While I have spent many hours putting together the foundation for the site, I hope everyone will feel free to contribute.  I do have to support the site, so there will be a very small membership fee.  I also want to keep the membership accountable; that is - if I do not know an applicant, or know of the applicant, there will be a few prerequisites to membership.  Those are that you have 

1.  finished at least one champion of record in the past five years
2.  membership in a formal breed club in your country -OR-
3.  recommendations from two other people who:

•  
  • already belong to this organization -OR-
  • have co-owned or co-bred dogs with you in the past five years

The application process for those I am already familiar with will be rapid and uncomplicated; mainly a matter of adding your information to our membership roster and paying the fee.  Please read more about membership on the Members page. 

A central feature of this website is availability of surveys and their results - pertinent to several facets of our membership.

For exhibitors, there are two surveys:  the Show Site Survey and the Survey on Judges.  You may review a show site or judge only one time per year.  We will also keep a record of BOB winners at each of the shows for which we have a judge reviewed, therefore building up a database of judges' selections.  Results will be compiled and made available to registered members only.  In this manner, decisions regarding which shows to attend and which judges to enter dogs under can be based on some level of educated input.

For breeders & owners:  Survey on Breeder Practices and Survey on Veterinarians.  These two surveys will serve as a manner of comparison.

At a later date we will also add a Survey of Mini Schnauzer Health and a Survey of Feeding Practices and Philosophies, and possibly a short survey of breeders' clients' knowledge.

Most of the surveys may be completed anonymously - and this is made clear in the introduction to each document.  In some cases your name will be optional.  In other cases your name will not be requested at all; however, for purposes of validating results, an assignment of a coded "token" will be used to identify separate surveys.  There is no method by which the administrator or anyone else can "de-code" these tokens to identify the survey-taker.

In the beginning, our surveys will be limited to members from the United States and Canada.  As our membership grows, we hope to find individuals from other world regions who might be willing to formulate the existing surveys to fit circumstances in those regions (for example - application to FCI shows/country regulations) - and possibly translations as well.

We are always open to suggestions regarding new survey topics - and in the first few weeks, suggestions on question formation in the surveys already constructed.

Check out all the highlights from a GREAT Western weekend!

It was the perfect weekend for a dog named "Blue" and a bitch named "Miracles"..... Three show days, three BOBs for "Blue" and three BOSs for Miracles.  The only questions were which class dogs would get the points and who would get the Awards of Merit.

There is seemingly no better outcome (other than a Group Win or BIS) than three Bests of Breed at a specialty show as large as those at Great Western Terrier weekend!  For owners Karen and Rachael Hoffman and handler Shawne Imler,  the performance of their CH Earthsong Remedy for the Blues had to have been perfection! 

Bev Verna's place in the awards lineup seems etched in proverbial stone at GWTA - though it varies from BOB to BOS to BOW from year to year.  This year, it was her CH Regency's I Believe in Miracles (a "Twister" daughter) who placed her paws firmly on the Best of Opposite placard all three days.

Check out the video:

Dim lights Embed Embed this video on your site

The above Youtube clip is embeded in the article using a provided plugin called AllVideos from Joomlaworks included with your Shack Pack!

At the MS Club of So. CA Specialty on Friday, the likeable Judge Sue Goldberg chose Masami Uryu's Jokerland's Alexandrite (the 2009 BOB on Friday) as her Best of Winners.  Winners Bitch was Ernhart's Little Miss Magic co-bred and co-owned by Rich & Tanya Arnold & Shawne Imler. Mrs. Goldberg liked the BOS in Sweeps as her Reserve WD - Empire Express Music Man bred and handled by Juanita Ainsworth for owner Vicki Stephens. Reserve WB was Ms Chevious MaiTai's Sweet Leilani handled for the Stoltenbergs by Jenny Wornall.

Friday's Awards of Merit were handed to CH Lonestar's Wicked Good (R & S Edwards), CH Carmel Race to Kelvercrest (V. Potiker) and CH Allaruth SoleBaye ChipothGoldBlok (R. Ziegler & Y. Phelps).

Saturday, the first day of GWTA (but a non-specialty show in our breed), Judge Thomas Barrie put up Blue & Miracles, and then looked once again to Jokerland's Alexandrite (M. Uryu) - making the dog a new American Champion.  Winners Bitch was  the black and silver Ms Chevious MaiTai's Sweet Leilani.   Reserves were Uptown Promises of Hansenhaus (dog) and Friday's Sweepstakes BOB, Daree's Divine Design (bitch) owned by Cynthia Mulheron-Klein.

Awards of Merit chosen by Mr. Barrie were CH Lonestar's Wicked Good, CH Regency's Storm Trooper, and the Winners Bitch, Leilani.

Sunday was the AMSC Specialty and the "ring commander" of the day was breeder-judge Claudia Seaberg.  After the same BOB and BOS as already determined on Friday and  Saturday, Ms. Seaberg took a different direction with her Winners.  From the rarely-used American-Bred class, Allaruth No Kidding of Sole Baye (co-bred and co-owned by Ruth Ziegler and Yvonne Phelps and handled by Hans Kabel) attained both Winners Dog and Best of Winners under the critical eye of  Ms. Seaberg.  Reserve WD on the day was Julie Cooper & Alice Palmer's North Pine Rebel with a Cause from the 6-9 puppy class.

Kathy Colby's Kwic Tell Me Sweet Little Lies represented Winners Bitch from the open class, and Ms. Seaberg picked Ernhart's Little Miss Magic (Friday's WB) as her Reserve.

Ms. Seaberg awarded Merit rosettes to Wicked Good.....

Congratulations to all for a wonderful weekend!