Our Very First WAG Trial

Washington DC Area Gebrauchshund Club is a new DVG club that was formed only a few months ago by a group of dedicated dog sport enthusiasts. We were pleased to host our very first trial on a cool crisp weekend in November. Each of us was excited about the trial for many months, but as trial day neared, we wondered if we should have waited longer to actually test our training. Some of us had doubts if our dogs were prepared for everything that could possibly happen during a trial so we would not have to make that infamous statement, *My dog never did that before*!

Our Judge, Sandi Purdy, arrived Friday afternoon. We had a pleasant dinner with Sandi that evening. Sandi is so enjoyable to be around and we got a chance to get to know her before the actual trial. This helped calm many of our trial nerves.

Day one started exactly as we wished, our tracking field was covered in a hard frost and we had nice tall green grass. Two of our teams earned a V rating in tracking; Evette Braenovich with Uschi and Ron Sensenbach with Aika scoring high tracking.

At the completion of tracking, we all hurried back to the club to begin our BH exams. When we arrived at our club, the training grounds were already filled with many spectators. We were delighted to have club members from Commonwealth Working Dog Club and Alexandria Schutzhund Group join us for our trial and their well wishes were appreciated. We were also honored to have the North KG President, Mary Walter show her dog Upton at our first club trial.

Our BH dogs did well in obedience and proved our training had prepared them for the trial. We had six BH*s that passed obedience and later proved themselves again in the traffic portion of the exam. Sandi gave each critique by letting us know what she liked and what she would prefer to see in a dog team. Each dog was awarded a BH medal and the handler received a certificate. The BH exam was really special for two of the dog teams since it was also their first Schutzhund trial: Pat Webb with Gandalf and Mellody Alston titled her two dogs, Endora and Woody.

We quickly moved to VPG obedience with six teams showing solid performances and some surprises. Can we blame it on the cool windy weather that makes our dogs feel frisky, or the full moon, handler trial nerves or just heeling off the wrong foot? Our dogs looked so reliable in training, how could this happen? Someone said that infamous statement we all hate, *My dog never did that before*. The judge offered helpful critiques and kept us in suspense while she pondered the reviews of the dog pair that wondered *how could this happen* by rating them with satisfactory scores. The high obedience score of 93 was Jurgen Winkler with Feus.

We took a break for lunch and then moved directly to the most watched phase*PROTECTION. We had four dog teams; two teams were going for their first working titles, and the other two teams were veterans with many years experience. We had a big crowd of spectators. As the first team walked on the field, everyone was intently waiting for the first protection exam to begin. You could hear a pin drop until she began the hold and bark in the blind. Each routine was intense and over so quickly. The Judge gave each of our dogs pronounced protection ratings. The high protection score and V rating went to Ron Sensenbach with Aika who coincidentally had the most impressive long bite of the day. Furthermore, Ron and Aika were High in Trial with a V rating, and High HOT.

Saturday night most of us went to the Judge's dinner and had a wonderful time celebrating our titles and discussing the day*s events. We were also planning our training strategies based on the Judge's critique and already talking about our next trials in 2007.

Sunday morning we had five dogs for AD exams and what a great morning for an AD. The weather cooperated once more by giving us a beautiful cool, partly sunny day. It was funny watching folks ride bikes with the dogs and we only had a couple of wrecks, but nothing serious enough requiring medical care. All of the dogs proved they are in excellent health and easily passed the AD exam.

After lunch and completion of all the trial paperwork, we had our first award ceremony. We surprised Jurgen and Jennifer with a perpetual award plaque that recognizes the High HOT team in memory of their beloved dogs, Candy and Joie. Trophies were awarded and recognition was given to each successful dog team. We also showed our appreciation for our Judge's work by giving her a WAG Bag filled with individual gifts from each club member. We completed our trial by having a photo session with our official club photographer, Joan Smith, and others taking photos of each team with the Judge to help to secure our fond memories of the trial.

As the trial wrapped up, we realized our first club trial was a success and not one person regretted trialing this soon after forming our new club. We really enjoyed hearing the Judge's helpful and informative critique and we will focus our training based on her suggestions. We all learned from our first club trial that not only is it important to consistently train, but also show in trials to help determine if your training is geared towards success in a trial. We hope that Sandi will judge us again at one of our trials so she can measure our progress and rate our success.

We appreciate everyone who offered support and participated in the trial, but special thanks to; our tracklayer Don Braenovich, our decoys Jurgen Winkler and Matt Ford and tremendous gratitude to Rae Irvine, Thomas Miller and Jennifer Zembower who worked diligently to make sure the trial ran smoothly. Also, a special *Thank You* to Eugene Ellison, and Tim and Kitty Wray from Commonwealth Working Dog Club for working at our trial.

Submitted by Rae Irvine.

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