SAWHDA

Castle at work.

2012-01-22T12:16:00.002-07:00

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Castle

2012-01-19T20:28:00.000-07:00

Castle is for sale. Brilliant shiba inu pup just turned six months old. Ball crazy. Tugs. Targets either hand. Ready for Excellent rally, yes, excellent except for the broad jump and off set fig. 8. haven't trained for those yet. started in treibball. Understands how to use the old pedal and arm flyball box....learned that yesterday in five minutes. Tracked on cement at 12 weeks of age, and figured out the game.Ready for PreNov obedience competition. Fetches. will make a smoking hot flyball, scent, or agility dog in the right hands. If you can drive it, it's a helluva ride! Pass the word.

The Prez

Blame it on Amanda

2012-01-18T09:56:00.000-07:00

Aha!!!! The truth emerges. Two days ago, Amanda posted a message about welcoming winter. I think she is sorry she did that. The rest of us are sorry she did that. We now have 5 inches of snow and -34C.
I am surprised any of the animals can even move. It's too cold to plow!
They closed Highway 3 East and West of the Pass. Visibility was terrible.

This morning all is back to normal Highway wise, but the cold is debilitating. I feel bad for the calves that are being born in this weather. If they are really lucky, they belong to Connie and Don.

The good news is that the weather is supposed to break and temperatures rise to +3 on Saturday. This is wonderful as we have the Hall rented for a club practice day starting at 9:30 with scent hurdle. Our team is suffering right now as both our height setters are experiencing back problems. That leaves four veterans and three youngsters to run.........with one height setter left. Hopefully, the 'girls' will recuperate over the next few months and be able to join us in racing. We will certainly make use of our veterans' heights as well.

We will follow scent with obedience and rally. Until then, stay warm.

Those of you in the sunny States can start sending sunshine our way!!!

The Prez

No Fun Match for Us

2012-01-15T08:11:00.000-07:00

We have been looking forward to this Shiba Inu Fun Match for a month now and this morning, although we are just fine in our little corner of the province, the roads to where we wish to travel are not in good shape. Yes, red means danger. Grrrrrr. So I suppose we shall set up in the garage and play our own games. Boo hoo.

See everyone next Saturday, January 21st a the Hall starting at 9:30 with scent hurdle practice. All teams invited. Obedience and rally to follow.

In the meantime, happy heeling, joyful jumping, and down with distractions!!!
The Prez

Just a Dog

2012-01-09T10:40:00.000-07:00

"He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion." - Unknown

From time to time, people tell me, "lighten up, it's just a dog,"
or, "that's a lot of money for just a dog."

They don't understand the distance traveled, the time spent, or the costs involved for "just a dog."

Some of my proudest moments have come about with "just a dog."

Many hours have passed and my only company was "just a dog,"
but I did not once feel slighted.

Some of my saddest moments have been brought about by "just a dog,"
and in those days of darkness, the gentle touch of "just a dog" gave me comfort and reason to overcome the day.

If you, too, think it's "just a dog," then you will probably understand
phrases like "just a friend," "just a sunrise," or "just a promise."

"Just a dog" brings into my life the very essence of friendship, trust,
and pure unbridled joy.

"Just a dog" brings out the compassion and patience that make me a better person.

Because of "just a dog", I will rise early, take long walks and look longingly to the future.

So for me and folks like me, it's not "just a dog" but an embodiment of all the hopes and dreams of the future,
the fond memories of the past, and the pure joy of the moment.

"Just a dog" brings out what's good in me and diverts my thoughts away
from myself and the worries of the day.

I hope that someday they can understand that it's not "just a dog",
but the thing that gives me humanity and keeps me from being
"just a man or woman."

So the next time you hear the phrase "just a dog"
just smile...
because they "just don't understand."
Written by an unknown Doctor of Veterinary Medicine.
From the Therapy Dog Inc. News Magazine

2012 Obedience Rule Explanation & Fun Match a success

2012-01-08T21:32:00.000-07:00

Saturday's SAWHDA 2012 Obedience Rule changes seminar with Jeff Lunder was a huge success. 25 people were on hand at the Cowley Hall to hear how the new rules will affect obedience competitors in the new year. A turkey luncheon was provided with extra goodies brought by club members. (It's all about the food.)

And with volunteer judges, Amanda, Liz, and Jeff, we were able to test our new knowledge in Pre-Novice, Novice, Open, and Utility classes of obedience. MaryEllen was our judge for all three levels of rally obedience. Thanks to Bob, Maureen, Shar & Deb for ring stewarding.

Thank you so much to everyone who came out for the day. We hope you enjoyed yourselves and went away with a renewed determination to 'get it right'. From a spectator point of view, all the dog/handler teams were wonderful and provided a variety of entertainment.

Of course, supper at Luigi's was even more entertaining. The laughter helped take the bite out of the bitter wind outside.

Our next club day is January 21st starting with scent hurdle practice ( all teams welcome) at 9:30 a.m. and obedience (Utility first) and rally to follow. See you then!

Oh, and don't forget the Shiba Inu Club's fun match on January 15th in support of the Shiba Nationals.

I will be ordering a dozen new Obedience Rule Books for 2012. If you want one, please let me know.
And trust me, you do want one.

(A quick note to Nancy.....Frankie is 6 months old and almost leash broken.) Lol.

To Allison and Deb........ bald is beautiful!!! Love ya.

Happy heeling. Best of the best in all your trials. We're cheering for you.

The Prez

Rally results

2011-12-27T18:51:00.000-07:00

In checking Canuck dogs points for 2011, it is fabulous to see that the following SAWHDA members are among the top 25 rally dogs in Alberta.

Sharlet and Ryder #1

Amanda and Wicca #10

Marilee and Alle #17

Judi and Drummer #20

Maureen and Levi #24

Amanda and Pixel #25

As far as titles and nice wins go, the following handler/dog teams sent in these reports:

Tubby's Newf, Cagney, earned her U.S. CD. Title with a H.i.T. and her Can. C D
with a 2nd and a 3rd in class.

Tina Hasting's sheltie, Jethro, earned his Rally Novice and Rally Advanced titles this year. He received two High Score in Class ribbons and a High Qualifying Score in Breed at the Lethbridge Competition for Rally Advanced. He also got a High Score In Class at the Medicine Hat competition for Rally Novice.

MaryEllen's Tessa, Am/Can Ch. Bianca's Reason to Dream, obtained her American Rally Novice and Advanced titles - 5 High in Class & a 4th. Canadian Rally Novice & Advanced Titles. Adv three high in class, novice two high in class. Two legs on her Companion Dog title. Group 2 & Group 1st in conformation.

Lore's Cardigan corgi,Fido, competed at the intermediate level at only four sheep herding trials placed tenth at the Nationals and received the Pepsi award. Also Miss Bonnie was the first Cardigan to receive the "versatility" award in the Cardigan club, titled in three venues.

Jeff & Cheryl's German shepherd, Brenner, at Castlegaar, had a Group 1 win under judge Ann Hennigan.

Joan's Belgian, Bo, earned his NADAC Novice Hoopers title, & got his 1st leg on CKC Novice Standard Agility. Zsuree earned her 1st Ch. points (AKC Aug. WB, and Camrose Oct. BOS, BOW for a major). Zsuree also earned her CGN at Red Deer in Nov. Dex earned his Rally Excellent Title at AKC in August.

Nicole's Bernese Mt. Dog, Sophie got her RE at the beginning of December.

Maureen's sheltie, Levi, got legs 5 and 6th toward her second RAE title and the only other stuff we did was a Rally Novive Title in the US and 1 leg toward her Rally Advance title in the US.

Darryl's sheltie, Drummer, got his Rally Advanced title, his Scent Hurdle Excellent title and his CGN title.

Judy's German shepherd, Hunter, got his Rally Advanced with three HIC and a perfect score.

Swayze has two scores in Excellent Rally, both HIC and one perfect score. Mo is now a Canadian Champion making 3/4 pups from the Busch/Token litter champions. Swayze gained 2 points his first time out. Both Hunter and Drummer have two legs in PreNovice.

Nancy & Dick's papillons did very well stateside. Brie finished her Am. CD. with a 3rd in a class of 14. Peter took Winners Dog in all 4 shows so he now has 12 US points. Brie has her Can. RE as well.

Please keep sending in your information so we can share it here on our blog.

Congratulations to all of you. What a nice way to end the year.
Good luck in 2012.

The Prez

Merry Christmas's

2011-12-26T08:21:00.003-07:00

Pioneer Lodge Senior Centre Visit with Santa Paws

2011-12-21T19:30:00.000-07:00

On December 17th, members of SAWHDA took time to visit the senior citizens at the Pioneer Lodge in Fort Macleod for a Christmas photo shoot. Ten different breeds of dogs were represented. The entire shoot took four hours in the two venues and through it all the dogs remained surprisingly fresh and definitely patient being in close quarters in unfamiliar surroundings. Their training and temperaments certainly were tested.
Thank you to Tubby, Kerri, Shar, Deb, Lore, MaryEllen, Russell, Maureen, Char, Carol and Joan for making this happen! Once again, a great job!

You are the best!!! Merry Christmas and we'll see you January 7th at Cowley.

The Prez

Top Rally Dog Alberta 2011

2011-12-18T22:14:00.000-07:00

Thank you, Amanda, for letting us know that Sharlet Caroe has the #1 Rally Dog in Alberta!!! And Congratulations, Sharlet. What a great team!
The Prez

News Stateside

2011-12-14T12:26:00.000-07:00

News from Nancy!

Hi Judi and SAWHA members.

Entered in Malibu & Shoreline Kennel Club shows in Costa Mesa CA (Anaheim) and had great weekend. Had “Peter” in conformation and “Brie” in 2 obed trials on Friday. Long day as were in conformation early in morning then the obed trials in another building in afternoon. Lots of entries here so one trial about noon and the other finished at 7:30 at night! (OMG!)

Peter took Winners Dog in all 4 shows so he now has 12 US points. First 3 days - 2 pts per day and yesterday only 1 point. On the first 3 days, the entry was 1 dog short for majors L…then yesterday a couple people pulled so only 1 pt. Each Club had a Bred By Exhibitor class on one day. He took that class both days and got a 2^nd and a 4^th in the Bred By Toy Group.

They only held 2 Obed Trials… Brie qualified in both..scores ok at 187.5 and 185. The second trial she was a 3^rd in Nov B Class – 14 entries. Second judge marked a little harder than first judge as she did much better in 2^nd trial but got lower score L Anyway..she already had one leg to CD so the 2 qualifying scores finished her AM CD.

So..all in all, first shows this year in the south were very successful… No more shows till next year – Palm Spring Kennel Club Indio beginning of January.

Seasons Greetings to everyone.
Nancy & Dick

Safe travels, good times, & keep in touch, Nancy and Dick.

The Prez

Send us your Christmas cards!

2011-12-13T11:51:00.000-07:00

Hi, everybody,
Please send us your Christmas cards so we can post them on our SAWHDA blog and share them with the group.

We will kick off our Christmas cards with a Merry Christmas from John, Sylvia, Julie, Winston, and Bear (the reindog.)

Merry Christmas to everyone from Darryl & Judi

and the gang at Shadowbar.

Keep the cards coming and we'll keep adding them!

