AZAWAKH AEGIS Azawakh Aegis Winter 2016 AKC PARENT CLUB FOR THE AZAWAKH HIGHLIGHTS IN THIS ISSUE Letter from the President by Deb Kidwell 6 January 2017 This year our specialty will be at the same place in OH. David Miller and I will be doing a judge’s education seminar at some point during the weekend. I hope that many of you will attend. 2016 Royal Canin Breed Results Wow, I can’t believe another year has passed so There is also a plan to do a mock dog show The American Kennel Club® (AKC®) held the 16th quickly! We had a wildly successful specialty in following the seminar. It will give everyone a Annual National Championship Dog Show presented OH, and a well attended and productive general chance to “be a judge”. by Royal Canin in Orlando, Fla. on Saturday, Dec. 17 membership meeting. After holding our second and Sunday, Dec. 18, 2016. Open Show, we checked off another item on Page 6 the road to AKC recognition. So here’s to another successful year for the American Azawakh Association and all the Azawakh fanciers! The Officer and Board of Directors election is coming up. Cori Kelly is the lead on the nominating committee for the election. Please contact her if you are interested in running for Deb an office. Those of you who are currently officers and board members, please let Cori know if you want to continue on the board. After almost 5 years out of the country, I’ve moved back to the US and am living/working in Survival Skills for Pups Tewksbury, MA. I’m living in Dracut MA with One owner's guide to puppy training. four Azawakh (Koro, Flame, Afella and Imoud) Page 3 and plan to start showing them in mid January. I also hope to start coursing too. So we’ll see Evaluating a Pet Dog Breeder An article covering questions and criteria for finding a responsible breeder. Page 4 AZAWAKH AEGIS | Winter 2016 2 Table of Contents Club Happenings : Membership Notes, p.2 Membership App & COE, p.8 Show/Performance News : Recent Litters, p. 5 New Titles, p. 13 Performance Results, p.13 Features: Survival Skill for Pups, p. 3 PUBLICATION AND SUBM ISSION INFO 2016 Royal Canin Breed Results, p. 6 The next issue of the Aegis will be Spring 2017. The REPRODUCTION OF CONTENTS MAY BE REPRINTED 2016 Meet the Breed Booth , p. 7 AAA welcomes articles from its members. The WITH PERMISSION OF THE EDITOR. PLEASE CONTACT Editor reserves the right to edit articles and letters EDITOR TO SEND ALL ARTICLES AND ADVERTISING: submitted for publication. Opinions expressed in letters and articles are not necessarily those of the Editor or of the AAA. The Editor will not publish Cori Kelly, Aegis Editor at personal invectives about named persons or where [email protected], please include 'Aegis' implication makes a person's identity obvious. in subject line Membership Notes by Cori Kelly The Complimentary membership will expire one During the month of January, the Treasurer year from the day it is submitted. If you would shall send to each member a statement of his like to continue membership in the club, you dues for the ensuing year. All members who may apply for associate membership. To apply have not paid their dues by the 31th day of for associate membership you need to complete March will be dropped from the membership the application in the newletter, or from the link roster and must reapply for membership. below. If after one year of associate membership, you would like voting rights, you Elections Azawakhs and handlers gather ringside at may apply for full membership. The The 2 year term is ending for the current officers Royal Canin National Championship in and board. The new slate will be elected by Orlando, FL. Photo Credit: V. Morgan requirements for full membership are: secret ballot. The Nominating Committe is One year as an Associate Member headed by Cori Kelly, Kate Antolick, and Aliya his winter the club has no new members. T You must be in good standing with the AKC Taylor will be on this committee. If you are On your adventures with your Azawakh, please and/or any dog club of which you are a interested in serving as an officer or on the feel free to share our club with those member. board, please notify the committee head at interested, and let them know about the club. [email protected] by JANUARY 14th. Complete membership application to Ready for the next Step? upgrade membership status: http://www.azawakhs.org/Documents/aaa memberapp2015.pdf AZAWAKH AEGIS | Winter 2016 3 example, if you don't want your adult dog to 2016 AAA OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS About four years ago, my