NEWSLETTER OF THE SOUTHERN COLORADO KENNEL CLUB

Transcription

1 The Barker April, 2010 NEWSLETTER OF THE SOUTHERN COLORADO KENNEL CLUB Pat Lester, Editor From The President s Pen I hope everyone s spring is going well. I just want to update everyone on all the happenings with the club. The Grand Opening for our Training Center has been postponed until the zoning issues are completed no problems, just paperwork. Conformation Steward Training will be held June 19 at the Training Center. Felicity Holloway, our Chief Steward for the shows, is organizing this training day so if you have any questions, please contact her. Jean Hilbig, AKC Tracking Judge, will present a Tracking Seminar designed for beginners June 26. It will consist of lecture time in the AM at the Training Center and tracking demo s in the PM. Cost will be $30 per participant, and $40 per handler/dog team used for demo. If you are interested in using your dog, or to register, please contact Ann Haley at (Continued on page 2) SCKC Officers President: Renee Wolfe rlchessie@comcast.net Vice President: Felicity Holloway fholloway@district70.org Secretary: Crystal Messersmith crystalam1@yahoo.com Treasurer: Flo Andrews floffice@aculink.net SCKC Board Members Joan Jordan: joan1jordan@hotmail.com Tina Wickizer: krystalhi@msn.com Carol Kuhns: loracmarie@yahoo.com Connie Smalley: csmalley@usa.net Lee Arnold AKC Delegate SCKC Web Site SCKC Schedule April 20, 2010 General Membership Meeting, SCKC Training Center, 715 N. Grand Ave., 7:00pm. Bring Your Own Chair! May 4, 2010 Board Meeting, 6:30 pm. May 18, 2010 General Membership Meeting, SCKC Training Center, 715 N. Grand Ave., 7:00 pm. Bring Your Own Chair! June 1, 2010 Board Meeting, 6:30 pm. June 15, 2010 General Membership Meeting, SCKC Training Center, 715 N. Grand Ave., 7:00 pm. Election of Officers/Board Members, Bring Your Own Chair! June 19, 2010 Conformation Steward Training, SCKC Training Center, 715 N. Grand Ave., Contact Felicity Holloway June 26, 2010 Tracking Seminar, SCKC Training Center, 715 N. Grand Ave., Contact Ann Haley ( ).

2 From The President s Pen (continued from page 1) A maximum of six handler/dog teams for demo will be allowed all others will audit the class and demo. Lunch is included. Flyers for the seminar will be sent out to other clubs and will be available at the April membership meeting for club members to distribute The Nominating Committee will present the slate chosen for our Board and Officers at this month s meeting. Nominations from the floor will be allowed at the May membership meeting and elections, if needed, will be at the June membership meeting. These are important meetings; please plan on being in attendance. Don t forget to get your club dues paid by May 31. The annual Summer Outing is in the planning stages with Julie Hughes heading it up. Date and location coming soon. Training classes continue to grow more students and more classes! It s not too late to get plugged into a class, just give Pat Lester a call. As always, I appreciate each one of you and thank you for all the hard work. Together we are achieving great things! Your servant, Renee Wolfe AKC News A total of 29 AKC Licensed clubs hosted 75 Obedience, Rally, and Agility trials during the inaugural weekend of events open to AKC Caning Partner enrollees. During the first weekend more than 500 mixed breeds were entered with six dogs earning titles. Other news: Bayer Animal Health s Advantage and Advantix (flea and tick products) are now available over the counter. They will be sold in pet specialty retail stores and internet outlets. A vaccine to treat canine oral melanoma has been conditionally licensed by the Department of Agriculture. The vaccine (Oncept) was developed by Merial. Brags!!! Gail Kingrey s Australian Shepherd, Tori, finished her championship at Dubuque, Iowa in March. Tori will now move on to herding. Laura Krause earned over 500 ASCA Junior Showmanship points in the past 10 months and has been inducted into the ASCA 500 Club. She will receive a jacket with her name and her dog s (Seeker) embroidered on it. She will also have her name engraved on the 500 Club trophy. Seeker was Winner s Dog at an ASCA show in March for a major. Laura Krause s Australian Shepherd, Seeker, was Winner s Dog at the Scottsbluff, Nebraska show for 1 point. 2