2011-12-04T13:21:00.000-07:00

We have managed to catch up with Nancy and Dick Lopaschuk as they travel
Stateside for the winter. Here is the latest report from Nancy.

We are currently in Anaheim CA. Traveled here the day after the big wind hit
the area. Trip was interesting because we could not take the route planned
due to the high winds moving east, so we ended up driving though Los
Angeles, LAX, Beverly Hills etc. Lots of damage in the areas we drove
through but nothing much on freeways. We also had high winds in some areas
- kinda of scary. After we left Ventura, we didn't see any RV's on
the freeways - too busy and too much traffic. We are in a great RV park
with huge spaces, lots of grass...no one close by....like our provincial
parks. It is in the Santa Ana hills right beside the Santa Ana
River..luckily have a hill to protect us.

Spent first week in Bakersfield CA at Fairgrounds..great place, full
hookups, acres of fenced grass, 24 hour security etc. Dog shows are held
there but when we were there, no one there except for the workers. Was like
having our own private campground...dogs loved to run in circles on the
grass (supervised of course) Usually, we go there so Dick can work on
reports due by end of November. Nice & quiet and close to shopping. After
leaving Bakersfield, we went to Paso Robles (wine country) near the coast
(mid way down CA). There was a show there but we weren't entered so just
visited with dog show friends. Stayed a week..lovely place - population
less than Cranbrook and there are 290 wineries and wine tasting places. No
we didn't visit them all...just one.

We are green with envy here in the Great White North. Good luck at the upcoming shows with all the dogs and Brie in particular. Take care. And keep us in touch.
The Prez

Santa Claus Parade

2011-11-27T12:08:00.005-07:00

Our SAWHDA group looked so good in the Santa Claus Parade. Hard to describe, really.
We had a bit of everything.
We led off with Sharlet and her brace of shepherds in backpacks. Mesa and Ryder looked super with teddy bears and snowmen peeping out of the side pockets on the packs.

Next came Janet and her Bernese Mt. Dog, Tucker, who was decked out in a winter scarf and Santa toque, and Maureen, with Joan's Belgian pup, Danny, and Darryl's sheltie, Drummer Boy. Maureen actually brought her own sheltie, Levi, and her parents' dog, Lexi, along, but both dogs thought that Maureen was out of her mind asking them to walk in the parade and at the first chance, each of them hooked a ride in a cart, Levi preferring Joan's cart with Beau pulling, and Lexi trusting Carol and Hank to drive for her. We were concerned that they might jump out during the parade but no worries. They weren't prepared to trade a cushy ride for a long walk. Even Drummer calling out "Merry Christmas" and leaping in the air to catch his leash along the entire parade route, couldn't move them. The tv crew on hand liked them so much they took shots of the cart dogs and passengers from ground level!

Nicole and Sophie did a great job of attracting smiles from the crowd as Sophie pulled her cart full of presents (some of them escaping due to the wind) without any concern about the crowds (five layers deep the entire route).

Carol and Hank and Judi & Swayze were next in line with their carts. Hank was super confident and so mellow about the whole thing, bands, horses, and all. He even looked like he was smiling... and for sure Carol was !

We are not sure if Tubby would approve of our tactics, but Swayze was a last minute (and we do mean, twelfth hour) stand in for Token, who can easily pull the cart but is miserable doing it.
The night before the parade, Deb, (shaking her head at the bravado ... or stupidity of
Swayze's owner... that would be me) Shar, (trying hard to believe it would work, but clenching her teeth) and I, (who had no doubt the dog would do it...uh, wouldn't he?) hooked up Swayze (who has never had a cart harness or cart behind him before) in the garage and walked him forward 20 feet, unhooked him, and repeated this about five times without a wreck. "Good enough," I said. "He'll do it." And why not? He pulls a dog sled. The only diff was the shafts which were a bit scary as they confine the dog's movement, especially in a turn, but I knew I only had two turns on the entire route. He could do it.

And he did. And everytime Drummer leaped in the air and barked, Swayze did this "Hi-ho Silver routine", only he was attached to the cart. We lost our brake half way through the parade and I had to double wrap my leash around the inside shaft so I could stop the cart from riding up on Swayze, but he was super throughout it all. Trust is a wonderful thing.

And bringing up the rear was what I, personally, consider to be the best exhibit in the group. This year the fifth-wheel wagon was a bright Christmas red with greenery around the wagon, and poinsettia wreaths around Walker and RoZe's necks as they towed the Christmas wagon with Mojo riding in it. It took both Russell on one side and Deb on the other to hold the dogs back. They had no trouble with the wind or the wagon, that's for sure. And the amazing thing. They were in step with each other walking or standing through most of the entire route. Check out the picture. Is there one dog with four ears or two dogs?

And we were so lucky to have Marilyn on hand to zip into Luigi's Restaurant and hold a table for all of us so we could enjoy a pre-Christmas luncheon together and discuss some cool seminars for the new year.

It's days like this that make me so thankful for all our SAWHDA members because this activity has nothing to do with certificates or titles for our dogs. What it shows is that we care enough to share the wonder or what we do so others can enjoy our dogs, too.

What a great day!!! Thanks to all.

the prez

SAWHDA at the Fort Macleod Parade

New Obedience Rules for 2012

2011-11-23T18:23:00.000-07:00

All set. SAWHDA is pleased to say that CKC obedience judge, Jeff Lunder, has agreed to travel to Cowley, Alberta, Saturday, January 7th, to review the rule changes for CKC obedience for 2012.

The presentation will begin at 10:00 a.m. followed by lunch and then a fun match for practice!!! The club is asking for participants to donate $10.00 towards the cause. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Please email shadowbr@telusplanet.net if you intend to join us so we can use the numbers to best plan our day.

So far, we have had 15 affirmative replies within the past two hours of posting. Wonderful!!!!

The Prez

Good weekend for all

2011-11-22T12:42:00.000-07:00

Lethbridge Dog Show was terrific. We had members take High in Class in both Obedience and Rally rings. Sarah and Gyp and Tina and Jethro did especially well. In Scent hurdling, our Due South team, with Betty running her first scent hurdle race ever, picked up 30 points with no errors. We ran clean and had no cross-overs or time faults and came away with two new titles!!! Liz's Lupine now has her Scent Hurdle Excellent title and my Token now has her Scent Hurdle Championship title. We were missing two of our crew, with Wicca and Jagged being a bit under the weather but we look forward to adding them to the team roster at AKC.
We have contacted Jeff Lunder who will be traveling to Cowley to go over the changes in obedience rules with us and we invite Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, and Cranbrook club members to join us. As soon as we know the official date, we will send plans to everyone.
We hope to see everybody at the Fort Macleod Santa Claus Parade this coming Saturday. Meet the gang at the A&W by 10:00 so we can get in line.
Safe traveling.
The Prez

Last practice until the new year

2011-11-13T20:15:00.000-07:00

Today was the last practice for Due South scent hurdlers before the Lethbridge and districtKennel Club dog show next weekend and we are happy to report that except for a few minor glitches, all is well in The 'South' and we are looking forward to the races. the Lethbridge judging schedule is online at Canuck dogs. Obedience is in the morning and rally takes up the afternoon. Team members are asked to meet at the show grounds around three p.m..at the rally ring. Look for Deb. Bring your dog, dumbbells, and jacket if you have it, and dress in a white top.

In obedience we had some really nice runs with all the dogs. and the two rally courses were challenging but fair. We discussed the marking of the Honor exercise in Excellent because depending on the judge, what is a fail in one ring is points off in another. It was the consensus of the group that a judge should take the time in the Excellent briefing to explain his expectations clearly to the competitors before the class begins so everyone is of the same understanding.

I must say that it is a pleasure to have qualified competitors on hand to help with course set up and give valuable feedback and in site to the course designer. And, as usual, everyone played, even if the dog wasn't quite at the level of the course set. Sixteen week old pups and RAE dogs took turns doing the exercises they could as the rest of us cheered them on. We even worked each others dogs!!

All in all, it was a good way to end our hall practices for this year.

Remember,to check in with Judi to let her know whether or not you will be attending the November 26th Fort Macleod Santa Claus Parade. So far, we have four braces and four carts and a wagon as our exhibit. We meet at the A & W at 10:00 a.m.

Hope to hear from you soon.

The Prez

News!!

2011-11-11T07:59:00.001-07:00

Kona earned her 1st leg towards her RA in Red Deer last weekend with a score of 91. Owner Judy Hunt said jokingly that it might have been much better had she not taken a liking to the judge, ring steward and gallery. We, their teammates for scent hurdle, love Kona's happy go lucky attitude!!

Must thank everybody for continuing to vote for Drummer in the Fido Casting Call contest. We are at 787 this morning!!!! Think we can make it to number one???? Please vote.

We are practicing at the Cowley Hall this Sunday from 9:30 until 1:00 pm and would love to see you there! Scent hurdle, obedience practice, obedience testing, rally O. Last chance to get a run in before Lethbridge's show. Remember the Go Do Go fun matches in the evening.

A reminder that it is nearing time to renew memberships for the 2012 year. We are keeping the rate to $20.00. Starting in January, nonmembers' rates for drop ins will increase to $7:00 while members' rates will remain $5:00.

The Fort Macleod Santa Claus Parade is November 26th. Meet at the A&W at 10:00 sharp and we will walk down to our place on the parade route together. Dress in layers as the weather can change in a heartbeat!!!

OH! and the Millarville Christmas craft fair is on this weekend, too. and good luck to the agility gang in their adventures this weekend!!

And best wishes for a fast recovery to Tubby Millard who is recovering from eye surgery. Behave yourself.

The Prez

Red Deer results for today

2011-11-06T00:25:00.003-06:00

Joan'sBelgian shepherd girl Zsuree earned her Canine Good Neighbor title!!!! Good job.
Mary Ellen and Tess once again won High score in Class and gained the Rally Advanced title with 99/100. Mary Ellen went on to win Best Puppy in Show with her friend's Weimeraner, Max.
What an exciting day!! We love news like this!!!

On a sad note, my heart goes out to Kirk Olchowy on the loss of his Canine Partner, Karelian Beardog Mica at the age of 10. Mica was one of the original dogs to come from Wind River Beardogs in the States to be trained here in Alberta to work alongside a Fish & Wildlife Officer in Wildlife management. I was so fortunate to work with talented dog and his handler in helping them become the terrific wildlife management team they were. when Kirk retired from the department this year, Mica retired with him. Mica spent the summer traveling with Kirk and his wife, Donna, accompanying Kirk on fishing excursions and long, leisurely walks, fitting for a dog that worked hard all his life. Mica passed away at home with Kirk at his side. I will miss him. He changed my life.
The Prez

Red Deer Results for Friday

2011-11-04T17:37:00.000-06:00

Wow!!! What a day for Mary Ellen and Tessa. They took High in Advanced A class Rally O with a score of 99/100 under judge Michael Calhoun. And in the Novice obedience ring, they were 4th place in a run off with a score of 191 1/2 to gain their first Q towards their CD. So why not just clean up in the shorthair ring as well and walk off with a Best of Breed Award. Sheesh!!! Not too greedy!!LOL. Go get 'em, girls.

