Julie Grimsditch
I have had dogs all my life, different breeds, but never a GSD which I had always wanted. I had never been without a dog and I can't imagine what it would be like not to have one. At one point I purchased a Hungarian Kuvasz. Having a dog that out weighed me and was very stubborn, I thought I should take obedience lessons. From that point on I was hooked. I started competing in CKC with my Kuvasz (Jagger). After approximately 30 trials, we finally obtained our CD title. This taught me to be humble and accept failure.
I heard about the sport of Schutzhund and I finally got my first GSD. I sort of started in the sport in 1989. Unsure of what the protection phase would do to a dog around my young children, I decided to start off with tracking under the guidance of Charlie Haines. Unfortunately, my young dog had an incurable illness and I only had him for 18 months.
I received my replacement GSD (Nitro) and I did some tracking and obedience with him. When he was a year old I decided to pursue SchH again and I joined my first club. Nitro's beginning in the protection phase was slow and doubtful on whether we would ever obtain a SchH title. A lot of thought was put into how to approach this phase and I received help from many decoys, but especially from Gerard Ouimet and Peter Lauder. We won the SchH 3 Ontario Regional Championships; I also had enough points to be the recipient of the Gold Sports Medal.
From there I was very fortunate to make Team Canada with Nitro at his young age of four, and compete in Turku Finland at the WUSV in 1996; we obtained a score of 278. I couldn't have achieved this without the many hours of help from Gerard and Peter - Ta.
I have had dogs all my life, different breeds, but never a GSD which I had always wanted. I had never been without a dog and I can't imagine what it would be like not to have one. At one point I purchased a Hungarian Kuvasz. Having a dog that out weighed me and was very stubborn, I thought I should take obedience lessons. From that point on I was hooked. I started competing in CKC with my Kuvasz (Jagger). After approximately 30 trials, we finally obtained our CD title. This taught me to be humble and accept failure.
I heard about the sport of Schutzhund and I finally got my first GSD. I sort of started in the sport in 1989. Unsure of what the protection phase would do to a dog around my young children, I decided to start off with tracking under the guidance of Charlie Haines. Unfortunately, my young dog had an incurable illness and I only had him for 18 months.
I received my replacement GSD (Nitro) and I did some tracking and obedience with him. When he was a year old I decided to pursue SchH again and I joined my first club. Nitro's beginning in the protection phase was slow and doubtful on whether we would ever obtain a SchH title. A lot of thought was put into how to approach this phase and I received help from many decoys, but especially from Gerard Ouimet and Peter Lauder. We won the SchH 3 Ontario Regional Championships; I also had enough points to be the recipient of the Gold Sports Medal.
From there I was very fortunate to make Team Canada with Nitro at his young age of four, and compete in Turku Finland at the WUSV in 1996; we obtained a score of 278. I couldn't have achieved this without the many hours of help from Gerard and Peter - Ta.
Since then I have titled many dogs to various degrees. I have competed successfully at regional, national and international events, and have received high scores in all three phases. I am currently working with my young dog Chico Von Lauderhaus towards his BH and SchH titles, and will continue to compete with Arko Mihalko at the SchH 3 level. I am one of the training Directors at the club and I mainly assist in the obedience phase.
Thank you to everyone who has helped me in the past, and to everyone who will continue to help me in the future!!!