2008 HOT / Youth / Obedience Championships

This event is approaching fast — June 19 - 22. OG Buckeye will be hosting it at the historic Akron Rubber Bowl in Akron, Ohio. We have over a dozen unique vendors lined up for the four days of the trial. This is shaping up to be one of the outstanding national events of the year!

We have a number of really nice prizes that will be on the raffle -- Tritronics has donated one of their best training collars as well as a bark limiter collar, Ben and Yvette Woodward of the Vienna Bike Shop in Vienna, WV have donated a moutain bike worth over $500, and Michelle Testa is donating a hand-drawn portrait of your dog! Ray Allen has donated a number of nice training items for the raffle.

Each vendor is also donating items for the daily raffle.

To register for the event, visit the event website at www.2008hotusa.com

Regional Events

• 2008 Regional Championships are scheduled for August 29-31, 2008
  The Greater Cincinnati Schutzhund Club will be the hosting club. Watch the Regional Trial Website for updates ... www.MidEastRegional.com
• Regional Conformation Show is scheduled for September 13 & 14, 2008
  Cedar Hill Working Dog Club will host the event.

National Events

WUSV Helpers Selected

Photo by Mark Scarberry

Back Row: Chris Carr, Shane Garrehy, Clark Neimentalo, Lotus Perkins, Jim Laubmeier, Jose Lopez, Gunther Diegal
Front Row: Dan Cox & Chuck, Rick Napolitano & Zino, Pat Kennedy & Engie, Mike Diehl & Eick, Nate Harves & Stuka, Jeff Lund & Xato, Tom Huelsman & Hascan

Six USA Helpers — Chris Carr, Jose Lopez, Clark Niementalo, Lotus Perkins, Shane Garity and Jim Laubmeier traveled to Cincinnati for the 2008 WUSV Helper Tryouts on Monday, March 3.

Representatives from the USA WUSV Committee as well as the WUSV were present for the tryouts. Gunther Diegal from the WUSV conducted the tryout and selected the following four helpers for the 2008 WUSV World Championships:

• Shane Garity
• Jim Laubmieier
• Clark Niementalo
• Lotus Perkins

Thanks to all six for accepting the invitation to attend tryouts and represent USA and congratulations to the final four selected for the WUSV World Championship!

Thanks also to the handlers from the Mideastern region who provided strong dogs to test the mettle of the helpers at this tryout at the Greater Cincinnati Schutzhund Club field.

• Rick Napolitano with Zino vom Meiko SchH3, IPO3, HOT
• Nate Harves with SG Stuka vom Enckhausen SchH3, IPO3, FH, Kkl1, HOT
• Jeff Lund with To-Fast Enzo BHP3, SchH3, IPO3, Kkl2 and Xato von Germanenquelle SchH3, IPO3, Kkl1
• Pat Kennedy with SG Engie van den Rohdenhoek SchH3, IPO3, BHP1, Kkl2
• Mike Diehl with V Eick von der Berger Hochburg SchH3, FH, Kkl1
• Dan Cox with Chuck vom Dorneburger Bach SchH1
• Mel Greba with Abel vom Reichtal SchH2
• Tom Huelsman with SG Hascan vom Adelmannsfelder Land SchH3, IPO3, BSP, Kkl2

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General Board Meeting Delegates

Please read the General Board Meeting announcement on the USA website. ( Click here to visit the USA Website.)

It's important that we get as many clubs as possible to attend the General Board meeting in Atlanta. This meeting is held in conjunction with the USA Nationals. The delegates form must be submitted to the USA Secretary at least 30 days prior to the November 8^th meeting.

USA Nationals Helpers Selected

The USA Executive Board has unaminously approved the following slate of helpers for the USA Nationals. They are:

• Shane Garrehy
• Jim Laubmeier
• Clark Niemitalo
• Lotus Perkins

Many of you may recall Lotus and Clark from their work at our 2006 Mideastern Regional Championship and again at the USA National Championship.

No USA Sanctioned Events During WUSV

No USA sanctioned events will be scheduled on the same weekend as the 2008 WUSV Championship. The event will be held October 9–12, 2008.

E-Ballot #18-07 - Reimbursement of USA Representative at H.O.T. Championship

Motion by Bill Plumb, seconded by Sara Wallick, to reimburse Terry Macias $629.48 for travel expenses incurred attending the H.O.T. Championship to represent the USA President.

Results: Yes–19 (Lyle Roetemeyer, Randall Hoadley, Sara Wallick, Bill Plumb, Mark Przybylski, Tim Burke, Al Govednik, Terry Macias, Howie Rodriguez, Nathaniel Roque, Bill Bimrose, Pia Blackwell, Arthur Collins, Jerrold Gray, Randy Kromer, Michelle Kutelis, Lynne Lewis, Mark Scarberry, David Witmer), No–1 (Steve Cobb), ABS–1 (Kevin Sheldahl). Motion carried 7/12/07.

Ohio SB-173

The Ohio Senate is considering a bill dealing with kennels and dog breeding. The bill, SB-173

For the current text of the bill, Click Here. The underlined text is language that the bill's sponsors propose to insert in the existing law. Text that is printed as strike-out text highlights provisions or language to be removed. The bill will be discussed in committee when the legislature meets again in the fall. Section #956 contains the bulk of the changes.  The panel to the right has a link to the bill's current status, a plain-language explaination of the proposal, and a list of the bill's current sponsors.

