Welcome To My View

Nice Deeds Reported

I'm fairly new to the dog world, purchasing my first purebred 4 years ago. We attended a beginner obedience class that opened my eyes to the opportunity to have fun with my dog by training for specific goals. I now own 3 Newfoundlands, my original 4 year old, a beautiful big rescue and an almost 2 year old. I would like to recognize the following people who consistently offer their help and expertise not only to me, but to anyone looking to improve and learn with their dogs. They show people how to strive for excellence while ensuring the time spent is enjoyable for both the owner and the dogs.

Tubby Miller - has been training  his Newfies in Obedience, Draft Work, Water Rescue Work, and Agility for better than thirty years.  

  

Kerri Miller - Is actively involved in Obedience/Rally O

Pauline Baldwin - is a heavily involved in obedience and draft test.  She is a licensed draft test judge.

Maureen O'Neil - shows her Shetland sheepdog, WillowGlyn Levi Blue Jean, in Obedience with great success

I will be forever grateful for the opportunities they have opened up for us  

Candace Bakay

Jim Gillanders, Uppercut Boxers

On Saturday at the St. Catharines KC show, our power box breaker blew, which was strange since it is 30 amps and this is more common with the 15 amps, leaving us and other RV owners with Pugs without any power.  We thought it was going to be a quick fix and went to reset the breaker, however to our surprise, there was a padlock on the breaker box.

Margaret from the St. Catharines Kennel Club was notified, she took action immediately and called the person responsible at the Niagara Fairgrounds to either come himself, or send someone with a key to open the padlock and breaker box.  To Margaret's dismay, she was told that this person was not available for the weekend, but they were trying to find someone else to come out to fix the problem.  

Hours passed, and still no help arrived, however in the meantime, we were using our generator.  By mid-afternoon, with our generator running for hours in the hot weather it overheated (although at the time, we did not know this was the problem).  With 9 dogs in a hot motor home we were concerned. Since we are not very experienced with motor home camping and have little knowledge of most mechanical or electrical problems, Laurel assumed it was perhaps a breaker in the RV that was blown. 

Camping next to us was the gentleman from Uppercut Boxers,  Jim Gillanders.  Laurel asked him if he could figure out why our generator had stopped working.  As it so happens, Jim is an electrician by trade – how lucky for us! 

Jim checked a few things and determined that the generator itself had overheated.  He advised to let it cool and leave the cover open to allow the air to circulate better.  In the meantime, someone from the St. Catharines Kennel Club had located the key for the padlock on the breaker box and opened it – the switches were flipped but still… nothing, no power.  Again, Jim was asked to look and see if the problem could be fixed easily. He did with a smile on his face, happy to help.  Jim diagnosed the problem and explained that since the box and wires were old, the connection did not occur easily and the switches needed to be flipped and really pushed down hard for the connection to occur – he did this and voila!  Power!

We have no idea who came with the key… but thank you to this person as well.  The padlock was left unlocked for the remainder of the weekend in the event that the breaker would blow again. 

Thank you so very much Jim for your help – there are still gentlemen left and he camped right next to us this weekend! J

Also, thank you to the St. Catherines Kennel Club for the marvelous weekend.

Gratefully,

Helene Belanger and Laurel Brown

Mentors, Friends and Cheerleaders

The nice deeds reported this week got me to thinking about the people that mentor newbies, the friends that are always available to lend a hand and those folks that appreciate your dogs and cheer for you ringside.  

Lyle and I have been so fortunate to have Debby Krieg as our mentor and friend.  I bought our first girl from her without even talking to Lyle about it.  Since then we have added another Daybreak girl, Cara, above serving as our cheerleader for this blog.  We also have two boys that are sired by Daybreak Wires.  

Debby Krieg, Daybreak Wires

Debby has been my teacher, my friend and like a sister.  She had the patience to teach me to hand strip my dogs over the phone.  I would not be doing this without her, nor would I want to.  I hope we have a lot more years of breedings,  pedigree talks and dog shows to share together.

I am not the only person lucky to have a mentor.  Many of the great breeders, owner/handlers and pro handlers were fortunate enough to have a person in their early dog life to mentor them.  Another great example of a Breeder/Owner/Handler mentoring a new person is Kay Reil

Kay Reil, left having a laugh with Michelle Atkinson-Fielding

mentoring Michelle Atkinson-Fielding. Michelle bought a puppy from Kay and it has turned into a wonderful teacher/student plus friendship.  Michelle is quick to talk about how much Kay has done to help her and how much she appreciates her.  

To get the opportunity to work with a great mentor, it's very important to be receptive, open to instruction and constructive criticism and to be thankful for their time. There are multitudes of great mentors out there.  If you are in need of help, regardless of how many years you have been in the sport, take the time to approach them and ask for help.  That is one of the best ways I know of to make a new friend and build a mentor relationship.

Friends are so valuable in this sport.  Of course, the old saying, everyone's your friend until you start beating them comes to mind.  But, I know that isn't always true.  I have many friends within the Hound Group.  We all want to win a group placement every time we go out, but we don't let being competitive override the importance of our friendships.  I clap and cheer for them, they clap and cheer for me.  We will take their dogs in when needed and they will take ours in. We gather together at the show site to visit and laugh.  We give each other tips and encouragement.  They are the friends that will tell you what you did that could have been a bit better and will bring you beer, wine and sometimes something a bit stronger when needed.  To me, being a good friend and having good friends is more important than who I beat that day in the ring.  Of course, if one of us has a really big day, these are the people that are waiting ringside to give hugs, slaps on the back and dance with you back to your setup.

Cheerleaders are those folks that you don't necessarily know well, but they like your dog and they would like to see your dog do well.  I love the cheerleaders.  They make the show more fun.  I would like to encourage clapping, woot, woot, wooting and whistling for your favorite dog.  To me there is nothing worse than stone silence at a dog show.  I have seen dogs perk up at the sound of applause, even when it was for another dog two rings over.  But, let's remember a good rule, if you clap for one dog, clap for them all.  You can add a bit more enthusiasm for your favorite, of course.

With Deepest Sympathy

The dog show world said goodbye to a wonderful person this past weekend.   Nelly Bennett, wife to Al Bennett and mother to Carly was a person that always greeted folks with a smile. She wanted people to have fun at the dog shows.

I regret that I did not get the opportunity to know her well.  When I did have the chance to be around her at the dog shows, she was very warm, friendly and fun.  The last time I saw her was at Dorchester Dog Show.  There was karaoke night.  Our RV was parked close to the pavilion  where the karaoke was being held.  Nelly kept asking Lyle and me to come sing.  Finally after two bottles of wine, we walked over. I can't carry a tune with both hands and a bucket, but Nelly talked me into getting up to sing and she agreed that she would sing with me.  Dumb me, I didn't know Nelly was a jokester!  She turned off her mic and left me to sing all by myself.  

I want to personally extend Lyle and my deepest sympathy to Alan and Carly and to all the hundreds and hundreds of people that knew and loved Nelly.  

Remember to watch for "Nice Deeds".  They are happening all around us.  Let's talk about the people helping others.   Send your "Nice Deeds" to me at djenkins@shaw.ca 

Be sure to go to Canuck Dogs, http://www.canuckdogs.com, to see all the upcoming events and to check stats.  You should  bookmark it.  That's where you will find my blog. 

                                                                     XXXOOO