FALL 2008
Thunder Bay Schutzhund Club
Shepherd Sports Club Report
Fall 2008
We haven’t had a club report for a while because we were busy organizing the 15th Annual Ontario Region Championship and Sieger Show which we hosted on May 30th, 31st and June 1st 2008 with resounding success.
We could not have pulled it off without the tireless efforts of our club members who contributed their time and expertise to fund raise and organize and help out any way they could to make the event a success. Special thanks to Lol who never ceases to amaze us with her hard work and fantastic meals. She also trialed her dog and attained a SchH 3 to boot.
Great job by our trial helpers Rick Fullford (Capital City) and John Carvalho and thanks to Bob McGonigal for organizing the tracking. Mustn’t forget the track layers who had to set 19 tracks, Bob, Craig and Russ. Farzin managed to get out of track laying by spraining his ankle before the trial while helping out with protection. What hole Farzin? Thanks also to Irene Klotz who worked along side Sherrel as the show secretaries to make our Sieger Show a success. I apologize if I missed thanking anyone as everyone’s contributions were greatly appreciated.
We would like to thank everyone who came to Thunder Bay to support us and congratulate all competitors for their endeavors.
Congratulations to George Kopecky for High SchH 3, Mike Bauer for 2nd Place SchH 3 and Bob McGonigal for 3rd Place SchH 3.
Congratulations also to Jacki Barnes for 1st Place SchH 2 and Lol Carvalho and Pino Pucci for their successful SchH 3's.
Ontario Region Sieger was Xamp Dei Precision SchH3 owned by Philip Eramo & Lutz Tresper and bred by Philip Eramo. Ontario Siegerin was Peyton von Canisphere SchH 3 KKL 1 owned by Aaron Neufeld and bred by Gary Eng.
Congratulations to Trish McGonigal and Kassie for their V2 rating in the Working Class, and to Bob and Dhama - G1, Pino and Zeus-SG1.
Our judges Jan Hrouda-Trial and Ernst Seifert-Show were very professional and informative in their critiques which didn’t end just because the trial and show were over. They were called upon on Saturday night to judge a very special contest involving really large balloons stuffed under extra large t-shirts organized by our fun loving friends from Capital City, April Lensen and Cathie Pierson. How did the contestants “stack” up you ask? Well the winner, Simone Lehnhard started with an unfair advantage as far as Jacki and Sherrel were concerned but we had a great time and laughed till we cried.
If you didn’t stick around after dinner on Saturday night, you missed an awesome band “Dr. Buck and the Bluesbangers” who rocked on til late into the night.
Suckers for punishment that we are, we decided to have a Seminar with Wallace Payne only a month after the Regionals.
The seminar was held on June 27th to 29th 2008 and was absolutely great! We tracked all three days (twice) so most of Friday was taken up with tracking as we learned new handling techniques. Wallace would watch what we normally did then show us new solutions to correct our problems. We only had time for some protection then a late dinner and off home to get some sleep before 6am tracking on Saturday. Handling was already improving and getting through all the dogs did not take as long. Back to the club for lunch and then Obedience and Protection. By Sunday we were all showing much improvement in all phases but dogs and handlers were also showing signs of fatigue. It was an informative and intense three days but very enjoyable and rewarding. Thanks Wallace for coming to Thunder Bay and sharing your knowledge and humour with us.
Next on our busy agenda was a club trial and Seminar with Canadian Judge Lance Collins and Jim Chrisp who apprenticed for the second time at a Thunder Bay Club trial. Thank God this one did not take 12 hours and the tracking went very smoothly thanks to Bob and Sherrel who laid the 5 SchH 3 tracks.
Congratulations to Claire and Eyko-SchH1, Marly and Trace- Obedience 1 and Tracking 1, Jacki and Bizzy –SchH3 and Pino and Zeus- SchH3. Claire and Cabre had their best SchH3 going ever with 93 in both tracking and obedience until the last 5 second of Protection. DQ, no out! We thought for sure she had it this time after managing to put lots of hard work into training Eyko and Cabre and taking care of her young son Connor too. Kudos to her for even attempting it. Great job once again by our club helpers John and Pino. Lance conducted a helper seminar in conjunction with the trial and seminar to certify John and Pino.
Many thanks to Lance for jogging our memories about basic foundation and for helping us get the most out of our dogs in protection. It was a very enjoyable, relaxing and informative weekend.
We would like to congratulate all the members of Team Canada, Ralph and Billie, Ken and Chevy, Gabi and Yoschy, Darryl and Talon and William and Greta. Best of Luck at the World’s! Go Team!
Jacki Barnes