Agility Dog Association of Australia Ltd

From the ADAA Chair ... October 2010

I went to write this month’s Chair report and realised that I hadn’t done one for a couple of months....I think this is a reflection of how busy things have been. In August I visited Malaysia and spent time with a bunch of Agility enthusiasts – Agility is such a global sport and transcends language and cultural differences.

Congratulations to Fraser Coast Agility Dog Club Inc (FCAD) on their 10th birthday as an ADAA affiliate. Fraser Coast started as a group holding Easter competitions at Burrum Heads and has progressively grown into a training club. It isn’t an easy task to keep any small club running for 10 years, let alone one in a more regional area. So congratulations to everyone at Fraser Coast.... and for Queenslanders, don’t forget they have their October competition coming up in a few weeks.

Huge thanks to Natalie Kirkwood and Tony Redwood for organising the South East Queensland Training Day held in August. This was a single day format (in contrast to the full weekends from past years) held at the Brisbane Agility Dog Club training grounds. The day had topics that suited beginning dogs and handlers through to those with some experience and there was lots of great feedback after the event. Thanks to all of the instructors for the day - Marion Allen, Neville Allen, Tandy Allen, Amin Awad, Wendy Blakeston, Denise Crook, Steve Drinkwater, Debbie Duce, Sharon Dungey, Jeanette Durante, Natalie Kirkwood, Kim Longwill, Tony Redwood, Maja Moser, Steph Winter and David Yould.

The Board would like to take the opportunity to thank South Coast Dog Training Club Inc and Parramatta International Canine Sports Incorporated for the support they provide to ADAA and ADAA members. The Board would also like to recognise the huge effort by Julia Barnett and Penny Mead in sharing all of the entry processing for the competitions run by ADAA and held in NSW for the past few years (and Penny also supported the start up and entry processing of ADAA in WA, in addition to her other Board contributions). However the Board has recognised that, to support our NSW/Sydney members, ADAA needs to significantly increase the number of competitions in the Sydney metropolitan/local area. The plan will be for ADAA to run 10 competitions in 2011 and to increase that further in 2012. In the best case scenario, it would be great to have one or two people who voluntarily undertake all of the “ADAA” competition in NSW however the Board has recognised that (i) this is likely to create a huge burden on a couple of people and is unlikely to be sustainable in the long-term and (ii) if we have volunteers who are willing to contribute to ADAA in such a manner it would be great to have them undertaking other projects to assist/support ADAA members. After much discussion/contemplation regarding the benefits and downsides, the Board has decided to seek out the services of a contractor to do all of the administration of (start to finish) ADAA’s competitions in the NSW metropolitan area. If this is something that may be of interest to you (or someone you know), please drop me an email (chairman@adaa.com.au).

Now onto this year’s Grand Prix, and what an amazing Grand Prix it was! (view the Grand Prix results)

AELEC (Australian Equine and Livestock Events Centre) was just a dream venue for handlers and dogs alike. The Board needs to be congratulated for its vision in selecting the venue. Of course the wet weather was never our preference (especially for those camping in tents) but as I lay in my van in the mornings listening to rain falling on the roof I knew that we would all be under cover and in the dry for our competitions. Sunday night’s dinner started with hot finger food and had an urban cowboy theme with many dressing up and/or playing the various themed games that had been set up (great job Helen and team). During the course of the weekend, there were a variety of locals who came in to check out the action, watching from the stands – in some cases alongside spectators. For competitors there were lots of areas to set up dogs, close by rings, up in the stands, or away from the action in one of the stables. The prize/merchandise area had people efficiently collecting minor prizes throughout the weekend.

