October 6th-8th, 2006
Day Six
Small Dog Team Standard
Today we start with Small Dog Team Standard competition. The course was designed by Judge Peter Kindle. The course measures 170 meters (186 yds) and SCT is 45 sec or 4.13 yards per second.
For the USA Small Dog Team we have in our line up Melanie Del Villaggio and Dara, Dee Anna Gamel with Kelsi and veteran team member Barbara Bixsler with Sydney. We will run 7th this morning.
Barbara Bixsler and Sydney who have represented the US in prior World Team competitions lead off for the USA. Barbara took an aggressive approach to the course and she and Sydney pushed through out the challenges on the course. Sydney took a long look at the wrong side entrance of tunnel #11, bur Barbara showed her experience in calling Sydney hard and pulling even deeper back towards the #12 double to get Sydney into the correct side of the tunnel and Sydney responded quickly to the handling cue. They ran the rest of the course very quickly and finished with a clean run with a time of 39.50.
Next up were Melanie Del Villaggio and her Sheltie Dara. They worked easily thru the 1st portion of the course and had a very clean 270 turn from # 4- #5, from there they pushed hard up and over the dog walk. The rest of the course they made look as smooth as possible including the turn from #15-#16 with a run out plane to be avoided and then the tight pass across the #18 viaduct on the way to the tunnel at #17 – once they hit #17 they ran for the finish as quick as they could. Another clean round for the AKC/USA Small Dog team with a time of 39.56.
Our anchor team of Dee Anna Gamel and Kelsi stepped to the line for our final run for the Small Dog Team Standard event. Dee Anna and Kelsi looked like veteran team members as they quickly and cleanly worked thru the course. Kelsi was solid and fast on all her contacts and moved in perfect unison with Dee Anna. They came over the finish line at 38.08 and with another clean run for Team USA!! That gave us a total team time of 117.14 and at this point we are in 2nd place over all.
When all of the teams had run the final rankings at this point are Germany in 1st with a time of 115.09, Czech Republic in 2nd at 116.83 and the USA in 3rd with a total time of 117.14. The Small Dog Team will run their Jumping course later this afternoon.
Medium Dog Team Standard
After waiting a day and a half it was finally time for the medium team get to take the floor. The course was also designed by Judge Peter Kindle. It was 167 meters (182 yards) and the SCT was set at 44 seconds or 4.13 yards per second.
The Medium Dog Team members are Jennifer Crank and Guess, Lori Michaels with Skye and Jean Lavalley with Taz. They ran 10th out of the 26 teams. When our team stepped to the line none of the previous teams had gone clean. The least amount of faults were 5 total.
Jennifer Crank and Guess stepped to the line first. They worked precisely through the opening sequence, up and over the A-Frame, though the 270 and then were able to charge the dogwalk. After that Guess and Jennifer made easy work of the course – even through #14-16 that caused trouble for other teams. They completed the course cleanly and with a time of 39.88.
Skye and Lori Michaels were the next to run for the USA team. Lori and Skye showed good team work through the course, but at the weave poles Skye incurred a refusal when she came out between poles the second and third pole. Lori immediately reset him and they finished the rest of the course clean. Their time was 41.71, with 5 faults.
Our final team was on the Medium Team Standard course was Jean LaValley and Taz; who have been on the World Team multiple times over the past years. This experience showed as they worked calmly but quickly thru the course. They came over the line with a time of 40.53 that moved the USA into the 2nd Place spot at that time and a total time of 122.12
As the Team competition continued there were 3 Teams that went clean for all 3 dogs. They are ranked in the following order: Switzerland (118.65 sec), Sweden (118.81 sec) and Russia (119.20). The AKC/USA Medium Dog Team is in 8th place at this point. There are 6 teams that had 5 faults in their runs.
Next up is the Small Dog Team Jumping. Our Team comes into this round in 3rd place and will run 3rd from last. They run in reverse placement order from the 1st round.
