October 2017

Volume 2, Issue 10

by linda Friedrich for Showcase for Dogs

Foundations for AgilityAs many of you know, agility requires us to focus on

the course-at-hand, on our dogs, and on our own intu-ition. Sometimes other sports enable us to prepare forthe agility field, and if you are one of those lucky orclever people who prepared for agility with another sportyears ago, kudos to you! One such sport is archery –just ask Diane Patterson, a new agility trainer at Show-case for Dogs. According to Diane, archery is a disci-pline that requires focus on being “calm of mind” and“present in the moment”. Sounds like a wonderful foun-dation for agility success to me!

Welcome Diane Patterson!

Continued on page 2.

News!NEW!

Want better focus from your dog? Rally classes at the Dome begin Nov. 1st!Rally builds reliable focus from your canine partner,

that carries over to better attention in Agility andObedience. We’re setting up new classes now, andmoving into the Sports Dome in East Windsor, forthe Winter, on Wednesday, November 1st.

Class schedule:Rally Novice: 11:30am – 12:30pmRally Advanced/Excellent: 12:30 – 1:30pm

Puppy class at the dome for dogs under 6months old. 9 – 10am.$150.00 for the 6 - class session. Begins Wed,Nov. 1st. Concentrates on socialization and basicfamily dog skills.

CONgRAtulAtiONS tOPat Shewokis and lucy, and to Dawn Bezio andRomeo, for earning the Canine good Citizen (CgC)title in September. Also congrats to June Comer-Chagnon and tammie for earning the AKC trickDog Novice title!

Free Pet Massage!As a special treat for Showcase for Dogs students,Annette has arranged for Shannon Medina to do 30minute pet massages on November 29th and De-cember 13th in the Dome. Shannon is a student atBancroft School for Small Animal Massage, who willreceive her certificate in December. Stop by whileyou’re training with your canine partner for a freemassage!

Follow us on Facebook.Please contact Annette at 860 627 8633 if you areinterested in taking any of these classes, or comingto a testing event.

Diane and Happy.

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Diane’s DogsDiane began agility with

a Belgian laekenois, (a rarebreed), that she got as arescue. Vee lacked confi-dence and suffered fromanxieties. A friend sug-gested agility as a way todraw her out, so they wentto a local training center,and began to learn to playthe game. they fell in lovewith agility, and the oppor-tunity to showcase theirnew skills, bringing home 5blue ribbons from their firsttrial! Hooked on agility, theyalso eventually earnedtherapy Dog credentials,and enjoyed many visits ata local convalescent center.

Kazee, a small, inde-pendent-minded ShetlandSheepdog that Diane got at7 1/2 months old, furtheredher skills. Now 13 and re-tired, along the way, sheachieved 9 Championshiptitles including 6 AKCMaster Agility Champi-onships, a uSDAA Per-formance DogChampionship, and theelusive Versatility NADACAgility Championship title.A consistent achiever lo-cally, they attended theirfirst AKC National AgilityChampionship in 2011.

Diane also ownsKazee’s half-sibling,Catcher, (semi-retired,now age 10), who hasearned 8 Championshiptitles, and has furtheredDiane’s understanding ofwhat being an “honest”dog means. Diane feelsthat this understandinghas made her a more ac-curate handler – Catcher

follows instructions perfectly, andhas helped her to improve timing,as well as her understanding ofcommitment, connection and theimportance of using the correcthandling cue.

Cruzer, her tri-colored ShetlandSheepdog, built a foundation ofsolid teamwork with Diane, andthey experienced a meteoric riseto the top of the sport – Cruzerbecame the youngest dog tocompete in the finals at the West-minster Master’s Agility Champi-onship, and placed 4th in his firstyear there. they returned the nextyear in 2016, and won their event,besting a field of amazing compe-tition on live tV. they competedtwo years in a row at the AKCAgility National Championship andmade finals both times, finishing in6th and 8th place. they also be-came the uKi Biathlon National

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• Diane Patterson Continued from page 1.

Please turn to page 3.Flying over a jump!

Kisses from Cruzer.

Showcase for Dogs • 121 North Road • East Windsor, CT

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Champion and won a spot on the united States uKiteam, and placed 3rd in the Cynosports grand Prix Na-tional Finals in 2015. in 2016, they won the first spoton the AKC united States World team. Whew!

Her Road to SuccessDiane’s road to success has been paved with lots

of hard work, and lots of time spent perfecting herteams. Her journey has taught her that no matter howhard or difficult the impact, her job is to find a waythrough a difficult situation. She weaves those les-sons into the skills she teaches, while meeting newpeople in classes at Showcase for Dogs. As we wellknow, the paths we choose may not always end theway we hope, but we need to embrace the differentroads they take us on.

A 14-year student of the sport of agility, Dianecontinues to grow her skills, to build on the mentalmanagement theories and practice that enabledher to be a nationally ranked archer and dog agilityhandler, and to bring that mindset training to herstudents. Says Diane: “Because “life” is woveninto all we do, i’m a coach that makes sure han-dlers consider that as they work to build a bondand relationship as a handler for their dogs. Agilityto me is a dance. i lead my dog, and together, we“make it happen.” Diane is currently teachingagility classes on Saturdays at Showcase, and would loveto meet you and your dog(s). Annette can provide that connection for you!

take a moment to introduce yourself to Diane, and make a new friend.

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• Diane Patterson Continued from page 2.

Showcase for Dogs • 121 North Road • East Windsor, CT

Success!

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