I have been to quite a few national championship events in my 13 year Agility career - going back to the mid 1990's when the USDAA Grand Prix Championships were fairly nearby in Cleveland, Ohio, allowing a number of CATS members to attend. I've also competed in and covered for various publications a handful of NADAC Championships and 1 CPE Nationals (in 2003 in Hopkinton, NH). Competing at a national event isn't like running your dog on a regular agility weekend. There is something special about being a part of a Championships - you've earned your way there, and will be competing with some of the sports' best dog and handler teams.

Leslie Vassall has me beat on attendance at National Championships, though, as she's attended the USDAA's Grand Prix of Dog Agility since the early 1990s (if not late 80's)! Other CATSians who have qualified for and attended many Championship events include Judy Davis (who has ran Ruff 10 years in a row at Grand Prix Championships, I believe) and Lynn Smitley who has done close to half dozen or so NADAC Championships with Yola.

This year the USDAA Grand Prix of Dog Agility was held just outside Phoenix, Arizona, in Scottsdale. Both Scout and Spryte were qualified to go early in the year, but I had no idea how we'd get there. Driving was an option, until mapquest showed it to be some 2,600 miles! I came to entertain the idea of flying only Spryte to the event; that is until Scout surprised me and won the North Central Performance Grand Prix Regional earning a bye into the PGP Finals. Thus began my anxiety about travel plans. Leslie had long planned to take Olio and compete in the Veterans Grand Prix. When I finally came around and got comfortable with the idea and educated myself about flying dogs, Leslie and I agreed to meet at the Phoenix airport and share a room and rental car.

Lucking out with an Enterprise rental agent (with a great accent - he sounded like an Aussie but turned out to be South African) who we befriended on the airport shuttle, we managed to get a minivan for almost the same price as a Standard car. Upon arriving at the motel, we discovered that due to a late departure of someone from our reserved room, we'd been upgraded (at no extra cost) to a bigger room with a kitchenette. Things were going well!

The site for the 2004 Cynosport World Games [SM] was beautiful with ample room for 4 agility rings, a huge vending area, and fields extending out beyond the vendors to accommodate the Flyball, Freestyle, Frisbee and Terrier Race action that was scheduled all weekend long. In another corner of the site was the set-up for the Dockdogs event which was judged by our very own Nadja Palenzuela. The agility crating area was a bit different than expected, in a large bubble type building with a cement floor where each party got a small taped-off square of space. It ended up working out pretty well, although the cement steps to and from the crating area took their toll on my legs and feet.

I wish I could say that my dogs' runs all weekend were fabulous - but that would be far from the truth. Scout was entered in only 1 game class a day as warm-up for her Finals run and did great. With Spryte, I E'd early in Team Snooker, and E'd late in Steeplechase semifinals when I was really pushing for time and pushed her right off course! I missed a contact (one of a very few we've EVER missed in competition) in Team Gamblers and knocked a bar in Team Standard. We weren't having the best weekend, but my most important run - the Grand Prix semifinals - was yet to come, late on Saturday afternoon.

Besides the Veterans Grand Prix, Leslie and Olio were also entered in the Performance classes and turned in some wonderful runs earning several placement ribbons. In addition to doing opening ceremonies each morning with international flags carried by bearers from all the different countries in attendance, at the end of each day they held awards ceremonies in the main ring. We all cheered and clapped loudly as Leslie went up to claim her ribbons. Unfortunately little Olio, the treat hound, ripped open a corner of my dog bag left (zipped up) in the motel room on Saturday morning while Leslie and I were getting breakfast and ingested a smorgasboard of doggie treats. Her stomach was bloated!

Leslie and Olio were scheduled to run their Veterans Grand Prix semifinals early in the day and did get around the course clean, but not in time to make the cut off for the Veterans Finals. Leslie was up against some really tough competition in the 12" Veterans group (lots of fast Shelties and JRTs) where they only took 4 dogs for the Finals, and the extra poundage on Olio from her pilfering incident didn't exactly help!

I watched a lot of dogs run the regular Grand Prix semifinals course and noted that the majority of faults came at a tough weave pole entry. I obsessed a bit on the course, visualized it, watched some more dogs run and then it was time for our group to go. Scout got to run it just for time, for seeding purposes in the next day's Finals. She ran beautifully, though missed a dogwalk contact in her exuberance. I felt pretty good about the course for Spryte - my strategy was not to overhandle the weave entry, merely cross behind her, say "Left, Poles" and count on my training, her talent and a bit of luck to get the job done.

And get the job done we did! We had a bit of a bobble after a jump loop near the beginning of the run where Spryte very nearly missed a hurdle, but I quickly pushed her back and she took it at the last instant. And when the weave entry came, I did as planned and she nailed it. Knowing we had a clean run going, I abandoned a front cross after the see-saw and just pushed to the finish line. We were clean in 35.03 seconds. It would be a long wait until all dogs had run and we could check the scores to see if she'd made it into the next day's Finals. I was almost afraid to look - but sent Laurie Baker who came back and said we'd made it. Not quite believing it yet, Leslie and I went to study the scores and determined it was true; I'd made the Grand Prix Finals with Spryte!!! Some 230 22" dogs had started their quest to make the Finals at the beginning of the weekend, and we'd managed to stay on top and make the cut!

My only regret was that Leslie and Olio weren't going to be running the Finals with us on Sunday. But they assumed a position of major support in a corner of the bleachers where the Northeast contingency was sitting strong - cheering myself, and other east coast contenders on every step of the way. I am proud of both my dogs, but especially Scout who performed beautifully in the middle of a hot Arizona day, on her fourth day of an extended trial during a long trip. I'm pretty proud of myself, too, for holding it together to the last day. I was sore and tired but got around with both dogs. Scout missed the contact on the dogwalk again in the Finals (wouldn't you think I'd be more careful??!) which gave her 5 faults, dropping her from what would have been a 5th place finish to 8th. But I was still so incredibly proud of her. Spryte left me in the dust and flew into an off course tunnel before I could even blink or think about fixing it. I'm proud of her, too. We fixed the tunnel and then ran the rest of the course clean and with great gusto.

My dogs did everything I asked of them. They performed on course as they'd been trained, and did so with great heart.

When I went up to get my Grand Prix ribbons and plaques, judge Paul Stolzenburg hugged me and said with such sincerity "I am SO proud of you." Paul was one of my early agility instructors and has always been supportive of me and my shelter hounds in Agility. I will forever cherish that day, that moment during the awards ceremony and the memory I hold of running both my girls in the Grand Prix of Dog Agility Finals. I'm not sure how I ended up being so lucky to have found such amazing dogs, who are athletes but most of all my very best white, fluffy friends!