The Prez

Jagged and Denise top the competition

2011-11-02T14:19:00.000-06:00

From Denise:

Jagged and I had an awesome weekend at the APDT Rally Trial hosted by "Sit Happens" in Calgary, Alberta.
It was 2 full days (12 hour days!) filled with lots of friends, fun, laughter and even a few tears. Many of us only see one another at these trials,and some have lost their beloved dogs while others have celebrated happy times including new puppies and plans for the future.

Jagged went High in Level 1B and Level 3B on Saturday, and High in Level 3B on Sunday! She was also awarded a beautiful rosette for her ARCHX Title (APDT Rally Champion Excellent) and is now caught up to Viper! I'm most proud of her for her 6 perfect scores(210's)over the weekend!

Super job, Denise!
The Prez

Sit Happens! Rally Trial results

2011-11-01T09:59:00.000-06:00

Denise, Jenn and Sylvia attended the Sit Happens! APDT trial last weekend and had some
exciting results.

Denise's Jagged was High in Level 3 both days and Hiigh in Level 1 on Saturday. She had perfect scores in all levels both days but missed HIT due to time. Her HIT in the other levels was that she had higher scores.

Jenn got Level 2 titles on both Spencer and Abby!

Sylvia had a few good runs with Julie and needs one more leg for her L2.

The trial was HUGE and went until 7:30 on Saturday night and 5:30 on Sunday - no lunch break and a bit smaller entry and some scratches. Both days started on the line at 8 am.

Congratulations to all of you!!

The Prez

Congratulations

2011-10-25T07:44:00.003-06:00

Congratulations to Carol and her Bernese Mt. Dog, Hank, for a very worthy performance in the rally Excellent ring last weekend. Hank earned a qualifying leg towards his RE title with a 91 score.Joan's Belgian girl, Zsuree went BOW and BOS for the major in her breed! Good job!

A reminder to everyone that Dog club is Sunday, October 30th with scent hurdle versus conformation at 9:30 followed by obedience and rally obedience. See you there!

We send best of luck to those members who are doing Sit Happens! aPDt rally next weekend.
Your practice runs Sunday were wonderful!!

Thanks to everyone for making our club day such a success on Sunday!! Special thanks to Liz for the super photos of the dogs!! Our scent hurdle practice went well and it was super to see Sylvia's poodle, Julie, take all the jumps and fetch her bell! Huge!!!

the Prez

Farewell to Champion Tawnashee's Serenity Beckons OFA H & E

2011-10-22T10:53:00.000-06:00

This weekend Jeff and Cheryl Popoff said goodby to their 9 1/2 year old German shepherd, Casey.
All of our SAWHDA members send their sympathy and support to the Popoff's at this sad time.
Casey was a littermate to Cleo, Ande, and Token.

Cowley Hall Times

2011-10-21T23:19:00.000-06:00

This Sunday, October 23, we will begin our Cowley Hall Club Day at 9:30 with scent hurdle, followed by standard obedience, conformation and rally O.
Hope to see you there!!
The Prez

Sad News

2011-10-10T13:49:00.000-06:00

It is with a heavy heart that we report that Deb Golding said a last farewell on Saturday to her wonderful young shepherd, Fyre, diagnosed with liver failure earlier in the week.

Fyre was the dog that never put a foot wrong. Right from the start, although she was the littlest of the group, she had an 'old dog's sense' about her. She was so accepting of everything people asked of her. She was the first of the litter to try anything and she excelled at tracking; her favorite activity. She had a quiet confidence about her and the other pups never messed with her. She just had that look.

Fyre was Deb's 'keeper of secrets, her heart dog; she knew all Deb's hopes and dreams and Deb knew they were safe with her.

As Debbie says, "There will be an emptiness in my home and heart for a very, very, long time." Now we wait for the next rainbow or for the northern lights to let us know that Fyre has made her way to Smoke, Mike, Den and Koke."

Our hearts go out to Deb, and to Shar and Cathy, who loved Fyre like she was their own.
As did I.

The Prez

First Club Day a Success

2011-10-03T10:50:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was the first SAWHDA club day at the Cowley Hall and it was well-attended for sure.
We began with warm-ups and work in obedience and then Tubby Miller stepped in to judge the Open and Novice routines. We practiced sits/downs as well and went away with a set idea of what we have to work on to further ready our dogs for competition.

We moved on to scent hurdle practice and had some good performances here as well. Kipper even managed to find his dumbbell! It was great to see Donnie, Darryl, Liz, Amanda, Kim, Judy, and Jolene again.

We did some relay sprints and barrels with those club dogs that are travelling to Fort Macleod for the October 15th performance and then we did a Novice Rally course as well. Hobie loves the relays as does Drummer. And MoJo was running hard again, which is so nice to see. I think he wore Russell out!
We loved the Elvis tunes, especially for Rally.

In between, MaryEllen helped us with conformation practice with the pups and we had a chance to visit with Lanny, Barb's new fluffy puppy.

And a couple of us pulled out the old-style "armed" flyball box and worked our dogs at that. Drummer pretty well has the idea up close and now will work on distance and jumps. Ryder too. Tessa just loved the entire idea of a ball being tossed to her from a machine. And Hunter lucked out and hit the box a couple of times. He has the best catch, but then I think he has the widest mouth too!

We ended our day around two o'clock. Thanks to all who attended. It is so good to see you again.

The Prez

Helena News

2011-10-03T10:36:00.000-06:00

News From Judy Hunt

We attended a dog show in Helena, Mt last weekend and I am happy to say that Kona got 2 majors, 3 points each day….her first US points. She now has 6 points.

Roxy did Rally Novice and got respectable scores of 91 & 92.

Good for you, Judy. Nice to see, once again, the dogs performing in both the conformation and performance rings.

The Prez

Group first win

2011-10-01T12:41:00.000-06:00

Jeff & Cheryl's Brenner taking a Group First at the Castlegar Dog Show

Ch. Kris-T's The King & I

Well done !!!

New Title from the USA Performance Ring

2011-09-28T09:46:00.000-06:00

Mary Ellen & Tess with Judge Chris Cornell
High in Class to gain her Rally Advanced Title

Congratulations!!!

Club Days for October

2011-09-27T08:36:00.000-06:00

Every Sunday in October is now booked for Club Days.

* We begin every club day at 9:30 with obedience routines for those who are getting ready for shows. (judge on hand).

*Obedience drills for those who are working certain exercises in obedience amid distractions. (pups doing their practice next to you)

*Scent hurdle / Rally course available for set up to use while scent and other club routines are in progress)

*Club routines........relay sprints, barrels, square dance, Old-style flyball .... the one where the dog actually has to catch the ball....

We need judges and rally course setters for those days so please let us know if you can help out.

We are lucky in that we can leave our mats down until Tuesday night. Yay!!!

Hope you can make it.

Reminder to square dancers that we are going to Fort Macleod on the 15th of October.

Judi

Ryder and Mojo ....

Need your input

2011-09-19T15:53:00.001-06:00

Well, as Fall rolls around again, it is time for us to consider what kind of seminars we want to bring in this year for SAWHDA members.
Please let your executive know your thoughts on the following:

1. A particular activity about which you would enjoy learning more.

While we were in Kalispell, I had occasion to meet the head of the Bloodhound Tracking Training program in the USA, Kevin Kocher. He is willing to travel to Alberta to teach a two day seminar (full of activity, trust me) on tracking/trailing/search methods.

2. A particular topic of interest which you feel would be good to share.

Cathy from Fernie would like us to host another Wellness Day like the one we did years ago that had
vets, raw food diet advocates, Light Force Energy info, First Aid for dogs, sport dog warm-ups, etc. plus some people wellness activities as well.

3. Fun day activities you would like to share.

Deb G. from Cranbrook offered the following idea for a Fun Day Obedience exercise.
Teams of two with each member offering to do half of the exercises in any obedience routine; based on
how well their dog was doing on that exercise that week.
For example, if my dog was smoking hot on the recall exercise, I could put myself down to do that one.
Maybe my partner's dog was absolutely steady on its long sit. He does that.
My dog might be better heeling on lead than off, so I choose that. Etc.
The judge judges the exercise and awards prizes to the best team.

A variance on this activity could be that each member of the team picks an exercise out of a hat and
that is the exercise he does; for better or for worse.

4. A new sport or activity you would like to see our club undertake.

K-9 scent is a new sport (from the USA) where dogs use their wonderful noses to locate
hidden objects that have been scented with a particular odor. The sport has various levels of
competition starting with very simple scenting and moving to large areas. It is very new to Canada and is now being offered in BC. We could be a first to get this up and running in Alberta.

Treibball is a sport where dogs learn to herd exercise balls into a net. Great for the ball driven dog and easy to teach with a clicker. Again, new to Canada. Why shouldn't we be the first to offer it?

Let us know what your ideas are so we can start planning NOW!

The Prez

Fernie Paws for a Cause Day

2011-09-19T07:56:00.000-06:00

Our demo with Denise, Jenn, and Kaylie went great yesterday at Fernie. The events ran smoothly and we were so fast changing equipment from one
event to the next that Jack, Denise's husband, couldn't believe it. He is used to having two other people to help and he had five more!!
Amazing!
Personal bests:   Hobie, at seven months, not only paid attention and refrained from rushing over to meet people and dogs, he stayed in his lane for the relay sprints and
in barrels, could be sent from the second barrel to the last barrel with a command!!!!
Drummer was spot on and hot to trot in the scent hurdle and actually did almost all the agility equipment! He even allowed me to do a rear cross without a hitch.
Ryder loved the relay sprints and he galloped over the jumps and had a great time, but his best thing was his agility as he ran the entire course minus the weaves beautifully.
       Jagged was amazing in the agility and was right there in scent as well.

Payback was in store for Drummer, too. Some of you will recall that when he was new at scent hurdle, he chased a Doberman back over its jumps, overtook it and blasted it and the jump right into the crowd???? Ah ha. Well, imagine Drummer's thoughts when Jagged thought I had her toy and tore over to Drummer and me as he rounded the sprint cone and came face to face, up close and personal, with Jagged. Too funny.
Booths on Avalanche rescue, Bearsmart, a bakery, raw food,, jewellery, and our club booth were available for people to browse. I would say about 30 dogs were there with their owners. Cathy talked about puppy manners, a vet from Eureka (who comes up to Fernie) talked about first aid for dogs. They had a "dog show" where people got to showcase their pets and tricks.

We were able to visit with friends we haven't seen for some time and it was such fun listening to Cathy tell stories about her llama, which Denise has named Osama Bin LLama because of his
behaviors.   If Cathy ever writes her book of short stories about him, we will all want a copy. I think she should do a stand up comic routine in Vegas!!!

It was an amazing day and all that was missing was the cart dog. That would have topped the day off nicely.

Laurie & Trevor took some video footage which we hope to have shortly.

Great Falls pics

2011-09-06T21:15:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Carol for some pics of our gang at the Great Falls show..

Maureen & Levi getting ready...

In action

Tubby on the Highest Scoring Canadian run.

Agility pics

2011-09-06T19:30:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Joan for some really nice pics of her Belgian shepherd, Bo, in agility. Pretty close to the end of the season for the outdoor stuff. Boo hoo. Almost time to tuck away the tunnels.

