Twin Cities OES Goings On
 Sure! Puppy!I just realized I had taken off work because the OES Sheepdog Specialty is tomorrow and the whole weekend is a dog show. So now I won't be able to go  So I was just wondering if there is anything else planned in the Twin Cities area for OES in the next couple of months so I can again request off work. I want to become more involved with the breed, but thus far the only OES I have actually met have been Chewie and Bond for a brief time at the Pet Expo (which was awesome!) |
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| You missed a great day with lots of activities - conformation shows, rally, obedience and rescue parade. Right now we don't have anything planned for the immediate future. But, there is a specialty in WI in July (similar to our event, and also with a large all breed show over the weekend). It's July 27th (Friday) in Waukesha - just west of Milwaukee. Then the full show will be the 28-29th for all breeds. I will be out there with my guys, as will many of our MN club. Then further out, the National Specialty is also in WI this year - West Bend, also near Milwaukee. Dates are in September - 16-21. Here's the schedule: http://www.oldenglishsheepdogclubofamer ... p#schedule And if you want to drive down to Mankato, we could meet there pretty much anytime.  |
| Here comes a stupid question- What's a specialty? |
snazzierella wrote: Here comes a stupid question- What's a specialty? Never a stupid question!  A specialty is a show that is for one specific breed. Many are held in conjunction with an all breed show, but it isn't necessary. The show our club had was part of a specialty group - about 10 different breeds had their specialty shows on last Friday, then most people also stay and show for the regular (all breed) shows on Saturday and Sunday. This was our local OES club's specialty - the National Specialty is sponsored by the National (in USA) club and is open to OES only. It is a nearly week-long, stand alone event, with conformation, herding, agility, obedience, rally competition events, as well as rescue and therapy dog parades. Great fun! The location is moved throughout the regions each year. This year it's in WI, next year in St Louis, MO, and 2014 in Oregon. Last year it was in NC, the year before in NY. |
| Oh, that sounds neat! Are people allowed to come watch if they aren't participating in the shows? And how would someone go about getting into the show? Maybe I'll have Eevee in something next year, if she's ready! Oh, and I've been meaning to ask, what is rally? |
snazzierella wrote: Oh, that sounds neat! Are people allowed to come watch if they aren't participating in the shows? And how would someone go about getting into the show? Maybe I'll have Eevee in something next year, if she's ready! Oh, and I've been meaning to ask, what is rally? For attending to watch - you just need to show up. Most of the event info is on the OESCA website, see the link above that I posted. There is no fee to attend. We have MANY new people who have watched, then went on to enter later on...it's addicting!Rally is a newer sport - 1st started in 2005 by AKC. It's a form of doing obedience exercises, but you follow a course in a numbered order of stations (the signs), and it has 3 levels. You are allowed to talk to your dog, but not touch them or correct with the leash (in competition). The beginner level is Novice, and on leash. Advanced, then Excellent are offlead and have jumps and harder stations to perform. Here's a link to the AKC site that explains it. There are classes for it most everywhere that you have regular obedience classes. It's a fun, more entry level sport to get started in. http://www.akc.org/events/rally/ Follow the links on the left side of the page for more info. |
| Rally sounds fun! I think our local dog club has rally classes. Do the dogs need to be a certain age before starting rally? I know Eevee has to be older before we start agility, so once we're done with obedience I might start her in rally and Bailey in agility. |
snazzierella wrote: Rally sounds fun! I think our local dog club has rally classes. Do the dogs need to be a certain age before starting rally? I know Eevee has to be older before we start agility, so once we're done with obedience I might start her in rally and Bailey in agility. It helps if they have a basic obedience foundation, then can start in rally. Bond has been going to classes in obedience with me (but with me as the instructor, and randomly working in one of the other instructor's classes when she doesn't need me as her helper) since he was 3 months old. Rather casual, and hit or miss....but he did go with twice a week, and also hung out at Chewie's agility class to learn to be crated and ignore activity and distractions in a busy atmosphere. We started in rally by the time he was about 6 months...but that's not really the norm for most...but totally doable! I plan to have him enter Rally Novice in WI in September, and he will be 11 months old. |
| Eevee won't be finished with obedience until August (in time for the sheep-in, yay!), so she wouldn't be started in rally classes until at least then which would put her at 7 months. It depends when they start rally classes again, too. Most of the local club's classes require that the dog has finished a beginner obedience class, so we have to do that before we can do anything anyway. It's not like they don't need it, Bailey is super awful on a leash and they both jump on everyone, and neither of them gets that they should still listen to me when we leave the house! Lol. Jacob's going to work with Bailey at obedience and I get to work with Eevee. We're both excited to get started! Eevee is a smartie even though you wouldn't think so by how she walks into stuff all the time, she learned how to sit on command the very first time I tried to get her to do it, which is faster than any other dog I've had got it, so we think she'll do well in obedience. |
That sounds like a good plan!  |
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