It is pretty funny to see 12 Great Danes, a Bloodhound and a Golden all lined up for Sit/Stays.<G>. This has become a wonderful time to socialize our dogs, meet and educate new Dane owners and work the various skills that the dogs and owners need. We work with obedience at all levels, from dogs that are just learning what leash training is all about to advanced obedience as well as practice/training for the conformation ring. We vary each week what we are working on....we may have Rally introduction one week, bring out some agility equipment to introduce the next or play games (Simon Says and Duck Duck Goose are lots of fun!) 

The underlying theme is that ALL dogs can benefit from socialization and training and we encourage all owners to participate in formal obedience classes. We always have some basic obedience that we work on and help newcomers to understand the benefit of the individual exercises. We all pass on training tips, help folks learn more about their chosen activity and just have a wonderful time snuggling all the dogs.

All of the Drill Team members jump in to help, playing judge one week, setting up rings for more formal conformation and obedience practices or getting to be posts or ring Stewarts. We get to haul around jumps, listen to new owners questions, brag on the dogs accomplishments and take the time to problem solve any training problems that anyone may have. We're always looking out for new Drill Team members and when we have public performances we will invite anyone interested to come and participate with us. It's lots of fun for them to "run with the big dogs" and a great introduction for them to the fun our team has. 

    I am so very proud of this group. Their dedication to their dogs, their unbelievable patience with new comers to the breed and their willingness to give of their time and experience to anyone who is in need is unbelievable. They all have jobs, family commitments, some have school and kid commitments and all have training and showing time to fit in with their own dogs .Yet even with all this they all make the time to come to weekly practices and show up at the Saturday Park training class. They put in countless hours float building, costume creating and drive hours and many gas guzzling miles to perform at the events. They dig deep in shallow pockets to help fund these events, bring yummy dishes to pot luck dinners, travel together to shows, share tears of exciting wins and always have hugs and a word of encouragement for the fellow team mate whose show day was less that successful. It's the best of all worlds and I'm humbled to be a part of it all.