New RDX!

Congratulations to Susan Zimmerman and her Dal Ripley on earning their Road Dog Excellent title this past weekend in Virginia. Ripley earned his Road Dog title earlier this year at the Dalmatian Club of America Nationals.

Not only did Ripley earn his title, but he came in first place and was the youngest Dal competing at the trial. Ripley has accomplished all of this...and Susan doesn't even own a horse herself!!

Oh, Oh, Rally O

Another celebration for Joey and Kathy. Yesterday at the show in Youngstown, Joey completed his Rally Excellent title. Congratulations for a job well done!

Nealy nine years ago Kathy came to me looking for a puppy she could train in agility. Her first choice was a puppy that had all the enthusiasm of a snail. The day she came to pick up her puppy I talked her into Joey (who was Zack at that time). Joey just seemed to me that he would be more inclined to want to participate in performance sports. The other puppy is owned by another friend, and while he is sweet, the only sport he is inclined to do is as a couch jockey.

Kathy and Joey started their career in the breed ring and earned many points before deciding to move on to other sports. There were some snags along the way that would have caused many to give up--not Kathy. She learned to overcome and worked to accomplish her original goal. Now at nearly nine years old Joey is performing like she always knew he could. They are finished with Rally now and are headed back to the agility ring, where Joey has already earned his novice title. You go guys! I am so proud of both of you. As a breeder my only stipulation has always been that my puppies get good care and be loved. Kathy has done a marvelous job doing both and all of these titles are icing on the cake. LaDonna

Clean Sweep

Many of us have had special weekends where our dogs have done well, but rarely have any of us had a weekend like Chris and Ryder just had. At the UKC shows in Maryland this weekend, with VERY tough competition, including five champions, these two won it ALL. As you can see from the photo as they congratulate each other on all of those ribbons, Chris and Ryder had a banner weekend. In four shows they won the champion class all four times, best of breed all four times, one group two, three group ones and three Reserve BEST IN SHOWS! We talked about renting a Uhaul to get all of their ribbons home. This is Chris's first show dog and she has done an amazing job with him and we are very proud of her and her lovely boy. Barb is to be congratulated on breeding such a nice boy and being smart enough to put him in such great hands. CONGRATULATIONS to you both! LaDonna

Successful Weekend

A great weekend for Tess and Jazz, as Jazz competes in Rally Obedience and earns her Rally Advanced title with a third place qualifying run yesterday and another qualifying run today!

Tess competed in USDAA Agility, earning her Performance II Standard and Performance II Pairs titles, thus completing her Performance Dog II title!

We're very proud of our two wonderful girls and all they have accomplished!

Yippee, Yahoo and Hooray!

What an exciting day many of our club members had this weekend as one of our own earned a championship on her beloved dog. It is always exciting to see a dog earn their championship but when it is a first time for their owner and that owner has worked so hard to learn the ropes and that dog is as loved as this one---WOW! I don't think there was a dry eye in the group as the judge pointed to our Debbie and her Apollo. I'm sure they could hear us all screaming throughout the show grounds as we all celebrated this victory for Debbie. We are all very proud of you Debbie and all that you have accomplished. Your sweet boy will now be known as CHAMPION Siobahn N Rim Rock's Apollo. Congratulations go out to Apollo's breeders, two more of our clubs members, Jeff and Barb. posted by LaDonna

Joey Celebrates

Joey sits here among just a few of his performance ribbons, contemplating about all the fun that he and his owner/trainer/handler, Kathy have had on their way to new titles. He remembers back on his three first place wins that were all clean runs to earn his novice agility title. He also earned his rally novice title and then on to rally advanced and now has earned two legs toward his rally excellent title. He has also been successful in earning more legs in both standard and jumpers agility. The sky is the limit with this amazing performance team. LaDonna

More Club Celebrations

Ryder's journey continues........... Over the weekend at the Butler Autumn Classic, Rim Rock's Easy Ryder Bags (Ryder) took Best of Winners both Saturday and Sunday giving him a total of 8 points with one major. This handsome boy who is loved by everyone he sees will celebrate his first birthday on September 24. Happy Birthday Ryder! I cannot wait to see the success he has in the upcoming year - we are having too much fun at the shows with all of our new friends. Chris

Debbie and her sweet little Athena also competed at these same shows and took Reserve Winners Bitch on Sat. and on Sunday she was Winners Bitch to earn 2 more points toward her championship. Congratulations Debbie and Athena!

Another New Title For Joey

Joey strikes again. Word is that he earned his first agility title at the Neville Island show this past weekend with a first place win and a clean run. What a great team this boy and his expert handler/owner Kathy make. Great job guys! I know there will be many more titles to come. OK if I have this right, Joey is now:
Kingdom's My Pal Joey RA, NA
posted by LaDonna

Guy Talk

" Hey Ryder, don't look now but I just heard that the girl in the middle just kicked our butt again for Best of Breed", says Gage. Ryder quips back, " not only that, but that little Don't Take My Man girl did the same thing yesterday". Gage responds," I keep hearing them say something about girl power, what's up with that"? Ryder says," I don't know but maybe if we give them both the cold shoulder they will let us win once in awhile". "Yea maybe"

New UKC Champions:

UKC. Ch. Rim Rock's Easy Rider Bags-- Ryder--owned by Chris Aranowski
AKC/UKC Ch RimRock N Siobahn Keepin' Bizzi-- Bizzi--owned by Barb Allison
AKC/UKC Ch. Kingdom's Twist of Fate CGC, TDI--Gage-- owned by LaDonna King
UKC. Ch. Starwood's Don't Take My Man--Jolene--owned by Tammy Boice (not shown in photo)
she was busy planning her next strategy.
posted by LaDonna

GPDC Fun Day 2009

Many thanks to everyone who came out to Settler's Cabin Park to join us for GPDC's Fun Day! It was a spectacular afternoon, and we all enjoyed the circus atmosphere!