Small Dog Team Jumping
Judge Mia Laamanen presided over the Small Dog Team jumping this afternoon. Her course was a mix of speed and technical portions. For many teams the turn from 15-16 was difficult. The handlers seemed to get turned around and needed to relocate #16 after the dog cleared #15. As is common, a tunnel caused much consternation on the course. The tunnel at #3 & 11 gave the dogs 2 opportunities to find the wrong end. Unfortunately for the AKC/USA team our 1st dog to the line, Sydney, found the wrong side of tunnel #3. A wrong course is 100 faults in the team competition. Melanie Del Villaggio and Dara also had a wrong course over a jump. Our final dog, Kelsi with Dee Anna Gamel avoided the tunnel problems and but went out over jump #2 on the way to tunnel entrance #11.
In the Small Dog Team competition the Czech Republic won Gold, Switzerland received Silver and Germany placed in the Bronze position. Only the Czech Republic had gone clean for all 6 of their runs. Both Switzerland and Germany had 5 faults were separated by 1.32 seconds after all 6 runs for their teams.
Medium Dog Team Jumping
The Medium Dog Team Jumping course was also designed by Judge Mia Laamanen. Once again, the turn from #15-#16 kept handlers on their toes. The real issue is to make sure the dog finds the correct side of the jump. Dogs are not judged on the run out plane until after the turn to start the approach. They can go over it on their initial landing.
When the Medium team came to the line there were no teams that had 6 clean runs and only 2 were left to run after the USA.
Jennifer Crank and Guess made the opening sequence look easy and they were working their way on a tight line thru the serpentine when Guess turned hard on the final jump and his shoulder caught the jump standard to bring down the bar. The rest of their round was clean. They finished with 5 faults and a time of 30 seconds.
Our next team was Lori Michaels with Skye. Skye took down bar #1 for a 5 fault penalty. They finished their run clean and with a time of 29.67.
The final team to the line for the AKC/USA team was Jean Lavalley and Taz. This was 10 ½ year old Taz’s retirement run. Taz and Jean put down a run to be proud of. Taz went clean in 31.46 seconds and never wavered at any point on the course. They showed the solid teamwork they have exhibited many times in their agility careers.
The USA team finished with 15 faults and a total course time of 213.25 seconds. This placed the team in 9th place out of 29 teams.
No team went completely clean over the 6 rounds. Finland won the gold with 5 faults and a cumulative time of 204.34. Czech Republic with 5 faults and time of 204.55 just barely missed the Gold. For the Bronze was Norway with 5 faults and 216.30 seconds.
It has been fun to watch the Swiss use baseline course building for the 1st time in the World Competition. Local official Marco Mowen learned this method while judging in Houston at the Astrodome this summer and felt it would be an asset to the course building efficiency of this event.
Our final runs for the day will be in Large Dog Team Jumping.
Large Team Jumping
The final course of the day is the Large Dog Team Jumping. This course was designed by Peter Kindle and measured at 150 meters (164 yards) and SCT is 34 seconds. The yards per second for this course are 4.8.
The Large team comes into this round with 10 course faults and is in 15th place out of 32 teams.
Linda Mecklenberg and Stellar got of to a fast start on the course. They were efficient and moved quickly throughout the course. They tied with the fastest run to this point on this course.
Our second team out was Carrie Jones and Jive. They could not have looked any better on this course it was very smooth and Jive was with Carrie every step of the way.
Finally our anchor stepped up to the start. Marcus Topps and Juice ran like we have all seen them do. The course was all theirs – Juice took a split second look at te wrong side of #16 as she come over #15 jump – but Marcus never wavered and they stuck together to lay down the fast course time of all the runs to this point on this course. They ran the course in 29.00 seconds, that is 5.65 yards per second!!!
The 3 clean runs moved the USA into 1st place for now with 14 more teams to run.
After all the teams were done the Croatian Team (anchored by a Belgian Tervuren) won the Gold medal with no faults over the 6 rounds and a final time of 201.61. The Silver went to Spain with 5 faults and a time of 194.75. Bronze winners were Sweden with 5 faults and a time of 199.11.
The AKC/USA Team finished 7th overall moving up 8 places from their Standard placement.
Tomorrow is the final day of the competition and it will be Small, Medium and Large dog Individual Standard courses.
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