, since 3 dogs is a TON of stuff to keep track of.  Everyone else is going to do a write up for how their dogs did...     What fun Scottsdale was!  The weather was PERFECT and the courses were all great fun.  I had all three of the dogs with me and they all managed to bring home a ribbon!  Woohoo!   

 Finn had a week of highs and lows.  He was naughty in both Steeplechase and Grand Prix, but held it together in all of his DAM classes.  He was particularily good in Team Jumpers on a very tricky course and was 6th in Team Gamblers!  Woohoo!  The good news is he was very fast and powerful.  The bad news was his startline was dodgy and he was a little too high to respond to many of my "come" commands.  ;-)  Team Relay was the most fun, since it was under the lights with a loud crowd.  I caused a refusal at the teeter by saying, "come teeter, come teeter, COME".  He wasn't super happy with his teeter this week and I should have just been saying "teeter, teeter, teeter" while running  towards it.  Oh well, a Top 20 finish out of over 200 teams isn't too shabby for the SB crew and I had a great time being teammates with Terra and Kristi.  You guys kick ass!      

Max was a little sassy this week.  He had a bar down in Jumpers, Gamblers and Standard, which was very unusual for him.  He did a great job in Steeplechase, but there was too much speed for him to make the finals.  In the Grand Prix semifinals (which both Max and Finn had earned byes into from Bay Team) he had an early off-course that took out a lot of teams.  His team also made the 3-dog Relay run on Saturday night.  He had a SUPER run and it was definitely our highlight of the weekend.  He was such a good boy!  His team ended up in 11th place overall.  One less bar down by Max and I and we'd have picked up a big pretty ribbon.  Oh well, we ended up 5th in the Relay, so he came home with a ribbon and lots of fun memories.    

First, I have to thank Peggi Bean for talking me into qualifying Star for Nationals back in August.  We had such fun with our Lego R Ego team.  I kept Star jumping 22", even though she was running in Performance to try and keep things as much like a normal trial as possible.  Not doing a 6'3" A-frame at her first Nationals was a great thing.  I held her contacts except in Grand Prix (more on that shortly).      

Thursday she was a really good girl in Snooker and placed 3rd!  If I hadn't held her A-frame, she would have made it through the 7.  A ribbon for Star at Nationals, woohoo!  Friday she did a great job in her Standard and was 2nd behind Linda Mecklenburg and Zesta (who were 2nd in 20" at this year's AKC Nationals).  Another ribbon for Starlet at her first Nationals!  Too crazy.      

So, I went into the Performance Grand Prix quaterfinals (aka Performance National Standard) already feeling like I'm in gravy time.  She was lovely, putting down a solid run with good contacts and a great weave entry.  She ended up the 9th qualifier for the semifinals!  A shirt for me and another Grand Prix course to play with Star.  Kate gave me the thumbs up to quick release her contacts in the semis on Saturday.  It was very fun running her in the big ring and I pushed her harder than ever before.  She did a great job.  For the rest of the day, I tried to figure out if she was in the Finals.  It kept looking like she was, there was never a list saying, "FINALISTS" and I was having a hard time believing it was true.  It wasn't until the next morning when I picked up my shirt that it really set in.      

The course was great, nothing too technical and the teeter was early.  I wished I had a more enthusiastic lead out with Star, since my favorite option was a three jump lead out.  For best speed, I decided to lead out between jump one and two.  I was pretty nervous about 20 minutes before the run.  But having the ever calm Mike Swan help hold the dogs (I brought Max over for moral support for Starlet) was a big help.  Plus, I do believe nearly everything sounds good when it ends in "in the finals".        

Star was happy and enthusiastic all the way to the ring.  I'd just put her in a sit stay, when the crowd went nuts.  It turned out the person before me had fallen down on the course.  I turned back to Star to find her completely unphased.  This dog gets scared of crumpling paper in my house, but was totally solid with all the crowd noise!      

I don't remember feeling nervous once it was time to go.  It's kind of hard to feel nervous looking at Starlet when she's happy.  My lead out plan didn't work out really well.  We had a wide turn and she really backed off going to the teeter.  She did go right on the teeter and after the teeter we were off to the races.  There were a couple wide turns, but we both had lots of fun!  She was such a good girl!  Star's first Nationals and she ran clean in all 3 Grand Prixs, I couldn't ask for anything more.  In the end she took 4th place behind Linda Mecklenburg and Zesta, Jim Basic and Swift and Chris Hill and Mariah.  All VERY good teams and much more experienced than Star and myself.      