2008 WUSV Work List

Here is a listing of all the clubs and folks who have stepped up to help out at the 2008 WUSV Championships. May folks have stepped forward but we still need more help. Is your name on this list?

Contact your club president or the regional director to see how you can help make this a great event!

Club Reports

We have added a section for club trial reports. This is a brief description of your trial. It's an excellent place to spotlight new members, titles, or other special achievements. Roger Hertz of Der Michigan Schutzhund und Polizei opens this section with a nice account of their spring trial. Thanks, Roger!

SV release protocol

In accordance with the resolution of WUSV-General Assembly, the application for the SV judge’s release must be submitted four weeks prior to the scheduled date of the event. Submissions later than four weeks will automatically be rejected by the SV. This also applies to clubs sharing a judge. (both clubs must have their release submitted 4wk prior) Clubs must always pay the 100.00 EUR for the SV processing fee. There is no refund or credit of the fee, even if the event is cancelled.

In short, make certain the SV release is completed at least four weeks prior to your trial. This applies even if the original judge can not make the trial or if your trial date has been changed.

2008 WUSV Volunteers!

USA GEARS UP FOR 2008 WUSV WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Executive Ballot Results

Cincinnati Helper Seminar On March 3, the Greater Cincinnati club sponsored a helper seminar with Teaching Helper, Mark Scarberry. Those attending included: L-R front row: Nate Harves, Darren Simms, Zach Nussbaum, Sean Myers Middle Row: Dominic Scarberry, Mark Scarberry, Tom Huelsman, Dave Robinson, Dan Cox, Jason Wiggins Back Row: Mike Schartner, Brian Reynolds Mark Scarberry teaching helper ran the seminar

USA Direction

The Sieger show is only two months away but once that is completed the BAC can address a number of topics for our membership. I would like to hear from you as to what you think the biggest obstacles have been to improving our breed and our organization. I have started a list of topics that we should discuss; several of these items have come from fellow board members recently. This list is not all inclusive and is met to only be a starting point.

• Junior Handler Program should we have one and if so, in what format?
• Microchips- we need to educate our membership on the pros and cons of chips vs. tattoos. DNA Program- with the new breed registry paperwork up and running we have the ability to add DNA numbers to the pedigree. Do we simply take the AKC process and rubber stamp it or do we add additional conditions to the process before we approve it?
• USA website- there is a very active website committee and we can greatly improve the information on the site. What information should we add or change? With the new database system it may be possible to build an online show catalog tool.
• Puppy packets- we need to provide to our membership that registers litters with USA, packets that they can give their puppy buyers. Some items we may want to include in the packet are USA membership applications, the breed standard, a description of Schutzhund, and helpful tips on raising a Schutzhund puppy.
• Sieger show site selection process- always a volatile topic but a better method needs found that benefits the majority of USA members. This topic is also under review by the EB for all USA working events.
• How do we increase club shows? New USA judges, SV judge sharing, make it a requirement to have a conformation show at club level?
• A thorough explanation of the regulations regarding breed surveys needs to be published. I have worked many hours recently researching this topic and will be forwarding it to you soon for comments and suggestions prior to public publication.
• We also need to clearly explain registration to our members. What are the FCI, the SV, the WUSV and what are those relationships? What is the value of our USA registration program and is it different than the USA/SV dual registration?

Helper Seminar - Der Michigan Schutzhund Verein

On February 3, the Der Michigan Schutzhund Verein sponsored a helper seminar. Brian Harvey completed his apprenticeship requirements and is expected to soon be approved as a teaching helper. Aaron Graham, a youth member of OG Buckeye, began working on his helper skills at this event.

Helpers who worked on certification included Shawn Murphy, Tim Wild, Brent Eckler, Mark Ptaszek, Aaron Graham. About 15 members of the club came out in the snow and cold to help with the event.

Clarification of elbow certifications for breed surveys

There is currently no requirement with USA to have elbows certified

For a dog breed surveyed under a USA breed warden, there is no requirement certification for elbows. We are awaiting clarification from the SV regarding elbow requirements for USA dogs breed surveyed under SV Judges

Update regarding the status of the USA registration document process

The main issue is not the document itself , the document is, 99% complete.

The registration documents are created by utilizing a custom built database. Without the database being completed, the office would have to hand type each and every line of the document for each and every pedigree. This would have been a very inefficient process.

An additional problem that was not addressed was; where to get data on all German Shepherd pedigrees and to install the data into the database. The document includes a multi-generation pedigree. If we have a properly designed database program it would be able to pull information for every German Shepherd in the database and automatically populate the document. Additionally a fully functional database of all USA registered German Shepherds has other possibilities such as being able to create online show catalogs, etc. It became clear that a product development plan needed to be implemented with phased rollouts.

Phase 1 will be to finish the document, populate the database, and send out all pending registrations. Additional phases may include online catalogs as previously mentioned, web based registrations, mating research, upgrading the software, and hardware improvements.

The document was reviewed at the Nationals, and changes were suggested to improve the document. The changes were forwarded to the database programmer, USA member Laurie Tollifson. Each time a change is made to the document itself , the database program needs to be changed in order to incorporate those changes. We have secured a comprehensive database of German Shepherd pedigrees to populate the program.

I can appreciate the frustration of each and every member that is waiting for the registration document but I made the decision to delay issuing the documents until they are correct and can be efficiently created. I feel that is important that this is done correctly and that the USA members will receive a USA pedigree that is a quality product. We are hoping that this can be completed in January pending any unforeseen technical problems.