USDAA Grand Prix Nationals, Del Mar, September 2000

SUMMARY: I was so excited!

Backfill: Adding February 1, 2021!

What do I have written--anywhere--about that week?

I had friends in San Diego, so I emailed them All The Info(TM) (this is pretty much tedious , so I've boldly bolded things that might actually be interesting):

I warned you we'd be down there competing next week--here's all the gory details.

The Animal Planet/USDAA Grand Prix of Dog Agility World Championships will run next Thursday, Sept.7, thru Sunday Sept. 10.  Competition begins at 8 in the morning, so they claim; there are 650 dogs entered in various events so I expect that we'll be going until after dark at least.

The event will be at Del Mar Horsepark, 14550 El Camino Real, Del  Mar.  Directions: from North on I-5: take the Via de la Valle exit &  go east.  At El Camino Real, turn right (there's a light). Continue  about 1/4 mile to the Main Entrance on the right.  FROM SOUTH on I-5:  Take Del Mar Heights Rd exit & go East to El Cam. Real (light). Turn  left & proceed to Main Entrance on the left.

ALSO included on the same site is flyball & frisbee competitions, I believe; might be fun for you to go see some of that.

You MIGHT be able to find out more info at http://www.usdaa.com/ -- although I notice that the schedule is already out of date (once they discovered that they had 650 dogs competing, for example, they changed the opening ceremonies from 9 on thursday to 7 am!)

I won't know until I get there the approximate times when Jake, Remington, & I will be running--and even then they would be only approximations.  We will, however, be running in a total of about 6-8 runs each day, including 1 run each of Grand Prix semifinal on Fri, 1 run each of Grand Prix on Saturday *if* we don't screw up on Friday, and--heaven forfend that we're among the top 15 dogs among the 650 entered (two chances--slim and none), 1 run each of the GP finals on Sunday.

The bad news is that there are parking & admission fees!  I had no idea until my admission packet arrived this week.  Apparently even guests of competitors must pay.  All of this is very unusual.

Parking is $5. Admission is free on Thursday (because none of the Grand Prix main events are running that day--just other non-International Championships events), $5 per person on Fri & Sat (the semifinals of the Grand Prix take place then), and $8 on Sunday (the day of the final round of the Grand Prix).

This includes admission to agility, flyball, & frisbee (flying disc) stuff.  I'm not likely to end up in the final round of the grand prix, but just like the other days there are other equally fun & entertaining competitions going on in which we *will* be participating.

There will be 4 rings running mostly simultaneously.  Our crating area is away from the rings, and I don't know whether they'll be checking IDs at the crating area.  SOOOO at the moment I have no way of telling you how to find me if & when you come.

If you're likely to be there on one or more days, let me know which days & what time ASAP (no later than middle of the day Tuesday) & then I can be sure to call you when I'm down there before your appearance(s). 

Our club (The Bay Team) did our usual big Labor Day Weekend trial -- and then, exhausted, where we'd usually be lying on our laurels the rest of the week, instead we all essentially jumped into our vehicles on Tuesday morning and headed en masse with our dogs towards Del Mar. 441 miles. 7 hours if you managed not to stop anywhere, ever, the whole trip--not pottying dogs (or ourselves) or eating or getting gas--but, yes, you clever reader, you guessed it, we stopped more than once. 

Tuesday: Drive down. Check into the hotel (Encinitas Inn at Moonlight Beach (Best Western).

Wednesday: Pick up registration packet, t-shirts, etc. Set up our crating areas. Familiarize ourselves with the site. Schmooze with friends. Go to bed very early. Exhausted. Easy to sleep except for dogs not familiar with staying in hotels...

Thursday: Get up around 5 to have time for breakfast, potty dogs and give them a chance to stretch their legs, make sure everything needed was in the car, get to the site, and be ready for opening ceremonies at 7. Then Let The Games Begin.

It was my FIRST EVER NATIONALS and it excited me immensely. Both Remington and Jake had qualified to compete, yay!

Friend Arlene's Scully with Jake and Remington. All members of the Mixed Breed Dog Club.

Another email I've found to the friends:

Check-in at the trial goes until 7pm Wednesday; we're hoping to make it before then but who knows.  In any event, we'll probably go to the trial site before we go anywhere else & try to get our stuff set up, since otherwise check-in is from 6-7 the next morning, same time as walk-throughs of the courses, & competition starts at 8.

Each day we need to be there around 6 to start walking our courses for the day, so I really doubt we'll be out late any night.  Thursday evening there's a dinner for competitors so I won't be available then.  Sunday we'll be heading for home as soon as competition is done. 

About the Grand Prix National Championships-- 

On Friday:

Grand Prix Semifinal Round 1

-----------------------------

This is the main event.  Only dogs who qualified in regional 

qualifiers this year are competing (e.g., Rem & Jake).  A difficult 

numbered course but times will be fast! These are the best dogs in 

the country! (If Rem doesn't embarrass me totally by deciding that 

this'll be one of his slowwww days--).  Dogs with 10 or fewer faults 

(including time faults--1 second over time = 1 fault) proceed to 

Round 2 on Saturday.

Veteran Grand Prix Semifinals

-----------------------------

Same deal, except these are older dogs (older than 7). Don't let this 

fool you--Rem is 7 & Jake is 9, so we could legally compete in this 

class. And some of the dogs entered are previous Grand Prix national 

champions!

