Dog show stuff

CKOC was a small and enjoyable show. It provided us with entertainment (Maureen playing in the broad jumps), within a relaxed atmosphere. Mary Ellen's pup, Tess, had her first appearance in the show ring and for her first show, she was very confident and at ease as she zipped around the conformation ring. In the rally ring, Louann's corgi, Brazil, qualified for a round of RAE competition with a third place rosette and scores in the 94-97 range. Sharlet qualified Ryder for his second leg towards his RAE-2 title and also had Mesa qualify for her first leg towards her RAE title with scores of 86 and 85 and 97 in advanced rally class for both sister and brother. Judi and Swayze also scored 97 and picked up a 4th place rosette by having a faster time. Maureen and Levi garnered another score towards their RAE title with a 93 score and a 90 I believe. Joan and Dex added another leg towards their Advanced Rally with 93. Tubby passed with Lexi and Simon with scores in the high 80's. And in standard obedience Joan and Dex were third in the Novice class with 184. Shar and I left before finding out how Lore and Daisy did in rally and will report when we

get the news. All in all, a good weekend for SAWHDA members and their dogs.

Shar and I went on to Phantomridge to herd with Mesa, Token and Swayze and enjoyed our day immensely. Mesa remembered everything, Token chose to forget everything, and Swayze knew nothing in the first place, so expectations for him were simply to have him stop herding when he was told to do so. After 15 minutes of loping around the sheep in the round pen, he actually trotted a few steps. Never took his eyes off the sheep and Louanne but didn't care that she had thrown a paddle at him and carried on as though it had never happened. Must work at bending him off before we go back.

The weather was wonderful for a March show and I recall years ago when Dawn Earle went with us to the March show to

handle Mesa and we came home in such a snow storm that the traffic was stopped at the Waldron Bridge and a semi was brought up from the rear to lead us all to Highway 3. The last thing the police officer said to me was, "Don't lose sight of the truck." All I remember is the red tail-lights. What a harrowing experience.

Dog show people are crazy.

Pet Expo Practices

Sunday saw another successful practice for Pet Expo! Barrel racing is really coming along with Krissi just flying around the cans. Token is almost going around all three by herself.
Not enough for a square dance, but we are already at the stage where it is very presentable as a performance. The highlight was Jennifer Tomlin's Toffee doing freestyle dance and Donna McLaughlin's dogs doing freestyle disco! Donna shared her dogs' frizbees with everyone and even Drummer, at 11 weeks of age, managed to chase and capture a rolled disc! Ryder was a natural, catching the disc with no trouble at all. The drill is tightening up in formation and members are showing an awareness of not only their own footwork but also the footwork and speed of others in the group. And what a good practice for the cart dogs. We now have the entire routine written out to include Deb and Walker, Judi and RoZe, Joan and Beau and Tubby and his two newfs, Lexi and Simon in the carting olympics.
In short, we are almost ready!!!!! Parking passes are booked and exhibitors' badges ready to be picked up. Our booth will include three spaces. Dogs will be benched at one end in a U=formation. Members are asked to bring metal folding chairs rather than lawn chairs as we are fitting 16 people and dogs into this setting plus our wall hangings and two eight foot draped tables. Maureen is making us a scrapbook to display on the table and Russell is bringing his computer to show some of our club work. If members have photo albums they wish to have displayed, they are invited to bring them. They should show a variety of photos which show the versatility of our dogs.
We intend to have supper together Saturday evening at Mavericks after the show closes.
Members are asked to check the schedule to see when our performances take place and to be on scene at least 1/2 hour beforehand. Thank you to Louanne for the beautiful dog bag which we will fill with doggie goodies and toys and use as a draw at the show on Saturday.

We will have Why join SAWHDA? Because WE are worth the drive!
See everyone at the dog show this weekend. Practice the following Sunday for sure.
Judi

New Arrival at Shadowbar

We landed back in Canada Wednesday and found that our new puppy was able to come home with us! So we headed for

Lethbridge to Connemara Shetland Sheepdogs where Andrea met us and presented us with Drummer! We scooped him up, put on his collar, shoved him into his newly purchased soft-side crate and headed west. No noise, no complaining, no weird looks. Darryl kept the top of the crate open so he could put his hand down to pat Drummer and on we went. We stopped in Lundbreck and washed the van and still no weird looks. I covered the crate and kept the radio on to keep the washer noise to a minimum, but Drummer was basically unconcerned.

