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.

Hi, Everybody,

Just a quick note to let you know that we are holding a party at the Lee residence, 359 Canyon Crescent, in Pincher Creek, on December 19th starting at 6:00 p.m.. Guests are to provide an appetizer and a $5 - $10 gift from their house for the Chinese Gift Exchange. Each person is responsible for bringing their own alcoholic beverage as well.

Those who are travelling from afar and who wish to stay overnight are invited to stay at Mary Ellen's place, at Russell and Marilyn's place, or at Darryl and Judi's place (if you aren't allergic to cats) rather than drive home.

We always have a good time when SAWHDA members get together so hope to see you there.

I am too excited. Three more sleeps until Christmas holidays!!! Yay!

CGN stuff has been sent away so certificates should follow soon.

Thank you to all members who provided 'stuff' for the garage sale. Despite the miserable weather, we managed to raise

350 dollars.

Judi

Demos for Pet Expo

Hey, everybody,

We have between now and March to come up with six dogs that can barrel race, 6 dogs that can cart (various stages of ability) 8 dog/handler teams to be part of a drill team (done to Rally commands) at least eight people to be part of our square dance team, and three dog/handler teams to do an actual complete performance of freestyle dance. All participants must be willing to commit to two full days of performances at the Calgary Pet Expo, March 27th and 28th. Participants will be responsible for their own accommodations, meals and transportation to and from the venue in exchange for a great time!!! If you are a member of SAWHDA and have the time and inclination to be part of this cool venture, please email Judi at shadowbr@telusplanet.net and let her know which performance events you and you dog would like to join.

We will be arranging for Calgary folks to practice evenings in the city and then join the rest of us at Cowley for progress checks and dress rehearsals for everyone on some weekends in Cowley in order to assure a smooth performance by all.

Mark your new year calendars for fun!

Judi