News and InformationSeptember 2003
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New Agility Champion!!
Ron Frater is now the proud owner of WAG's fifth Agility Champion, namely his little Border Collie, Gem.  Gem collected the last Challenge Certificate required to gain the title at the Auckland Canine Agility Club champ show in July.  Fellow club members managed to suitably douse Ron with bottles of champagne, washed off with several buckets of water!
Don't forget!!
WAG Triple Championship Show, Saturday 13th & Sunday 14th September 2003
Please contact Bernie McClumpha (829 8853) if you are able to help out at our show.
Website
Remember to check out the WAG website on www.oocities.org/waikatoagility for updated competition results.  If you have any suggestions, articles or other information that you feel could be added to the website, please email Ron at borders@xtra.co.nz
National Dog Training Assembly
The NDTA is held every year over Labour weekend.  The venue rotates around the five geographical "zones" which the country is divided into, with this year's NDTA being held in Palmerston North.  The NDTA attracts agiliteers from all over the country, as well as those competing in Obedience and Trials (tracking).
One of the highlights is always the inter-zone team competition, where four agility handlers and dogs are selected to represent their zone in a separate competition to see which zone takes home the coveted Inter-zone Agility Shield.  For the third year in a row, we are proud to report that Katrina & Murphy have won the right to represent Zone 1 (Zone 1 essentially being the top of the North Island - Hamilton to Kaitaia).
Zone 1 have only won the shield once, in 1997, when our very own Sandy Rostron was part of the team with her border/goldie cross, Shelley.
Building fund progress
Some awesome progress on the building fund!  From our July fundraising show we made in excess of $2,500.00, plus a further $960.00 profit from the raffle!  A huge thank you to everyone who helped at the show and also to those who sold raffle tickets to friends, family and work-mates.
We have also just been advised that our application for a donation from Trust Waikato has been successful and we will be receiving a payment of $5,000.00!!
The building fund has now skyrocketed to over $16,000.00 in total.  Our hard-working Building Sub-committee is in the process of preparing applications to funding providers, along with other initiatives, e.g.:
We will be holding a second garage sale on Saturday 11 October, which is being coordinated by Amanda and Anna.  Please advise if you can assist with pricing of goods on the Friday before, or helping man the stand on the Saturday.  And of course, all donations of goods will be greatly appreciated
An agility seminar has been tentatively arranged for the weekend of 22nd & 23rd November.  We are looking to attract 20 people from other clubs who would like the opportunity of 2 days training at the best club in the country! (for the appropriate fee, of course!).  A Saturday night bar-b-que/social get-together is planned.  To help attract out-of-towners, we would like to offer accommodation by way of billet, so if you would be willing to assist by providing a night's bed and breakfast, please contact Sandy Rostron (829 8664)
We hope to repeat the agility calendars that were so successful last year.  If anyone has a particularly good agility action photo, please e-mail it to Ron at borders@xtra.co.n
Term dates for 2003;
Term Four
From;October 9
To;December 11
Instructors for Term Three
Beginners Novice 1 Novice 2 Intermediate Competition
Keri Wheaton Janette Turner Bevan Paterson Kara Goddard Bernie McClumpha
829 7909 854 9453 829 7017 846 2257 829 8853
Amanda Hayward Nick Chester Jane Mason Sandy Rostron Fiona Ferrar
823 6424 07 878 7108 829 8664 021 346 623
Janet Smith
855 0870
We are desperately seeking people to assist with instructing.  Talk to your instructor or a committee member if you would like to become involved.
Wallies of the month
Kim at training one night: "Come on Talie, come on.  Talie come here.  Talie! Talie come here! Talie come on, you'e not tied up, oh, yes you are"
Then there was Bevan swearing and cursing at the effing photocopier that wouldn't copy no matter what he did - until Sandy came along and switched it on!
Lastly, Amanda defending the honour of the club at a recent show, when a Cambridge member was getting cheeky about WAG so she biffed an apple core at him.  Trouble was, he ducked and the apple core smacked into the face of some poor unsuspecting innocent who was attending her first show (and possibly her last??!!).
Newsletter input
Members are welcome to submit articles, news or items of interest for inclusion in the newsletter.  Contact Trisha Frater or Kim Orlando-Reep.
Sponsorship
Don't forget to support our generous sponsor, Bosch Pet Foods NZ, suppliers of premium quality dog and cat food.  Every purchase of Bosch product earns member rewards, entitling you to free product.  In addition, every time a club member purchases Bosch product, reward points are also awarded to the club, which allows us to get free product for raffles etc.  Phone 0800 B O S C H D O G or see Sandy Rostron for more details.
