According to reports, last night didin't finish until 11:30pm. And that didn't even include the team event that was scheduled for yesterday - which was then postponed. One event, Gators, has been totally cancelled due to lack of time.
The event overall is running behind and then today we started late. We were all in the crating area at 6:45 waiting for the doors to open to the arena but they were still locked. To keep us entertained they had Paul play his accordion for us. They had sing-a-longs and then a polka dance for all to join in.
Finally at about 7:15 the doors opened and we all filed in. We did the two national anthems and then we waited. About 15 minutes later the briefing started. Just when you thought you kind of knew the routine, things changed. But if you're going to come to the NADAC Championships you'd better get used to anything and just go with the flow. It will make your experience so much nicer!
So during the briefing we find out that the two Regular runs scheduled for today will be run together. In other words one course is set up and you'll run and get timed for that run. Then instead of stopping you keep right on going to the next course where a different set of timers will time that run. The entrance to the last tunnel on the first course stops your time for round one. The exit of that tunnel starts your time for round two. So it's two runs in one. The people running in Super Stakes and Elite must run both courses together. Those folks in Jr. Handlers, Pre-Elite, and Skilled have the option of running both together or splitting them. Veteran dogs are required to split them. In other words, all vet dogs will run one course. Then right after that they will all run the second course. This whole routine is to try to save time!
After that is all done they will be doing a similar thing with two of the Team games. They will be combined as well with all teams required to do the courses back to back.
In theory this should all save time. However, instead of the runs starting at 7:30 this morning they didn't start until 8:45. By 10:00 Super Stakes was done and Elite was ready to walk. Once it really got going it did seem to move along much more quickly. I sure saw a lot of heavy breathing from the handlers when they finally got through both courses.
Sparkie ran so nicely the first course and then at the very end of the second course she had an off course as Mike admits he didn't call her nearly in time - bummer, so close. This has been such a tough Championships for Mike. They started off so well the first two days and then ran into trouble. I think most of it was mental. After such a devastating start in Round One I just think that took a lot out of Mike. I can't blame him. He and Sparkie were one of the favorites to make it into the finals (as they've done every year) and then all hope was lost after such a hard knock in the first run. But at least Sparkie had fun on all of the runs but the two where she got scared.
At 5:00pm, seven hours after our walk-through it was finally time for vets. They were really nice and gave us a two minute walk-thru to refresh our memories. First we ran Round 3. Wazzu was pretty bored as she just laid around all day waiting. Plus it's really hot today. She wasn't running as fast the first half of the course as she had in her previous runs but she picked up in the second half. Unfortunately she missed pole number four so I had her restart the weaves which is something I don't do on normal weekends (nor here until this round). She then weaved fair - at least it was faster than a walk. But the bobble cost us some time. She finished really fast though. The crowd cheered and she just kept going onto course four! It was an a-frame (which she did with major air) which got quite a reaction out of the crowd and that only excited her more and she did one more jump for good measure. Silly Wazzu. I'm not sure of our placement as the results posted were totally mixed up!
A little over an hour later it was time for Wazzu to run Round Four. This time she was super wound up! She took off the fastest of any of her runs. She was knocking it out of the park. Her line was perfect and she was really scooting it. The middle obstacle of the distance test was a dog walk. She was going so fast and I thought I saw her just miss the contact. This distracted me for a split second - just long enough for me to then accidentally send her to the wrong obstacle. Darn it! I got her back and sent her to the weaves. She was being silly now, and did four poles and then started racing me. What the heck, I'd already blown it so why make her do the weaves. So we just made it a race and she did the rest of the course at mach speed. She was so happy and silly. The run may not have looked good on paper but we definitely had more fun than anyone else out there for sure! We ended up 18th.
Our day was over.....but that was not the case for many others. I think the Regular rounds finished around 7:30pm. Then it was time for the Team event to begin. They combined rounds one and two to safe time - which was good as the games didn't begin until a little after 8:00pm. It looked super fun! I think they ended a little before 10:00pm - the earliest finish of any day.
