The next Board meeting will be March 21st 2023 at our training facility located at 5222 Marsha Sharp Freeway at 6:30 PM. All members are welcome to attend.

The next Member meeting will be March 21st 2023 at our training facility located at 5222 Marsha Sharp Freeway at 7:30 PM. This is our annual Awards Potluck dinner. Make sure to bring your favorite dish. Anyone interested in dog training and dog sports is welcome.

Thanks to all the people who worked so hard to make our Obedience and Rally trials a success. First, for the huge job of Trial Secretary, Dana Brown did a fantastic job. Committee chair Laura Smith, ring stewards, trophies, and equipment, JoAnn Phillips, set-up, Cathy Smith, hospitality, and Sherell Guichard-Thomas, raffle, all kept things moving seamlessly. JoAnn Phillips kept Ring 1 going with other ring stewards Vicki Harris, Cheryl Birdwell, Sandra Whisner, and Lori Sixtos. In addition to hauling the equipment trailer, Marcia Bishoff kept Ring 2 going with other ring stewards Stephanie Curbo, Erica Massingill, Sarah Oden, Laura Offutt, and Haylee Feeback.

In addition, we appreciate all the folks who helped move all the equipment into the show site and back to the club. I didn’t get everyone’s names, but we love you! Congratulations to all the club members who finished or made progress towards titles. We were well represented! Joann Neal - Chair

The next round of Conformation practice at SPOTC will begin on Saturday August 6, at 9:00 a.m. We will plan for practices as needed. The fee is $5.00 per dog per class, payable at the time of the class.

Remember to send all your information on all titles your dog(s) earned during Calendar Year 2022 (i.e., between January 1st and December 31st, 2022) to Marcia Bishoff bossmare54@yahoo.com by Tuesday, January 31st, 2023. This includes Obedience, Utility, Agility, Tracking, Carting, and any other dog sport for which you and your dog earned a title in 2022. CGC titles are also now eligible under the AKC rules, provided that the $20 fee has been paid for the CGC title certificate. Pet Therapy visits are eligible as well. Send your dog’s registered name, the name of the title and the date it was earned. Also include any therapy hours you have for each dog. If this is the first year you received titles for a dog, SPOTC also supplies you with a plaque. Please indicate that you need a plaque and, if it is different from the registered name, include the dog’s name as you would like it to be engraved on the plaque.

The Ben Lumpkins Award recognizes the Club's top Novice A handler and dog for the past year. Points are earned for this award based on qualifying scores, class placements, and titles earned from the Novice A class at AKC competitions. If you have competed in the Novice A class in any AKC venue this year, contact Marcia Bishoff (subject title Ben Lumpkins Award) at bossmare54@yahoo.com for a worksheet to chart your activity. If you showed in a Novice Preferred class (which doesn’t divide into A or B) you are also eligible for the award as long as this was your first time to compete in that venue.

A few weeks ago we started a group for Draft/Carting work. This is open to all levels, from beginners to experienced. We are currently meeting during the weekends, weather permitting, in various locations (Levelland, Shallowater, etc.). If you are interested, please let me know. You can also reach out to Liz Brandt. Patti Emmerling 911standards@gmail.com

Please join me in welcoming our Officers and Board members, who were elected at the May meeting for the fiscal year June 1 2021 — June 1, 2022, and are as follows:

President: Dana Brown

Vice-President: Mary Jane Sampson

Secretary: Jodi Pritchard

Treasurer: Cheryl Birdwell

Board Members: Teresa Janssen, Mary Lou Vardy, Margaret Freeman, Julie Wilson and Gail Claborn

Thanks to all the club members who helped to make our Obedience trial a great success. Biggest kudos to Dana Brown, trial secretary, who did the premium list, took entries and lunch orders, made the trial catalog, judges’ books, running orders, then kept her nose down in the computer all weekend getting everything recorded and sent to AKC. A huge job! JoAnn Phil-lips worked hard on set-up. Thanks to head ring steward Vernon Brown for keeping the rings manned and running smoothly. Margaret Freeman kept our West Texas hospitality flowing with coffee, donuts, drinks, and dispensing lunches. The match crew of JoAnn Phillips, Laura Smith, Cheryl Birdwell, and others kept the match rings going. Laura also got all the equip-ment organized and ready to go, and organized ribbons and prizes. Sherell Guichard-Thomas did a wonderful job (as usual) with the raffle and with the AKC information table. Cheryl Birdwell kept the bills paid. And more thanks to everyone who came up to ring stew-ard, set up the show and haul equipment, keep the ribbons and prizes flowing, donate to the raffle, provide transportation and meals to the judges, and anything I haven't remembered to mention!

Congratulations to members who showed their dogs--whether you brought a ribbon home or not, an entry results from a lot of work, and the bond you have with your dog is better for it!

A brag on the students in our Novice Rally class. They did great at our Obedience trial, with many of them competing in Beginner Novice Obedience as well as in Novice Rally. We had fun and earned titles at the same time. There is a nice story about us on the AKC Sports Facebook page. Scroll down to "Posts" on the left-hand side. There are pictures and comments by Judge Aimee Kincaid.

Make sure to catch our club's debut on YouTube.com. Club members recently performed an agility demo at halftime for the Ropes High School football game on November 2nd. The club got rave reviews from the crowd. The demo was video taped and placed on the website YouTube.com thanks to Paula Perry. To take a look, just go to this direct link:

All members are encouraged to show their pride and hang an 8x10 photo of their titled dog on the wall in the meeting room. If you do not have an extra copy of your precious color photos, you can frame a color copy. Also keep in mind that the club has voted to hang photos of dogs that earn an MX or UDX in an honored place on the wall with our OTCH dogs.