wife and I woke up jump on guests, it is far easier to teach that inhibition to a 10 pound puppy than it is to teach one Sunday morning and decided to find a a 100 pound adult dog. The common puppy. If that sounds like an odd "spur of the misconception that you should wait until the moment” decision, it may help you to know that pup is six months old to start training leads to a two days before, we had lost our beloved very risky form of neglect. Australian Cattle Dog, Megan, to a very serious illness. Our house was so empty that we knew we simply couldn't live without a dog. By the Pleasant and Unpleasant: The tools end of the day, we took home a six-week-old, of the trade: Before you can get started with a ten pound Cattle Dog. We named him Tug. training program, you have to have a basic understanding of how animals learn and how If a puppy is old enough to come home, he is old you can control that learning. Most animals enough to start learning. For Tug, this translated respond to things they like by repeating behaviors that produce "nice things". The flip The American Azawakh Association, Inc. (AAA) is the into disciplined learning of a number of very AKC parent club for the Azawakh in the US. The AAA specific behaviors and a general, supervised side of this process is that most animals will was founded on February 7, 1988, to promote the pure freedom to interact with his environment. naturally avoid things that are unpleasant. Azawakh and to guarantee the breed a permanent Having trained hundreds of puppies for my These two types of consequences are the future in the US. It publishes a newsletter known as the clients, you might think I would immediately primary tools you will need to use to affect your Azawakh Aegis. start on fancy obedience type behaviors, such as pup's behavior. The American Azawakh Association's Registry is recognized by the American Kennel Club Foundation Stock Service and as of June 30, 2011 Azawakh entered the AKC Miscellaneous Group. The club Survival Skills for Pups currently has approximately 85 members. by Gary Wilkes -Originally featured in PuppiesUSA annual. © FOR MORE INFORMATION sit, down and come. If I were deciding only as a Positive reinforcement - trainer, that might be so - but before I was a Check out the American Azawakh Association's Everybody's favorite: Loosely defined, trainer I spent eight years working in humane new website, or FB page: a positive reinforcer is anything your dog will shelters. That influence made Tug's schooling a work for. If your dog pesters you to play ball, PARENT CLUB HOME PAGE NEW little different than most. Rather than teaching then playing ball can be used to strengthen http:// azawakh.org him only obedience behaviors, I preferred to get other behaviors. If your dog is a chow hound him started with "survival skills" that would FACEBOOK PAGE https://www.facebook.com/pages/American- allow him to live successfully with people. Azawakh-Association/200573426629552 If you are having a hard time thinking of Officers obedience behaviors as "fancy" and wondering President : Deb Kidwell how the word "survival" can be connected to Vice President : Corinne Kelly puppy training, it might help to look at the Secretary : Vicki Harrison broader context. In this country, millions of Treasurer: Lisa Pinto puppies do not survive their first year. Many of those pups are taken to shelters because their Board of Directors owners simply can't live with them any more. Of Ed MacMillan all those puppies, not one is released to a shelter Norma Spivey because it won't sit, stay or come. The behaviors that must come first are a little more basic and a lot more important than precision "heeling" or "scent discrimination". The puppy who knows how to sit, but does not know how to greet strangers is unlikely to survive. The pup who knows how to greet strangers politely may actually live long enough to learn how to sit, heel and stay. To see how this perspective translates into a training program, here is a brief overview of Tug's early education. Establishing some ground rules. Start immediately : The first rule in our puppy teaching program can be summed up as "Do it, now". Behaviors that are created or Quinn Antolick is adored by his staff Kate & inhibited in puppyhood stand a good chance of Brian Antolick Photo Credit: K. Antolick being a part of the dog's repertoire for life. For AZAWAKH AEGIS | Winter 2016 4 and will do almost anything for a treat, then see the analogy between the spritz of water and paw, while nipping off the tiniest bit of a nail.