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K-9 Outreach Programs |
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K-9 provides demos for any organization that expresses interest. We also march in some of the local holiday parades, plus we have a booth and team at the World of Dogs at State Fair.
K-9 also participates in various community holiday parades, such as the Milwaukee and Menomonee Falls Christmas parades.
The demos are geared to any organization expressing interest, although the majority of our demos are at nursing homes and grade schools. These demonstrate the different levels of training that our dogs are in and are usually group activities of from three to twelve or more dogs. Any K-9 member can join in. For more information, email
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August 5, 2006 - Woof & Hoof Dog Walk for Gilda's Club
A pleasantly warm Saturday morning in August found K9 members Chris Gremo (Indy and Journey), Tom Peterson (Addie), Debbie Zak (Katie), Debbie Seder (Echo), Mary Ellen Pongracic (Valli), and Monica (Josie) participating in an obedience demo for this dog walk. Held at Atwater School in Shorewood, the walk and other pet-related activities were a benefit event for Gilda's Club, a cancer support group. The K9ers showed an appreciative audience obedience from beginner to utility.
In addition to visiting many vendors (like dog massage, puppy bakery, and specialty dog foods), K9's group enjoyed several extracurricular activities. Chris Gremo's dobermans placed second in the best trick category with "dueling dogs" and came home with an award for the second shortest tail. Debbie Zak's Katie was a star in the tennis ball/swimming pool event although unfortunately didn't pick a prize winning ball!
The K9 Flyball Team also did a very popular demonstration of this fast-paced sport. Included were: Chris Gremo (Indy), Kaylen Snoda (Lexie), Marty Wojtal (Harley), Kathy and Bob Kowalski (Buddy), and Debbie Zak (Katie).
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Every year K-9 participates in the Wisconsin State Fair's World of Dogs, in which many of our members participate in demonstrations of obedience and flyball. This year, the World of Dogs was Monday, August 7. Demonstrations started at 10:00 am and lasted until 6:00 pm in the Coliseum building.
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August 7, 2006 - Wisconsin State Fair's World of Dogs Day
K-9 sets up a booth in the Coliseum for the whole event. People are free to stop by and ask questions about the club, classes, and even discuss issues they are having with their dogs throughout the day. We always get to meet and chat with a ton of new people. Along with the booth, K-9 also participates in the team obedience and flyball demonstrations.
Team Obedience
The obedience demonstration was first. Team #1 consisted of Debbie Zak (Katie), Debbie Seder (Sierra), Cheryl Sargeant (Tango), and Carla Kindler (Razzle) they were able to take home a third place finish. Team #2 included Chris Gremo (Journey), Sandy Flaaten (Haadon), Tom Peterson (Adie), and Cherie O'Conner (Ginger) who went home with a fifth place finish. The team members always have a good time training for team obedience, but you never know what is going to happen at the fair. The exercise that usually makes or breaks the team is the drop on recall, the team that has the most success with this exercise is usually the team that takes first place.
Pictured on the right is Team #1
Debbie Zak (Katie), Debbie Seder (Sierra), Cheryl Sargeant (Tango), and Carla Kindler (Razzle).
Congratulations on your third place finish! |
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Pictured above (left to right)
Deb Zak (Katie), Kathy Kowalski (Buddy), Juli Celpius (Slick), Jenni Hesse (team helper), Marty Wojtal (Harley), Dale Kupka (team helper), Kaylen Snoda (Lexie), Chris Gremo (Indy), and in front Bob Kowalski (team box loader).
Congratulations on your third place finish - job well done!
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Team Flyball
Up until State Fair the K-9 flyball team never actually won a race, only a heat at a mock tournament. During the warm-up before the first race against the German Shepherd Club, Dale informed the team as long we had a clean run we would be faster then the German Shepherds. That’s all it took to get the competitive spirit flowing. The team decided to only rerun our dogs if there was a chance of winning. Fortunately, every time we had a fault the other team also faulted so we were able to rely on our speed and reran in time to win our first race. The cheers from the K-9 spectators was outstanding, we had more fans than any other team by far!
Our second race was against High Fives. It was a lot of fun, because they are like our sister club, and have actually taught us a great deal about flyball technique. Their height dog faulted during the first heat, we had a clean run and won! This forced them have to change their order and strategize to beat us. This was quite an accomplishment, since High Fives holds the fastest time of all Wisconsin teams.
Our last race was for third place! At that point the worst we could do was fourth place, which was awesome. We raced against the Aussie Rescue Group; they had a dog crossover during the first heat, which was an automatic win for us (Indy showed great focus by ignoring this dog and continuing with a clean run). With some great starts and tight passing we were able to win our second race ever. We therefore finished third out of six teams, which was beyond our expectations of just doing better then last year. Thanks for helping, Jenni and Kevin Hesse and Dale Kupka! |
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