3 From Garden City: Diane Preiss and Nancy Russell s Alaskan Malamute, Storm Cloud s Laskan Cowboy was Best of Winners and Best of Breed both Saturday and Sunday. Lena Garrison s Vizsla, Renegade was Best of Breed on Saturday. Lean was 2 nd in Open Intermediate Showmanship on Friday and 4 th on Saturday. Sam Mead s Lab, Tank was Best of Winners on Sunday for a point. Sam was 4 th in Open Senior Showmanship on Friday and 4 th on Saturday. Kelsey Darnell s Golden Retriever, Sizzle was 3 rd in Open Bitches on Saturday. Kelsey was 3 rd in Open Intermediate Showmanship on Friday and 3 rd on Saturday. Tina Wickizer s granddaughter, Lilli was 3 rd in Open junior Showmanship on Saturday and 3 rd Sunday. on From Tarry-All: Ann Haley s Chessie, MtView Mischief Weaver (Friday finished his championship on Sunday with a major win. Rich Phieffer s Portuguese Water Dog, Annie earned her CDX with a 1 st place. Book Review By Diana Werner Heroic Measures: A Novel, by Jill Ciment. New York: Pantheon Books, (Available at the public library). This brilliant, understated work is about the everyday, unsung heroism of continuing to put one foot in front of the other, for your whole life, no matter what. Alex and Ruth, in their eighties, can no longer deal with their fifth-floor walkup in New York s East Village. They are negotiating the complexities of selling and buying, both at once. Alex s exquisite art is at stake: the right light for a studio, a place to house his works. They need an elevator. Dogs allowed. Meanwhile, New York is in yet another crisis. There have either been two dangerous accidents, or two or maybe one attempted terrorist attacks. Maybe a suicide bomber is on the loose or maybe cornered or maybe not. In any case, New York is in a mild state of panic, and traffic is paralyzed. Dorothy, their dachshund, is as elderly and they. Suddenly she suffers an excruciatingly painful ruptured disc. She is the love of their lives, the focus of all their days, the glue of their ancient marriage, the joy of their hearts. Can they get her through the immobile city to the vet? Could she survive surgery? What will become of them if she doesn t? It s not life or death they ve seen much worse, but they were younger then. It s harder now. And so much of their lives is crumbling under their fingers. But they keep on. One foot after the other. Don t miss this one! 3

4 Southern Colorado Kennel Club General Membership Meeting March 16, 2010 Meeting opened at 7:08 pm. Members present: David & Diana Anaya, Allen Campbell, Lynette Carson, Donna Darnell, Dee Dunlap, Lisa Golob, Milli Goodman, Ann Haley, Pat Hill, Eric Hoffmann, Georgia Hoffmann, Will & Julie Hughes, Pat Lester, Marsha Littau, Marsha Martin, Crystal Messersmith, Joshua & Katie Pope, Diane Preiss, Bob & Nancy Russell, Connie Smalley, Heather Smith, Vickie Trumble, Charlie Turner, Diana Werner, Tina Wickizer, Renee Wolfe, DeeAnn Ying, Rich & Carole Pheiffer. Motion to accept February general membership meeting minutes as written passed. Committees Treasurer s report: Finances are doing well. Motion to accept treasurer s report passed. Nominating committee: Connie Smalley asked for all the membership to consider serving on the board or possibly serving on a committee. The board is a 2 year term. The nominating committee will announce the board nominations at the April general membership meeting. Nominations from the floor will be accepted at the May membership meeting and at the June meeting we will vote. We will be posting the breeder referrals on the web. Please, if you have given Connie your breeder referral for and it isn t on the website, notify her and we will put it on the board review list. Show committee: There are a few openings for help with grounds, and reserved grooming. Rally and obedience will be moved to the natural resources building if it is large enough. June 19 will be our ring steward training. Renee found a tracking judge and she has agreed to put on a tracking seminar. It will be the 26 th of June. Details to follow. We will serve lunch with a seminar in morning and field work in afternoon. There is a limit of 6 dogs for the afternoon session. Building: Renee went to the regional building office to try to get our zoning changed. She went to zoning about parking and they said we will need a special use permit for dog training. Renee had to fill out more paperwork for a special use permit and go to a zoning meeting. Our Grand Opening will be postponed until we know more about our zoning request. We still need painting done and it is scheduled for March 27. Our landlord is still working on getting us a key for the dumpster. We are asking to replace the window with the a/c in it. Dee Dunlap talked to the art dept. at Pueblo Community College and will try to arrange a meeting with them and Renee. Marsha Littau will get some bright tape to mark the step that separates two halves of the building. Standing Rules: the committee needs all suggestions from the membership. Please send to Tina Wickizer. If there is any change in your address, notify Crystal. Classes: Registration is March 31 for all classes. Agility will also start the week after. New Members: Second reading for Cindy Lau. She has a Weimaraner and a Great Dane and is interested in Agility. Second reading for Lanita Lovelace. She has Border Collies, Shelties, and Collies. She is interested in obedience, rally, and agility. Welcome Cindy and Lanita. Unfinished business: We will have flyers made up for our training classes and want to be able to post them around town. A member asked about therapy certification and Christina Ohlsen will be the member to contact. New business: Josh has asked about breed plaques to put on the wall. These could also be used as trophies. Donna Darnell announced May 22, June 19, and July 4 are scheduled for the 4-H dog shows. Will said the 4-H link is no longer valid on our club website. We need to rotate a building key every month to the cleaning sign-up person. Meeting adjourned at 8:10 pm. Respectfully submitted, Crystal Messersmith, SCKC secretary. 4

