NZ agility team

[Michael Romanos]

This may interest some members. New Zealand has an unofficial agility team over in Australia who will be competing at two meetings next week including the national Australia agility champs in Adelaide. The team is dominated by members from my region and the training club I belong to. I have just teed things up with several newspapers and have to produce an article for one of them today. Taylor and I could have been part of the team but the cost was a bit steep. I did jokingly remark that they should pay me to be in the team because I can act as the publicity officer and media liasion. Seems I am now doing this from home (sigh).
These meetings in Aussie are the first time ever any Kiwi (NZ) has competed at agility overseas.

Some members fo the NZ team wanted to take their dogs to an Adelaide beach yesterday but were warned by locals not to because of sharks and puffer fish lurking in the shallows. But they went anyway and found the beach full of dogs with many of them swimming merrily in the sea.

[Michael Romanos]

At the pre-nationals meet in Adelaide, Australia, Peter de Wit and his Heading Dog, Cee of Upper Hutt ( where I live) won the two Masters events - this is the top grade in Australian agility.
At the 3-day nationals, after two days, ten of the NZ team (called the Paw Blacks) menbers are into Sunday's finals with Peter and Cee a winner of one of the three Masters heats. despute Peter having a very sore knee. Lyn Sayers - another of the team members from Upper Hutt - has done very well with his two female Miniature Schnauzers and is into the finals in two events. One of Lyn's dogs is a great rival of Taylor's and Taylor and the Schnauzers get along famously together - Taylor just loves them.
In the novelty and team events on the first day of the champs, the Paw Blacks won several of the events (Snooker, Gamblers, Strategic Pairs) So it has been a sensational beginning for NZ agility at international level.

[Michael Romanos]

Handler (Dianne Reid) and her Border Collie, Ace who are members of the Upper Hutt Dog Training Club, won the Open agility title at the Australian national champs. Pretty historical. I have arranged the Mayor of Upper Hutt to give the five members of the Upper Hutt DTC and their dogs who were part of the 11-persons/13 dogs NZ Paws Black team a mayoral reception.

Agility in Australia is not much stronger number wise than is NZ despite having nearly six times the human population. At the Australian nationals there were 150 entries in the Masters event - at the NZ equivalent event (seniors) at our national champs, we had 220 entries. Australia does not have many dogs that are of the smaller breeds, competing in agility and like here there is a discouragement because they don't have separate competitions for the various sizes of dogs.

You can bet that next year there will be a NZ presence at the Australian champs in Melbourne despite the substantial costs.

[Michael Romanos]

Tomorrow (Thursday), there is a mayoral reception for five of the Paw Blacks who belong to the Upper Hutt Dog Training Club. Since I have arranged the event, I'll be there and I have got the media interested. I have also arranged for one of the victorious dogs to be at the mayor's reception, representung the canine part of the agility competition partnership.
One thing I want to get across to the media is that where the Australian champs were held - Adelaide - is a bigger city than anything in the greater Wellington area, and as least as sophisicated as Wellington city, but Adelaide encourages people to bring their dogs into major shopping malls, shopping areas and into stand alone shops.

This will almost certainly be the very first mayoral reception anywhere in New Zealand for dogs and their handlers involved directly in sport and recreation.