On Saturday:

Grand Prix Semifinal Round 2

-----------------------------

This has presumably eliminated the less best dogs. A probably more 

challenging course.

On Sunday:

Grand Prix Finals & Veteran Grand Prix Finals

-----------------

This is it, the total main event, the champions of champions. 

Winners of either of the 2 semifinal rounds are "wildcard" entries; 

all other entries are determined by combining the scores from the 2 

semifinal rounds, and taking the top 15% of dogs (maximum 16 in each 

height).

I am guessing that you won't see Rem or Jake here.  I'd love to make 

it with Jake, but the competition is *very* fierce.   It's always a 

crapshoot as to who'll make it.

I emailed a friend on Sept 11 after the weekend  was over:

Well, we participated in everything we signed up for, & we didn't E 

or do anything horrible in the interregional or the strategic pairs, 

so I guess we did well--certainly better than almost anything else we 

did all weekend.

I very much enjoyed being there for the finals, even if it was in the 

sun--actually we staked out seats & had a couple of us sitting & 

holding them most of the day at the top of the bleachers under an 

umbrella, so we had a miniscule amount of shade on our faces.

I must admit that I was working on being depressed about how badly we 

were doing by Saturday evening, and Sunday morning I was so 

physically tired I could barely walk back up the stairs at the hotel, 

but in the end I'm glad we stuck around.  You never know.  We 

actually pulled out of the driveway at 5:30 (finals over at 4:30 but 

we hadn't packed anything & decided to frisbee & feed the dogs before 

we left), got home at 1:30 AM which was actually pretty good time, but 

I'm still pooped!

I recorded almost nothing at all about our runs (busy. Very busy. Exhausted. Discouraged. Excited. Like that.)

Most classes were not Qualifying for this event, but just for fun and honors.
In the "Time Gamble", Jake and I placed 45th out of 200 dogs, which I thought was pretty good, but that wasn't actually an agility game--it was a guessing game! (Estimate what your final time plus faults would be on that course.)

date	class	dog	dog_qty	faults	Eliminated	place	qual	partner_human	partner
9/7/2000	Snooker	Remington					-
9/7/2000	Snooker	Jake					-
9/7/2000	Steeplechase	Remington			E
9/7/2000	Steeplechase	Jake			E
9/7/2000	Time Gamble	Jake	200			45	-
9/8/2000	Grand Prix	Remington			E		n
9/8/2000	Grand Prix	Jake			E		n
9/9/2000	Gamblers	Remington					-
9/9/2000	Gamblers	Jake					-
9/9/2000	In & Out	Jake					-
9/8/2000	Jumpers	Jake			E		-
9/8/2000	Power & Speed	Jake			E		-
9/8/2000	Jumpers	Remington					-
9/10/2000	Strategic Pairs	Remington					-	Karey Krauter	Zephyr
9/10/2000	Strategic Pairs	Jake					-	Craig Diskowski	Chilly
9/10/2000	Interregional	Remington					-
9/10/2000	Interregional	Jake					-

And this is all I've found in writing so far about that event that looms large in my agility history! Doh!

[now I'm going to post about a t-shirt I bought there.  See Feb 1, 2021 blog post.]

Oh, and in passing:

My friends/classmates/instructors/club members whom I expected to see in the Grand Prix National Championship finals [in brackets, who made it & placed--other info I'm sure is around here somewhere]. Oh, also, this is likely of  no interest to anyone but me:

Nancy Gyes (my instructor) and her BCs Wicked and/or Riot and/or Scud.  Scud 

was runner-up champion at least 2x & winner 2 years ago(?) as well as 

7th best dog in the world in Europe int'l championships last year. 

He's undergone a year of chemotherapy & is now back in competition. 

Wicked was Grand prix champion last year. (or was it Riot?  too 

confusing--)  [came in 1st in 26" with  Wicked]

Jim Basic (my other instructor) and BCs Mick and/or Swift.  Mick has been 

runner-up or champion in various national competitions; Swift is much 

younger but amazing.  [8th in 26" with Mick; in 22" finals with Swift but no placement]

Rachel Sanders (our Dog Behavior expert & in my monday-night class) 

and her BCs Whist and/or Spinner  and/or her Jack Russel Terrier Trump. Whist, I think, was Grand Prix champion last year.  

Bill Gignac & Calvin (a Visla)--Calvin & Remington used to be almost 

indistinguishable in running styles when they were in novice classes 

together--then Rem got slower & Calvin got more focused & I broke my 

foot and--  Anyway, They're perennial finalist placers.

Bill Newcomb & Flash (a Border Wart--OK, a Border Collie mixed 

with a Hovawart)--also perennial finalists.  Also were in Rem's beginning 

classes. [In finals, no placement, likewise with 2 other friends]

Gail Mahood & Flint (corgi): 2nd place in Grand Prix last year; 

they're in my monday-night class  [3rd in 12"]

Cindy Glantz & Blaze (sheltie): 8th (?) in GP last year; also in my 

monday-night class.

Debbie Auzenne  & Junior (papillon): Another local person & national 

champion runner-up; she & I had broken feet at the same time.

ALL of these are among USDAA's Top Ten handler/dog teams (by 

height/class) for this year AND I believe that all of them have 

earned their Agility Dog Championships (ADCh) thru continued 

top-level performance

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