The Southern Alberta Working/Herding Dog Association held a fun match at its club day on March 22nd at the Cowley Hall.
We started the day with some pretty nice scent hurdle dogs, some in training, and some already competing on the Due South Scent Hurdle Team.
31 dog/handler teams were entered in the SAWHDA fun match at Cowley, Alberta with teams coming from as far away as Jaffray, Lethbridge, and Calgary to attend.
In the Rally ring, Judge Lore Bruder awarded High in Novice RallyClass to Liz Saunders and her flatcoat retriever, Cava and a score of 99/100. Advanced Rally High score went to Joan Michaud and her Belgian shepherd, Zsuree with a score of 97. And High in Excellent Rally was won by Sylvia Howard and her standard poodle, Julie with a score of 93. Lore pointed out some common handler errors that we weren't thinking of at the time.
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Carol and Hank winning High in Novice Obedience
Hank, who hovered close to homelessness due to his rather exuberant display of nonsense in the Excellent Rally Ring, WON the Novice Obedience hands (or should I say paws) down.
In the obedience ring, Judge Deb Girvin, who travelled from Cranbrook to officiate the festivities, had some encouraging comments for each of the teams.
In particular, Deb reminded us to take advantage of all fun matches and rather than view them as a test of our dog's progress, we were advised to use them as an opportunity to help our dogs be right. In other words, we should be pro-active rather than reactive in a fun match situation.
For example, if we knew that our dog would anticipate a finish, we should praise him for doing a nice front, and forget the finish, thereby ending on a positive note.
She reminded us to be careful not to step into our dog when we halted in order to cover a wide sit, and to give our dogs a command/signal before moving. She told us to talk to our dogs in order to keep them engaged.
It was a super SAWHDA Saturday and we thank everyone who came out to play.
The Prez
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