Den Talk President's Corner Southwest Jack Russell Terrier Network An affiliate of the Jack Russell Terrier Club of America Februar y 2 013 I am very excited to be writing to you! I am very grateful to all of you who voted for me to be your President for the next few years! I have a lot of plans to help make our club one of the best in the country! I will be working very hard toward this goal! One of the things that I believe will help us achieve this goal is for every one of us to regard this as their personal goal! We all need to put the club in a position of importance in our lives and to make sure to do what we can to help when asked. The trials we sponsor take a lot of WORK to put on. And it is important for each of us to find the area that we are interested in helping with. Please look for something you would like to help with. It is my #1 goal to get more of you all to be involved with the club. Please bring your ideas and suggestions to me, one of the board members or trial administrators. We need all the help we can get! REMEMBER, This is YOUR CLUB! We put trials on so you can have fun with your dogs! Not for our own benefit. It will take all of us to have a successful trial. We are very pleased to have Joe Shapiro judging GTG for us at this trial. He is coming from Indiana and is one of the hunting judges in the JRTCA. He will be holding a Hunting Seminar after conformation on Saturday. Please come and listen to him explain about hunting in the field. We will also have a day in the field with him on Monday April 29 th. We also are blessed to have David Day, also a JRTCA judge, who lives here in Texas. He will be going with us in the field. This is open to a few people who are interested in learning about taking their terriers hunting. We will go to a place where we can go in the woods and see what real hunting is all about first hand. If you have wondered what all the excitement is about and have never had the chance please let me know and we will put you on the list. This is open to 5 or 6 people who HAVE NEVER HUNTED with their dogs. You will need to make arrangements to stay an extra night or maybe 2 at the hotel as we will be hunting all day on Monday Weather Permitting. Contact Karen Toombs 903-312- 8258. The place we will hunt has not yet been picked so watch for info on our Facebook page and on our website. I m looking forward to serving. If you have questions please feel free to ask me. I will try to help in any way I can. Sincerely, Karen Toombs President SWJRTN Inside this issue: President's Corner 1 Club Officers 2 Get Connected 2 Treasurer's Report 2 Attention! 2 Play Day Info 3 Spring Fling 4 Texas Two Step 5 Best of True Grit 6 Spring Fox Frolic 9 SWJRTN App 10 JRTCA App 11 Upcoming Events: Play Day Feb 16 Texas Two Step Mar 2-3 Play Day Mar 16 Spring Fling Apr 27-28 Fall Festival TBD We will host a day in the field with Joe Shapiro and David Day for a few novice hunters
2 Club Officers Get Connected! Karen Toombs, President president@swjrtn.com SWJRTN Website www.swjrtn.com JRTCA Website www.therealjackrussell.com Janel Vincent, Vice President vicepresident@swjrtn.com Facebook Page www.facebook.com/groups/swjrtn JRTCA Texas State Representatives Nancy Rice, Secretary secretary@swjrtn.com Jean Wallwin jwallwin@hotmail.com Ed Seifert, Treasurer treasurer@swjrtn.com Lisa Dernick lisadernick@comcast.net Kent Anderson, Past President kanderson619@yahoo.com Priscilla David rafterj7ranch@verison.net Tressie Cowen tressiecowen@aol.com Treasurer's Report Balance on 1/31: $8,939.86 Attention all Russell Wranglers We are seeking volunteers to serve as chairmen for trial events and related activities. Maybe you're a seasoned JRT veteran, or maybe you are new, we'd love to have your help. We will discuss these positions at our play day and at the Spring Fling. Here are the tentative chairman positions we are seeking. Racing Go-To-Ground Youth Conformation Other Events o Lure o Brush Hunt/Barn Hunt o Trailing/Locating Equipment Communications Hospitality Play Day Golf Tournament Fund Raising If any of these sound like something you'd be interested in, please contact Karen Toombs or Janel Vincent. Thank you for your support!
