Junior Showmanship Day Camp

On October 29, 2005, The Colorado Kennel Club in keeping with their tradition of serving the community hosted an entirely free Junior Showmanship Day Camp open to anyone regardless of experience. Twenty-eight Juniors responded with RSVP’s and we had two walk in’s for a total of thirty Juniors signed up with three no-shows. CKC feels this was a great response to the first of its kind camp.

Notice of the Day Camp was posted on the AKC web site, the CKC web site and posters at all of the shows for the 6 weeks prior to the date of the camp.

The Day Camp consisted of an 8 hour session taught by 5 instructors with varying backgrounds. The sessions were alternated by those with and without dogs. It was further broken up in short enough “classes” as to keep the attention of the Juniors, with snack breaks. A lunch of pizza was offered to all in attendance.

AKC’s Mari-Beth O'Neill assisted the efforts by sending in a wealth of information and rule books for the Juniors.

CKC Hospitality Chairman Marlene Phillips held a welcoming session detailing the plans for the day. The first class was with out dogs in a class room setting. It was taught on the rule book and history of juniors by Thom Stanfield. Thom is an AKC Breed and Junior Judge, an ex professional handler and photographer and a current AKC Delegate. Thom detailed the pleasures working with ones dogs in The Sport of Queens within the rules.

After a break to get and exercise their dogs, the Juniors entered the ring for a handling session taught by CKC President Bill Lee. Bill is an AKC Breed Judge and an ex professional handler. Bill’s session covered breed specific setup and AKC judging patterns.

The next order of business was to put up the dogs and have a snack break of bagels, fruit and drinks. Then we had a class session on “Judges, Judging and Where This Sport can Take You” given by Kevin Springer. Kevin has been a very successful junior in the area and is currently an apprentice professional handler. Kevin encouraged the juniors to always have fun with their dogs. He also told them of how much he missed the Junior ring.

With another quick break to get their dogs and the students went back to the ring for a session with Mary Parenti on Building a Team Between the Junior and Their Dog. Mary teaches several classes on Juniors and is the Regional 4H Chairman. She worked with the Juniors to build a better showing team for success in the ring.

The time had finally arrived for Lunch. The Colorado Kennel Club sent for enough pizza and drinks to feed all of the Juniors, the parents that stuck around and the workers.

At the conclusion of the lunch break, Thom hosted a question and answer session on what had transpired in the morning sessions. He further explained the upcoming match being done by Jay Acker. Jay is an AKC Agility Judge and teaches conformation training classes for both juniors and adults. Jay spent the afternoon judging then critique the junior teams to improve their ability to show in the ring. Jay’s diplomatic nature was appreciated and well received by the Juniors. This session was concluded by presentations of awards and certificates attesting to their attendance in the Day Camp.

The day ended with many voicing the question “when is the next camp?” and all thanking the CKC team for their hard work to make this a successful first of its kind in the country.

The Colorado Kennel Club gratefully acknowledges the assistance and contribution of the following additional members that helped make this seminar a success. Those were Carol Stanfield, Louise Leone, Carol Zamperini, Anita Formati, Mary Delisa, Francesca Maes and Melinda Clearman.