Friday, January 28, 2011

Seeking the class of 2011 scholarship candidates!

The Schutzhund USA Youth Scholarship is intended to be recognition in the form of an educational grant to those well-rounded student scholars. Winning a scholarship is beneficial to any student, even several years following their receipt of the award. The Schutzhund USA Youth Scholarship Committee believes that it is very important for students to recognize their own potential early in their academic careers in order for them to foster its growth—receiving recognition from an organization or company helps the students take this step.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

1. Must maintain a good standing with the United Schutzhund Clubs of America (or any AWDF affiliated club)
2. Must be a United States citizen or classified as a permanent resident attending any high school within the United States
3. Must demonstrate involvement in the dog sport with an AWDF organization and involvement with school or community activities
4. Must show a sound interest and positive attitude toward higher education.
5. Must intend to enroll in a full time degree program at any college, university, business or technical school within the United States

INFORMATION FOR SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION: www.SchutzhundYouth.com

Michele Scarberry
michelescarberry@neo.rr.com

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

From the Regional Director

Hi Everyone,

I am happy to report that Tri-State Schutzhund Association has confirmed that they will host this year’s (2011) Regional Championships. Big Sky Schutzhund Club will assist to the best of our abilities. The trial date has tentatively been proposed for Sept. 17-18, and they have some leads on judge(s) and venue, but aren’t ready to share yet until they get them more formalized.

Thus, this email is primarily to ask you to save the date, and ask that you let me know of any conflicts I should make them aware of. I look forward to a chance to see everyone there. I would also like to warmly thank Hundesport Alaska who, with help from the Alaska Schutzhund Club, submitted a preliminary bid and held several discussions with an eye toward bidding for the Regionals should Tri-State have been unable to step up this year. I anticipate a bid from them for the 2012 Regionals, and I urge you to do what you can to support them next year.

Finally, thanks to everyone who sent good wishes our way—Harley is recovering nicely from the surgery, and we are waiting to hear the results from the pathology.

Yours,
Warren

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Message to the Region

Dear Members of the Pacific Northwest Region,

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving to all, I hope the coming week gives you a chance to renew contacts with loved ones, recharge your batteries, and get your cholesterol levels back up. If low cholesterol is a problem for you, I would be happy to provide suggestions…

The General Board meeting has been widely reported on a number of different email and discussion boards, so I won’t provide a detailed recap here. As soon as minutes are available for the meeting, I will send them, post them on the regional website or otherwise let you know where to find them. Big Sky, Cascade, Willamette, Tri-State, and BOTH Alaska clubs were represented at the meeting. In fact, there were (depending on the counter) 17-23 people there from Alaska, far outnumbering the rest of the representatives of all the other clubs in the region. GO ALASKA!!!! (too bad they didn’t all get to vote in the GBM!??!!). If you need more information on the results of the GBM, let me know & I’ll see if I can’t fill you in.

Congratulations go to Martina Wilson for winning the FH2 championship with her dog Orin! Tanna Ragan and Xuko were putting up a great protection routine until Xuko caught Patrick Wilson’s knee with his shoulder and was taken out of the competition. Kevin Nance and Vandal were on their way to a possible Universal Sieger title when a slip during the transition to the setup for the long bite made Kevin have to yell “PLATZ”, thereby eliminating him from the competition. Shade and Reiki of course put together a great routine. We’ve decided I can’t be anywhere within a mile from him when he’s tracking and he does just fine (98 at the Nationals)!

In other regional business, I know you would love to see the minutes from the Regional Meeting, but our secretary is buried in School, and probably won’t have the chance to get the minutes together until the semester is over. I want to thank her for her work on behalf of the region, and hope we can get this up on the web site soon. From a “decision” standpoint, there were not any earth-shaking items on the agenda. Twin County has offered to host next year’s helper seminar, Treasure Valley has offered to host next year’s Regional Conformation Show, and we were only able to get a very tentative offer for the Regional Championship. Since that date, I have also received inquiries from another club in the region about the Regional Championships, so I am in the process of trying to help both clubs work out which one would really like to bid, and trying to get their bids together. Stay tuned for more on this in the next few weeks.

