AWDF & NAWATA

[marciagovednik]

Belonging to these two organizations we support the breed legislation to perserve our working airedale. They have the RH (Search and Rescue Program) and we could have a Hunting Tests Program sanctioned thru NAWATA. This just broadens the activities along with Agility and Schutzhund. I think alot of you would agree we need a Hunting Test Program. I am sure there are some of you out there that could help with this.

Marcia Govednik

[hicntry]

Marcia, I have your phone and was planning on calling when I get my voice back. As I understand it, the AWDF id trying to get the AKC to make certain concessions regarding the working dog. Also, as I understand it, the AWDF encompasses a number of breeds and activities. This situation is very similar to what took place here a few years ago with the federal government trying to swallow up federal land. A club was formed through Calif., called SAMS. Since the numbers were too ow in any one club, all outdoor clubs banded together to gain enough power to be heard. The 4 wheel off road clubs, the hikers, the fishermen, the hunters all banded together to fight the government. This required burying many hatchets as hunters and 4 wheelers and such are at opposite poles as were numerous other factions. Can you give us a little more detail on what direction is desired by the AWDF? How hunting would be incorporated into it since the is no formated agenda at this point? What I am looking for is assurance that, the goals are realistic and not intrusive to how I, personally handle my dogs. If it is merely a no test, no recognition deal, that is livable by me and the majority of the hunters I am sure. (Excuse me guys......liveable to most fur hunters).

[marciagovednik]

This is new ground for the AWDF working dogs. AWDF goes by the FCI Standards. ALot of American's have breed the working ability out of the working dogs. For example my father inlaw use to hunt with a Irish Setter. How many Irish Setters are out there today used for hunting? The AWDF is here to prevent this happening with the different breed clubs. If you would go to the FCI website you will see what they have Trials for Pointers and Field Trials for Retrievers and Trials for Hounds. www.fci.be/championship. I think everyone would go along with perserving their breed and keeping the working line alive and going strong. I hope this will help you understand what FCI and the AWDF are all about and why NAWATA is a member.
Marcia

[maugh]

If I understand the policies of the FCI correctly, they defer to the country of origin on performance matters. Yet this does not seem to be true either, since Airedales definitely do not do Schutzhund in England! I think the issue here is that when competing internationally, the rules to follow are the FCI ones. (For example every country has had its own Schutzhund rules, and only recently have they been standardized.

We definitely don't want to go the route of the German system; I think Europe in general is very "PETA"-like and they don't seem to allow the use of live birds (or other animals for that matter) in their tests.

I will take it upon myself to learn what I can, since I am fluent in German and pretty good at reading French. At one time I had written up a lot of stuff about getting recognition or credit for working Airedales by just working them and having it properly documented. I will put some of these thoughts up in a folder on the Yahoo site - just until we get our website either unlocked, torn down and re-constituted or something. In this case it was patterened after a "Sports medal" points thing that USA does, but we might want to consider other forms of recognition. USA (United Schutzhund Clubs of America) also has programs like the "Schutzhund 3" club to distinguish those who train a dog from puppy to Schutzhund 3. I had been thinking along those lines but where you would get points by actually going hunting as well as passing some kind of test.
I wrote up tons of such stuff, just no one ever expressed any interest in it.

Also, there is no requirement that NAWATA hold only AWDF or FCI events. We like to include a lot of different activities when we hold an event, and some are just plain for fun. One year we all went for a "dog swim" in the Rock River.

Regarding the black Airedales, I think that is something we can't answer right now. NAWATA basically relies on AKC for authenticating registrations and pedigrees. When we get organized, there needs to be a policy made that is consistent with the bylaws but also reflects the will of the membership. I woud think that performance events would be open to any dog who can do the work.

I continue to concentrate on the performance side of things, because I think this is where the devil gets into the details. My view is if a dog can do it, it and its trainer and its breeder deserve some recognition.

Maugh

[marciagovednik]

Thanks Maugh for your input. I think this would great to get a hunting program started here. No other AWDF breed club has done this so we would be the first. Maugh, I think there is interest here now we just have figure how to put this together. I am a Schutzhund 3 club member and my husband Al bought me the SchH 3 jacket. I think you will get some people checking out the Yahoo site folder.
Marcia

[lauregen]

hicntry said:

Marcia, I have your phone and was planning on calling when I get my voice back. As I understand it, the AWDF id trying to get the AKC to make certain concessions regarding the working dog. Also, as I understand it, the AWDF encompasses a number of breeds and activities. This situation is very similar to what took place here a few years ago with the federal government trying to swallow up federal land. A club was formed through Calif., called SAMS. Since the numbers were too ow in any one club, all outdoor clubs banded together to gain enough power to be heard. The 4 wheel off road clubs, the hikers, the fishermen, the hunters all banded together to fight the government. This required burying many hatchets as hunters and 4 wheelers and such are at opposite poles as were numerous other factions. Can you give us a little more detail on what direction is desired by the AWDF? How hunting would be incorporated into it since the is no formated agenda at this point? What I am looking for is assurance that, the goals are realistic and not intrusive to how I, personally handle my dogs. If it is merely a no test, no recognition deal, that is livable by me and the majority of the hunters I am sure. (Excuse me guys......liveable to most fur hunters).

If AWDF can get AKC to support working dogs I will always be in its debt! :-) That would be super terrific.
;D

Laura

[marciagovednik]

Laura,
That would be great but I don't see that happening anytime soon. That is why AWDF works with the FCI.
Marcia

[morgan]

As I understand the FCI trials, they are for Retrievers/Hounds/Go-to-ground/Continental pointers/English Pointers. I don't believe they have a "spanieling" test or a coon hound or versatile hunting test. I wonder if AWF/FCI would accept our test for our breed as currently designed by the HW committee?

I support NAWATAs efforts in protection and as an alternate choice. I am fearful of too many venues and too few Airedales.

Laura, It is politically extremely unlikely that the AWDF will influence the AKC in protection, any more than, say, UKC does.

Dave in NYC

[maugh]

Dave,
I discovered the same thing. Since I hang out with upland types, I thought of experimenting with an all-breed flushing test like what the H/W offers for Airedales since the UKC doesn't offer anything for all-breed flushing dogs either.
I also hang out with Munsterlander people and they are frustrated because they have no real venues that are performance-focused. What they do is a curious mix of flushing and pointing activities, since they retrieve after the point. It looks to me like they are inventing their way.
I very much respect your concern that we not spread things too thin. But in this area only 4 Airedales participated in the upland flushing test. An all-breed event sponsored by NAWATA might be an interesting experiment. I am going to run the idea by Hal and see what he thinks. He is pretty much the area expert on all breeds and considers himself the champion of minority breeds.
At any rate, if we do have an event, it must be a fun one and something that does not compete with what H/W has worked very hard to put in place. I'm just exploring right now and have no intention of committing to anything detrimental to H/W.
And it would be separate from the August H/W workshop and would be more like the traditional NAWATA Airefests, which include a wide variety of activities.
Maugh