25/10/2023
Wow! What a GREAT Weekend! So happy to see so many people come together in this Region to help each other reach many accomplishments.
Bay Area Schutzhund Club did a top notch job of putting on the show this past weekend! They started on Friday and did many character assessments for the dogs! If you are not aware, the SV is now requiring these for dogs born after July 1, 2020. It is a really fun way to see the true character of your young dog! We look forward to seeing more of them in the future!
Saturday brought an incredibly busy day with class after class of dogs getting their show rating! People grabbed other peoples dog to help run them in the ring. One thing we all learned...we NEED to do this more often as a Region to help us all train our dogs a bit better! Look for some exciting training plans coming in this area!
But Saturday was not done with the show! After the show was done, our trial started...yes, you read that right! In order to assist some people who wanted to qualify for Nationals, but just missed it at Regionals, Gold Country Working Dog Club worked around the show so that those competitors could fulfill their goals. A Huge shoutout to Judge Heidi Theis, who after showing her dog as well as many others on Saturday, then set about to Judge a trial, set up a few doors away! We did obedience, protection, and lest we forget two USCA breed surveys for the those that needed them. I heard there was a GREAT judges dinner Saturday night, but we wouldn't know, as we were watching some amazing helper work by Ronin B Ronin as the sun set! Thank you to Stacy for stepping up to ensure that dogs got the chance to make their way to Nationals! We need more like you!
Sunday started early with tracking...headlights were going at 06:45 in Elk Grove while we completed the trial! We got to see some beautiful tracking!! By 8:40, we had the tracks run, the paperwork done and we all split up! Back to Vacaville for the Breed Surveys!
Bay area continued doing an awesome job getting us all through the breed survey! The breed surveys started; people set off on Ad's while we continued with more breed surveys. Once again, people just stepped in to lend a hand! Many discussions about dogs and breeding and much learning happened on Sunday, wrapping up with a great Judge's Lunch (so happy to have made that one!)!!
While this weekend was exhausting, it was also exhilarating! This is what the sport is about! Regardless of where we train, we all came together to help each other, have fun, and reach our goals! We got to encourage the younger generation (sorry I don't have a pic of little Ajay handling and how proud he was of "his" dog. We discussed the need for more training and I look forward to rolling that out over the next few weeks!
Great job to everyone involved in setting up, volunteering, helping people at the event, or before! Its good to see such a positive schutzhund community come together for its members! I only hope we will continue to grow it from here! Without our clubs, there is no sport. Congratulations to all the new titles, show rating, breed surveys, etc...that occurred this weekend!