Here are a couple teams.
Kari and Elf, Karen and Pounce, Andrea and Ceilidh our friends from Washington.
Our good friends from Oregon - Debbie and Kobe, Bart and Pulse, Robbins and Kelly.
On Day One there were probably seven or eight vendors. But now there are probably 20 vendors. From what I heard the vendors haven't gotten much business at all yet. But I'm sure things will pick up now that we're getting in to full swing.
My friend Pat has a booth to sell the beautiful frames, clocks, and coaster she makes. She made some specific to the Championships and I bought one of those up right away!
There are also a couple photographers who are capturing the action. There is also one photographer doing western theme portraits. We'll be trying to get a picture there again this year. The big tourist attraction around here - okay actually the only tourist attraction around here is Devil's Tower - that's what you see in the background.
In addition there is a food vendor, three booths full of dog toys, two vendors with jewelry and Italian Charms, two dog massage booths, one human massage booth, an embroidery booth - who has done many great things for us, one that sells magnets for your car, a couple clothing booths, and finally a booth that is trying to raise money to help pay for surgeries for dogs that need help.
Here is the food vendor who is selling a variety of kibble and treats.
This is one of the popular vendors that sells a wide variety of treats.
This booth is definitely the most popular at least in the early days. She'll embroider anything you want on a very large variety of items. In fact, you can give her something you already own and she'll embroider on that as well. We've had her do MANY things for us over the years.
For the second year in a row, Becky Wolfe made this beautiful quilt that will be auctioned off. It contains t-shirts from many of the previous years Championships. I donated the t-shirt that was used on the top - second from the left. That was from the St. Louis Championships in 2005. There is even a shirt on here from the Australian Championships.
Of course the Championships wouldn't be complete without the State Raffle Baskets. All the competitors that come make arrangements with others coming from their state/province to make baskets with items from their area. These very elaborate baskets are then raffled off. I believe there are over 30 baskets again this year. The sacks are pretty full of tickets and it's only Saturday morning. Even though we've tried numerous years, we've never won a basket. Hmphh!
Here are just a few of the more than 30 baskets. The first one is one of two PNW baskets.
The above PNW basket has more tickets at this point than any other basket!
I think the Pacific Northwest crating area is the best. Heather Bruce had each of us send her a picture of each of our dogs. She then made this beautiful sign to hang up in our area. If you look closely, you'll see that on the top she has the snow capped mountains, Mt. Helens blowing her stack, and trees on the sides. It makes our little area seem very cozy. Thanks Heather!
Last night they handed out some of the ribbons from the first two days. Mike got his seventh place ribbon for Touch N Go. Way to go Sparkie!
