Steve and Josh attended a Helper certification seminar for 3 days up in Beautiful Salem Oregon (Fall of 08), and met great Schutzhund folks from Washington, Oregon, and Colorado. We found DVG schutzhund to be very welcoming and friendly, the people had a host of different breeds and were looking for other good friends who enjoyed dog sport. The host club "Salem Schutzhund club" was more than hospitable. We felt welcome from the first moment we were there and were treated like very close friends or even family. We hope to be able to return and spend time with them again! The instructors and evaluators were very tough, and there were a lot of great dogs to work with. Josh worked so hard to prepare for the seminar and worked his tail off all weekend. He went into his evaluation apprehensive but with a great attitude. The first dog he worked didn't seem to want to out and fought him for the sleeve several times, but he locked up and waited just like he should. His next dog insisted on doing a hold and bark right in his face standing on it's hind legs, inches from him, and he didn't flinch or get scared. Then every out the dog was right back to guarding in his face making his job difficult to say the least. He came through like a champ and was certified as a club level helper. