December 1999 news notes

•  New USA Sieger Show performance criteria  announced
•  Helper books are mandatory to hold a trial

October 1999 news update
 
 

To: Southeast Region

First of all, please let me wish all of you a Very Merry Holiday Season and a great 2000. I appreciate all of your help.

Many of you have already scheduled your trial for 2000 and at least three clubs are scheduled into 2001. If you have not scheduled your trial as of yet, please do so. If you want to use a SV Judge please contact me first to make sure that you do not have a conflict.

Clubs in the Region will be having several informative seminars next year. All of you are urged to attend and support the clubs. Thanks to all of the clubs who are going the extra mile.

Our newest affiliated club, Palmetto State SchH Klub, will be hosting their affiliation trial in January. A flyer has been mailed and a link to it can be found on the Events Page at this Web site.  Please offer your support.

At present, we have 22 full member clubs. Palmetto will give us 23. The BoldCity Club should move from affiliation this year or lose their status.

I personally want to congratulate each and everyone who showed dogs on the local, national and international level. That is what we are suppose to be doing, training and showing dogs.

Our Region Championship 2000 will be hosted by the Chattahoochee Schutzhund Club. Let all of us prepare our dogs and give them our full support. We will conduct a short Regional meeting at the championship to determine where our 2001 Championship will be held. If any club is interested in hosting the 2001 Championship, please let me know. Thus far two clubs have signified interest.

As a reminder, all clubs must host one schutzhund trial each year. An official trial must include at least four dogs, one of which must be a schutzhund dog. You must mail your flyers out to each club in the region, postmarked 21 days in advance of the actual trial.

All SV judge requests must go through Stephanie Dunion. Check with me on date availability first.

Elsewhere on this page you will find the latest updates on rules concerning the sieger show and helper books. Both are self-explanatory. The new scoresheet has a place for the helper in the upper left-hand corner.

I would like to thank Judy Johnson for developing the Southeast Region Web site. You may want to check with Judy on how you can contribute to the site.

In the Region in 1999,  including the North American, we have had a great year. Let's all work for a better 2000.

Again, thanks for everything. May all of you have a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy 2000.

In the Sport, Floyd
       Floyd
 

Sieger Show performance evaluation standards update

USA Director of Judges Mark F. Przybylski has notified all USA full-member clubs of the criteria by which the performance phase at the USA Sieger Show will be evaluated starting with the Virginia 2000 Sieger Show.

The new standards have the unanimous backing of the USA Breed Advisory Committee and a majority of USA judges, Przybylski says.  The criteria are to be sent out to the member clubs immediately so that they can prepare properly for the Sieger show.

"As I am sure most of you know, Germany is already starting to implement these changes, some of which I proposed over a year ago," Przybylski says. "I believe we need to take the lead to make sure we set the standard and also strive to raise it."

Here are the new evaluation criteria:
 
 

• The dog  has three (3) tries to perform the free-heeling exercise to the attack on handler and must reach a predetermined distance from the blind (20 feet) to pass. The actual attack will commence when the dog is between 10 and 15 feet from the blind. The distance from the starting point of heeling to the blind will be 60 feet. The dog that does not perform this within three attempts will be disqualified.

• The dog that does not out will be disqualified.

• Dogs that continue to bump or re-grip after the out will be evaluated the same as dogs in a local club trial, which would ensure that they not finish higher than a dog that is correct in its work.

• The gripwork will be evaluated by the judge as it is described in our rulebook: "The dog should counter the attack securely and energetically in stopping the attack by the helper."    The dog that does not perform in this manner but still performs the grip exercises must be placed at the end of whatever conformation rating the dog would achieve. A lack of self-confidence in the gripwork shall be evaluated as sufficient (vorhanden) in courage.

• The "out" should show the dog clearly off the sleeve and in the guarding phase. The only command permitted is one word for the out such as "out," "aus," or any other single command of out.  The commands  of "sit" or "down" to effect the out are not permitted here. The dog, however, may sit, down or stand upon the out command, but may not bother thehelper. The sit or down may be reinforcedat a distance of 10 (ten) feet, if necessary,as the handler approaches the dog.

