Page 33 - Demo

In our last issue we profiled juniors who were award winners at the National Specialty. Some, although not all of them, were also Optimum Club members; here we present the remaining members of the Optimum Club.
Each member of the Optimum Club has earned either 100 Junior Handling points or 10 Title Performance points during the annual year and has maintained a grade point average of 3.00 (a B average) or higher for each grading period of the academic year. Congratulations to them all on an outstanding achievement!
Kate Eldredge
Eighteen-year-old Kate is not only the Journal’s Rally editor—she is also a freshman at Cornell, where she plans to participate in marching band and possibly other bands as well. (In high school she was in march- ing band, jazz band, concert band, and pit band!) Clearly a music lover, this young lady has academic passions as well, with English at the top of the list and math a close second.
Kate credits her mom both with introducing her to the world of dogs and being the greatest influence on her juniors career, always encouraging her to get involved and pursue her goals. One of those—a huge one—came to fruition this past July, when she attained a CT (Champion Tracker) on her Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Flash. “It was an incredible experience,” she says.
Flash was Kate’s first show dog. “She is now almost 12, and still very active in everything.” Flash and Kate were the first junior handler team to earn both a VCD1 and an RAE. Following in Flash’s accomplished pawprints is Tia (Hearthside in Focus VCD1 PT RE AX AXJ NF OAP AJP NFP), a six-year-old Aussie. “Flash and Tia are very different, but both have been a joy,” she says.
Kate especially loves Tia’s sense of humor. “She is very funny and clever and loves to entertain herself,
flinging toys around the house and launching herself on and off the back of the couch.” Not quite so amus- ing is her occasional exhibition of attitude: “Tia knows exactly what I ask of her, but has to be in the right mood to actually do it—she is quite the primadonna!” Motivation is a challenge they are working on!
Immediate goals for Tia are to earn her AXP and OFP in agility. (She has already earned a VCD1, making them the third juniors team to do so, hot on the heels of Flash.) “I would love for her to earn her CT some day,” says Kate, “which we are starting to work toward.” Also firmly in Kate’s future? Continued training and showing of dogs as an adult. “My dogs mean far too much to me to ever quit.”
Lindsey Grinels
Lindsey is a 17-year-old high school senior who loves math—“any kind of math class!” She is also captain of her school’s drumline, which is beloved by the entire school, and she’s very active in her church youth group as well.
Her current juniors’ dog is 5-year-old Teagan, AKC/ ASCA Ch Skyecove’s Out and About. But Teagan has had big pawprints to fill: “My very first show dog was Amber, ASCA Ch Otter Creek’s Simply the Best. I was very successful with her in the junior ring, where I started showing her at the age of 10. The first time I ever entered an AKC ring was in juniors with Amber in West Palm Beach. I was extremely prepared and also extremely nervous, but that day we won first place! My second show dog was Cajun, AKC Ch Touchstone Cajun Stomp. With him I qualified and competed at Eukanuba twice and Westminster once from the Open Junior and Open Intermediate classes. All three of my Aussies I have gotten as puppies and finished by myself.”
Lindsey says that competing against professional
Lindsey Grinels and Teagan
Kate Eldredge with Flash (left) and Tia (right).
2008 Optimum Club Members
November/December 2009 The Australian Shepherd Journal 31