One item that was not really on the agenda, but that took a lot of time at the meeting, was the resolution of the longstanding grumbling and animosities among some of the clubs in the region. I was very heartened to hear at that meeting that all of the club representatives at the meeting pledged to do their best on behalf of the clubs to support the other clubs in the region. If you were not at the meeting, I wanted to make you aware of this commitment, and if you were at the meeting I wanted to remind you of that discussion. The other item that became clear at that meeting was the number of clubs that have both brand new and green helpers and young dogs in training and not yet ready for trialing. It is my hope that the coming year will see a flurry of new dogs and helpers in the sport in our region, and a lot of travel to each others’ trials when the dogs are ready the the opportunity arises. As you will see on the regional calendar or on the USCA web site, we have two trials scheduled for 2011 with the same judge two weeks apart and about 100 miles apart. I encourage those handlers who have dogs ready to go this spring to do their best to support these two trials. Both clubs have years of experience, and the judge is a long standing friend to the region and USCA’s newest judge Andrea Duggan.

A final couple of items of business: the first is to say farewell to Boise Working Dog Association. The club mostly disbanded this summer, leaving only two members, and they have not been successful in recruiting enough new members to bring the club up to full charge. The second is to grant a waiver for a USCA event to the German Shepherd Schutzhund Club for 2010. I look forward to their successful trial in 2011.

There are some proposals coming up in front of the Executive Board that I will try and solicit input on when they are appropriately formulated. Sorry to be cryptic, but I don’t want to phrase it wrong and start rumors.

Yours in the sport,

Warren Jones
PNW Regional Director

Monday, October 18, 2010

Rudy Mietzner

My name is Taylor Hack and I am a member of the Alberta Schutzhund Association in Edmonton, Alberta Canada and have been training under Rudolf Mietzner. I understand that until he retired, Rudy was a judge that worked in the US and I am hopefully contacting the right organization with my regrettable news.

It is with a heavy heart that I inform you that Rudy Mietzner passed away on Saturday. After several months with a clear bill of health Rudy's cancer recurred early this year and was unresponsive to treatment. The Friday night that David and I attended the trial in Calgary we were notified that Rudy had been taken to hospital with complications involving his liver. After two weeks in hospital he returned home where he would be more comfortable and, according to his wishes, spend his final days with his family.

Rudy was a well loved mentor and will be well remembered by those whom he brought together through schutzhund. With adjudicating well over 200 trials and rising to become a Canadian national champion, Rudy's substantial contribution to the sport he loved for almost 60 years was the long term resonance of his daily generosity; just as his broad list of accomplishments was a reflection of his daily work ethic and inability to accept anything less than excellence from himself.

Please advise if this was the correct organization, or if you know of another that I should notify, feel free to contact me for any additional information you may need, or a recent photograph.

Kind regards,

Taylor Hack
Alberta Schutzhund Association

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

2010 Regional Directors and Presidents Awards

Dear Club contacts,

I know of one club that has already submitted under this program, and I know another was planning on it. If you have not already done so, please consider making the effort. Success yields $250, a plaque and a collection of nice pins for your members to wear proudly. Last year’s winner was Big Sky SchH Club, and we just donated $100 of our proceeds to the regional fund.

Please let me know if you have questions.

WJ

Friday, August 27, 2010

Regional Championships are coming!

Dear Fellow PNW’rs,

As I hope all of you know, the Regional Championships are but 2 weeks away! We have some talented helpers that have promised to try out, the club has the field in tremendous shape, and Les assures me the tracking fields are in tip top shape. Having seen these fields before, I know what they’re like, and there is no better tracking around. The club has set entry fees as low as possible to encourage entries – only $65!!! Last but not least, the host hotel is still giving folks the discount rate if you mention the club. Check out the website: www.PNWchampionship.com for more details about the venue and locale.

