Pet Expo

What can I say? We were good, no, great! Our square dancing was the best ever with the crowd clapping and foot-tapping along; the Lion King was spot on for precision as was our Pick-up Six drill.

The freestyle and disc dogs wowed the audience, especially when Swift started from up the wall and when Epic did a flip trick. Barrel racing was a crowd pleaser as usual and Maureen's remote control dog, Levi, the laser dog, was amazing and won the event paws down. Ryder, of course, at almost 10 years old, almost did the course by himself! This has grown into quite a competition, methinks. The carting drill went really well with all dogs able to do 90 degree turns with ease. We did double figure 8's and weave-through's, and DDX-grade back-ups with RoZe jogging backwards! And she managed the 360 on the spot turn in the picture frame as well. Human agility was a scream!!! Seeing our dogs jump over people and dogs, and do over-unders, weaves, and a dog-walk....yes, a dog-walk, with humans as equipment brought down the house!

Donna's Click that Chick mini-seminar had people shaking their heads in wonder that chickens could be that smart! And Maureen took advantage of having a first-rate clicker instructor on hand and did some chicken clickin' herself! Deb, Joan, and I did our Carting seminar which was well-attended and we had quite a few people interested in learning how to start their dogs in the sport.

Our booth was swamped with people wanting to learn how to get involved in the 'fun stuff' we do. And having our dogs on display as well as a place for people to sit down and talk to members was a great attraction. And......... our pictures and albums and especially the Poster that Donna made for us showed people that our club does a whole lot more than the regulation 'dog sports' and that everybody plays. Thanks so much to all our members for manning the booth, performing on the mainstage and in seminar settings, for running the music and mic's, for the yummy lunches, and for helping with set - up and the dreaded take-down. It went so smoothly.

On the drive home, we were already talking new stuff for next year. Noodles are involved.

Best kept secret.....

The Prez

APDT results

APDT Trial - Sit Happens! (Calgary, Ab.)
March 19 & 20, 2011

On March 19 & 20, four SAWHDA members (three students and myself) from Elkford, Fernie and Jaffray attended the APDT Trial at Sit Happens! in Calgary. Nervous energy ran high as it was the first trial for Dee O'Connor with Labrador - Molly, and Jenn Williams with Jack Russell - Spencer and Border Collie - Abby. For Sylvia Howard with Standard Poodle - Julie, it was her second trial, but the nerves still ran high as Julie needed one more leg for her L1 Title and Sylvia was anxious to bump her up to L2 and work off-leash.

All three girls came home with their Level 1 Titles (Jenn titled both her dogs!) and I am VERY PROUD of all of them! They worked extremely hard and deserve a huge congratulations for their efforts. Dee and Molly qualified in all four rounds with the highest individual score of 200 and the highest aggregate score of our group in Level 1A.

My little Doberman girl - Jagged, performed great in spite of feeling "under the weather" with a mysterious skin ailment. She posted 2 perfect scores of 210, 3 - 209's, and a handful of 208's. We were happy with those results and Jagged is now resting comfortably on a whopping dosage of Prednisone, while we wait for biopsy results from Cornell University.
We're all looking forward to the next trial in October as everyone has "caught the bug". In the mean time, we will all get ready for agility trials in the summer months.

Play!!!

A few photos from the great seminar today!

Judi and Drummer

Kort getting into his tugging

nice focus from Davin

Louann "making prey" for Brazil

Lore and Daisy learning to play together

Judi will post more of an update later I am sure, but I wanted to share the photos of the day!

Developing Your Dog's Work Ethic

We are all set for Carolyn Herle's seminar, "Developing Your Dog's Work Ethic" on

Saturday, March 19th at the Cowley Hall in Cowley, Alberta.

The building will be open at 9:15 and our seminar begins at 10:00 with a Meet 'n Greet.

Coffee and light refreshments will be provided.

Dogs are welcome in the working portion of the hall as long as they are quiet and well-behaved.

If you become lost on your way, do phone 403 563 0686 or 403 563 6377 for help.

See you in the morning.

"The Prez"

Calgary Results

Best of Winners and 2 points for Deb Golding's Walker dog. Thank you Kim & Courtney for a great grooming job. We are training the coat. On to Red Deer. Shar and Ryder have four scores towards their RAE-5 now. Please send news if your dog qualified in performance or picked up points at this show.

Stateside News!

News from Nancy at the Scottsdale Shows.

"Good day at Scottsdale yesterday. Celine BOS (25 Papillons entered) Peter WD and BOW for 2 more pts and Brie finished her Rally Excellent title. Chatted with Mary Ellen yesterday at the show. She is enjoying the warm weather. Not entered today as Lara & Taylor were here for a week and had to take them to airport today. Have had a great time this past week – just not enough time to show them all the things we wanted to...lovely weather except first night they arrived. Rained all night and woke up to snow very low down on the mountains – especially where we were camping as it was in a Regional Park in the high desert. All the AZ people were out taking pictures like crazy as this does not happen often. They were so excited and of course to us... yuk.... this was just like home. Not missing all the snow and cold."

Unfortunately, neither are we missing the snow and cold. It is all right here in our back yard. Cranbrook,

however, is on the plus side of the scale. Cheryl keeps us up to date on the weather in that area.

Practices for Pet Expo are going well. Our carting routine will look super! Human agility is short equipment but what we have (heh, heh,) is working well.

Square dance is ready. Lion King drill very professional. Barrel dogs are running well..... Carol, we hope your bruises are fading. Practice at Vista Village for locals Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. See you there.

Club day on March 12th starting at 10:00 a.m. with scent hurdle practice, followed by Lion King and Barrels and carting. No rally this week. We hope to be done by 12:30 or 1:00 .

Good luck to everyone entered in the Calgary Dog Show. We will drive up for the Sunday show and camp with Kim. See you there.

The Prez

PS. Hi, Mary Ellen. Best of luck to you and let us know the news when you get home.

Snowed In

No Pet Expo practice tonight. We cannot get enough members plowed out in time to

make the practice. Stay home safe and warm. I hate winter and all that comes with it.

We are two shelties deep in snow.

Blahhhhhh to those who ski, snowmobile, or sled. So there.

Practice on Saturday at the Cowley Hall for those who can make it.

The Prez