Remember that we have our hall rented for October 2nd, 9th, 23rd, and 30th for obedience, rally O, scent hurdle, and sprints and barrels. October 15th we travel to Fort Macleod for our Square dance, barrel race and relay sprints. We need to be at the Pioneer Lodge by 1:00 if we are to set up and be ready to perform by 1:30 p.m.
Lore, LouAnn, Deb, Sharlet, Maureen, Carol, Joan, Shirley and Barb will be on hand and we will perform two dances. I will be your caller as Tubby has other commitments. We will wear our SAWHDA vests, white shirts, and blue jeans. I'll try to remember to bring the beautiful scarves for the dogs, and the music, and the pilons, and the mats, and the jumps, and maybe even a dog! We need some really good pics of the dogs performing, too.
Keep up the good work. May the force be with you.
The Prez

Trudy & Dave Vickland Sheep Clinic

2011-09-06T11:27:00.000-06:00

This weekend was the Vickland Sheepherding Clinic at High River and several of our members entered their dogs.
Joan took her young female Belgian shepherd and had this to say about her experience yesterday:

"Had a wonderful day at the herding clinic with Trudy Viklund. Ran Zsuree for both morning and afternoon runs and she has so much talent :) She held her waits and after blowing off a little steam in the beginning, found her balance and worked them calmly and her body language is so easy to read when she finds her balance and turns them in to me! Wonderful day, wonderful hosts, wonderful instructors."

Donna McLaughlin was there for the entire weekend and had a blast. Her comments........
"

Home from a great weekend at the Viklund herding clinic. Billie and Jerry are the most amazing hosts! I got as much from watch other sessions as I did from my own sessions. Particularly enjoyed watching Solo who is becoming an incredible herding dog and Quazi who appears to be following in Solo's paw prints. Poodles really are herding dogs!"

and more from Carol and Maureen on their adventure south to the US shows.

Carol: "Such an awesome weekend at a dog show in Great Falls, Montana. Hank, Emily and Maureen's Levi got their Rally Novice title with 1st - 4th placements each trial. Hank got his 1st obed leg with a 2nd place (196/200)."

Maureen: Jeez and you should have seen what the van looked like after all the grocery shopping and all these prizes!!!

Carol: Thanks everyone. Now on to fixing Hank's 1 minute sit so he doesn't lay down at 36-55 second mark...:( Gotta be ready to try again for his last 2 legs of American CD next year.

Dante' & Whiz-Bang @ The Superdog PNE Show

2011-09-05T17:05:00.000-06:00

Great Results...Go Canucks!!!

2011-09-04T15:51:00.002-06:00

Kerri Miller had this to say about TubbY's trip to Great Falls!!
HOORAY!!! Dad's trip to the Great Falls dog show was well worth it! Cagney finished her CD title yesterday, also achieving the Highest Scoring Canadian.. today, the bonus leg.. Highest Scoring Canadian, Highest Scoring Working dog.. AND.... HIGH IN TRIAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Congrats Dad and Cagney!!!!

More news from
Carol Solkshinitz
Such an awesome weekend at a dog show in Great Falls, Montana. Hank, Emily and Maureen's Levi got their Rally Novice title with 1st - 4th placements each trial. Hank got his 1st obed leg with a 2nd place (196/200).

Congratulations all of you!!

Happy Anniversary

2011-08-28T20:32:00.002-06:00

This free digital scrapbook personalized with Smilebox

Another title

2011-08-27T13:34:00.000-06:00

Congratulations to Jodi Moodie of Calgary and her German shepherd, Shadowbar's Slow Hand (MO).
Larry Clark handled Mo to his Canadian Championship at the Cranbrook Dog Show yesterday.
We are absolutely thrilled. That makes three out of a litter of five now finished their Can. Ch. and one with
points towards the same.
What a wonderful tribute to Busch and Token.
Judi

Brags and Best wishes

2011-08-25T17:01:00.001-06:00

Amanda's young corgi, Pixel, earned her AGX title this past weekend at the WAC CKC trial. What a girl!!! And actually, Amanda thought Wicca hadn't qualified at all but she, in fact, was incorrect.
(We are never wrong, but can be incorrect from time to time). Wicca did get a couple of Q's, too.

The Go Dog Go team is at Whoop Up Days all weekend doing demos so anyone going to Lethbridge should really take in their shows.

Good luck to those of you headed to Cranbrook for their six show weekend.

Best wishes to Hank and Lee Hargreaves who celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this Sunday.

Monday night we are practicing relay sprints, double barrels, and some rally. We start at 6:30.

Wednesdays are set aside for those club members who have dogs that already know how to track.
We offer tracks from 7:00 - dark. $10 a dog.

September 17, 24th and Oct. 1st are the dates set out for the Introduction to Tracking Course.
Three Saturdays in a row. $100 to join. Limit of six teams. Contact shadowbr@telusplanet.net
for more info.

Thursdays, those who want a change of venue are invited to come out to the Twin Butte Hall.
Drop in fee of $5.00 for a night of obedience.

Lots to do......more to come.

The Prez

Agility Results and fun stuff

2011-08-23T15:30:00.003-06:00

News from Judy Hunt and the Flatcoats!!! They have had two busy agility weekends.

Last weekend at the Go Dog Go trial Roxy finished her Starters Games title and got a Q in Advanced Gamblers. She also finished her Advanced Snooker and Jumpers titles and moves to Masters in those.

Kona got a Q in Starters Snooker.

This weekend we were at a WAC CKC trial in Carseland area. What a beautiful venue!

Roxy Q’d in Excellent Standard and Excellent JWW

Kona Q’d in Novice Standard and Novice JWW

Congratulations to everyone who attended the trials and did well. Please send results so

we can share them with the rest of the club.

A reminder to our Due South scent hurdle team members. Please check the Scent Hurdle Racing Dates and let us know if you intend to attend so we can compile numbers and see how many dogs will be there. All we need are four dogs and handlers, a box loader (who acts as the captain) the box and dumbbells (which can be picked up beforehand) and a commitment well in advance so we can get our entries in. So far, I think we have a team for Red Deer and Lethbridge.

Are enough members going to Camrose??? Do you want to enter??? Are entries closed???

Check it all out and let me know before the end of September so you don't miss playing.

We had a blast this morning at Vista Village with 10 dogs in attendance to do relay sprints and barrels. Last night at practice Hobie and Drummer were actually almost perfect in performing the 'double barrels' but we'll keep that for another time, so that the other dogs get in some work on the event. We had Shirley and Krissy, Barb and Kipper, Lore and Daisy (and some corgi pups for petting) MaryEllen with Cheyenne and Grace, Lorie with Hobie, Sharlet with Ryder and Mesa, and Judi with Token and Drummer. We took some pics after the performance and will post them on the web when we get them from Shar.

I am in the process of booking the Cowley Hall for the Fall/Winter and should have a schedule out before the end of the month. Rally O, obedience, drill team work, and scent hurdle will be our main focus with special days set aside for draft dog work and Treiball.

In the meantime, Shadowbar Shepherds will be offering and introduction to Tracking

beginning Saturday, September 17 and running September 24th and October 1st. If you know anyone who might enjoy learning the 'game' please let them know so they can email us privately.

Club tracking for members who already have dogs tracking will take place on Wednesday evenings from 6:00 - ???. The cost will be $10.00 a dog. Teams must sign up all three Wednesdays : October 5th, 12th and 19th so we know how many dogs will attend.

Starting September 19th, Monday evenings will be set aside for training for club events like relays, barrels, double barrels, and drill work.

Also, we would like to do our square dance and relays for Fort Macleod Seniors on October 15th or 29th if we can get eight dancers together. I have four committed right now for either date. I'd like to book the date with the Seniors' event organizer by the end of the month. If you can go, let me know.

Enjoy the heat.....

The Prez

Castlegar results

2011-08-21T20:48:00.000-06:00

What a weekend!! Ups and downs galore!!! Let's open with The conformation ring. Shadowbar's Slow Hand, AKA MO,owned by Jodi Moodie of Calgary, sailed away with 6 points this weekend with Larry Clark at the helm, ending his weekend with nine points!! Kris-T's the King and I (Brenner) went Best of Breed and Group 1 owner handled by Jeff Popoff. It was exciting to say the least.

In the performance events, Sharlet and Ryder ended the weekend with three High in Class Awards in the Excellent class, three seconds and a third in Advanced and completed their
RA-V title.

Judi and Drummer took two High in Class awards in Advanced and Hunter tied Drummers High Score of 98 but took second in time. Hunter ended the weekend with two seconds and a third place award and a new RA title!

We did trips to the river in between shows and even the fluffy sheltie went in to cool off. The air conditioned motel and refreshments made for perfect evenings as well. The weather was in the 30 degree range the entire weekend.

Buying the trolley at AKC was a wonderful move as it made everything so easy to transport.

We must comment on the wonderful show committee at this show. It is a limited entry and a first class venue. our dogs were in the shade for the entire day. the rings were all visible from the set up. The concession had REAL food!! The best Caesar salads. Boston Pizza, eat your heart out! $6.00! Wonderful sandwiches and juicy burgers, and ice-cream!!

A barbecue and band on Saturday night, too! We were saddened by the fact that there were very few vendors on site. Seems that limited shows mean limited sales as well. Maybe next year.

A reminder that we need members to be at Vista Village at ten in the morning on Tuesday to help us unload and set up for some canine capers. Please take the time to brighten a resident's day.

The Prez

Amanda and the pack

2011-08-15T11:57:00.002-06:00

Amanda Labadie
What a great weekend! Pixel was a superstar- 7/8 Q's this weekend. She earned her MAD, and her Advanced Games title. (Finally out of advanced gamblers!!!) Wicca tried hard to be good but there was a little naughty. She Q'd 4/8- earning her Bronze Snooker title! And Vito got his first Q!!!! He ran a jumpers course clean, and speedy. I am exhausted and not sure how I will work tomorrow. But totally worth it. :)
Congratulations, Amanda, from everyone at SAWHDA.

Claresholm Parade

2011-08-12T08:46:00.000-06:00

Southern Alberta Working/Herding Group members invite other groups to join us for the Claresholm Fair Days Parade on Saturday, August 13th. Registration is at 10:00 and takes place in the field across from the Fire Hall on Highway 520.
Carts, wagons, and walkers are all welcome to attend! Email Judi at shadowbr@telusplanet. net if you would like to join us.
The theme of the parade is Cultural Diversity. Our motto is, "In this club, everyone plays".

Also, Go Dog, Go! is holding their agility trials this weekend. Good luck to those of you who are entered and for those who would like to see agility in motion, Coalhurst is the place to be this weekend.

The Prez

Hank Hargreaves acclaimed author!

2011-08-11T12:44:00.000-06:00

Congratulations, Hank! Most of us know Hank Hargreaves as Lee's husband, Hank.

This isn't a bad thing, but it's nice to be able to recognize this gentleman's work as

an acclaimed author. North by 2000+ will be available in early 2012.

H.A. Hargreaves Work to be Published by Five Rivers

H.A. Hargreaves is one of Canada's remarkable, one might even say legendary, speculative fiction writers. He is a retired professor of English, formerly at the University of Alberta (Edmonton), and was twice nominated (1982 and 1983) for the Lifetime Contributions category in the Prix Auroras. His collection of short stories, North by 2000, in its time received wide critical acclaim from both peers and periodicals.

Today Five Rivers is pleased to announce the rebirth of that remarkable collection of short stories by Hargreaves. This new edition, entitled North by 2000+, will feature not only all the quintessentially Canadian stories of the first edition, but five additional published short works, along with a foreword from the author, and an introduction by Dr. Robert Runte.

