Well Day 3 of USDAA Nationals includes the Steeplechase Finals, Gamblers Choice, Weave Pole Knockout and Round 2 of the Semifinals. For those of you wondering about the weather, it has been unbearably hot and sunny each day, every day seeming hotter than before. Today it was in the 90's most of the day, and dogs and handlers were both feeling it for sure. How the judges managed to stand out there all day is beyond me! I'll jump right into the Grand Prix Round 2 results, as I am sure that is what you all care about most! We had another challenging course today, with a number of changes of direction and opportunity for off-courses. But for the most part, those handlers that survived into this round stayed on course. A couple notable exceptions in the 16" group were Heather, who dropped a bar, and subsequently went off course. Laura Yarborough's Dustin went off-course right at the beginning of the course, as did a number of the Open dogs. But the biggest problem was missed contacts, particularly on the dogwalk which was close to the end, facing the exit. The time for the course was very tight, and there are quite a few dogs in the finals with time faults. In fact, this year every height has finalists with time faults. A number of older, long-time competitors made it into the finals, such as Scamp, Squiggles, Duncan, Stoni and Lilly.

We also have a quite a few crowd favorites. Long-time competitor in the East, Eunice Morgan made the finals with her border collie Peggy, as did 15-year-old Tracy Rudd with BC Hope. Roseanne Demascio and Dreamer also made it in. I was also pleased to see Julie Daniels and Spring qualify, as last year they made it to the Finals, but Julie had to scratch as she had agreed to commentate for Animal Planet. This year, she passed on the TV job, so we all were routing for her.

Finalists for Grand Prix
Key - W is a dog that won one round and is in as a wildcard. TF are dogs that made it in with time faults. 5F is dogs that made it in with 5 faults from one round. I forgot to note which dogs in 26" had time faults, doesn't matter all that much since they are all starting from scratch tomorrow!

12" Finalists
1 - Zoe
2 - Parker
3 - Sparkle
4 - Jingles
5 - Rusty
6 - Fancy (TF)
7 - Chipper (TF)
8 - Sam (TF)
W - Flint
W - Stitch

16" Dogs
1 - Kaos
2 - Banchor
3 - Ginger
4 - Casey
5 - Morgan
6 - Duncan
7 - Guy (tie)
7 - Scamp (tie)
9 - Squiggles
10 - Spot
11 - Lily (TF)
12 - Blaze (TF)
13 - Chilly (TF)
14 - Duder (TF)
15 - Praline (TF)
16 - Shimmer (5F)

22" Dogs
1 - Scout
2 - Riot
3 - Ajax
4 - Stoni
5 - Asti
6 - Buddy
7 - Peggy
8 - Snap
9 - Dory
10 - Ozzie
11 - Morgan
12 - Spyder (TF)
13 - Hope (TF)
14 - Phoebe (TF)
15 - Mattie (TF)
16 - Simon (TF)

26" Dogs
1 - Spring
2 - Timeflies
3 - Whist
4 - Spiffy
5 - Jazz
6 - Ravin
7 - Lilly
8 - Disney
9 - Dreamer
10 - Jordan
11 - Calvin
12 - Houston
13 - Dodger
14 - Jeremy
15 - Jagger
W - Piper
W - Toad

Other big event was Steeplechase, although it really just counts as a Regional event. Still, I was hoping for a fast run with Taz, since we've haven't placed in anything yet. The course had a straight tunnel in the middle that was taken 3 times, and you had to face an Aframe-tunnel discrimination 3 times, with tough pulls on the first two. But it was a course that allowed for LOTS of speed.

Taz did not seem to have his usual speed and I found myself having to cheer and run a lot more than I usually do. Coming towards the Aframe the third time, I found myself ahead of him and it caused him to stop dead at the Aframe and turn into the tunnel instead for the off-course. There were some superb runs by other dogs in this, placings int he open dogs in particular were very, very close with some incredible runs. In the 16" class, Jag once again crushed everyone with a run 3 seconds faster than the next dog. He has yet to be defeated in Steeplechase in the 2 times he's run it. Here are the results:

(If there's no placement for a dog listed, that means they went off-course).

12" Dogs
1 - Zoe
2 - Flint
3 - Junior
4 - Sam
5 - Sophie

16" Dogs
1 - Jag
2 - Shimmer
3 - Heather
4 - Casey
5 - Scamp
6 - Terminator
7 - Shooter
8 - Banchor
9 - Duncan
10 - Riley

22" Dogs
1 - Riot
2 - Scout
3 - Blu
4 - Wicked
5 - Stoni
6 - Flurry
7 - Maggie
8 - Awesome
9 - Nitro
10 - Focus
11 - Gemma
12 - Cap
13 - Static
14 - Zoe
15 - Echo

26" Dogs
1 - Jessie
2 - Timeflies
3 - Flash
4 - Duffy
5 - Ranger
6 - Lazer
7 - Kallie
8 - Whist
9 - Suni
10 - Jordan
11 - Spiffy
12 - Lilly
13 - Jazz
14 - Mikey
15 - Suede

First game of the day was Gamblers Choice. Unlike a regular gambler class, there was no closing period. You just had 45 seconds to get points, and you had to hit the table before the whistle blew, or you lost 20 points. Like last year, we had some valuable on-course gambles. Two invloved standing between the two tunnels in the middle, while the dog came through the tunnel, and then over an arch of jump-tunnel-jump or on the other side, jump-jump-jump. The first was worth 15 points, the second was 10 points. There was also a gamble (sort-of) that involved getting the four corner jumps on the course at any time during your run. That was worth 20 points, so almost everyone went for that. Unfortunately some dogs missed a jump or took a bar. Susan Garrett surprised us all by just forgetting one jump! You generally had to get all 3 gambles to place in most of the heights. Taz and I went for all 3 and came very close, but he popped off the teeter, so we didn't get that one, and ended up 8th. Gary Frank got both first AND second in our class by running the same course and all 3 gambles with his shelties Spot and Guy. Here's the results for the class:

12" Class
1 - Junior
2 - Sam
3 - Ripple
4 - Flint
5 - Sprite
6 - Hanna

16" Dogs
1 - Spot
2 - Guy
3 - Spree
4 - Buzz
5 - Sez
6 - Tango
7 - Terminator
8 - Taz

22" Dogs
1 - Secret
2 - Tory
3 - Spin
4 - Alice
5 - Nifty
6 - Molly
7 - Rubi
8 - Skye
9 - Dice
10 - Morgan

26" Dogs
1 - Mick
2 - Jack
3 - Annie
4 - Piper
5 - Andy
6 - Dixie
7 - Boz
8 - Teegan
9 - Goblin
10 - Disney

Well, last class was weave pole knockout. In this class dogs run head to head on a short course of 8 obstacles. It was the first class to run real late, we didn't finish until after 7. And Taz was in the very last race to run! We were in the runoff for third and lost so ended up 4th. Jag won our class. Since it ran so late, I didn't get final results, I was too tired after running about 6 times in half an hour. Well, since my roomie is staying another night, I should be able to swing by before my flight and send the final results. So until then...

[Go to Report for Day 4]