Happy Monday everyone!
First – Congratulations to everyone who trialed. You represented the club with professionalism and dignity. Everyone succeeded in earning the title desired. I am proud to be a member of this club and to watch so many novice handlers achieving their goals. Way to go.
Second – Thank you everyone who contributed to making our trial a success. Mike, as usual, you were an outstanding Secretary. Cari, outstanding job on organizing the field preparation. I know you had help, but the field looked fantastic. Stephanie, the food and hospitality was outstanding. Peter, equipment was proper and easily accessed when needed. Carol, awards were great – hopefully will be a much bigger job in September – and thank you so much for housing the judge (and me!). Clarissa, thanks for the competitor goodie bags, and soliciting donations. Samie, thanks for printing certificates and videotaping the routines (perfect to see what you looked like and where you need to make adjustments). Anne, thank you for your continued ability to organize airfares, judges, and keeping us on track for training. A big thank you to everyone for contributing time, effort and food to pull it all together. You guys rock.
Third and last – A few of us met on Sunday morning for a judge’s seminar with Cynthia. Here is a brief blurb on what she covered. Basically, we are doing a good job. Need to work on cleaning up about turns and body language/hands. Overall, about turns were not correct. Handler needs to stay on the same plane and pivot in place with dog making the adjustment. The military (left flip) about turn looks stunning when executed correctly, but is very difficult to perfect and very few dogs have the ability to consistently execute it with the precision necessary. Hands and arms need to be more natural in movement during heeling. Need to be sure your paces for build up and leaving your dog are correct. Practice throwing the dumbbell until you can consistently throw it and have it land exactly where you want it. You get 3 tries to throw the dumbbell before the exercise will be considered finished and you lose all the points. Also, she wanted to let everyone know that a club trial is like your local baseball team. The event follows rules and represents the sport, but the level of competition is at the basic level. Regionals would be equivalent to semi-pro level. Nationals would be like pros and worlds would be like the World Series or the Olympics. Once you get beyond the club level, the competition is much stiffer, scored much tighter and competitors much more cutthroat. Doing well at a club trial is no indication of ability to do well at a regional level. That said, you should always strive to grow, stretch and challenge yourself. If you have the desire to compete at the regional level and above, you should trial as much as possible at club trials under different judges, perfect your trialing ability and then go for it. Anyone else who was there on Sunday, feel free to add to this.
So, let’s get ready to rock it again in September. We should have another outstanding trial!
Janice G. Bogy