Once home, he went into the gravel dog run and had a pee and then into the house where he had his supper and then terrorized Shar, Deb and Tom Thumb, who instantly sent a brain wave to me saying, "Send it back now!!!!" Too bad, Tom. Mesa and Token thought the little guy was a blast. The cat sided with Tom but has since changed its mind. Kind of likes the new toy.

The first night, Drummer slept in his crate until 3:30 a.m. and then I took him out to the dog run to do his thing. He had a pee and then slept in his crate again with no whining until 6:00 a.m.

House breaking is touch and go with Darryl losing ground and me gaining it. Timing is of the essence. In one day, Drummer has learned that it is great to chase anyone with feet and grab their toes. Tug is the best game..... thank you, Amanda and Andrea, and a leash is good because it means we are going out for more sport. He has met all the dogs and RoZe is absolutely intrigued with him. Who wouldn't be? Anyone out there ever see such a cool puppy? He has simply moved in. And that's the way it should be.

Last night Drummer slept all night and I woke him up at 5:30 when I got up to start my rounds. He was happy to come out to the kennel and watch the other dogs do their stuff while he spun around and raced back and forth on the exercise pad outside trying to see everything at once. What a great pup. He came from a super home to a super home. Oops! Must run. The little terror is back in gear again. Wait a minute! That's Darryl's job. Heh, heh.

Judi

Good Night!

Tuesday night training at Cowley was fun, fun, fun.We started with barrel racing and showcased the little dogs. Kipper is a demon. He is so fast that he looks as though he is the" bunny" used in lure coursing. MoJo proved that he knows the first two barrels by heart.... his biggest motivation is the crowd cheering him on.
Kris was hysterically funny. She found out early that the treats were on the plate behind the third barrel as a go back and she couldn't do the first two barrels. She would line up at the start and fly straight to the plate.
Took some convincing to get her to work first.
The two big dogs that 'played' were Zeus and Ryder and both did a great job. Zeus is just learning the game but is happy to learn. Ryder is an old hat at Barrels and was simply super!!!
We moved on to scent hurdle and started with the young dogs doing jumps up and back. They are all happy to perform. Next, we put the loaded plate in front of the box and sent the dogs. We started working the more advanced dogs to go around the box and back to the start before being rewarded and it worked too! Last of all we worked Kipper and Token and both zoomed out to the box and back with a dumbbell.
Drill was too funny. Deb is a task master as Russell, Barb, Shirley and Sharlet soon found out. 270's left, call front's and forwards, circles left and right were hard to execute in precision, but improvements came with practice and things didn't deteriorate too badly. Richard and I were happy to sit on the sidelines and heckle.
In the obedience, it was a red letter night for Swayze and me. For the first time, without too much distraction mind you, Swayze heeled in perfect precision the entire perimeter of the hall. I was so excited. His recall was straight and true.
Token did a broad jump to die for. Her heeling was very good. Everyone did the straight figure 8 so we could practice matching our footwork with that of our dogs' so that we would not be adapting pace and losing marks. Everyone did very well, with nobody dropping back his shoulder. It was nice to see.
Shaggy came in for conformation practice and I was actually able to run easily with her a bit ahead of me at a decent pace without tearing around the ring. She needs more practice with setting up her free stack when coming off the pace, but she is lovely to see when she is stacked!

Sunday, January 31st, we have rented the hall for the following club activities:

9:30 Draft Dog work: Bring your dog and cart and practice indoors, out of the wind.

10:30 Scent Hurdle work: All dogs ......... Teams work first. Younger, less advanced dogs work last.

noon: Obedience work: All levels

NO RALLY PRACTICE THIS SUNDAY.

Good luck to those of you travelling to the AKC show in February. See you there!!