• The handler should, after the attack, leash the dog without physical restraint (such as grabbing the dog to prevent a re-grip). The dog may receive an extra command to out to put the leash on the dog with no penalty; however, the dog that must be physically restrained or taken off of the sleeve physically will be disqualified. Once the dog is secured on lead, this exercise is over.

• On the pursuit or the long grip, the handler may encourage the dog while holding the dog by the collar at the basic position to initiate the release as the helper proceeds to the middle of the field to start the exercise. The handler will release the dog upon a signal from the judge. The gripwork and the out will be evaluated the same as in the attack on handler.

• All dogs entered in the performance phase will work on 2 (two) helpers, one for the attack on handler and one for the pursuit or courage test.

• These criteria will be in effect at the 2000 Sieger Show in Virginia.

USA President Michael Hamilton has notified all regional directors that all trial helpers  must have helper books and that a trial cannot take place if this requirement has not been met.

Hamilton said the only way to audit this requirement is to have the USA office handle it. "This program must be turned over immediately to the USA office along with all funds collected for this program and all documentation regarding who has been issued books and what expenditures have been made to date," Hamilton said in his letter.

Hamilton said judges and regional directors should make sure the helpers have a book before any trial starts and that clubs understand the requirement is mandatory.

"No helper book(s) no trial," Hamilton reiterated. "The time has come to enforce the rules. All USA judges know this is the rule and we need to make sure the clubs also understand this."

Hamilton explained in his letter that originally the judges were told that USA needed to give some time to allow all helpers to get their helper books. "So (USA has) not been stringent on this issue until approximately six months or so ago," he wrote.  "Again, the time has come to enforce the rule."

He said another article on the issue will be published in Schutzhund USA and that it will also be published on the USA Website.

"I would like to reiterate that all proceeds from this program will only be used for this program, and disbursement should be by the direction of the helpers committee chairperson," Hamilton wrote.

He commended the helpers committee for implementing the program. "Now the time has come for this USA program to have audit controls in place and a permanent home for the records associated with it," he wrote, explaining that USA has received a number of calls about the books and about difficulties contacting the appropriate person.
 
 

To:   All Southeast Members
From: Floyd Wilson, Regional Director

Due to the turnover of people in the region I will try to address a few requirements  that you need to be aware of.

Many of you have already scheduled a trial for 2000. All clubs are required to have one trial per year.  In order to be an official trial you must have four dogs
entered, one of which must be a schutzhund dog. You must give twenty one (21) days notice to all Southeast Region clubs prior to the event. Some of you have had problems scheduling judges or having your judge cancel. In any event, I can help.

Some name changes:

• The German Shepherd Working Dog Alliance is now Alpharetta Working Dog Guild.
• Southwest Florida SchH Club is now the Asheville SchH Club.
• Wilmington SchH Club is now Mountain Empire SchH Club.

Palmetto SchH Klub will probably schedule an affiliation trial in
January. The affiliation trial will be held on Saturday and official trial on Sunday.

To see the remaining events schedule for 1999 and the events scheduled so far for 2000, see the events page of this website.

In the year 2000 we hope to schedule as many trials as possiible in order to give handlers a choice as to where they trial and opportunity to qualify for the Nationals.

We recently had an incident in the region in which members of a club that had a trial coming up banned a visiting member of another USA club from their training grounds.   If you are going to deny a fellow USA member permission to visit  your USA club, you should have an explanatory letter in your file as well as in the Regional Director's file to guard against  discrimination liabilities.

The USA office has sent out a letter listing clubs that have not yet sent in their annual membership rosters.  We are all supposed to have this information in by September each year. Please send or fax your current membership list  to Kelly Hope at the USA office.  Please give Kelly all of the help that you can give.

Enjoy the rest of the year and smell the roses.

Floyd Wilson, Regional Director

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