And yet with all of this, they have 4 SchH 3 entries and one SchH 1 entry. Shoot, if I’d have known it would be this light, I’d have figured out a way to get my 8-yr-old dog out there from MT. I know that we have 8 clubs within a day’s drive of this championship. One of the 3’s is from out of the region. That means that 5 of those clubs don’t have another SchH 3 dog??? In case there is some confusion about what a regional championship is for, let me explain:

The Regional Championships are held to showcase the dogs of our region. Certainly this includes the best dogs, but it also means the dogs whose handlers have some pride in their training, and some kind of dedication to the support of the sport – go get that 250 (I got one last year).

The Regional Championships are an opportunity for all of the clubs in the region to engage in a combination of rivalry and mutual support. This is supposed to build morale and a level of camaraderie and a means of exhorting all the members to higher levels of achievement.

The Regional Championships provide a venue for the Regional Meeting, where the best plans can be laid for the next year. I am happy to report that this year’s regional meeting holds no nastiness in the agenda, just opportunities for further building within the region. I’m hoping to find some support for a Regional Training Day (a la “Dogstock” in California) and a revived Team Tournament, as well as the helper seminar, championships and Sieger show.

The sad truth is that if this Region cannot put together a Regional Championship with more than 10 dogs for two years in a row, it will likely cease to exist. Everyone in Washington in Oregon will become part of the Northwest Region; I have no idea what’ll happen to MT and Idaho. Alaska should probably just join GSSCC – they’re closer. There were times when this region did everything with all the animosity that only a dog club can create, but at least people cared enough to get out and train and trial. Now… what, we’re not yelling at each other so we’re all sitting around on our hands looking at our shoes??!! I won’t say I miss all that stress and animosity blasting across the email, but at least there was some passion!

OK, enough of my soapbox. Please consider supporting the regional championship with an entry! To assist, the club has extended the entry deadline to Sept. 6 (Monday) to encourage more entries. I will be sending out an agenda for the Regional meeting this weekend. I would appreciate hearing from all of the clubs in the region that plan on sending a delegate to the meeting. I promise the meeting will be short and sweet (no bylaws changes) and we can retire for some adult beverages afterward.

Thanks for your support of the Pacific Northwest Regional Championships!

Warren Jones
PNWRD

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Helper selection for the PNW Regional Championships.

Dear Sportsfriends,

As all of you know, our Regional Championships are approaching, and we all want the championships to be the best they can be. To that end, it is of utmost importance that we recruit the best helpers we can for the event. If you or someone in your club is a Club Level (or higher) USA Helper, please consider trying out for the championships. Helper tryouts will be on Saturday Sept. 11 following the obedience in the stadium for the 1’s and 2’s. Bring a dog with you capable (even with lots of handler help) of doing a SchH 3 protection routine. You may end up handling your dog for other helpers, or your dog may not end up being used at all, as the judge will decide which dogs to use. The host club will NOT be providing dogs for the helper tryouts.

I know that we have some very talented helpers in the Region that fit this requirement, but I also know that we don’t have a large number. After discussions with the host club, we would like to use 3 helpers for this event – one for the 1’s and 2’s and two for the 3’s. Because of the uncertainty in our ability to attract three club level decoys for tryouts, we have requested a waiver from the USA Helper Committee to allow us to openthe tryouts to Basic Level Helpers. Note that this is not a guarantee that even the most talented Basic Level Helpers will be chosen, since we will only get a waiver to allow Basic Level helpers if there are not enough Club Level and higher helpers to work the event.

Sorry to bury you all in the bureaucracy, but I wanted to be clear about how the process will work. Of course, waiver or not, the judge makes the call of who works which part, and the judge’s decision is final.
I look forward to seeing everyone in a few weeks!

Yours in the sport,

WJ