A bunch of results were posted today. They are:
Regular Rounds Two, Three and Four for the Super Stakes division:
16" (3 dogs in class)
Arlene Courtney and Trick 3rd place in rounds 2, 3 and 4
20" (5 dogs in class)
Amanda Gross and Hope 2nd place round 2; 4th place round 3; 1st place round 4
16+ vets (5 dogs in class)
Karen Hunter and Quickie 2nd place round 2; 4th place in round 3 and 4
PNW Elite Regular Round Three
20" (11 dogs in class)
Bart Pierce and Pulse 2nd place
Susan Perry and Harley 5th place
Kari Hammargren and Elf 9th place
20+ (30 dogs in class)
Michael Bruce and Jule 4th place
Mike Mason and Sparkie 6th place
Teresa Jewitt and Bogie 10th place
Andrea Dexter and Ceilidh 13th place
Debbie Pierce and Kobe 17th place
Pat Weinkauf and Quinn 18th place
PNW Elite Regular Round Four
20" (11 dogs in class)
Susan Perry and Harley 1st place
Bart Pierce and Pulse 2nd place
Kari Hammargren and Elf 10th place
20+ (30 dogs in class)
Andrea Dexter and Ceilidh 2nd place
Michael Bruce and Jule 5th place
Pat Weinkauf and Quinn 6th place
Debbie Pierce and Kobie 13th place
Mike Mason and Sparkie 24th place
Teresa Jewitt and Bogie 29th place
PNW Vet Regular Round Two
8" (9 dogs in class)
Frederick Haberman and Fuzz 4th place
12" (6 dogs in class)
Kim Wiklof and Pinot 4th place
Scott Imlay and PJ 5th place
16" (12 dogs in class)
Penny Richardson and Shen 8th place
Micki Lagrou and Wendell 12th place
16+ (22 dogs in class)
Susan Perry and Lacey 1st place
Andrea Dexter and Token 8th place
Debbie Mason and Wazzu 14th place
Caryolynne Myall and Fortune 15th place
Robbins Church and Annie 19th place
PNW Vet Regular Round Three
8" (9 dogs in class)
Frederick Haberman and Fuzz 5th place
12" (6 dogs in class)
Kim Wiklof and Pinot 2nd place
Scott Imlay and PJ 5th place
16" (12 dogs in class)
Micki Lagrou and Wendell 7th place
16+ These results were totally wacky....will post when redone.
PNW Vet Regular Round Four
8" (9 dogs in class)
Frederick Haberman and Fuzz 6th place
12" (6 dogs in class)
Kim Wiklof and Pinot 4th place
Scot Imlay and PJ 5th place
16" (12 dogs in class)
Micki Lagrou and Wendell 6th place
Penny Richardson and Shen 8th place
16+ (22 dogs in class)
Susan Perry and Lacey 4th place
Andrea Dexter and Token 7th place
Caryolynne Myall and Fortune 17th place
Debbie Mason and Wazzu 18th place
Robbins Church and Annie 20th place
PNW Jr. Handler Regular Round Three and Four (5 dogs in class)
Katherine Martucci and Dazzle 1st place round 3; 4th place round 4
PNW Pre-Elite Regular Round 2
8" (6 dogs in class)
Bill Judge and Rosie 1st place
12" (4 dogs in class)
Bill Judge and Teddy 4th place
20" (12 dogs in class)
Scott Imlay and Jade 3rd place
Susan Perry and Chevy 6th place
PNW Pre-Elite Regular Round Three
8" (6 dogs in class)
Bill Judge and Rosie 2nd place
12" (4 dogs in class)
Bill Judge and Teddy 3rd place
20" (12 dogs in class)
Susan Perry and Chevy 1st place
Scott Imlay and Jade 6th place
PNW Pre-Elite Regular Round 4
8" (6 dogs in class)
Bill Judge and Rosie 3rd place
12" (4 dogs in class)
Bill Judge and Teddy 4th place
20" (12 dogs in class)
Susan Perry and Chevy 2nd place
Scott Imlay and Jade 4th place
PNW Skilled Regular Round Two
12" (6 dogs in class)
Lynda King and Robby 3rd place
16" (6 dogs in class)
Karen Hunter and Lindy 6th place
PNW Skilled Regular Round Three
12" (6 dogs in class)
Lynda King and Robby 3rd place
16" (6 dogs in class)
Karen Hunter and Lindy 4th place
PNW Skilled Regular Round Four
12" (6 dogs in class)
Lynda King and Robby 1st place
16" vet (6 dogs in class)
Karen Hunter and Lindy 6th place
Here are results that weren't included in previous posts:
Skilled Regular Round 1
12" (6 dogs in class)
Lynda King and Robby 2nd place
Jr. Handler Regular Round One and Two (5 dogs in class)
Katherine Martucci and Dazzle 1st place round 1; 2nd place round 2
There is more news.....but I am once again feeling very tuckered. I'll try to get it to you tomorrow.
Debbie
9/22/07
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