Agility Dog Association of Australia Ltd

From the ADAA Chair ... September 2006

I would like to commence by extending my congratulations to all who participated in this year’s Medallion Stakes Competition. This is the second year of the competition and it is encouraging to see more dogs participating. A total of 11 dogs earned Bronze medals and there were nine Silver Medallists – Tess (Sharon Dungey), Lexie (Denise Crook), Missy (Glenn Harrison & Tracey Harrison-Hill), Pandora (Tricia Nicola), Scary Spice (Jan Williams), Jonty (Glenn Harrison), Skye (Natalie Kirkwood), Bindi (Marilyn McKenzie) and Saffy (Eddy Szmelter & Holly Connor). The Rules and allocated Competitions for the 2006/2007 have been released with the first Medallion Stakes round to be held at the Grand Prix. Invitations have also been issued for participation in this year’s Medallion Stakes Invitation event, to be held at Uralla as part of the Grand Prix. The top 10 dogs in each height class from each state have been invited, which should see a good field of dogs.

Entries have now closed for the Grand Prix, so the Sub-Committee (under Marion’s leadership) is now hard at work with the final preparations. Meals, Shirts, Entry Gift, Prizes, Catalogues, Running Orders, Equipment…. There is much to organise for such a large event, and one of the most important pieces of preparatory work is the course designing by the Judges. I have no doubt our Judges will provide competitors with a veritable feast of Agility and Jumping over the three days.

Please ensure that your ADAA membership is current, as the end of June was end of membership year. Members who’s membership expired on 30 June have been contacted however if you are unsure please email the Secretary to confirm your membership status. You are not eligible to participate in any ADAA events if you are not a (financial) member so check your last membership email and make sure everything is up-to-date. Similarly if you have moved or changed email address, don’t forget to let us know by completing a membership change form.

Congratulations to all of the Queensland Trainee Judges for passing their formal course work and Level 1 Written Examination. You should see the majority of these as Level 1 Judges in the very near future. We also have a number of members in NSW who have expressed interest in Judges Training. If you are interested in having a look at the judging aspect of Agility and possibly joining them as they commence their journey, you can find all of the information on our Judges Training Programme on the ADAA webpage, under ADAA Judges. In addition, chat to any of our existing judges or email your queries to the Judges Training Committee. Without Judges we cannot run agility competitions, and as competing numbers grow, the judging commitments of any one individual Judge can be kept reasonable if the numbers of Judges grows too. Judging is certainly not for everyone, but if you think it is something you may enjoy please contact us.

There have been many titles earned at recent competitions and several Handler Awards. I would like to congratulate Wendy Blakeston on being the first handler to achieve a Gold Handler Award. It is also great to see more handlers achieving their Bronze Handler Award. The bar just keeps getting lifted higher in terms of the quality of training and handling that we are seeing.

To close, I would like to thank Liz Wozencroft for undertaking manual amendments to the Agility Regulations and the members of WAAG for putting together new title rosettes under the Regulations. It’s great to have people helping out.

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

Cathy Slot
ADAA Chair

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