UKI WEST COAST OPEN 2024
The 2024 UKI West Coast Open will take place from the 19th - 22nd September at Paso Robles Horse Park, California.
The event is Open to all dogs and all handlers and there is no qualification necessary to enter.
The qualifying period for Byes for the event is
August 1st, 2023 – July 31st, 2024.
An overview of Byes and a US/West Coast Open Tracker which helps you to to keep track of your Q’s and byes can be downloaded here.
ALL ABOUT THE UKI WEST COAST OPEN VENUE
Paso Robles Horse Park is in the northern part of Paso Robles. The natural beauty and property’s oak tree filled landscape, with vast views overlooking the hills of Paso Robles, made it an ideal setting for a competitive horse park. The Paso Robles Horse Park is located on 67 beautiful acres and features a large turf field and sixsand arenas. The venue has a large sloped hill overlooking the specialized engineered turf field. The Park features 224 onsitestalls, and theability to accommodate up to 500 temporary stalls, bathrooms, RV sites with hookups, a 5,000 square foot hay barn, threeoffice buildings and parking for thousands of vehicles.
2024 WEST COAST OPEN JUDGES
AARON FROUDE
Aaron Froude, originally from Newfoundland and currently living in New Brunswick Canada, has been competing in agility since2010, and became an agility judge in 2014.
Aaron is an agility coach with FlatOut Dogs,with students across the globe, and was WAO Team Canada coach for 2018 &2019. FlatOut Dogs is also the host of the 2023 UKI Canadian Open.
Aaron is also on Team Canada, with his dog Crave, competing at the 2023 FCIAgility World Championships.
Aaron has judged all across Canada, from localtrials, UKI Canadian Open in 2018, the UKI US Open in 2023 and again in 2024.
And Aaron will be a judge at the 2025 World Agility Open!
Aaron has also completed the Global Judging Program in early 2020, receivinghis International Judging Accreditation.
He is super excited and honored to be invitedto judge the 2024 UKI West Coast Open!
To view a sample of Aaron’s courses, click here.
ASHLEY DEACON
I have had a lifelong love of dogs, which started as a child in the North of England with the family pet, Patch, a Jack Russell Terrier. After finishing college I emigrated to the USA, where I have lived for the last 25+ years. In 2002, I decided the time was right to own a dog. After doing much research I settled on an obscure French herding breed, the Pyrenean Shepherd. Just before Thanksgiving 2002, Luka arrived on a Continental flight from Cleveland to San Francisco. This dog changed my life forever... Together Luka and I competed for 9+ years and during that time we won numerous national championships. In 2009, Luka and I helped the USA Medium dog team take a silver medal at the FCI World Championships in Dornbirn, Austria. In 2011, Luka celebrated her 9th birthday by winning the individual gold medal competing at the FCI World Championships in Liévin, France. Luka is no longer with us, but I have competed more recently with my 2nd pyrenean shepherd, Dash and currently have a young border collie, Neve, in training. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area with my wife, Stacey and two children. I have been coaching agility since 2010 and am a co-owner of Golden Gate Dog Sports in San Francisco. I have been judging UKI events for the last 5 years. I enjoy designing flowing courses that blend speed with handling challenges.
I am excited and honored to be judging the 2024 West Coast Open! I wish all competitors the best of luck as they prepare for the event!!
To view a sample of Ashley’s courses, click here.
MERRITT SPEAGLE
Merritt started training her Shih Tzu, Stella in agility at 9 years old. Since then, she has owned and run dogs of all sizes. Merritt manages Level Up Dog Sports in Virginia, where she is a full time instructor. Enjoying everything about agility - from the creative process of course design to problem solving for her students, she is passionate about growing the sport of dog agility.
To view a sample of Merrit’s courses, click here.
ROSANNE WESEMANN
I have been involved in dog agility since 1992, competing in national events here in the US since 1997 and competing internationally at various events around Europe and the UK since 2010. I attended the inaugural World Agility Open in 2011 and won the 55cm biathlon with my border collie Drifter.
I decided to become a judge for UKI in 2018, with my primary goal being to learn to craft the types of courses I wanted to run myself. Having experience previously judging for another organization, and competing overseas in multiple venues, I hope to use that knowledge to create large, fun, fast, yet challenging courses for competitors to test their skills on. My goal is that even if a competitor doesn’t run clean, they should walk off the course having enjoyed attempting to master it.
I look forward to judging for UKI again at this event!
To view a sample of Rosanne’s courses, click here.