An event of this sort of magnitude is never done without a huge amount of effort and I would like to take the time to thank those who made it such a success:

• Marion Allen – GP organiser
• John Dibble – on-field coordinator (assisted by Mike Dungey, Justin Jeffries, Graham Ireland, Sharon Dungey and Helen Dibble)
• Tandy Allen – off-field coordinator (assisted by Libby Selby, Fazette Cheetham, Pam Owen, Chloe Brown, Lynell Gallagher, Gayle King, Coralyn Ellis, Anita Pengilly, Jeanette Durante, Tal Taylor and Alison Muddle)
• Cathy Slot – admin coordinator (assisted by Sharon Steele)
• Other assistance was provided (during and prior to the weekend) by Heather Bell, Des and Pam Bell the Oxley Dog Training Club, Caryl & Graham Oates, Kim Staples, Roel Wittkamp, Jennifer Carter, Candice Walsh, John Sissons, Robin Cunningham, Bonnie Douglas, Vanessa Sissons, Peter Dowe and Sarah Jane Weston.
• Judges for the weekend were Steve Drinkwater, Jody Brown, Marion Allen, Neville Allen, Loyd Barker, Siegfried Clever, Debbie Duce, Jim Hull, Natalie Kirkwood, Damian Noud, Sharyn Palmer and Mal Williams.
• One set of equipment was supplied by Agility Dog Club of Queensland Inc. Equipment was towed to/from the venue by Tony Redwood and Loyd Barker.
• Marion recognised Sharon Fraser for her contribution to helping at the event. John Dibble has asked me to thank Neville Allen (for his significant help in setting up the rings on Friday) and Bruce Bentley (for filling and transporting sandbags and the emptying of them after the GP). We also had help from juniors at the event.
• Thanks to Logan Kuhn who helped set up on Friday and also helped in the rings with height changes and rolling the course. Logan Scheimer and Lani Durante were also a great help in the rings all weekend.
• In the office we had a bunch of assistance from competitors/Judges at the event. Thanks to Wendy Blakeston, Marion Bland, Sam Bois, Ruth Brooks Andrea Gibney, Lisa Henshaw, Jim Hull, Penny Mead, Elsina Meyer, Nicola Read, Cathy Reade, Malina Redwood, Tony Redwood and Mal Williams.

Thanks also to the event sponsors (visit our sponsors page):

• Platinum Sponsors – Air Dogs and Vet-n-Pet Direct
• Food Sponsors – Pro Pac
• Gold Sponsors – Medibank, Naturalicious Pet Treats and Silver Eagle
• Dinner Co-Sponsors – Pine Agility Dog Sports Club Inc and Canine Fitness Centre
• Silver Sponsors – Animal Options and Masterpet
• Promotional Sponsors – Meredith Gilmore Artist
• Raffle Sponsors - Yunde Canine Enterprises

It was my pleasure to announce, at the Grand Prix, the awarding of Marion Allen as a Life Member of ADAA. Marion has made an exceptional contribution to ADAA, both on-field and off-field, during the past 10 or so years. Her contribution has had significant depth - from getting a new, and ongoing, ADAA affiliated club started (of which she remains a significant contributor), ADAA Judging, ADAA Board of Directors and coordinating major events for ADAA (in particular ADAA Grand Prix and Dogmania).

So having achieved such a great success with the Grand Prix, which I think could be designated as THE best Agility event ever held in Australia, the Board is now (as it always does) looking to the future. It has been decided to hold an ADAA Nationals every two years. This will be held in the “off years” to the IFCS World Agility Championships (WAC) using the WAC formula (with some “tweaking” because we will have more competitors) and will provide the basis for selection of the Team to represent Australia at the following year’s WAC. Proposed dates are early May, commencing 2011 however that may be affected by venue availability, which is currently being researched.

Notice of this year’s Annual General Meeting is available (PDF 15 kb) and will be held at the Wild About Agility Gold Coast – Agility Dog Club competition on 20 November 2010. Please have a look at the Agenda as there is a notice of motion with a proposed change to the ADAA Memorandum and Articles of Association.

May you cherish your time and enjoy your training with your dog and achieve your goals.

Cathy Slot
ADAA Chair

[Top]