5 Southern Colorado Kennel Club Board Meeting April 6, 2010 Members Present: Flo Andrews, Felicity Holloway, Tina Wickizer, Renee Wolfe, Crystal Messersmith and guest Pat Lester. Treasurer s report: Finances are healthy. Correspondence: We received our AKC delegate report. Committees: Bylaws committee will meet next week. Training classes: Pat gave a report on all the classes that are coming up and some ideas for future classes. Agility classes will start Members will need to wait for an opening. The general public will get first slots for all classes. Puppy classes are down in number. Some rules have been put in place for those involved in agility. We are getting another dog walk on loan. We have several new instructors. Josh Pope and Rich Pheiffer. We need more assistants to learn how to teach the training classes. Ideas for new classes are needed. One idea is a nose work-scenting class. We want to get started with puppy agility. We have some flyers made up. Show committee: Will Hughes has agreed to be the grounds chair. Donna Darnell will help with trophies and finding sponsors. Scott will sell catalogs and announce. We still need a public education coordinator and a media liaison. We will need some help with the tracking seminar. Julie Hughes will be our summer outing coordinator. It may be a potluck and she will work out details. Ring steward training is Tracking seminar is scheduled for We have renewed all website fees for 2 years. Building: our landlord is fixing the roof leaks and is also going to remove the window a/c and replace the window. We now have a key for the dumpster. We will need an outside potty area to take before the planning commission. We are considering having pictures of all titled dogs for the year to put on the wall. Breeder referrals: We will need to set some criteria for those allowed to put their info on our website. Meeting adjourned at 7:50 pm. Renee will look at some dates. Connie is trying to get the breeder referral up on the website. She will need to double check if she has everyone who submitted a referral. Elections are in June. We need a nominating committee. All board members are up for re-election except Joan and Connie. Connie will head the committee. Renee will contact a few people to see if they are willing to serve on the nominating committee. Meeting adjourned at 7:55 pm. Respectfully submitted, Crystal Messersmith, Secretary. Training News Training classes and schedule are posted on the website as well as in the SCKC Training Center. Recent additions: Marsha Littau is conducting an agility class on Monday evenings. Interested members will be put on a waiting list if they would like to take this class. Rich Phieffer is now teaching an intermediate class on Thursdays. Thanks, Pat, for putting together such a comprehensive training program! 5

6 Detector Dogs Down Under Reprinted with permission from the AKC Gazette, January On a busy morning at Sydney International Airport the tireless customs officers report for duty. In the baggage claim area, they patrol passengers arriving from overseas. They ll each cover six flight arrivals a day, on average, but they might also check on cargo containers or the mail center. They re an elite team. But they re mostly in it for the rolled-up towel. Just a little game of tug-of-war with their handlers is all these handsome Labrador Retrievers get when they sniff out a haul of illegal drugs or a trace of explosives. It s a modest reward but incredibly valuable work. The 66 four-legged Customs and Border Protection officers working Australia are among the country s most valuable defense tools. Whelped at the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (ACBPS) National Breeding and Development Centre outside Melbourne, they belong to one of the most successful working-dog breeding programs in the world. Since 1993, ACBPS has bred more than 1,600 puppies, most of them deployed at airports and borders, as well as to the federal and state police forces, to prisons and to the military. The ACBPS-bred dogs are also in demand internationally and have been placed in 14 countries, including Guam, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Angola, China, and the United States. It s good diplomacy, says John Vandeloo, the founding manager of the breeding-program center. Puppy diplomacy! Building a Bond The affiliation between detector-dog personnel from ACBPS and the U.S. government was in place before the events of September 11, 2001, but the tragedy strengthened the connection. I was at a breeding conference with John Vandeloo on September 11, says Dave Kontny, former director of the National Explosives Detection Canine Team Program for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Administration (DHA) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). He now works in another division of DHS. I will always remember John coming over and asking how he and his country could help. We had received our first breeding stock from the ACBPS in early 2000 but were barely getting started. They helped accelerate our breeding program. Success Stories The two other American groups SCBPS has donated breeding dogs and expertise to are the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, and Auburn University s Canine & Detection Research Institute in Alabama. For years, they had a team of scientists studying the canine s nose, to try to replicate it in machines, Vandeloo says of the renowned Auburn University facility. But towards the end of the 90s, they threw their hands up in the air and said, We can t! Why don t we do ourselves a favor and try to improve the traditional biological system, like the Aussies are! As useful as x-ray and other high-tech scanners are, there s nothing like a cold, wet nose when it comes to sniffing our trouble. Dogs are Mother Nature s detection system, Vandeloo says. It s a marvelous thing, although I don t think we fully understand the depth or power of it. A dog s sense of smell is said to be anywhere from 10 times better than a human s to more than 100,000 times superior. To quote an instructor at the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol s Canine Enforcement Training Center, Humans smell a stew. Dogs smell the carrots, the potatoes, the meat. They break it down. 6

