The OG Boston Schutzhund Club in New Hampshire hosted its fall trial with SVF Judge Bogdan Sergo. Saturday started early with the laying of the FH track and the start of the AD test. Karen MacIntyre's owner-bred Harley v. Mack-Zwinger SchH3 had to decipher a very difficult track. The wind had pulled nearly all the moisture from the field. Harley worked it out to a 90 point score. Laura Holly and Erich v. Olympia and Bruce Havey and Ayka v. Geronimo comfortably completed the AD.

Then Judge Sergo tackled the task of 15 B entries. Some notable performances included Denise Muccioli and Borita, a 10 year old Rottweiler bitch with the spunk of a much younger dog and Rod Sparkowich handling a leaping, vibrating Chesapeake Bay Retriever bitch, Teakwood's Sandpiper.

The schutzhund trial on Sunday was impressive with many quality performances which bodes well for the future in this region. With favorable tracking conditions, nearly every dog had a great start to the day. Then the rains came alternating heavy downpours with light rain. This is schutzhund though and neither the handler's or the dogs seemed to notice. Can't say the same for the hardy spectators.

A big brag for Janice Ritter and Jagger v. Mack-Zwinger SchH1! This is the first dog she has ever trained in any dog sport and she raised him from a puppy. Janice handled like a pro receiving 96-96-94P 286V including the High Obedience award.

Jan Stanley with locally bred Byron v. Rheinland SchH1 is also a new handler to the sport and she was leaping for joy after each phase. And she had great reason with 93-87-96P 276SG. This was a wonderful team to watch.

OG Boston's Training Director, Mike Pinksten, showed his young dog Carlo v.d. Gandyshofke to an eye catching 288V (98-91-99P) High in Trial, High SchH1 and HighProtection performance. Mike's excellent training and handling showed in this high drive, hard hitting Arek Stoffelblick grandson's performance.

A single point behind was the SchH3 dog Bruce aus der Bankstrasse (Buck) and Mel Graves with a 287V (97-93-97P). Buck was also trained and titled from a puppy and has received a V score for each title.

In other performances, Kris Ashton and Dux Vojtessky duur scored a 282SG(96-90-96P) to take High SchH2, Karen Randall and Ghosa v. Ela had a 272SG SchH1, and Vicky Janicki and Jezebel v. Mack-Zwinger earned a 271SG SchH1. Another impressive SchH1 entry was Rod Sparkowich and Hurricane April who took home a 270SG score. John Wilkens and Quick v. Haus Gremm took High Tracking with a beautiful 100 point track with a total SchH3 score of 282SG (100-85-97). Paul Rousseau traveled from Canada to show his homebred strong, temperment full Dafy de BruceLee to a 272SG SchH2 score.

And further credit to all the Schutzhund dogs was the last minute switch of helpers. The helper that the dogs had worked was injuried on Saturday. Lance Woodley (alternate on for the World's) graciously helped the club out. And Rod Sparkowich,who not only trialed for a successful SchH1, stepped up to work his first Schutzhund trial as well. Showing that their training was sound, the dogs had no problems handling the change.

Congrats to all the entrants.

Copyright 1997 Victoria Janicki. First published on TGSD-L.