SWJRTN Play Days -- Feb 16 and Mar 16 3 Please join us for a day of fun with your terrier! This is a day just for you and your JRT to try out something new. We welcome firsttime folks and there will be many people available to show you how to start your puppy or adult dog on a variety of activities. We will set up racing, go-to-ground and agility. Plus on Feb 16 Janel Vincent will conduct a conformation tutorial. This is a great way to let your JRT burn off energy. A tired JRT is a happy JRT. We will have a potluck lunch with the club supplying the main course so if you can, bring a side dish or dessert. We will also have a short business meeting. It's all geared for fun and fellowship for JRTs and the people that love them. Check the website for directions to the facility or contact one of us! Dates: February 16 and March 16 Time: 9 am to 4 pm Location: Gold Medal Dog Training Center, 18588 Jerry Joy Road, Justin, Texas 76247 Please register on the website to give us an idea of attendance. $15/family - Members $20/family - Non-Members For further information contact: Cheryl Earnshaw - 817-689-0601 or chijacks@gmail.com Ed Seifert - 817-994-9595 or ed@seiferthouse.com Karen Toombs - 903-312-8258 or pilotmom2@gmail.com Have you renewed your membership? Members of the SWJRTN benefit from reduced prices on play days and reduced entry fees at SWJRTN terrier trials. A family membership is just $30 per year, a single membership is just $20 per year and a youth membership is just $15. Lifetime memberships are $200. You can renew online with PayPal on our website or you can complete the attached form and mail it along with your payment to: SWJRTN, 7001 Boulevard 26, Suite 600, Ft. Worth, TX 76180-9785
6 From "The Best of True Grit" ENTERING YOUR JACK RUSSELL by Mary Vale of KY June 1987 I have been asked a few times lately, "How old should your Jack Russell be before you start working him, and how do you go about it?" I have not had the experience of professional terriermen like Greg Mousley and Eddie Chapman, but I have started a few dogs in my day and made some gaffs in the process, along with some observations that might prove useful to others. But remember, each dog is an individual, they are all different. They all have their own rate of progress. Also, different strains seem to have different ages for starting. For example, we have two littermates here; the male was an early started, at age 7 months he was going to ground and baying steadily at groundhogs, while his sister paid no attention to the proceedings. He would press and push, just a very enthusiastic worker, and got more clever with age. Meanwhile his sister cared nothing about what was going on down there. At age 14 months the bitch entered, a very aggressive worker, taking a lot of bites but never backing down until the muskrat was taken. (Note, muskrats are highly aggressive and have teeth like razors.) Now, the sire of that litter is a hard dog and was a late starter, while the mother and her parents are good baying dogs who were early starters. So, the crux of the matter is that the dog will start when he or she is mentally ready. You can assist the process by making sure that the dog is exposed to the scents of the wild and is taken along at a suitable age to observe digs. Puppies. For us, the process of starting a puppy begins at about 3 to 3-1/2 months. This is when they begin to go for walks in the fields. We have a puppy route that has abandoned holes and is loaded with moles and field mice. The holes are in the fence line and the mice are in the cornfield and the hayfields. Your puppy will be very interested in the variety of strange smells the first time out; after that, if the dog comes from a working strain, it will start noticing the mice. The digging process starts and one of these days you will see the little darling coming toward you with a mouse in his mouth, very proudly showing off his catch. This goes on until the pup has his permanent teeth. Big thing, permanent teeth. NEVER, NEVER take a pup anywhere where he can get into something that he can't whip, you will break his spirit and the pup may never go back to work. Bide your time; after all, the dog will be working for a lifetime and you will have plenty of opportunities to see how good he is when he is mature enough to show you. At 6 or 7 months he can start going along on the lead. When the groundhog or whatever is lifeless, let him have a sniff and worry the carcass a bit. Don't fall into the trap of getting your puppy take on the game alive above ground with other dogs. It is a cruel practice to the game, the idea is hunting, not baiting and cruelty. The second reason is, it's a good way to get your dog hurt, mainly by the other dogs. I see a lot more bites taken with this barbaric practice above ground than below. So, use some common sense. Don't put your dog in a hole with another dog in front or behind him, he can either be pushed into the quarry or push another dog into it or bite or be bitten by another dog. This is a very high excitement situation - caution is the key. If you think that there is a chance he is ready, remove the other dog and slip the lead, see if he will go down and mark the quarry. If he won't, put him back on the lead - nothing worse than a loose dog getting in the way. Also, the dog learns that if he works he is rewarded by the opportunity to work, and if not, he stays on the lead. Don't be discouraged if the dog shows hesitation to go to ground - after all, it's dark down there and that game is tough! This takes time and patience, if you do it right the rewards are boundless, you own a real working terrier!
7 ENTERING YOUR JACK RUSSELL (continued) The other side of the fence is to protect your puppy. Some Jack Russells will start going through holes at eight or nine weeks, instinct is strong. Make sure those holes are EMPTY!! Keep your puppy under restraint at all times when out where there could be game. And again, no matter how keen the puppy, make sure he has his PERMANENT teeth before he gets into something that can hurt him. With no defense, he could be seriously hurt. Older Dogs. The process is the same; an older dog that has not been exposed to a hunting situation will rarely perform on the first try. Again, exposure is the key. Keep taking him along with other dogs who are working, keep him on the lead, don't get upset if he doesn't get the hang of it at the first try. The excitement of the dogs underground will be transmitted to him; sooner or later he will decide he wants to try it too. It may take a month, maybe a year, but the more you take the dog out, the faster he will pick it up.
Spring Fox Frolic VII and VIII April 27-28, 2013 in Southern California 9 Please come join us at the Lake Perris State Recreation Area in Riverside County for the 2013 Spring Fox Frolic, sponsored by the South Coast Jack Russell Terrier Club. Saturday conformation: Sandra Ferber, Syosset, NY Sunday conformation: Nancy Breakstone, Westport CT Saturday Go-to-Ground/Sunday SuperEarth: John Miranda, New York, NY Saturday SuperEarth: Tressie Roark, Dallas, TX Sunday Go-to-Ground: Brenda Treuthardt, Wellington, CO Racing, Lure Coursing and Brush Hunt both days. Sanctioned Agility on Saturday, with Fun Runs on Sunday. Games on Saturday, Trailing and Locating on Sunday. Special weekend high point awards for Companion Terrier, Rescued Russell and Super Senior! Information: Jill-Marie Jones, trial chair, (714) 693-0639, jmjones3874@gmail.com Angela Domiani, trial secretary, (909) 238-3862, angela.domiani@gmail.com
10
11