7 On the job, this translates to a caning team being able to examine a vehicle in five to six minutes. Compare that to the cursory once-over by a Customs and Border Protection officer without a detector dog, which would take at least 20 minutes. The great thing about dogs is they re so portable, Vandeloo says. And they re capable of vapor detection and particle detection. A lot of the machines available are only (good for) one or the other. A Program Is Born When the ACBPS program began in the 60s, dogs were recruited from shelters and families. We used to interview 1,000 dogs to get one who could enter training, Vandeloo says. The breeding program came about as a way to improve those results. The first step was to settle on Labrador Retrievers, which were chosen for their versatility, temperament, and strong drive to hunt and retrieve. In 1993, Vandeloo and ACBPS teamed up with Melbourne University and Australian guide-dog associations to conduct a three-year study on what would make a Lab the perfect detector dog. The results showed that traits such as the desire to hunt and retrieve were genetic. But so was fear which can be the undoing of a working dog. What we established, Vandeloo says, is that these puppies had the ability to change their body chemistry to suit the world they re born into. By selecting dogs with the strongest positive traits, and not breeding those with strong negative traits, Vandeloo and his crew hoped to create a growing brood of superdogs. Drawing on research done by the U.S. military in the 70s, environmental factors were used such as handling pups from a young age. If you expose puppies to the rigors of the world, they ll develop enough adrenalin to cope, Vandeloo explains. This blend of science and experience resulted in the sought-after program of today. We d hoped that after three generations, one out of three puppies would enter training. In fact, we had one in two going in with about 80 percent graduating. The program is now six generations in, with 53 percent of puppies suitable for training, such as law enforcement. (Customs and border-protection training is considered more rigorous than other law-enforcement training that may use food rewards rather than play rewards.) Vandeloo has also spearheaded the development of a global gene bank to ensure the quality bloodlines for future generations of detector dogs. We (the DHS) are honored to be part of this important effort, Kontny says. TSA still seeks John s tutelage. The professional networking that has been established with one of our closest allies is invaluable. The Cost of an Elite Squad The ACBPS dogs may be willing to work for peanuts or, more precisely, the enduring hope of some quality time chomping on that rolled-up towel but how much does it cost to produce an elite detector dog? Expenses include everything from training staff to the dog food ACBPS provides to foster families raising puppies in their homes, but Vandeloo is reluctant to name a price. I can tell you that the figure is extremely small, compared to the mechanical technology out there. Some people use figures of $70,000 per dog. But, really, they re priceless. Look at these precious creatures, however, and it can be hard to tell them apart from the lazy Lab who might be snoozing on your couch. They re no different to look at, Vandeloo admits. But to do this work, the dogs need to be finely tuned extremely fit and healthy. We like to think of them as our Olympians. They re the best of the best. Southern Colorado Kennel Club 7

8 7590 Soda Creek Rd. Pueblo, CO May / June Calendar of Events May 8 th 9 th Obedience and Rally Trial, Mountain States Dog Training Club, Adams County Fairgrounds, Brighton. Robert Miller May 8 th 9 th USDAA Agility, Front Range Agility Club, Adams County Fairgrounds, Brighton. hopes@yahoo.com. May 15 th 16 th UKC Obedience and Rally Trial, Boulder County Fairgrounds, Longmont. Fugetts@yahoo.com. May 21 st 23 rd AKC agility, Douglas County Fairgrounds, Castle Rock. LookoutTS@aol.com. May 21 st 23 rd Breed, Obedience and Rally, Durango Kennel Club, Cortez, CO. Onofrio, Supt. May 28 th 29 th Breed, Obedience and Rally, Central Wyoming KC, Casper Wyoming. Onofrio, Supt. May 28 th 29 th DOCNA Agility, Friendship Academy, Peyton. May 30 th 31 st Breed, Obedience and Rally, Laramie Kennel Club, Laramie, Wyoming. Onofrio, Supt. May 28 th 31 st ASCA Memorial Day Weekend shows, Australian Shepherd conformation, all breed agility, obedience, and stock dog trial, Elbert County Fairgrounds, Kiowa. 8