Moses Lake Agility

Denise and Jagged's results from her AKC Agility Trial in Moses Lake.

"Just a weekend update from the AKC Agility trial in Moses Lake, WA.....we did our first agility trial since Jagged broke her toe last August. She did well with no lameness but was a little sore on Sunday afternoon, showing a little sensitivity in the parking lot as there was pea gravel on the pavement.

Jagged got her Open Standard title and an Open JWW Q and Novice FAST Q. We need one more Open Jumper for that title and one more Nov. Fast for that one. As it was our first trial in a very long time, I’m happy with what we did. I only have a few videos from the trial so I’m att. one that was taken Sunday in Open JWW. Not a Q though!"

          Denise

Lion's Walk for Dog Guides

The Lion's Walk for Dog Guides for Pincher Creek area is May 5th.  Marilyn Lee and Mojo have kindly offered to be our representatives for SAWHDA.  Anyone wishing to sponsor Marilyn and Mojo may do so by contacting me for their private email.

The Prez 

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to all SAWHDA members.  God bless. 
See you at Red Deer next weekend!

The Prez 

APDT Rally O wins!!!!

Last weekend, SAWHDA members, students of Denise McKay, and Denise herself travelled to Calgary for the APDT Rally trials put on at Sit Happens! .  The team, pictured below, came away with numerous awards and titles. 

Sylvia/Julie, Denise(coach)/Jagged, Dee/Java, Chantal/Steve-O, Katrina/Indy, Jenn/Abby/Spencer 

Sylvia and Julie on course

Sylvia and her standard poodle, Julie , had a great weekend at the Sit Happens! APDT Rally trial.  Says Sylvia, "It was so much fun, we entered 12 trials and Q’d in 11.  Our 1 NQ was me, not Julie she was so good.  Julie earned her ARCH title on her first 2 runs scoring a 207 on both.  I was very pleased with her.

                                Jagged and her loot                                 Denise, Jagged and judge, Sarah-Jane.

And, from Denise, the results for her and her Dobe, Jagged:  Saturday, March 16

Level 1 B, 2 B & 3 B – High Scoring Dog in all levels  (210 – perfect scores x 3!) Jagged had the only perfect scores from 96 runs and she had 3 of them!

Sunday, March 17

Level 1B &  3 B – High Scoring Dog ( 2 more 210’s;  there were a few other perfect scores that day but Jagged had 2 of them!

APDT Rally is now “World Cynosport Rally” but so far all rules and regs have been “grandfathered” in.  One of my students got a shot of Jagged on the directed (offset) jump and it’s incredible...will send as soon as I get it.

The 3 new students earned their Level 1 titles (A).  2 with puppies 11 months & 15 months old! I’m very proud of them.  Sylvia and Jenn also posted some awesome scores as always!

Heading to Moses Lake, Washington tomorrow for an Agility Trial.  Hope we can remember how to do agility???

Denise & Jagged

World Cynosport Rally is available to ALL dogs, registered or not, shown by their owners.  It is much more challenging than CKC Rally and the exciting part is that FOOD is allowed on course as a reward for completing the stationary exercises.  

Games and Good Work

Small but mighty group met at the Cowley Hall Sunday for some Rally Obedience work and some scent games.  We were especially excited to see Laura, Max and Sir on hand to have some fun as Laura is just beginning to feel better after a long and scary bout of respiratory problems. 

We set out an innocent but deadly Excellent Rally Course and the best of the best went to Laura and Max with a very smooth performance.  The course was named, "Made You Look" and an extra walk through or two proved to be the best 'course' of action.

Next we did some clicker work with Sir and Daisy to begin dumbbell work.  Both were immediately thinking about the dumbbell.  A good start.  Castle practiced delivering the dumbbell to hand. 


We set up some jumps and a scent box in order to 'test' Max on his scent skills and he passed with flying colors. We welcome Max and Laura to Due South!!!

Next, we brought Castle, Beckett, Sir, Justice, and Daisy out.  Daisy and Beckett did jumps to the box and back.   Sir did one jump to the box for a treat.  Justice did no jumps, but went to the box and picked up his dumbbell.  Castle did all jumps and picked up his dumbbell.  Everyone did fine.

Enough work done, we let the dogs play a different game.  One by one, off leash, the dogs used their noses to decide which of the hollow Easter eggs had treats in them.  It was sooooo interesting to see the different levels of excitement and the individual styles of indication.  Sir pounced on the eggs.
Castle bit the egg open.  Foxx pawed the egg. Drummer fetched the egg.  Remmie pushed the egg around with his nose.  And each dog became more excited after its first turn.  What fun they had and we will certainly do this activity again.  A nice way to end the day for the dogs.

Of course we stuffed ourselves with veggie trays and warm scones and tidbits.  And we shared some funny stories of things that had happened to us or our dogs in the past.  Lore offered to bring her grooming kit and show us some ways to prep a double coated dog for the ring using some enhancements to accent the outline.  

Shar won $12.50 from the 50/50 draw. 

We are on again next Saturday but will actually do  a show Rally Obedience course and the standard Novice and Open routines as if we were at a show.  No prizes but performances will
be scored as feedback for the handlers.

