The Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chautauqua County 4-H Dog Advisory Committee and leaders recently had 22 members and 24 dogs at the 2012 New York State Fair.
Receiving the highest achievement of grand champion in Obedience Beginners B was Catherine Oag with her Sheltie, Tye. Reserve Grand Champion titles went to Elise Schack with her West Highland Terrier, Tucker, in Obedience Novice B and to Taylor Young with her Sheltie, Lilly, in Agility Pre Novice.
The Chautauqua County Drill Team performed a six-minute, choreographed routine to the "Grease" movie theme, complete with a variety of obedience elements. Ten participants and two coaches spent months planning and practicing for this event.
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Members of the 4-H Dog Advisory committee recently attended the New York state fair.
Handlers were awarded one of the following: a white ribbon for being worthy of fair, a red ribbon for doing well, a blue ribbon for excellence, or the most-coveted purple ribbons for Reserve and Grand Champion. Results for Chautauqua County are as follows:
Competition began with the Obedience Classes. In Beginners Novice A Obedience, Joseph Cerrie received a blue ribbon with his cocker spaniel, Sanderson, and Anna Valone received a blue ribbon with her black lab, Buddy. In Beginners Novice B Obedience, Logan Holthouse was awarded a blue ribbon with a lab mix, Tip; Maggie Jones received a red ribbon with her cockapoo, Honey, and Dalton Holthouse received a white award with his beagle mix, Smeagles.
In the Graduate Beginners A Class, Taylor Young received a red award with a sheltie, Lilly. The group's highest performer in the Obedience Class was Graduate Beginner B, where Catherine Oag took the only Grand Champion title for Chautauqua County. Also receiving awards in Graduate Beginner B were Hannah DeFries, who received a blue award with her Jack Russell terrier, Louie, and Emma Wiggers, who received a red award with her Jack Russell terrier, Pokey.
The Novice A Obedience members, Cristen Lookenhouse and Kayla Nefedov, placed third and fourth with their dogs, Buddy, a yellow lab, and Lily, a golden retriever, respectively. In the Novice B Obedience Class, Elise Schack received Reserve Grand Champion with Tucker, a West Highland terrier, and Alexandria Anderson received a white award with her cocker spaniel, Toby.
Chautauqua County was represented by one four-person obedience team. Receiving a red award was the team of Hewitt Meeder, Cristen Lookenhouse, Bryan Tenpas and Kayla Nefedov. Elise Schack received a fourth-place blue award for her Obedience Brace team of West Highland terriers, Tucker and Bella, and Cristen Lookenhouse received a red award for her team of yellow labs, Buddy and Bruno.
All state fair agility classes are off-lead. In pre-novice agility, Taylor Young received her Reserve Grand Champion award with her sheltie, Lilly. Cristen Lookenhouse received a red award with a yellow lab, Buddy, and Nicole Schack was awarded a white ribbon with her West Highland terrier, Bella. In Novice Agility, Megan Clark received a fifth-place blue award with her lab mix, Molly, and Hannah DeFries received a white award with her Jack Russell terrier, Louie. In Open Agility, Hewitt Meeder and Elise Schack both received white awards with their dogs, Boe, a border collie mix and Tucker, a West Highland terrier. Mandy Swanson, while earning a perfect score with her Australian shepherd, Josh, received a White Award in the Excellent Agility Class due to a timing malfunction that resulted in a heart-breaking score of zero.
Shortly thereafter, many Chautauqua County members returned to compete in Rally and Grooming and Handling competition. In Grooming/Handling Open A Catherine Oag took a fifth place blue with her sheltie, Tye. Logan Holthouse also received a blue award with his lab mix, Tip and Emma Wiggers took red with her Chihuahua, Susie. In Grooming/Handling B Jr. Kayla Nefedov received a blue award with her golden retriever, Lily and in Grooming/Handling B Sr., Cristen Lookenhouse and Danielle Yotpolis received blue awards with their dogs, both named Buddy, a yellow lab and golden retriever, respectively. In Open C, Chance Meeder won a blue ribbon with his Austrlian shepherd, Bailey; Nicole Schack received a red award with her West Highland terrier, Bella, and Bryan Tenpas was awarded a white ribbon with his golden retriever, Snowball.
In Rally Obedience Novice A (On-Lead): Hannah Hornyak received a red award with her Jack Russell terrier, WinnDixie; Maggie Jones was awarded a white ribbon for her cockapoo, Honey, and Anna Valone also received a white ribbon for her black lab, Buddy. In Rally-O Novice B (On-Lead), a third-place blue award went to Taylor Young with her sheltie, Lilly, and Dalton and Logan Holthouse were both awarded white ribbons for their dogs, Smeagles and Tip. In the Advanced Class (Off-Lead), Hannah DeFries took a red ribbon with her Jack Russell, Louie, as did Cristen Lookenhouse with her yellow lab, Buddy. Rebekah Anderson received a white award with her cocker spaniel, Katie. The most difficult class is the Excellent Rally-O Class (Off-Lead); where Hewitt Meeder, Alexandria Anderson and Megan Clark received red ribbons with Boe, the border collie mix, Toby, the cocker spaniel and Molly, a lab mix; respectively.