Cover design has been awarded to Jeff Minkevics.

North by 2000+ is scheduled for release early in 2012, and will be available in print and digital formats worldwide.

Scent Hurdle Results for Due South

2011-08-04T11:22:00.001-06:00

Here are our results for Due South after two days of racing at AKC, posted by Captain Deb!

What a weekend. "Hot". Kinda sums it up, don't it?

Congratulations to each of you for your accomplishments over the weekend. Be sure to send your brags to Judi so they can be posted for all to see.

Here are the point standings:

Wicca - 445 - qualifies for SHDCH, needs 55 points for SHD.M

Kona - 180 - qualifies for SHD and SHDX

Jagged - 55 - qualifies for SHD

Ryder - 160 - qualifies for SHD and SHDX

Token - 225 - needs 25 more for SHDCH

Lupine - 85 - qualifies for SHD, needs 15 more for SHDX

Molly - 865 - qualifies for SHD.M (way to go gran - first on our team)

Drummer - 175 - qualifies for SHD and SHDX

To obtain you certificates you need to apply opersonally to the CKC. I will get forms for you and check on the cost for each certificate.

Way to go!

Thanks to to our team, to Deb and Darryl for box-loading, to Jolene for stepping in and helping us on Sunday, and to all the other teams for their encouragement. Huge thanks
to Paula, our judge of two days' worth of competition, for making it so much fun!! I know Amanda may have been a bit 'ripped' about it on Saturday :) but took it all with a smile.

AKC reports

2011-08-04T11:18:00.001-06:00

Team obedience report from Maureen

From Maureen,who must be congratulated along with her rally stewards for moving a large entry through Rally O Sunday and Monday so smoothly. It was nice to finish ahead of time for a change. Maureen was the captain of the Safety Nerds, entered in Team Obedience. The team was made up of Joan and Bo, Levi and Maureen, Laura and Max and Carol and Hank. This team attempted the Team Obedience competition for the first time and got a qualifing score of 686 out of 800 which means we passed by 6 points!!! Maureen was very impressed at the team work and the execution of the obedience moves!!. She has posted some video on Facebook!!!

Brace obedience with Amanda
Amanda and her corgis, Wicca and Pixel, did a terrific job in the brace obedience. The expression on Pixel's face at times was priceless. She was clearly not impressed with Wicca
pulling her on the recall. What a joy to watch. Pixel ran her first Excellent agility class and Q'd with good time. What a good dog. Both girls were wonderful in scent hurdle.

Windmar Belgians Bo earned a couple of Qualifying rounds towards titles in NADAC and was part of a Qualifying and 1st Place Team for Team Obedience (even though we were the only team entered). Dex earned his Rally Excellent Title, and Zsuree earned her first conformation point at her very first show!

Judy and the flatcoat girls

What a great weekend for Judy and her three flatcoat girls. Mazie won BOB at the Westwinds Sporting Dog Specialty on Friday and then won BOB again at the all breed show on Sat.

Kona ran Scent Hurdle on Sat and Sun and only missed the 1 st jump coming back once and brought her own dumbbell back everytime. She has 180 pts. enough to qualify for a SHDX title!

Roxy got 2 Q’s in Agility and finished her Intermediate Standard Select title She got 100 in both that and her Excellent JWW run..

News From Carol An end to a super dog show weekend. Hank got his second leg towards his Rally Advanced title with a score of 94/100 and then ran out of brain cells....:) Had a blast volunteering for Chief Maureen O'Neill in the rally
obedience ring. Congrats to all my friends who did so well this weekend.

News From Sharlet
Ryder picked up two more qualifying scores towards his RAE-5 and increased his points in scent hurdle as well.

News from Judi
It was so good to be at Spruce Meadows again. Friday I judged a Draft Dog test for the Newf Club. I must say that the participants were very well-prepared on the whole and that although we had only three entries that received their DD titles at the show out of 10 entries, it was simply a matter of one little glitch or two that prevented the others from passing. I had a spectator say that having to pass all three different courses (control, carting, and field work) in order to qualify for the Draft Dog title was way too hard and that they should change the requirements. I strongly disagree. The requirements, in my opinion, are fair in that draft dogs need to have all the skills needed in each exercise if they are to be of any real use in the cart. And gaining a Draft Dog title is something to be very proud of. Congratulations to those who passed and to those who came so very close. As always, it was exciting to see a variety of breeds entered in this test.

As for our own dogs, Darryl's sheltie, Drummer, had a terrific weekend at AKC. He picked up a High in Class, a 2nd place and a 4th place in his Advanced Rally B competition and he did very well in scent hurdle, running like a jet over the hurdles to the box and staying focused on his job more than 75% of the time. Of course, playing in the fountain dog spa and barking his head off was way more fun than all that stuffy obedience.

Swayze received a perfect score for his one and only leg of Excellent B Rally, but he lost energy and interest as the day and the heat progressed. He certainly passed a test of his temperament as did I in my ability to leap like a ninja from 6 feet away to the side of my dog, who was in an honor down position, in order to avert an encounter with a great Dane. And I mean GREAT. A HUGE dog that I later found out can be somewhat reactive. Anyway, a sudden leap, an outstretched arm, palm open, and my "I WOULD NOT DO THAT IF I WERE YOU" expression on my face stopped the clock on the Dane and made him think that maybe he'd made a bad decision. My standing still without talking gave him time to process (I could actually SEE it processing) and made it possible for his owner to regain possession of him. Good thing, as I had nowhere to go to get us out of the way in time and nothing to give him to bite if he decided he might. Poor Swayze thought HE had done something wrong when I landed beside him and he buried himself in the mat on his down!! What a good dog. His obedience left me free to deal with the other dog as needed.

Token picked up some more points towards her SHDCh title and enjoyed just hanging out at the dog show and sleeping on the bed.

Karen, Judi and Drummer

Steven, Judi and Swayze

Check the latest blog to find out the results of Due South's scent hurdle endeavor.

News from Denise
Jagged also got her CKC Intermediate Standard Agility title (was High in Trial Dober for agility and rally) Also completed her NADAC Novice Standard title (agility) in her first N. trial.
Viper was High in Class in Rally Excellent B with a 99. A little bird flew up from the floor along the tent wall and we lost a point there. Poor Viper. This was his first trial in well over a year. He did good!

Ev Kenny results from Nancy

2011-07-22T15:12:00.000-06:00

Joey took 2nd in Group on Sat..was a nice win.

And Peter took WD & BOW on Fri & Sat. Good weekend.

Nancy

"We think the cowgirl looked great, too."

More EKKOC results from Amanda

2011-07-21T13:17:00.000-06:00

News From Amanda and the Corgettes

Wicca earned two more legs towards her RAE with respectable scores of 98, except for one which would have been perfect had I counted to three properly. :) Instead we had a 90. Shame about the handler! Only one more leg to go!

Pixel finished her Excellent title in style with a 96, and a 99. The 99 earned her HIGH IN CLASS in a very competitive Excellent B class. I am very proud of my little fluffy dog.

"We are too," Amanda. Keep counting.

The Prez

EKKOC results

2011-07-21T10:54:00.002-06:00

News from Joan

Just to update club news: Dex got his first leg on Rally Excellent with a 95 on Sunday. On Sat. he ran around the panel jump:( and since no redo's in Excellent, we NQ'd but ran a fantastic course otherwise.

Ev Kenny Results

2011-07-18T09:21:00.001-06:00

News from Mary Ellen Whyte

Tessa/Lori Ann Group 1

What a weekend...also a new Rally Novice title with two (98/100)scores as we already had our first leg 99/100; and then moved up to Advanced for Sunday and took High In Class with 99/100 for her first Rally Advanced 'B' leg.

Thank you Lori Ann Fisher of Edmonton showing Tessa & taking the group over the #1 sporting dog the GWP, and Judge Nils Moiln from Sweden for finding this young bitch in the group.

News from Amanda and the corgi girls.

Pixel earned her Rally Excellent Title this weekend, with a High In Class and a 99 on Sunday! Wicca earned legs 8 and 9 of her RAE, with respectable scores in the 90's. She would have had a perfect score in Excellent on Sunday had I been able to count to three. :)

News from Sharlet

Ryder added legs 1, 2, and 3 towards his RAE-5 title this weekend with scores in the 90's.

Friday .... Adv. B 98

Exc. B 98 4th place

Saturday.... Adv. B 94

Exc. B 92

Sunday.... Adv. B 95 4th place

Exc. B 97 4th place

News from Judi

On Friday, Shadowbar's Slow Hand, handled by Larry Clark, gained two points towards his Canadian Championship under International judge, Nils Molin, from Sweden.

On Sunday, Shadowabar's Slow Dance, Swayze, handled by Mary Ellen Whyte, earned two points towards his Canadian Championship under judge Shirley Limoges.

"Thanks to Larry and Mary Ellen for presenting these two young dogs so nicely."

In performance, Connemara's Drummer Boy, owned by Darryl Snowdon & shown by Judi, earned his Rally Advanced title tying the first place score of 99/100 and earning second place for time. What a cutie!

Canada Day Parade

2011-07-01T15:13:00.004-06:00

Legion members marching and joining RCMP for flag-raising.

Ryder & Mesa, Deb and Walker watching the Parade.

Drum & Bugle Band Spectator & Ryder RoZe watching the crowd

Carol Poelt & RoZe Shar & Deb waiting to start.

Shar, Deb, and I took part in the Canada Day Parade and celebrations in Coleman today. We won $60 in cash for our parade entry, met many people who fell in love with our dogs, shared memories with Legion members at the Legion barbecue, and were entertained with pipe bands, western bands and the Cranbrook Girls' Drum and Bugle Band. A great time!

Just In!!!

2011-06-28T17:23:00.003-06:00

Just in from the States. Shar and Ryder now have four legs towards their US RAE title with scores in the 90's.

MaryEllen's GSP, Tess, finished her US RN title with three High in Class Awards and then moved up to pick up two legs towards her US Advanced Rally title!! What a week!

Cranbrook news & Stateside

2011-06-26T21:23:00.002-06:00

SAWHDA members did very well on both sides of the border today. In the States, Mary Ellen finished Tess's RN title with 3 / 3 High in Class scores of 99, 98, & 97! Shar and Ryder picked up another leg on their RAE title.

In Cranbrook Sylvia and Julie picked up two legs of their RN title, and Nancy and Brie cleaned up in the Advanced and Excellent rings with a second place score of 96 in Advanced B in trial one and 84 and second place in Trial 1 in Excellent B. Judi and Drummer placed High in Class in trial one Advanced B with 99 and Judi and Swayze placed High in Class in Trial one Excellent B with a 98.

In trial two it was touch and go in the Advanced B class with both Judi and Drummer and Nancy and Brie looking very good. In the end, due to an over-exuberant leap in the air and contact Mummy from Drummer, Nancy and Brie took the Advanced class with a PERFECT Score of 100 and Judi and Drummer slid into second with a 99! Nancy went on to win the Excellent class with a score of 96. Swayze was not so lucky and did not finish his honor.

Super job, everyone.

Stateside News!