Special thanks to Chairperson Chris Aranowski, co-chair Cindy Kulikowski, hospitality chair Milly Cavanaugh, and raffle chair Kathy Wetzel for their time and effort in organizing this event.

Also, thank you to everyone who supported "Spot a Cure" by purchasing a t-shirt! We nearly sold out of the shirts in one weekend and are placing another order, so please continue to spread the word and help Spot a Cure for breast cancer!

To view a slideshow of photos taken at the Fun Day, go to http://tiny.cc/CreiZ

I know I had a very tired clown and lion after the circus yesterday :) Hope everyone enjoyed themselves as much as we did!

posted by Lisa

Spot a Cure

As many of you know, my friend and fellow GPDC member Cindy K. was diagnosed with breast cancer in May (former long-time GPDC member Gayle G. is also battling breast cancer). I struggled with a way that I could support Cindy during her diagnosis and treatment, and I teamed up with a graphic artist and a printer to design t-shirts that we could sell to raise money for breast cancer research and awareness.

To that end, I formed a non-profit entity called "Spot a Cure." Below are the t-shirt designs which are now being printed and will debut at the GPDC Fun Day on August 30.

Design #1 is "No Obstacle Too Big To Conquer." This design will be printed large on the back of the shirt, with Design #2 appearing smaller on the front left chest of the shirt.

Design #2 is "Spot A Cure." This design will be printed large on the back of the shirt, with Design #1 appearing smaller on the front left chest of the shirt.

If you look closely at the designs, you may see a Dal you know! Tess was the model for Design #1 and Gage appears in Design #2.

I will have a limited amount of shirts available at the Fun Day. We are selling the shirts for $15 each, with ALL profits benefiting breast cancer research/awareness. You can pay by cash or make checks payable to "Spot a Cure." If you can't make it to the Fun Day but would like to order a shirt, please email me at spotacure@gmail.com to make arrangements. There will be a $5 shipping and handling fee for all shirts that have to be mailed out. I will have additional order forms available at the Fun Day and we have a website that will be able to take online orders for the shirts via PayPal. More details on the website coming soon!

One in seven women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime. The next woman you help by supporting Spot a Cure may be you or someone you love. Both Cindy and Gayle detected their tumors through a self breast examination. Please help us spread the word about the benefits of early detection by promoting our t-shirt sales. With each t-shirt purchased, we are including a laminated self breast examination shower card and SBE reminder stickers to place on your calendar. I will have order forms available at the Fun Day that you can take with you, or you can contact me at the email above and I'll get copies to you. We anticipate being able to donate $10 per shirt, so each shirt we sell can make a big difference! Help us Spot a Cure for Breast Cancer!

P.S. If you plan on purchasing one of our shirts, please email me a photo of your dog(s). We have a page on the website called "Dals 'n Pals" that features a slideshow of all the dogs whose owners have supported Spot a Cure. We'd love to include your dog's photo, too!

posted by Lisa

Almost Perfect Day

Last week Jim & Tess had a perfect weekend. Well, today the geriatric trio had a nearly perfect day ourselves. Early this morning Barb, Nanci and LaDonna headed off to conformation shows in St. Clairsville, Ohio. The excitement was running high as it was a major in dogs and everyone wanted a piece of that action. Well this group of ladies were pretty excited when Tolliver who is co-owned by Nanci and Barb and shown by LaDonna received his third major.

Rim Rock N Siobahn Have A Ball

OK, so we were all excited about that and then it comes time for the girls. Barb & Bizzi win Winners Bitch and then go back in to win Best of Breed for her second major and finish her AKC championship. Yay Bizzi! The three of us rode home in the "happy van" with the days winners. Now you may ask why this wasn't a perfect weekend. Well, Tolliver still needs one single point to receive his championship. Almost perfect.These two dogs were bred by Barb & Jeff. Congratulations to all involved. LaDonna

CH. RimRock N Siobahn Keepin' Bizzi

Perfect Weekend

Jim and Tess earned a Perfect Weekend ribbon at CPE agility in Washingtonville, OH, this past weekend. That means that they qualified in all eight of their runs during the trial. These two have been enjoying a lot of success in the agility ring, and it's well deserved!

Meanwhile, in only her second CPE trial, Jazz qualified and placed in five out of six runs this weekend. She also earned her Level 1 Standard, Level 1 Handler Games, and Level 1 Fun Games titles. Jazz is following in big sister Tess' pawprints, as she is doing well and enjoying agility competition.

posted by Lisa

Agility Joey

As promised, here are a couple of pictures of Kingdom's My Pal Joey RA "Joey"taken during his last agility trial where he qualified in standard and jumpers with first places in each. Congratulations Kathy & Joey!
LaDonna

Fun Day

This is a reminder about our Fun Day in the Park. Information and directions are on the flyer. Please notify Milly about what you can bring to share for lunch. Milly is providing chicken. We also have potato salad and baked beans provided. Click on the flyer to see it more clearly. Milly's information is there. LaDonna