We will use the entire hall so we will begin with Rally excellent obedience walk-throughs at
9:15. 

Rally will be followed by Open obedience and Novice.  
Cost is $5.00 for members and $10.00 for non-members for the day's activities.

Anyone wishing to do a Pre-Novice or Utility run should contact the Prez
at  shadowbr@telusplanet.net  ahead of time.

Hope to see you there!!!

The Prez 

Brags from SAWHDA Members

Congratulations to Lore Bruder whose homebred Cardigan Corgi, Ch. Bluetrix Remington Ranchhand , RN, HT, won the Best Blue Merle Cardigan Corgi in Canada!!!! To apply for this honor the dog must have at least one performance title earned in the past year. Remmie, who will be two years old in May, 2013, already has earned TWO performance titles. We are thinking this is a nice start.  Look for this young dog in the herding and rally events at CKC shows this summer.

Photo courtesy of  Amanda Labadie "Manymuddy Paws Photos"  

                                                                     Remmie

Congratulations to Sylvia Howard and her standard poodle, Julie. The 2012 APDT Rankings are out, and Julie is the #4 Canadian dog.  We are very proud of this team and very proud to welcome Sylvia and Julie as the newest members of our Due South Scent Hurdle Team as well.

Members, please keep in mind that we love hearing about your dogs' successes.  Send brags and photos of dogs as well.   

Also, a reminder that we are ON at Cowley on Sunday this week and we have prizes and games as well as serious rally and obedience work......... something for everyone.   St. Pat's Day, you know. Think green.


The Prez 
                                                          

Club Day Sunday this weekend

Sunday, March 17, will mark our SAWHDA Club Day at Cowley Hall.  St. Paddy's day, of course, so go green!  We will have to put mats down on Sunday morning as the hall is being used Saturday evening, so we will forgo our scent hurdle practice and simply get right to the action!!!

An Excellent Rally Obedience course will be set out and we will pare down to Novice. We will start with Open Obedience run-throughs followed by Novice.

We will also have time for fun games and tricks to test your training skills.

The fun begins at 9:30 a.m. ...... prizes and surprises!!!!


                                       AND..............

Good luck to all of you attending the Sit Happens! APDT trials this weekend.  

Clicker Seminar Offered

Nancy asked us to post this one day seminar on "How Dogs Learn". How to make use of positive reinforcement and shaping behavior, presented by Stephanie McGregor.

Dog Show Atmosphere at Club Day

OMG! What a phenomenal turnout for club day on Saturday, March 2nd! 
It was perfect.  People and dogs everywhere!  A madhouse of activity. Noisy, happy conversation and foody smells from the member donations of food that seem to grace our club days on a regular basis added great distractions for the working dogs.

At one point, we had dogs at every level of training all lined up almost shoulder to shoulder in order to fit them all in for long sits.  Some  people were practicing Open out of sight sits while others were only a short distance from their dogs.  Some went back to correct while others returned to treat and leave again. Those with two dogs handed one off to another handler and all was well.

Believe me, if those dogs handled the sits and downs of Saturday, there isn't much that is going to upset them in a show setting.  They were stellar!

We zoomed through heeling patterns from all levels and added retrieves and drops and jumps and stands where necessary.  

Our scent hurdle practice went over very well with all dogs finding their bells and hurrying back to their handlers.  Liz and Puffin, Deb and Beckett and Judi and Castle found some time to squeeze in some dumbbell work. We had Due South demo dogs providing the distractions with their relay sprints and it was great to see guest dogs  trying out as well. 

Amanda found time to take  some super pics of the pups that were there and the weather was wonderful for most of the day.

Judi & Shar split the 50/50 money with $22 going back to the club. 

Thanks to Maureen, Lore, Deb and Sharlet for helping with the kitchen cleanup, mats and the mop work.   The hall looked super spiffy when we left. Setting up is done on Friday evenings as most of our set-up crew is busy with farm or kennel chores Saturday morning.  It's nice to be able to set up crates and coffee maker so that all we have to do is bring in the dogs and do a last minute walk-through of the Rally course. 

We are always grateful if someone can email us a rally course or take over the obedience set up and management on club day to give us regulars a break.  

We are on again this coming Saturday with the following routine: 

Scent hurdle at 9:30 sharp... all dogs welcome.

From 9:30 on.... Novice Rally,  Advanced Excellent mixed Rally

10:15 on....obedience routines  in this order

• Individual heeling routines starting with novice
• Group sits .... all stages of training 
• Group retrieves... on the flat 3 teams at a time
• Group retrieves ... over the high jump... Line up and fetch.
• Glove retrieve... individual
• Group recalls and drops ... 3 teams at a time
• Group downs while broad jump is being practiced 
• Group broad jump... line up and jump

The floor will be given over to any dogs practicing utility exercises.

Following this, mat time is open....

We need to do some demo practice work as well.

This is Ike, black and tan shiba inu puppy

Shar's new puppy, Osor's Justice Shines

Red shiba inu puppy Teddybear. 

Let us know if you can make it.  Love to see you there. 

The Prez