Other highlights for me: Watching Scott and Annie have so many solid runs.  She beat Star's time in Speed Jumping class!  Anne and Zip had a beautiful quarterfinals run in Grand Prix.  Peggi and the labs always had fun, those dogs just smile all the way around a course and Diane and Gidget showed how much grace and speed a Lab can bring to agility.  I think next year, I'll be bringing a bike with me to Scottsdale, so I can see more of the show.  I will definitely be going back next year.  Tell the dogs they're good.  mia

Anne's Report:
We just returned from Scottsdale, Arizona late last night, after a wonderful week at the USDAA World Cynosport Games, aka "The Nationals" or Internationals, considering there were teams there from the USA, Canada, Europe, South America, Mexico, Asia, and Russia.  There were 900 dogs entered in agility, and they had 6 rings of agility running at the same time over the course of 5 days.

3 weeks ago I wasn't even sure if Zip and I would be competing in agility, this has been a tough year for the Swan dogs.  In May, Kiwi tore her cranial cruciate ligament in her left knee that required two surgeries and months of rehabilitation.  She is getting stronger every day and hopes to do a little agility in the summer of 2006.  Then this past July, Zip pulled a shoulder muscle that was a nagging pain until very recently.  Zip's shoulder injury prevented us from training, trialing, and practicing agility during the entire summer.  To say we went to the USDAA Nationals less than prepared is an understatement.  Most of Zip's summer was spent doing swim therapy, regular acupuncture sessions, having his shoulder iced, and driving to VMSG in Ventura for check-ups and the occasional walk on the underwater treadmill they have there.  It all paid off and Zip came around, solid and healthy about two weeks before we were scheduled to leave for Arizona.  We did some last minute cramming with Mia for a bit of preparation for our agility trial, thanks Mia!!

Zip was entered in 4 classes: Time Gamble, Steeplechase, Power and Speed, and the Quarterfinals of the Grand Prix.  We got our money's worth in our first class, Time Gamble.  In this class you try to guess how long it will take you and your dog to get around an agility course, the dog closest to their estimated time wins.  It is usually a very nice, straight-forward course that gets the dogs on equipment on the first day of competition.  Zip did very well on the course and we found out as we crossed the finish line that there were problems with the automatic timers so we had to re-run for time: we got two runs (and practices) for the price of one.

Zip's next class (the following day) was the Steeplechase semifinals.  We walked our course around 7:30am and then ran it at 4:00pm, a very long day but quite typical at the Nationals.  Zip had a fast, beautiful run and I was very proud of him.  They only take the top 16 dogs for the Finals, so we were thrilled with our nice run in Round 1.

Power and Speed is a game in which the dogs begin the class with a sequence of contacts and weaves ("Power" part), and if no faults are incurred you go onto a Jumpers course that is timed, for your "Speed" portion of the class.  Zip had a knocked bar on the triple jump in the contact section of the course, we chalked it up to not doing a lot of spread jumps beforehand, so we were fine with that - we got some great contact practice in so that was helpful.

Zip and I felt ready and excited for our Grand Prix quarterfinals run on Friday, he had been listening very well all week long and was staying sound and healthy - our top priority.  It was a very nice Grand Prix course with some twists and challenges to be aware of, (and with Zip in his full speed demon mode, brimming over with excitement with every muscle twitch) you had to pay attention but run relaxed.  Zip began with a nice start line but as I was leading out I could see his pupils constricting into tiny black dots, always a sign that Zip is excited and ready.  The course flowed very smoothly, Zip was fast, tight, and excited - voicing his excitement with some happy barks throughout the course.  He kept his bars up, got his contacts, nailed his weave entry, and listened closely to my verbals and cues.  We had an amazing and clean run and it was the highlight of our agility weekend in Arizona - Zip finished the Grand Prix run with a time of 33.50 seconds and placed 30th out of nearly 200 dogs in our height class.  We advanced to the semifinals of the Grand Prix and earned a cool polo shirt that the qualifiers wear.  We ran the semifinals late the next day after waiting all day long - again Zip was fast and frantic, and we had a less-than-clean run but had a wonderful time running together.

I told myself going into this that due to the circumstances (for months) leading up to the Nationals that my #1 goal was for Zip to stay sound and for us to have fun together.  No matter what happened we were going to celebrate after every run (regardless of the outcome or score) and be thrilled that we were given the opportunity to get to play together, something I took for granted prior to this year.  We did just that, Zip played tug after every run and ate a bunch of yummy treats - and we had such a great time enjoying each other all week long.

