Inside RAT Tales Part 1:
New Members!
Spotlight on Members!
Saying good-bye to Lisa Triggs
New Members!!!
Barbara Eisenstein & Cassidy
Cassidy is a 2 1/2 yr old English Shepherd. She just started competing in Nadac and CPE.
Donna Murphy & Rio
Rio is a 2 1/2 year old standard red-tri Aussie
Peggy Grunwald and her Poos
Ziva an 8lb black girlie 6 and Gordon my goof ball is 3.
Gordon likes to always look his best and ziva enjoys a good snooze on my head
SpotLight on Members – Sherry Bodin
RT: Tell us where you live and about your dogs.
Sherry: I live not far from Hood Canal. I have Tika 10 year old black tri Australian Shepherd, Badger 7 year old red tri Australian Shepherd,Sushi 4 year old red tri Australian Shepherd,Token 3 year old red tri Australian Shepherd and Fitz 7 month old red tri Australian Shepherd.
RT: How did you get interested in dog agility?
Sherry: I saw it on TV when I was a kid once and other looked like fun. Only took 10+ years.
RT: Are you competing? If so for how long?
Sherry: Yes, I’ve been trialing since 2009.
Fitz on the right with Sherry
RT: What venues do you compete in?
Sherry: ASCA, CPE, USDAA, UKI when I can, some NADAC, and I occasionally go up to Canada for AAC.
RT: What other activities do you do with your dogs?
Sherry: Rally, herding (sheep, cattle, goats, ducks, geese, etc…), hiking, swimming, and mostly just letting them hang out.
RT: What do you like about being a RAT Club member?
Sherry: Being able to help host events and letting people get to learn more about our sport.
Sherry on the right Herding with Badger
RT: What RAT Activities have you helped with?
Sherry: I’ve done all the trial jobs in some capacity, but have settled in to Trial Secretary.
RT: Do you have any particular interests you would like to share
Sherry: Most of my interests fall in to the realm of dogs (training, behavior, physiology, etc), but I also follow star gazing /astronomy, geology, and reading, mostly fantasy
RT: What funny things do your dogs do?
Sherry: Token has “chores”, she is supposed to collect all the dog dishes after feeding, with 5 dogs running around it is usually chaos and bowls tend to go flying. Sushi likes to breathe on windows to fog them and then lick them to clear the fog.
RT: What do you like best about your dogs?
Sherry: They are wonderful companions and are generally willing to do anything I ask of them..
SpotLight on Members –
Val Tangen
RT: What Area you live in?
VAL: Hansville WA on the Kitsap Peninsula (north of Bremerton, Silverdale, Poulsbo and Kingston) last house at the end of the road
RT: Tell us where you live and about your dogs.
VAL: I have Bart, 9 years and Ukie, 3.5 years – Portuguese Water Dogs
RT: How did you get interested in dog agility?
VAL: Back in the early 1990s in Alaska, it was the new sport being introduced at the local dog club. Sure looked like fun so had to try it.
RT: Are you competing? If so for how long?
VAL: At the time there were no agility trials in Alaska. We left AK for awhile and went to Canada. When we returned in 1998, agility had begun in earnest! AKC and the combo group NADAC/ASCA (before they split up). Trials outdoors in snow and among the moose and Canada geese!
RT: What venues do you compete in?
Val: Currently just CPE with Ukie. The plan is to expand into a little AKC and maybe NADAC and ASCA if she gets weaves and fast enough! (Bart has been retired as he has become extremely environmentally sensitive.)
RT: What other activities do you do with your dogs?
Val: PWD water work; rally; hopefully obedience, tracking, and FastCat.
RT: What do you like about being a RAT Club member?
VAL: I joined RAT in 2005 when I moved here from Alaska in order to meet folks and find out what the agility in this area was like. (I’ll never forget when I applied to enter my first trial here and got a nice note from Sandra Katzen saying the trial was full and you had to enter after midnight the day it opened to be sure to get in!) I’ve met lots of people through the Club and it’s great to know folks at trials and be able to help out.
on the Left; Uki Jumping
On the right Bart
RT: What RAT Activities have you helped with?
Val: Working at Trials, Demos, and running in League. I help out with electronics and other trial jobs. Was the RATwear person for several years. Living so far from a lot of the activities makes it hard to be more involved.
RT: Do you have any particular interests you would like to share?
Val: The Portuguese Water Dog “water” activities are great fun and not as easy as it looks. Especially since I do not have access to a pool or warm water to train in! So many of our lakes are contaminated and not available to train/swim in. So it is lots of training on land which hopefully transfers to water. Come and watch our water trials sometime – Deep Lake near Enumclaw in July and Flowing Lake outside of Monroe in September!! Some amazing dogs!!
RT: What do you like best about your dogs?
Val: My husband and I have had mutts and dogs of different breeds but the PWDs are our favorites. They are very smart – sometimes a lot smarter than we are. Great companions and (most) have a good work ethic. Always ready to go and do things or to stay home and cuddle
Wishing Rat Member Lisa Triggs the best on
her move to North Carolina at the end of July
Lisa’s website is : https://allianceanimaltraining.com/about/
Check it out to learn more about this creative trainer.
Lisa Triggs, MSc, SDC, CPDT-KA, CCUI
Lisa is currently a professional member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT), an AKC Canine Good Citizen (CGC) and Trick Evaluator, a Certified Service Dog Trainer, a Certified Control Unleashed Instructor and an active member/instructor for the National Association of Treibball Enthusiasts (NATE). She is the Chairperson of NATE’s Competition Service’s Committee.
Besides being an incredible trainer Lisa helped RAT members many times some of her jobs were: co-Chaired hospitality,Chief Ring Steward,she was a Member at Large on the RAT board in 2018 and 2019. She volunteered to help out at all trials she attended.