2011-06-25T09:07:00.001-06:00

Tess, GSP owned and shown by MaryEllen Whyte, gained her first leg of Rally Novice B yesterday with a High in Class score of 98/100. Shar and Ryder qualified in third place in Rally Excellent B yesterday with a score of 95. Keep those scores coming.

The Prez

More sad news

2011-06-23T18:54:00.002-06:00

It is with a sad heart that I report that Lore Bruder's wonderful corgi, Keeper, died last weekend. Keeper was a gentleman of gentlemen. He was always happy and so easy to be with. We are sure that Heaven will rock now that Keeper is re-united with his buddy, Druid. And as for us, we have the memories.

Good luck!!

2011-06-23T15:27:00.002-06:00

To everybody going into competition this weekend.... the best of luck, the safest of trips, the best performances, judges that appreciate your dogs and great visits with friends, old and new. Send your results here to post.

MaryEllen and Shar hit the Montana circuit this weekend in Rally and conformation. Denise heads for Kelowna to do some agility competition and I go into the rally ring in Cranbrook. And somewhere in the mix, I need to fix Wicca's oversized jacket (we used duct tape last time, poor thing) before our scent hurdle on July 2nd. So off to clean the van and pack rain gear, wind gear, my favorite chair, three crates.... yes, three. How can I leave Token home? Doesn't happen.

So the 'boys' will have a director. And I'll have my girl with me. Well worth the extra fee for the motel room. Finally starting to feel well enough to actually enjoy training. What a virus! Killer.

Sun's out. Time for fun.

The Prez

Sad times

2011-06-19T09:13:00.003-06:00

Ev and Bob Sera's 12 year old, poodle, Rocky, died today. He was a once in a lifetime dog who entertained all of us in the conformation, obedience, rally and agility rings by showing us how to get it done but give a uniqueness to each performance. We'll miss this dog and we are happy to see that his 'kids' live on.

The Prez

NACA

2011-06-05T07:22:00.002-06:00

Congratulations, Marilee and Ali on gaining a score of 98 in Rally Advanced A at NACA yesterday.

And to Maureen and Levi with another leg towards their RAE with 96 in Advanced B rally O and 99 in Excellent rally O! Keep it up, you girls.

We had a good practice for square dance yesterday and found out that we may be short one dancer for our upcoming performance at The View in Lethbridge on June 11th. Lore has a new litter of 8 blue corgi pups, Russell may be away and Mary Ellen has her convocation from U of A that day. Help!!

Another reminder that we are meeting at 6:00 on June 7th to perform at Vista Village. Due to the coolness of the weather, we will be performing indoors in the rec room that evening. Please be prepared to take the dogs around for a visit with the residents after the performances.

We should be packing up the equipment by 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday evening club nights will begin at 6:30 at Shadowbar Shepherds, weather permitting.

We have many choices of activities and it would be appreciated if members could email me Mondays with information re: what they would like to do Wednesdays so I can send out the info to everyone on Tuesdays.

We can do a couple of activities per evening. Let's plan for June 15th as our first evening.

The Prez.

Dogoramma

2011-05-29T21:50:00.002-06:00

Saturday morning with the Heavens pouring down rain didn't dampen the spirits of the fourteen hardy souls who arrived at the Lundbreck Hall rarin' try something new in dog activities.

Half the participants headed off to Shadowbar Shepherds to track and half stayed at the hall to

do some freestyle dance using rally O moves and Treibball. Everyone was excited to try the courses and all the dogs did well.

When the trackers came back for lunch (thank you Moira for the sausage dish) the freestyle group put on a small performance using some of the moves they had practiced that morning. Then Judge Cheryl Stuber gave a very informative talk on structure and movement and helped us understand what to look for in movement and how that will affect the dog's ability to perform the duties for which it was bred.

In the afternoon, half the class went on to the Draft Dog workshop and the other half tried some simple search techniques.

The rain gave itself a rest from time to time which allowed the groups to get out and work.

Darryl had the barbecue hot and had made spuds and salads to accompany the meat.

We enjoyed a wonderful meal and spent time with old friends and made some new ones.

Thank you to everyone who worked to make this day of dog activities so successful.

You can bet we will follow it up in the near future.

Sad news

2011-05-16T14:35:00.003-06:00

Jackie Clemens' sheltie, Rosey, passed away quietly at home at the age of 15 years. Up until very lately, Rose was a very spry 15 and other than being somewhat slower than the rest of the gang, she was her usual self, just a bit older. When I first met Rosey, she was over a year old and was pretty weird looking. Her pretty red merle coat was very sparce and dry and brittle. She was obviously in need of a better diet and proper care. How lucky she was to meet Jackie Clemens, who rescued her and couldn't wait to phone me and tell me that this dog would be fabulous in agility. "Absolutely fearless," said Jackie. "Why, she is the first dog I've ever seen that could go from standing on the floor to standing on the stove in one straight-up leap." I wasn't sure that was a good thing, but it must have been because Rosey went on to stack up title after title in obedience and agility, and, like Jackie's other shelties, she learned two languages. Rose was my favorite. I think it was because she had such a rough start; she was the Cinderella dog. I will remember her for that.

Those of you who know Jackie might like to send her a message. She enjoys hearing from her Canadian friends.

I have this feeling there's one more star up in the sky tonight,

And even though it's far away, its brightness and warmth will still reach

us here to make the night a little less dark. That'll be Rosey.

The Prez

Medicine Hat Results

2011-05-16T08:56:00.004-06:00

Congratulations to everyone who finished titles or added points to their performance and conformation standings at the Medicine Hat Canine Association Dog Show on the weekend. Please send in results so we can post the boasts.

So far, we understand that Sharlet and Ryder have attained their RAE-IV title under judge Michael Calhoun.

Mary Ellen and Tess, first time in the Rally Novice A ring went High in Class with a 99 score! Wow. And Tina Hastings and her Sheltie first time in Rally Novice A also, received High in Class with 99 on Sunday under judge Judith Snowdon.

We would like to congratulate the small but 'mighty' MHCA membership for running a well-organized show.

They were amazing.

Long weekend coming up..... enjoy.

The Prez

Good Luck

2011-05-12T07:44:00.000-06:00

Good luck to all of you who have entered the Medicine Hat Dog Show. Have fun and don't forget to send us the results and any humorous occurrences that were unplanned. You know, things you will never forget such as Swayze last year draping himself on my shoulders after doing a smokin' recall and such a straight front. UUUUhhhhh! But he didn't knock me over.

Also, thanks to Nancy, Barb, Shirley, Deb, Shar, LouAnn, Lore, and Tubby for volunteering to do the square dance and drill routines for the seniors at The View in Lethbridge on June 11th at 2:oo p.m.. And to Amanda for doing the contact work for us.

Safe trip to you all.
The Prez

News from Tubby

2011-05-10T13:26:00.002-06:00

A wonderful time for Tubby Miller, who travelled to Michigan with his grand daughter, Ciera, and his two Newfoundland dogs, Cagney and Lexi. Here's Tubby's report of the week.

"Hi, on the Tues. it was a regional, Cagney's 1st time in the ring , tied for 1st with Robin , my student. We both scored 195. We won the runoff.

Ciara had Lexi in Veteran Obed. and won it with 196.

On Wed. Lexi got her C.G.C. title.

I hurried back to the building and found that Cagney was next in. They told me I called her Lexi till the recall, and she was a little confused, but still earned 187.

Later in the afternoon, Lexi got 3rd in R.E. with 97.

It was agreat trip! I spent the week with my grand daughter and had a good time with old friends."

Super proud of both you and Ciera and the dogs!!!

The Prez

News from Nancy

2011-05-09T16:36:00.002-06:00

Nancy and Dick are home from the south and have news to share with us. Celebrate!!

Nancy's wonderful rally dog, her papillon, Brie, had 2 boys Apr 17th while we were away in Chattanooga TN at the
Papillon Club Of America Specialty. Esther Hall whelped the litter for us
(doggie friends are so wonderful!)

We just took Celine (Brie's daughter) and did excellent....got an Award Of
Merit (449 Paps entered) and the weekend before, we were entered in Perry
Georgia and she took BOS and Select to the # 1 Papillon in America (66 Paps
entered). That night at an awards celebration, we received a Sire Of Merit certificate for "Barney" who is her
Daddy... very special day. I knew he was close to Sire of Merit but it the
award was a surprise!!

We are happy to have Nancy and Dick back home and hope to see them and the new pups sometime later this summer. Congratulations on a wonderful season's showing in BOTH rings. Nice to have smart dogs that are also beautiful.

On another note, please make sure that you have notified us of your registration for Dogaramma coming up May 28th.

We are trying to get a fix on the number for the barbecue. Those wishing to see the poster can do so on canuckdogs events.... seminars pgs. Looks to be great fun.

The Prez

Tracking seminar???

2011-05-03T13:14:00.001-06:00

Let me know if you are interested in having Donna Brinkworth "Spiritdance" come to the Lundbreck area this

summer /fall to do a tracking seminar with us? I need 8 people to make this work. We will not conflict with any

Alberta Dog Shows.

Judi

Tracking seminar

2011-05-03T07:06:00.002-06:00

Shar, Deb and I had the opportunity to attend a tracking seminar with Donna Brinkworth of Penhold. What a great weekend! We met some very enthusiastic trackers from the schutzhund club and learned a whole lot about footstep tracking. Our dogs are not used to something that precise so I decided early on that it wasn't the method of choice for Token, who already knows the game. I will stick to the food drop and article method for her as I am comfortable with this method and it lends itself better to what we do with our Karelians, who have to switch back and forth from tracking to air scenting (trailing) to get their job done quickly and efficiently.

But for precision, you can't beat footstep tracking and it is the 'only' method if you are going to go into schutzhund competition. I can also see where it would help a dog in the urban tracking role. RoZe got right into it as will any 'foody' dog. I learned the method years ago with Carolyn Herle and threw it into my bag of tricks and never took it out for my own dogs again.... until now. I will train two dogs in urban tracking, one with each method, and we'll see what happens.

Again, if you get to take a seminar from Donna, do it.

And we are definitely going to have her come to this end of the province to do more with SAWHDA.

Obedience and rally rules have been put away for :

Deb, Shar, Maureen, Janine, Sylvia, Louanne, Amanda, and Mary Ellen.

Tracking rules have been put aside for Louanne & Deb.

See you soon.

Judi

Easter fun

2011-04-25T17:44:00.003-06:00

17 people and more dogs attended Saturday's Easter practice at the Cowley Hall. We did scent hurdle, slalom, barrels, and three challenging Rally courses. We had puppies to play with, too, as Joan brought her two young Belgian pups along with her. Tubby showed up with Cagney, his new dog, and did some obedience with her. Lexi did rally. Tubby and de Newfs are headed to Michigan this week for the Nationals. We all wish him luck.

After our hall work, Lore, Rick, Shar, Deb, Moira, Darryl and I headed to Russell and Marilyn's for a potluck supper that was amazing! Turkey, ham, scalloped potatoes, three salads, turnips,

dressing, and refreshing beverages. We planned our next visits to Vista Village......tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. would you believe?????

Today was a Vista Village therapy dog visitation day and the residents were happy to see the dogs and to share with us what they did over the Easter Weekend. It is always fun.

Worked on posters for the Dogaramma on May 28th weekend. This should offer something for everyone. Now David Spence, the weatherman for Calgary and area, is yapping about snow at the end of the week. Yecht. Let's all get together and do a sundance.

