Kerry Blue Performance Newsletter
December 2005

By Jane Eno

This is a very exciting newsletter! I have the 2005 Jumpers Agility Excellent ratings available and some wonderful end of the year stories from people competing with Kerry Blue Terriers in all sorts of events. There is also a great story about an unlikely Rally Obedience star at the end of the newsletter, and a wonderful description of herding with your Kerry Blue Terrier.

On a personal note, each year, since I started feeding my dogs a homemade diet, I review what I am feeding and make sure nothing has gone astray. It is always surprising to me how during my review I will often realize I have backed off feeding raw eggs, or lowered the ratio of meat to bone, or forgotten to balance my B Vitamins when one source ran out and another came in. Happily, just in time, an agility publication I subscribe to recently ran a great article on supplements for dogs called “The Five Supplements Every Dog Needs,” by Douglas Knueve, D.V.M. It can be found in the December 2005 issue of Clean Run Magazine.

In the article he says, “While in veterinary school, I remember having only a single, one-hour lecture on pet foods and it was sponsored by a major food company.” He goes on to explain how pet foods are designed and tested and what has already been found to be missing over the years. It is very eye opening! The research put into human diets has just not been done for dogs, and the oversight of the pet food industry is actually done BY the pet food industry. He is not against using commercial pet foods; he just makes a good point that many foods lack basic needs to keep an active dog healthy.

He recommends the following five additional supplements in any diet:
A Balanced Multivitamin/Mineral
Fish Oil
Digestive Enzymes
Glucosamine/Chondroitin
Probiotics

I felt great in the fact these are the supplements that I have been using for years. As I go over my dog’s food this January and make sure everything is still in order and balanced, I will read this article again. I highly recommend Clean Run to anyone that is trialing a dog in any sport. Not only do they run interesting articles on nutrition like this one, but also each week they have a stretching/strengthening article to keep your dog sound and safe over the many years of its performance career.

Now on to the good stuff!

From Front & Finish Magazine

2005 Combined Jumpers Agility Excellent A & B Ratings:

CH MACH Kerigolf Flower Power MX MXJbr> B & D Kincaid 175

Blue Bay’s Hurricane Warning NA
B & J Vogel 54

Lookout Shannon’s Bailey Boo CDX OA OAJ
E & C Shannon 50

Keriland’s Talk About Town MX AXJ
P Hanson/J Beeby/ C Maglaque 47

The Year In Review

From Barbara Catalano:
My , Make Me Smile Jack, has gotten his CGC, CDX,OAJ, and AX. My, Elbrley's Carefree Lady Kate got her CH. this spring. I am the owner of both dogs.

From Patty Sontag & Duffy (Marlborough, MA)
Wildside's Quiet Man CD RN earned his Rally Novice title in three consecutive shows at the Topsfield, MA trials this past June. That same weekend, at the trial sponsored by the Concord Dog Training Club, he also earned his first leg towards his CDX title and placed 4th under Judge Ed Whitney! In November, at the Charles River Dog Training Club trials held in Franklin, MA, Duffy earned his second leg under Judge Tibby Chase.

Each step of the way has been at times, exhilarating, and at other times, humbling. He competes for me, and he only asks that I never forget that we're doing this for fun - and if I do forget, he reminds me! This is all so new to us, but we're learning together. Hopefully, we'll complete the title quest next Spring, then enjoy the Open level for awhile while we polish our training at the Utility level.

From Sharon Burnett:
Rascal (Keristar's Mutual Fun CGC, NA, NAP, NAJ, NAJP, OA) convinced me to bring her out of retirement in time to attend the All Terrier Agility Trials in Kimberton. We've decided to have one more go at that darn Open Jumpers titles that continually eludes us, but we will do it from the Preferred class. Rascal will be 10 years old this February. It hardly seems possible! She still acts like a puppy and can still jump up from a sit-stay to take a toy off my shoulder!

Rocket (Keristar's To the Moon NAP, NAJP) earned both his Novice Agility and Novice Jumpers titles from the Preferred classes this year. I really like working Rocket and view him as my most versatile of my three Kerries. Rocket has decided to work on Obedience this coming year and also to work towards becoming a therapy dog. We will probably come back into agility after he has a break.