WAG agility equipment
If you wish to borrow equipment, or discover anything needing repair please see Katrina.
Recent Agility Link Results
Club teams
                           April   May   June
WAG Division 1   2nd     3rd     1st
WAG Division 2   7th     3rd     2nd
WAG Division 3   8th     3rd     8th
Individuals attaining top 10 in NZ
April: Katrina & Murphy 10th                
May:  Ron & Gem 9th  
June: Bernie & Casey 4th   John M Delta 5th   Ron Gem 7th   Katrina  Murphy 8th
Club improver of the month
April: Mike Carbon   May: Keri N & Jessie   June: Chris &a Chester
Thoughts on training
(reproduced from a message posted to the NZ Agility e-group by Fiona Hodgson, agility judge, senior agility handler and one of the original agiliteers in New Zealand)
There are a few agility truths and good maxims that we seem to forget at times when we look at our sport - we all know them but sometimes choose to ignore them. These are not mine but are a sample of the way we should look at our training. I thought some of you might be interested in them.
Our dog's behaviour is a reflection of our handling and training. Take it any way you like but its a truth you can't go past. Whether it be in the dog's behaviour toward other dogs, other people, or on the obstacles, we are responsible for that performance.
You get what you reward! You may not get what you want but you definitely get what you reward (in the dog's eyes).
Be goal oriented and not result oriented. A goal-oriented handler/trainer is almost never disappointed and sees every experience in the ring as building toward a long-term plan and not a ribbon from today's round.
Run with Intent - ambling around a course is a waste of many things - you can drive without sprinting, you can run with intent without running out of breath!!
Every Action is a question. Every time I ask my dog for something, I am asking a question of him. Can you enter the weave from here? Can you go over to that tunnel by yourself? Can you wait on the start line? Every time we ask a question like this in the ring, the dog gives us an answer. This is valuable information and should help us improve our training all the time.
A disqualification is as valuable piece of information as a clear round - maybe not quite a desirable, but certainly as valuable. Whether the answer we get, is what we expect is irrelevant. If the answer is "no" then you have more training to do. As long as you are continuing to push your own boundaries there will always be times when the answer is "not today" or "not yet" - which brings me to:
"Aiming for average only results in lowering the average". We are, as handlers, very good at training the bare minimums and then getting upset when its not sufficiently proofed, either in terms of speed or reliability, when we enter the ring. My dog can go in and out of the poles and therefore I have trained the weave! WHAT? How many pre-requisites does your dog's obstacle performance have? Do you have to be here, do this, etc for each obstacle? Again all of these things trained to the minimum performance. What happens when the dog meets foreign gear? Has he been taught that slamming the seesaw on the ground is a game? Or is it something you negotiate very carefully in case something goes wrong?
We often hear people being very defeatist about their particular dog and its speed/skills instead of working hard to gain the handling skills that enable the dog to make the most efficient execution of the course. Having said that, do you "Train" your dog? Or do you just practice your Band-Aids each week. What is the last new skill you taught? Do you go to training with definite goals and aims? Or do you just go down and pop your dog mindlessly over several unrelated obstacles or the most recently remembered piece of course? Because this dog is never going to be the very best in the country, does not mean that we shouldn't be training it as if he will. Not to make your dog into the best he can be but sitting back and complaining that you never do very well is to cheat your dog, your trainer and yourself.
Isn't the beauty of our sport that there is never an end point? Never a time when our dogs know it all and our handling is perfect? There are always a few fractions of a second that can be taken off, a half-metre of ground we could save.
Don't concentrate on someone else's performance. There will always be someone coming along who can go faster, turn tighter, has more skills. Get used to it and get over it and get on with doing your own best and not someone else's best.
And that I guess brings us to the very oldest of all agility truths "Train don't complain"
Club committee positions
Ron Frater President / Link coordinator
Joanne Small VP / Uniform / Training coordinator
Trisha Baird Treasurer
Anna Clarkson Secretary / Stationery
Michael Baird Enrolments
Katrina Clarke Equipment
Kara Goddard Instructor coordinator
Amanda Hayward Catering
Bernie McClumpha Zone delegate
Keri Neilson HDOC liaison / Results recorder
Kim Orlando-Reep Newsletter
Sandy Rostron Sponsorship
Keri Wheaton Ribbons / Trophies / Judges contracts
Positions held outside of committee:
Simon Jorgensen Membership
Trisha Frater Newsletter
Show sub-committee Ron Frater, Amanda Hayward, Bernie McClumpha, Sherryn Paterson, Keri Wheaton
Building sub-committee Simon Jorgensen, Alan McClumpha, Keri Neilson
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