Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier Club

Of Southern California

General Meeting

April 26, 2011

 

Meeting held at the home of Mary Peltier in La Habra Heights, CA..

Roll Call

A quorum was present. Attending were: Joan Johnson, Connie Koehler, Anna Marzolino, Carolyn Filling, Miriam Kahan, Mary Peltier, Myrna Flavell, Jeanine Flavell, Jill Steging, Marilyn Smith, Lauren Smith, Beverly Streicher, Karla Cohen, Jackie Whitham.

Minutes of the last meeting

Minutes approved as submitted

Report of the President

Connie Koehler reported flowers were sent to Kai Norris on April 13 at Methodist Hospital in Arcadia. Meeting turned over to Jon Apogee by Skype with the assistance of Lauren Smith. Jon presented a photo shop sample of what the website will look like and showed us the different sections that will be available. Should be live in the near future.

Report of the Secretary

• Email sent to membership for rescue. Reminder email sent asking for Pet Expo support. Emails sent out reminding members about their membership expiring.
• An associate membership application has been received from Gonzalo Espinoza-French

Report of the Treasurer

No report

Rescue

• Beverly Streicher reported that she was contacted by a person that stated money was tight and needed to place her Wheaten. Beverly found a potential home for the dog and the person never showed up to the scheduled meeting and did not bother to call to cancel.
• Beverly reports that when she called this person she stated she had already found a home for the dog. Beverly was contacted about some Wheatens with aggressive problems. She helped the owners with some tips and suggestions. It is Club policy not to attempt placing any dog with aggression issues.
• Beverly helped place two mature Wheatens that were owned by an elderly gentleman that was moving to a place that would not take dogs. To show his appreciation for her assistance Larry Snyder donated $5000.00 to be divided between the general and rescue treasuries. In appreciation of his donation the Club made a motion to add Larry Snyder in recognition of his gift to give him lifetime associate membership in the Club. Motion approved.

Website

See President’s Report above

GWTA 2011

Karla Cohen reports that the ad deadline is in one week. Jeanine reports getting donations for the raffle has been off to a slow start. Hospitality is accepting money or baked goods to bring to the shows.

B Match

Jeanine would like to open the B Match up to dogs with major points. She would like to hold an additional  event to have retired show dogs strut their stuff allowing spayed and neutered dogs, and finished and unfinished dogs to compete. This is to attempt a larger turnout because of the fewer puppies that are being shown.

Fun Day

M J Carr and Connie Koehler are looking at catering vendors. The event will be held at Arcadia Park. County approval is pending.

Herding

Connie Koehler reported:

The Delaware Valley Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier Club held an historic weekend of herding on April 9 and 10, 2011.  I was honored to serve as herding secretary—although the AKC documentation was onerous!  Conducted at the Raspberry Ridge Sheep Farm in Bangor, PA, Carolyn Wilki presided as judge and later trainer at the first-ever AKC Herding Instinct Tests administered to Wheatens after their admission to the AKC's herding program on Jan. 1, 2011.

As a prerequisite to the HIT, Carolyn tested all dogs not been previously exposed to stock on Saturday morning, according to AKC herding regulations.  In the afternoon and on Sunday morning, 18 Wheatens were tested, along with two Australian Cattle Dogs and two Border Collies.  Eight out of 13 Wheatens passed the test on Saturday, and four of five on Sunday, for a total passage rate of 67 percent.  For those dogs who did not pass, the principal reason was not a lack of instinct; rather, it was a lack of prior obedience training to enable a controlled pause and release by the handler at the beginning of the test, as well as a recall and controlled stop at the end, an issue easily solved by a class in basic obedience.  Carolyn also held a clinic on Sunday afternoon, for those dogs and handlers who aspire to further herding tests and titles, an event which was also well attended.

This event was a terrific learning experience for me to pass on to our club.   The testing itself was not all that different from what we encountered with the AHBA HCT-s Leg One event in October, 2009.  As noted above, however, basic obedience training is a must for those who want to test and trial their dogs in the AKC herding program.  That said, with several of our dogs already training with AKC herding judges such as Judy Vanderford and Janna Duncan, we will be ready to move on to the HT and PT levels more quickly than teams in the rest of the country.

Unfinished business

• Discussion continued about Rescue becoming a 501C3 so that checks donated could be used as a tax deduction. Continued discussion tabled until after Great Western.
• Tami Herzog is ecstatic to be judging the B Match and will be celebrating her 30^th anniversary at the same time.
• Miriam Kahan reported that she mailed 4 condolence cards.
• Naomi and Doug Stewart sent their thanks to the number of members that helped support the Pet Expo. Everything seemed to go very smoothly.

New business

Anna Marzolino announced that the Santa Barbara Kennel Club will be having a special dinner to showcase breeders. They will be honoring Jackie Gottlieb as the Terrier Group representative. The National Club will be supporting the show entry. The event will be on August 2, 2011 and it is hoped that local members will attend to support Jackie Gottlieb while she receives this great honor.

Adjournment

Meeting adjourned at 9:25 p.m.

Submitted by:

Jackie Whitham, Secretary

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