The Prez

Club Day

2011-04-15T07:38:00.003-06:00

A reminder to everyone that we have the Cowley Hall rented for Saturday, April 15th, from 9:30 - 2:00. We will begin with scent hurdle practice ..... new players first to practice discriminaton skills and dumbbell work. Then a team run or two. Following that we will work on obedience beginning with Novice exercises, then Open and then Utility. We will share the long sits/downs to save time and will do the exercises differently. We will do all the Pre-Novice/ Novice heeling on leash. Next will be Sit/Stand for exam all together. Then circles and fig. 8's. Then recalls. Then off leash heeling. Then the entire utility routine. We will do some rally and some freestyle dance as well. Those with cart dogs are welcome to bring them. Hope to see you there. Judi

Red Deer Dog Show Results for SAWHDA members

2011-04-04T15:50:00.005-06:00

Honors are in order to all the members who attended the Red Deer & District Kennel Club Dog show last weekend, braving the icky roads and weather. Sounds from the emails that it was certainly worth it!

Sunday, Maureen's sheltie, Levi, got 3rd place in rally Advanced B with score of 97 and she got 3rd in Excellent B with a score of 87. Not bad for the first time since August that she has gone for a RAE leg!! I think this is her 4th RAE leg of her second RAE (she has her RAE already).

Amanda's cardigan corgi, Wicca, took the Rally ring this weekend with Three High in Classes, a perfect score, a 99, and two 98's. She earned two legs towards her RAE. Pixel, Amanda's younger cardi, picked up the last two legs she needed for her RA with two 98's and two Seconds in the huge Advanced B class.

Sharlet and her GSD, Ryder, picked up three legs towards the RAE-5 title with one HIC score in the Excellent B class. One leg to go!!

Hunter, Judi's GSD, dominated the Rally Novice B ring and earned his RN title with 3 HIC placings and a perfect score!

Darryl's sheltie, Drummer, earned two legs towards his RN title with a 96 and an 85 (Judi's ooops!). He spent Sunday relaxing and taking in the show after a wicked night of scent hurdle ending at 11:00 p.m. Phew.

Donna's Belgian, Epic, gained two legs towards his CD title.

Kim's handsome Bernese Mt. Dog, Bosley, earned his first CDX leg this weekend with a High in Class. And, as a member of the first time out Nononsense scent hurdle team, he and Kim made their Scent Hurdle debut, and after a bit of a rough start, Bosley settled in and had some very nice races.

The Nononsense team of Kort, Pixel, Swift, & Bosley did a super job this weekend. When it worked, it worked perfectly and when it didn't, it for sure didn't. A bit more practice and they will be a terrific team.

Our Due South Team of Wicca, Molly,(our most sr. member at almost 13 yrs. old) Token, Lupine, Ryder,( soon to be 10 years old) Kona, and Drummer( puppy boy brain) racked up some decent runs and good points. Every new member of the team picked up a Scent Hurdle dog Title this weekend!!! Drummer provided the half time entertainment by completely overturning a jump in the other teams' lane and overtaking a serious working Doberman. What a goof! More practice needed, but the little guy had drive and determination.... and a heck of a good time, too. We must add that we were sad that Denise and Jagged were held up by the weather and unable to join us probably sat home and drank wine.... at least we hope that was the case. Why waste a perfectly good case of the weather?

To watch a video of the scent action, compliments of Amanda, (without the entertainment) go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-sK1x48gL0&feature=youtube_gdata

In the conformation ring, Judy's flatcoat retriever, Kona, finished her Canadian Championship. She is now Ch. Blazingstar Brown Coneflower RN. It was so much fun to see 3 Lupine daughters and 1 Lupine granddaughter all showing together and all owner handled. Liz's Puffin took the points previous.

Mary Ellen's breeder/owner handled Tessa, GSP, earned a Group 2 placing her first time out as a special!

Walker, Deb's GSD, completed his Championship breeder-handled by Judi and then Sunday, Mary Ellen took him into the ring for his first outing as a special and came home with a Group 2 placing under Marilyn Mincey!

Club dates for April are Saturdays, April 9th, 16th, and 23rd and will begin with Scent hurdle practice at 9:30 a.m. to be followed by obedience novice, open, and utility exercises (not run-through's).

After that we can do some rally and if the parking lot is dry, carting can take place there.

Drill and freestyle exercises can also take place. Hope to see you all there.

We are planning a carting event and an obedience seminar this spring so keep tuned.

Judi

Pet Expo

2011-03-28T12:54:00.004-06:00

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

2011-03-19T23:38:00.003-06:00

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!!!

2011-03-19T20:47:00.000-06:00

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

2011-03-18T14:57:00.002-06:00

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

2011-03-15T07:01:00.003-06:00

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!

2011-03-06T12:51:00.002-07:00

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

2011-03-01T16:06:00.003-07:00

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

Carolyn Herle seminar rescheduled

2011-02-26T20:56:00.002-07:00

We have rescheduled our Carolyn Herle "Building Work Ethic in Your Dog" seminar! We hope you can join us on Saturday, March 19th. Please let me know asap if this will work for you. We look forward to seeing you on the 19th and until then, stop the wind and weird weather, will ya????

The Prez

Seminar stopper

2011-02-26T10:44:00.001-07:00

This photo collage customized with Smilebox

Stateside Stuff

2011-02-21T14:49:00.003-07:00

News from the Lopaschuks in CA & AZ.

Sorry about the generic email...we have been in CA & AZ for past 3 months – no fixed address – moving often to sight see & go to shows. Usually we camp in Regional or County parks – have some favorite spots we like to go to each year. Right now Dick is at home in Cranbrook for a few days working and I am at a really nice campground in the high desert near Scottsdale with the crew (8 dogs & the cat) I am catching up on a lot of email & bookkeeping J Have been in one place now for 2 weeks – wow!

Wanted to share...it is official “Celine” is a Grand Champion – so far AKC has posted that she has 29 GR CH pts with 5 major wins. Took 3 weekends & a BOB at the Arizona Toy Dog Specialty . Right now, according to AKC website, she is in the top 25 Papillons in the US but that will change soon as our last shows for the season are at Westworld in Scottsdale next weekend L. Didn’t enter every day in Scottsdale as our daughter Lara & granddaughter Taylor from Cranbrook are coming to visit for a week. Looking forward to seeing them! Hope weather is nice...snow on the mountains here today!

“Joey” also has a couple pts to his GR CH, “Peter” (puppy) has started on his AM CH and “Brie” only needs one more trial to complete her Rally Excellent – was entered in 7 trials and received several “High In Class” awards .

Photos are at Ventura show... Dick had to come in the ring as Peter took WD and Celine was in the BOB class.

Nancy

Calgary Show Results

2011-02-19T09:33:00.005-07:00

From Janna, who had the most amazing wins with her young German shorthair pointer. Wow.

We had a great weekend at Calgary. Chance (Ch. Firepoint Making My Own Luck) took BOB/BW/BP and Puppy Group on Friday and BOB/BW/BP on Saturday to complete his Championship. On Sunday he was moved up to specials and took BOB/BP again. Breeder/owner handled, except for the shows that MEW graciously helped me out while I was showing his sister. This boy has come such a long way from his first show where he got a terrible scare and went through a "phase" where I couldn't even get him to enter the ring. Its been a long road but I must say that I appreciate it more after all the work we had to do to get there.

Janna, we are so proud of you! And you looked great out there in show ring. Very Pro.

The Prez

Brags

2011-02-19T09:33:00.002-07:00

From Denise:

I now have a blog on www.fernie.com
You can enter fernie.com and click on blogs, then scroll down to "Denise
McKay" OR SIMPLY go to:www.fernie.com/blog/denisemckay

My intention is to post training and feeding information and articles,
let you know of our recent accomplishments, and share my many years of
experience and knowledge with you on various dog related topics of
interest. I hope you will visit my blog and give me your feedback.

True Dedication

2011-02-13T19:26:00.002-07:00

I just can't say enough about the dedication of our SAWHDA members. Despite the wicked wind,

Carol, Maureen and Joan from Calgary, Deb from Okotoks, and Denise, Sylvia, Dee and another lady from Fernie/Elk Valley, BC. were on hand to do scent hurdle, barrel racing, and square dancing.

The BC bunch is getting ready for the Sit Happens! rally O trial in March so we put up a course from hell for them to practice. I made it up out of my head and it consisted of 25 signs mostly from novice / advanced courses and I got lost half way through when I attempted it. Whew!

Sylvia redeemed herself in barrel racing and did a terrific job at square dancing ..... Lore has

injured herself and was not able to take her place on the team. Russ is going to see if we can use Vista Village as a practice place on Monday or Tuesday evenings early. We can practice

square dance and barrels and I think the residents and staff will enjoy it.

We also walked through our carting drill and reviewed our demo times and seminar times.

Tubby and Glen dropped in on their way from Great Falls with the cutest male Newf pup ever.

No, he will not be staying with Tubby as he has his own puppy to work with. This pup was going to a new forever home in Calgary.

It was a great day. Carol and Maureen took pics of the semi's in the ditches on highway 2 on the way home. Carol lost count of how many were overturned. We lost a small piece of facia from the west face of the kennel building but everything else stayed put. Connie, from Fort Macleod , reported that people lost barn roofs! Carol said that farm building were blown over and

house siding was being ripped off homes between Fort Macleod and Calgary.

We were without power for three hours Saturday evening. It was restored for two hours and then was off from midnight until sometime around 1 or 2 Sunday afternoon. Once it was reestablished, we hurried to fill the trough, vacuum, start the dishwasher (we were out of dishes and were into the camping supplies) and houseclean. So what a perfect excuse for us to go to Cowley to the Pub and have an absolutely delicious rib and wing plate with salads and traditional ale. Yummmmm.

Once again, we have the phones working, computers online, and once again, we hear the hum of the wind starting up. Highway 22 was the scene of more accidents today, and the "man at the intersection" was telling people to use Hway 3 and 2 to go home to Calgary from their weekend places in the Pass.

All in all, it was a much nicer day today and the wind is drying up the muck that has surfaced in our yard. That's a good thing.

Stay grounded.

The Prez

More dog show results

2011-02-08T17:15:00.003-07:00

Deb Golding's GSD, Walker, had a winning weekend at the Calgary dog show last weekend. Brazilian judge, Ramon Podesta, awarded Walker the Best of Breed over specials from Calgary and California! And Darle Heck and Don Fitzsimmons gave Walker Best of Winners Saturday and Sunday. Great weekend for Shadowbar.

And our Due South debut ended with our team in second place! What a surprise what with Drummer getting overstimulated and losing his mind!!!! Thank you for your patience, gang.

Drummer: "Hey, Mom, look at this. I have brought you two x's, a four, and a two!!!! What does that spell??

Judi: "It spells Stupid Dog Trick, Drummie. Stop already."

We had one really good run out of the little monster, though. 46 seconds. Gotta love it.

Scent and Pet Expo practice

2011-02-08T17:12:00.002-07:00

Hey, everyone,

Saturday is club day for those who are involved in scent hurdle or in the Pet Expo presentations.

I have forwarded the schedule to those of you who are attending Pet Expo with us this March.

Agenda for Saturday, the 12th..

