Former instructor, Verna Shumate, is no longer affiliated with us.  Please be assured that you will not have to deal with her again.

Georgette Holst has owned, trained and shown eight German Shepherds. A long time member of this club, Georgette also trained with Sportsmen’s Dog Training Club of Detroit for many years. A “tried and true” German Shepherd lover, Georgette, having shown in Canada as well as the United States in obedience and tracking, has put more titles on her dogs than any of us. Her Shepherds have a multitude of High in Trials and High Combined awards as well as many Tracking Dog and Tracking Dog Excellent titles. Take a look at her long list of accomplishments: “Teddy” - CDX, “Jessie” - American and Canadian UDT - Obedience Victress at the National Specialty, “Chassis” - American and Canadian CDX, “Sheba” - American and Canadian CDX, “Henri” - American UDTX and Canadian CD, “Esme” -American and Canadian UDT, “Rumer” - American UDT and Canadian CD, OJP, “Magic” - UDT, OAP, OJP, AXP, AJP. Magic, Georgette and Rumer are pictured below.  If you're looking for beautifully hand-crafted, custom fitted buckle dog collars, contact Georgette.  Her work is amazing and her collars are one of a kind!  Our congratulations to George and Magic on completing their Utility Dog title.  Good girls!

Bob Tatus has owned, trained, and shown a variety of dog breeds over the year; "Duchess" (German Shepherd), "Bonnie" (Rough Collie), "Murphy" (Irish Setter), "Cella" (Shetland Sheepdog), seven Border Collies, "Harley" (Jack Russell Terrier) and "Tucker" (American Bulldog). His first obedience dog was a West Highland Terrier-Dalmatian mix named "Petie" who was shown at the very first Mixed Breed National Specialty in Seattle, Washington in 1977 where she went High In Trial with a score of 199.5 in Novice A.  Petie also starred in a Domino's® Pizza commercial back in the late 80's. His second obedience dog, a Sheltie named "Cella" (OTCh Frank N. Furter's Damnit Janet) was retired in 1988 after winning the D.W.D.O.A. World Series Top Dog Division. Cella amassed an amazing 1,022 lifetime OTCH points and 35 AKC High In Trial awards. Bob credits much of his dog showing success to Sportsmen's DTC of Detroit where Cella was inducted into the "Hall Of Fame." Bob briefly co-owned a Border Collie named "Ewecur" who earned her CD out of Novice B with three first places and one High In Trial on her first leg. His next dog, a Border Collie named "Berkeley" (OTCh Frank N. Furter's Lollipop Dragster) finished her obedience championship in 1992 and was subsequently retired so Bob could concentrate on sheepherding with Border Collie "Griffin" and training dogs for "Paws With A Cause" using Berkeley as his demo dog. Bob also bred three litters of puppies which produced "Dolffin" in 1992 and "Euchre" in 1994. Bob will tell you his greatest dog-related accomplishment thus far was donating Dolffin's litter brother "Dallas" to "PAWS" who was later certified as a Service Dog and is still, at age 12, in active service with a young man in Chicago. Before taking a break from the competitive obedience circuit, Bob showed at and placed in several Gaines Regionals, as well as winning the Open Division at the World Series in 1989 with Border Collie "Nell" owned by his long time friend, Gail Dapogny.  Bob has also given two Handling and Problem Solving Clinics for the Cleveland All-Breed Dog Training Club. Bob  is available for private lessons in handling, problem-solving, and competition training and can be reached at:  248-255-2111. 

Bob and his young male Border Collie, RED TOP TELLER TOO moved up to the Open class in October of 2008 and is now competing with the "Big Hats." Below are pictures of Teller working sheep.

Driving, as opposed to fetching, is contrary to what the Border Collie does naturally.  Teller, however is a natural driving dog which means he likes pushing sheep away from Bob as much as he likes bringing the sheep to him.  In an actual trial, the drive and cross drive are scored in terms of how straight the dog keeps the sheep in line across the field.

Teller keeping a watchful "eye" on his flock.  In addition to bringing the sheep to the handler and driving the sheep away, the working Border Collie's other responsibility is to hold the sheep when called on to do so.  Only the Border Collie has the inate ability to hold livestock simply by staring at them, hence the term "eye."

Bob sending Teller "come bye" (clockwise) under the watchful eye of Patrick Shannahan, clinician, trainer, handler, judge and Teller's breeder.

Teller keeping his sheep in a nice, long straight line at the Ft. Wayne trial in June, 2006 where he placed 2nd and 5th.

IN MEMORY OF VITA (09/05/06 - 06/26/07)

Vita died tragically as a result from ingesting a deadly Blue Green Algae toxin while swimming in Lake Tyrone.  While her death was sudden and certainly very sad, the news of her death spread across the internet like wildfire warning thousands of people of the dangers of Blue Green Algae.  Anyone who takes their dogs swimming in lakes or ponds during the summer months should be aware of the conditions which make this algae so deadly. All one has to do to learn of this deadly toxic algae is to go to www.dogpile.com and enter the words "Blue Green Algae" or read the story of Vita's death here on our website.

Explanation of A.K.C. (American Kennel Club) Titles:

Obedience and Tracking
CD = Companion Dog
CDX = Companion Dog Excellent
UD = Utility Dog
UDX = Utility Dog Excellent
UDT = Utility Dog, Tracking Dog
UDTX = Utility Dog, Tracking Dog Excellent
OTCh = Obedience Trial Champion

Agility:
NA = Novice Agility
NAJ = Novice Agility Jumper With Weaves
OA = Open Agility
OAJ = Open Agility Jumper With Weaves
OAP = Open Agility Preferred
OJP = Open Agility Jumper With Weaves Preferred
AX = Agility Excellent
AXJ = Agility Excellent Jumper With Weaves
MX = Master Agility Excellent

A new level of Agility has been added.  It's call FAST.  Once you see it, you'll know why.

To help give you a little better understanding of how to rank the A.K.C. obedience titles, think in these terms:  a CD is like graduating from Elementary School, a CDX like graduating from High School, a UD like graduating from College with a Bachelor's Degree, a UDX like graduating from College with a Master's Degree, and an OTCh like graduating from college and getting your Doctorate. For more information about the American Kennel Club, go to: www.akc.org