Dutch Shepherd Forum

The WDSA nationals are this weekend. Our forum member Jenny Thorp with Force (IPO 3) got 91 in tracking today!

Jenny, good luck for tomorrow's obedience and protection !

Awesome! Congratulations!

Awww !
Thankyou for thinking of us

Force was ill Saturday night and not himself for Ob and Pro on Sunday ( extra wild )
The weather was an additional challenge for all as WA was hit with a wild storm front and we appeared to be trialing in a monsoon
Even so, we managed to squeak through both routines and Force earnt his 5th IPO3 title

He placed 4th out of the IPO3 dogs, and was 3rd place IPO3 Dutch Shepherd.

He did earn High HOT Dutch Shepherd !!!!!!!!!
( HOT = Handler Owner Trained )
So has a nice plaque for the wall

Wahoo! Congrats!

Congrats, great job! (I know how much hart work goes into it )

I saw on the trial's website, that they changed the schedule to be able to finish the trial before afternoon, i.e. when the heavy rain was forecasted.

Our trainer, Phil Hoelcher, with his dog Lux had bad luck with the weather too the weekend earlier at the DVG Nationals in Oregon. It poured during the long down and the dog got up to shake. It cost him the championship. Three more points and he would have won. 97-82-97.

How can you proof a dog for that?. May be hosing them down during the long down.

I was a spectator at the DVG Nationals
Didn't know your trainer would be there.
Phil trialed 2 dogs. That's amazing. I've a hard enough time handling one

Phil was lucky, the weather in OR that weekend was SO nice compared to what hit WA the following weekend. Wonder what the GSD would have done on the down in the WA monsoon downpour ?

Dogs will be dogs, cann't blame them for shaking when drenched.
Wonder how many points he lost on the long down ?
No critiques were given at the DVG Nationals, they just announced a score and went on to the next dog/handler team.
Missed hearing what the judges saw and liked/disliked from each team.

Anyone else from your group there ?
There was a really nice Am.Bulldog and a Rott there too.

We got nice long detailed critiques at the WDSA Championship
Always good to learn from.

He was the only one from our group in Miami this year.

Since judging on the national level is much tougher than at a local trial, the long down was probably a total loss. Lux also missed the jump back at the retrieve over the hurdle, too much speed and wasn't able to get back over it.

Phil is absolutely amazing and a training work-a-holic. He won the DVG Nationals last year with Lux, the year before with Crash. Heck, he won the DVG Nationals 9 times with 7 different dogs. He also trains dogs and animals for movies and TV shows. He was one of the dog trainers in the movie "Snowdogs", his Rottweiler was in the Dark Knight 3, he was the dog handler for "Burn Notice" and the list goes on and on.

Marco and I need the best help we can get. We are driving about 2.5 hours one way to train with Phil on the weekend. I am so grateful he even put's up with us. I told him, I would like to participate with Marco in next years' DS Nationals in Tennessee. He said "oh boy" and . We will see, we have a year to train.