Scent hurdle 9:30
Barrels 10:00
Square dance: 10:30

11:30 Lore,Louann,Deb,Judi, Shar Lion King drill

Noon: Carting

Let me know if you can make this practice.

The Prez

Blazingstar Brags

2011-02-07T14:13:00.002-07:00

Liz Saunders, Blazingstar Flatcoat Retrievers, reports that her young import, Cava, finished her Canadian Championship last weekend with Best of Opposite on Friday and Sunday. Puffin, the puppy, had a great day on

Saturday taking Best of Breed, Best of Winners, and Best Puppy for 3 points. It was humorous to see Puffin

jump over the tapes that were holding the mats together. It certainly drew attention from the crowd.

Lupine was stellar in leaping over the 16 inch jumps that Due South had to contend with in the scent hurdle and contributed to the teams' number two placing overall. Yay for the brown dogs.

News from Stateside

2011-02-06T20:00:00.002-07:00

Celine Ventura

Here is an email from Dick and Nancy Lopaschuk who are wintering in the California and Arizona and showing their papillons in conformation and rally.

"Have been very successful showing in January in CA and this weekend in Phoenix. Celine finished her AM GR Championship yesterday taking BOB at the Toy Dog Speciality. Joey did well there too – it was his first show and he took BOS which starts him to his GR CH. Celine has been shown 3 weekends in CA and this is our first weekend in AZ – as of yesterday, she had 27 points with 5 major wins – it takes 25 pts and 3 majors for a Grand CH in the USA. They have to be won from the BOB class (Specials Class) Puppy Peter was only shown in CA and took 1 pt and several reserve wins.

Brie has also been a star in Rally, had her entered in 7 trials which completed her Rally Novice, Advanced and 2 legs to Excellent. We already had the first leg in Rally Novice when we came to the US. She still needs one more leg to finish the Rally Excellent title...but she is in season right now so will have to wait. At the last show in San Bernardino, I moved her up to Exc and since she was slated to be the last dog to do the course, she had to be the first honour dog and was attacked by an out of control standard poodle. He came running right over and tried to grab her. She swung and got away but she was very nervous as we had to do the honour again and then run the course. When we came near the shepherd honouring during her run, there was no way she wanted to go anywhere near the spot. That was her worse trial score with an 82...poor girl was just shaking like a leaf and was looking all over for that dam poodle. In the 7 trials, I think she got 5 high in class so that was not too shabby. Won’t be entering any shows now for a while....hope to enjoy some sunshine – if the weather decides to warm up. Also have reports to do for our business so the dog show weekends will have to end till the Scottsdale shows in March L Has been below freezing every night for the past week which is unexpected here.. we are wearing winter clothes most of the time and the furnace is running non stop in the motorhome. And then we hear on the news that BC is having record high temps! Geesh.."

Nancy & Dick

Club Fun

2011-01-23T21:30:00.002-07:00

We had a blast at Club yesterday. We did great group work in obedience and covered all levels in an hour. Scent was super except for Drummer who lost his mind and never did regain it completely. What a nut. Louann stopped by and measured jackets for girth size.

New moves for intro's for Pet Expo. Check movie.

What fun! Thank you, Donna.

Working on new square dance routine. Is looking very good.

The Prez

Club Day Schedule January 22

2011-01-21T14:46:00.000-07:00

Hi, everyone,

We start tomorrow's club day with Obedience at 9:00 a.m. using the following format:

* Rally Drill for a five minute warm-up.

* Sits/Downs .... all levels

* Sit for exam, stand for exam, moving stand for exam.

* Pre-novice circle left/right Novice/Open fig. 8's

* Recalls all levels

* Signal exercises

* Retrieves

* Jumps

No run-through's.

Barrel Racing: four runs per dog.

Scent Hurdle racing: with help from dogs NOT on the team who can provide some

distraction by running jumps parallel to ours.

We need to make sure everyone has dumbbells/ numbers/ jackets.

12:30 :::::: Freestyle Dance : Line Dance::::::

Donna will help us use rally moves to make a line dance.

Anyone who would like to work an individual dance may do so

while the rest practice the line dance moves. This could be a blast!!!

$5.00 drop in fee for members

$10.00 drop in fee for non-members

CKC fees

2011-01-19T06:56:00.002-07:00

For those of you who own CKC registered dogs but do not actually belong to the Canadian Kennel Club, the CKC is instituting an annual fee of $55 so that they can keep track of the titles gleaned by those dogs whose owners are not CKC members.

Some people feel that this is a 'cash cow' move by the CKC. When the AKC was in financial trouble, they elected to allow non-registerd dogs to compete in their performance events. Our CKC looked at doing the same thing but the members stated that they did not want this to occur. The CKC listened to the members who responded to their question regarding the mixed breeds in CKC performance events and then had to come up with a better plan. They decided to ask non-members to join their club if they want to play in the same events as members.

I would like to hear how others feel about this plan.

Oh, speaking of memberships, ours SAWHDA fees for 2011 are due. I'd better get on that.

The Prez

Birthday wishes

2011-01-18T20:17:00.001-07:00

Hey, Everyone,

It's Russell's Birthday. Happy birthday wishes, Russ, from all of us SAWHDA members.

Too bad you won't be able to join us Saturday.

Judi

SAWHDA Member has TOP APDT Rally dogs!!!

2011-01-17T14:21:00.001-07:00

The APDT Rally Obedience Canadian National Rankings for 2010 have just
been released.......
http://www.apdt.com/rally/pdf/2010/national_rankings_canada_2010.pdf

Jagged (ARCH. Montwood Arista Just Show'n Off) is ranked #1 (in Canada)
Viper (ARCHX. Karlee's Just To Satisfy You) is ranked #2 (in Canada)

We are all anxiously awaiting spring and looking forward to another
agility season with Jagged. She is entered in her first "Scent Hurdle
Race" in Calgary, Alberta the first weekend in February. We are part of
team "Due South" and are looking forward to this exciting event! Jagged
is our wonderful little multi-tasker and she excels at everything she
does. Can't wait to participate in this exciting event!

Denise McKay/ Proud Owner/Handler

Masters Gamble Time

2011-01-17T06:18:00.001-07:00

Member Brenda Bando, who lives in London, Ontario, reports, :"
Was at a trial and Ally is now in Masters Gamble. She also got one more standard. I finally got some front and rear crosses and also a serpentine."

Good job, Ally and Brenda. We miss you. Are you showing the Easterners how to barrel race?

The Prez

Ski-jouring success

2011-01-16T20:51:00.005-07:00

Congratulations to Donna for placing fourth in the two dog ski-jouring event at
Elkford this weekend. All that skiing around gravel has given Donna the ability to
stay on her feet at all costs (unlike some of us who spend more time downside than up.)
Her goal was to get a clean start, run with no pass infractions, and get a decent time.
Achieved!!! Anyone wanting to start out ski-jouring can contact Donna through our blog.

Another Congratulations to Michelle and her Australian shepherd, Daven. Daven's picture represents the month of February on the Canadian Search and Rescue Dog calendar!
The calendars are a fund-raiser for the organization. If anyone would like one, please contact
me and I would be glad to put you in touch with Michelle.

The weather here was nuts this weekend! It rained in Elkford, was a balmy +10 in the Pass, and fluctuated between -17 and +10 at Lundbreck. We moved between flood control to deep freeze at 4:00 p.m. and I was thrilled that the wood burner chimney was clean and ready to go with a handy supply of wood thanks to super-hubby! Who went to bed before 7:00 p.m. when the super wore off. Fresh start tomorrow.

We have three Cardi's staying with us and they are providing the entertainment for our shepherds, who definitely do not understand "corget" because they do not respond to any of the comments given by the short-legged ones.

The gate alarm has gone off about 10 times in the past 1/2 hour and every time, it's a new day for the dogs, who come out of their naps just in time to talk loudly about the intruders. The deer are on the move.

Keep in mind that Saturday is our practice for Scent Hurdle for the Ev Kenny show. The jackets have been cut out and given to seamstress, Louann, for construction, the numbers are ready to be put on the plastic and into the pockets, and we have to make sure that everyone has a set of dumbbells. We will start obedience at 9:00, barrel racing at 9:45, scent at 10:30. Those wanting to try freestyle dance are asked to bring 5 rally exercises that can be placed in sequence to music. Donna McLaughlin will be on hand to help us construct a simple dance routine.

Stay sharp.

The Prez

The Hoop - Horse Agility How to #1

2011-01-15T11:15:00.000-07:00

The Hoop - Horse Agility How to #1

2011-01-15T11:08:00.001-07:00

Shiba fans

2011-01-11T13:38:00.002-07:00

If any of our members know of someone who would like a CKC registered, red, 4 1/2 month old red, male shiba pup who will grow oversize, and must be neutered at the new owner's expense,

please contact me for further information.

The Prez

More Stateside

2011-01-10T06:43:00.003-07:00

Spoke to Jackie Clemens last night. Jackie lives in Spokane right now with four shelties, the oldest of which is 18 years of age. The youngest is just a tad older than our Drummer Boy. Jackie and her dog, Nickles, ran scent hurdle with our Due South team. What a time we had. Jackie lived in Montana and she and Nickles practiced with Due South ten minutes before each race.

It worked. Nickles knew the game and just loved to do scent hurdle.

Jackie is actually a wanna-be Canuck and misses us Canadians tremendously. Right now, she is in a race to become, I think, the bionic woman. She has had her hip replaced and is now recovering slowly from a knee replacement. The upside of being a physio patient is that one can look forward to all the agility and herding events that take place this summer, and there are lots of them in Jackie's area. Those of you who would like to touch base with Jackie and cheer her up can email me and I will give you her information. I am sure she'd love to hear from you.

This morning the temp. reads -17C but we still have no wind so we are lucky in our little corner of the province.

Dress warmly while you are digging out to get to work or to your kennels this morning.

The Pres

Saturday's Practice

2011-01-09T10:59:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful day yesterday at Dog Club despite the fact that the weather prevented all our Lethbridge, Claresholm, and Calgary members from attending. Miserable. We had 11 people and 16 dogs attend.

Obedience practice went very well with all dogs reaching their intended goals for the day. Barrel-racing will be a great hit at Pet Expo for sure. We had dogs so excited to race that they were barking and whining to be next. And scent hurdle was amazing. We set the jumps to 12 inches and the dogs really had to adjust their strides but they ran clean every run except 2 out of the dozen we did and Mesa Sue actually ran for the heck of it and never made a mistake. What a girl!

We played loud, obnoxious music and got everyone to make mega-noise while the dogs were racing and they really didn't care. It was very encouraging. We are sending out a generic jacket model & having five made, but if you have an original light green coat for your dog, please use that one. I will collect ALL coats and keep them in the Due South bag so they are there when we need them and can be

used with any dog. The numbers slide in and out of the pockets, so it's easy to use any coat.

Practice on the 22nd will be for all dogs. Bring jackets and bells. We will have a few extra bells for those that need them. Please measure the bar width so we can match. We presently have eight dogs on our Due South Team with two height-setters.

The afternoon of January 22nd will be reserved for those people who would like to incorporate a short freestyle routine incorporating five rally moves. Donna McLaughlin will be on hand to help us with this program. Should be fun for all: something for everyone.

Wow!!! The power is back on. I can actually post this. Yayyyy!

The Pres