Zip was also entered in an APDT Rally trial on Saturday and Sunday at Nationals, they had Rally going on in conjunction with the agility, dock dogs, frisbee, terrier races, lure courses, flyball, herding demo - you name it, they had it for dogs in Scottsdale.  APDT Rally is similar to Rally offered by the AKC, they have a few different signs and APDT is open to all dogs - mixed breeds included.  APDT Rally obedience is very popular in the Midwest and east coast, so this was the first time near our side of the States that APDT has been available.   A score of 200 is perfect, and one of the nice things about APDT Rally is that the judges can award up to 3 bonus points if they like the attitude of the dog and handler.  Zip listened very well and was cute and animated in all 4 of our rally classes.  We ended up with two 1st place finishes, a 3rd place, and a Q with scores of 201, 201, 202, and 203.  He finished his APDT Rally Level 1 title in three tries, and got some bonus points with the 4th Q.  Zip did very well against some tough competition and it was so nice to have an other event we could participate in while in Scottsdale, and he really enjoys Rally as well.

This year's Nationals was very successful for the Santa Barbara participants, I was able to watch a few runs from several club members and witnessed some spectacular performances.  Many people made it to the finals of the Team Relay, Grand Prix Semifinals, and even the Grand Prix Finals (ask Mia about Super Star).  It was great to spend a week with friends playing with the top dogs in the country, maybe even the world.

Even with questionable preparation, Zip and I truly enjoyed each other all week long.  We accomplished several goals I had set for us and most importantly Zip is sound and healthy!!  Be happy for every day you have with your dogs, give them a cookie and a kiss from Anne, Zip, and Kiwi.

:-)  Anne

Kristi's Report:
Steeplechase - out of over 200 22" dogs - Cinder came in 26th or 27th.  Woo-hooo!!!!! Championship DAM Team (Cinder, Finn and Seeker) - out of almost 200 teams, we made the cut (they only took 36 teams) to the Finals.  Went into the Finals in 12th place (!!!!) and ended up 18th overall.  Yippee!!! Versatility Pairs (Patches) - also made it to the Finals (they only took the Top Ten Teams out of 70 teams) and ended up in 4th place overall!  Yay Patches! Cinder and Patches also made the Grand Prix Semi-Finals (good dogs!) And here is my personal favorite: Patches beat Suni in Performance Gamblers! 

I have a great one for "inefficiency" though - There we all were on Saturday night, waiting to see the Team standings to know who had made it into the Final round of Relay.  The schedule said that Team Finals were to start at 7pm (which made me groan, the early-to-bed soul that I am!) and we are standing around at 6:30 pm, NOT KNOWING who made the cut.  So - hundreds of folks milling around - they tell us that the walk throughs will be divided in half (for both Performance and Champ) and that we will be starting RIGHT AWAY so those with Perf. dogs will walk first and then go get their dogs while Champ is walking and then the rings will start.  Well, I start to panic - I had a dog in both and, at that time, they weren't running the same parts of the relay.  So I decide that 10 minutes is more than enough to run both sides for Patch and Cinder.  I do my walking - get kicked off course 3 minutes early and go rushing back to get my dogs.  Did I mention that the crating area was several football fields away from the main ring?  So....I am told I can't bring a crate up for my second dog so I go scurrying around madly trying to find someone who can hold Cinder while I run Patch and then switch dogs.  7pm comes and goes....7:15 comes and goes....7:30 ....ahhhh...the gate steward is coming out with the list of 10 Perf. Pairs for the relay.  But it is not in any sort of order for jump heights etc.  10 more minutes of frenzy - I find someone to hold Cinder and finally get to run.  There were only 10 teams and we were in 4th so I figured I had time to change out dogs.  I hand Patch to someone, get Cin, start warming her up and they finish with Perf. Pairs.  Next thing I know, the ring crew (these teenages who didn't know ANYTHING and kept setting bars wrong) are told to go to the hospitality tent and they fed them dinner!!!! After working 10 runs, while all the Champ. teams are standing around in the cold, we haven't eaten, our dogs haven't eaten, it's after 8pm and they are feeding the friggin' ring crew for working for 10 runs!  AAUUGGHHH.  It was SO disorganized I can't even tell you.  I not only should have left Cin in the crating area originally, I had more than enough time to walk back and forth - AND, to add insult to injury, they really rushed our walk throughs but then we all got to stand there for 45 minutes and watch an empty ring while the workers ate.  And they wouldn't let us walk again.  OK - it was exciting to run under the lights and with screaming crowds but definitely not organized or well run at that point.