The 'Prez"

First Fun Day of the Year Goes Well

Today was our first Fun Day of 2010 and we had fun!!! Ten of us gathered at the Cowley Hall to do obedience, scent hurdle, and Rally O. To begin, Shar, Richard, Russell and I did Pre-novice and Open exercises with Ryder, Zeus, MoJo, Swayze, and Token. It was a super opportunity for me to have a male judge follow Swayze and me as Swayze sometimes gets nervous about judges following him. Token was hot, hot, hot on the Open routine. And Shar, after showing us what the Pre-novice exercises looked like with her dog, Ryder, turned into our judge! We all did well.

Switching to scent hurdle, I was very surprised! Mesa absolutely stunned me by doing scent hurdle and finding her dumbbell in the box with three x's. What a girl! And "She Whodoesnotjump" jumped madly to and fro with gusto! I think it had everything to do with the fact that Shar was the boxloader and Mesa is wild about Shar. But nevertheless, she was smoking hot in scent.
Token managed to keep her cool and find her dumbbell even though Zeus, GSD pup with A.D.D. escaped from his handler and raced to the box with Token and then jumped all over her while she was trying to get her dumbbell. She was definitely rattled about that and asked if we could look in Sears for a helmet or Zeus-repellent, but in the end, she truly recuped and did some good running with Donella's Molly and Pat's Drakkar, who are both seasoned scent dogs.
Betsy, Zydeco, Zeus, and Mojo practiced jumps to and from a treat platter and loved it.
Kipper, toy poodle, raced out over the jumps to grab a dumbbell twice his size and made a valient effort to carry it over all jumps without dropping it. What a hoot! We will bring a better fit for him next Sunday.

After a quick break and a pizza ..... yes, a pizza!!!! Actually, TWO pizzas, thanks to chef Marilyn, we set up a novice and an advanced rally course. Some of the dogs were a bit rusty, due to the holiday lay-off, but for the most part, we were really happy with their performances.
Mojo never got one treat from the treat bowls on the off-set figure eight exercise and Kipper did!!! Swayze and Token did a Rally O Brace team performance on an Advanced course as did Ryder and Mesa. Super!!! Absolutely super!! Now, we just need the CKC to get on board and make it a rally class.
To sum it up, we had a wonderful day. It was so nice to see Donnie, Daryl, and Pat again. The weather couldn't have been more cooperative. The food was wonderful, as usual, and we all enjoyed being there.

We hope to have even more members out next weekend as some of our gang were at agility competitions.

See you there.
Judi

Happy New Year

Happy New Year, Everyone!

And with that a reminder that 2010 memberships are due for renewal at this time. Cowley Hall booked for

January 10th, 17th, and 24th for the following activities.

Sunday, January 10th:

9:00 AM

1/2 Hall: Pre-novice and Novice Obedience routines

1/2 Hall Open & Utility routines
10:30 Scent Hurdle Practice : Basics

• recalls over jumps/ dogs do not need to know how to fetch for this part.send-away's to box/ dogs do not need to know how to fetch for this part.
• fetch from box..... one dumbbell and dog at a time.handler's request
• Teams

11:30 a.m. Rally O

****** I need to know how many are wanting a Novice course or should I begin with an Advanced course? Remember, it is up to handlers whether or not to use the leash. ******* Let me know.****** shadowbr@telusplanet.net
Cost: $5.00 drop in fee.
See you there!!!

Sunday, January 17th:

Same as above.

Sunday, January 24th

OBEDIENCE & RALLY OBEDIENCE FUN MATCH Entry Fees: $5.00 /dog

RALLY OBEDIENCE

9:30 Novice

10:30 Advanced

11:30 Excellent

OBEDIENCE

12:00 Pre-novice followed by Novice and Open

PRIZES TO THIRD PLACE!!!

SEE YOU THERE!!!!!

Merry Christmas to all

As the Christmas season draws nigh, we would like to take this time to thank each and every member for making

the Southern Alberta Working Herding Dog Association a wonderful club!

May the spirit of Christmas unite us

and make 2010 the greatest!

We turn TWENTY this coming year!

Merry Christmas from your SAWHDA Executive.