On November 22, SAWHDA members attended a seminar on C-WAGS nosework and UKC obedience and rally obedience presented by Sarah-Jane Brenner-Petti. The morning included an introduction to the rules and regulations of C-WAGS which is yet another nosework organization encouraging new members. The dogs were introduced to the new scent of Cypress and most had no trouble transferring the knowledge from their previous organizations. It was fun to watch the different breeds work through the mock trial with two hides, one of them Cypress. C-WAGS is very encouraging because it is a Pass/Fail situation and the handler and dog teams are allowed one mistake so if the handler were to call a false alert, the judge would say, "Sorry, keep searching." WOWWW! Huge encouragement for those of us who are still learning to read our dog's alerts.
We came away with samples of Lemongrass and Cypress for all our teams so they can continue to practice.
We took a lunch break at the Cowley Backcountry Restaurant and then switched over to our new topic of the afternoon, the UKC rules for Obedience and Rally. There were 8 working dogs and the scoring for the UKC rally was somewhat of a cross between CKC and WCRL.
The signs are the same. Sarah judged a UKC Novice and an Open Obedience course for our working dogs and we really enjoyed ourselves. Everyone like the idea that in the Novice class, the long down was done with the dog across the ring from the Handler during the heeling
part of the working dog's course. Everyone did well.
It is wonderful to be able to have options other than the CKC for our dogs to "play" at.
A UKC trial will be held this spring in the north part of the province so we will have to keep March open for the dates.
Thanks to Sarah-Jane for making the day informative and fun for all.
The Prez
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