Renny (Keristar's R4 the Renny-Gator) resumes agility training now that she is a little older. Renny is hell on wheels. I expect she will be my best agility Kerry. Do look for her in the conformation ring later on this year. I hope to have her out in agility competition this time next year.

Rio (Snowtaire's Her Name is Rio) righto - she's not a Kerry. She's a Redd Raider (Irish Terrier). Rio is the third element of R4, so I'll mention her here. Rio hopes to make Kimberton next year. She's a fun dog to work - has no sit-stay and does everything but down on the table - but she's a fun dog to watch in motion & takes her agility pretty seriously.
All the best!
Sharon Burnett

From Jane Eno:
2005 was a very exciting year. We started the year by driving to Florida to compete in the National Obedience Invitational and managed to qualify on every exercise in all six rings. Then we started to seriously work on our UDX, competing a couple of times a month, and we started competing in agility for the first time. In October, inspired by the Kerry Blue Obedience Specialty, we also gave Rally Obedience a try. Jessie is now Primrose Jessie James UDX RN NA NAJ – earning all 4 titles in 2005. Thank you to all the kerry community for their support over the year! Having sympathetic eyes and ears to bounce off my many defeats while trying for the UDX really kept me going. I almost quit this summer when I lost a loved family member and could not face all the NQs, but with help, picked myself up and continued on.

From Susan Colitan:
Never Give Up on a Dog

In February of 2004, I acquired an 18 month old Kerry Blue Terrier named Eidenbock’s Jamison Lee. He came from the breeder as a “buy back” from his first owner as a puppy. The little I learned about him before I agreed to adopt him was sketchy at best. When I received him at the airport, he did not even know how to walk on a leash.

The first thing I did was to do some leash manners and enroll him in obedience lessons with Karen Stinson at Dog Show Specialties. He was a wild man. Every dog he met, he was prepared to fight. An hour’s lesson left me a nervous wreck. He had absolutely no socialization skills. With time, he became very fence aggressive of my property. Apparently, he had never had run of the yard. I will assume that he was either kenneled or crated most of his young life.

At the time, I had only a 4 foot cyclone fencing at the front of my yard. Every time someone came to the gate, he would go out of his mind trying to get to them. He managed to actually bite four different people that reached over the fence. By then, I was at my wits end. I have trained dogs all my life and never encountered a dog this obsessive or hard headed. I was to the point that I was ready to put the dog down, re-home him, send him back to the breeder or to rescue.

Then a friend recommended I contact Renee Lancaster of Yolo Canine Academy in Woodland. Renee does Pitt bull, Rottweiler, and German Shepard Rescue as well as the trainer for the Yolo Sheriff’s Canine Unit. I left him for one-on-one training with Renee for 30 days. Then I spent about two months attending her obedience classes with Jamie learning to control his dominance and aggression. I also erected a six foot fence and secondary 4 foot fence at my gate to never allow him access to strangers at the gate again.
,br> During this time, I had him neutered because his temperament seemed so aggressive that I would never be willing to breed him. The breeder had hoped to see him in the conformation ring, but I did not feel he was stable as a whole male.

Sometime around February or March of 2005, he started acting like he might survive to live to an old age with me. His training was progressing nicely enough to enter him in the No. Calif. Terrier Assn two day show in Sacramento and the Sacramento Kennel Club two days show immediately after that. Wonders of wonders, he achieved his Companion Dog AKC title in three straight days with another qualifying run on the fourth day. I was on cloud nine. In January, Rally Obedience became a titled event and off we went to try that sport. He achieved each of his Novice, Advanced and Excellent titles one right after the other all in three tries for each level. Now we are headed to our RAE titles starting in January at Santa Clara. Jamie is now also training in Agility and Herding with Performance Dogs in Action and Nola Jones in Pleasant Grove. He loves both sports. This dog has become a real sweetheart. He is very smart, willing, and a hard worker. He is even learning to play nice with other dogs. No doubt neutering him has helped his attitude; but training has certainly been a major factor. His drive to perform is truly awesome. I’m so glad I didn’t give up on him. It really was just a question of days between life and death for him. It just goes to prove that no dog is totally unredeemable. Patience and training will triumph at the day’s end.

Please read the herding article written by Jann Steel Lane. Just click on the title to read the entire article.
When Prey Drive is a Good Thing

Last Updated: 01/09/2006, 6:29 pm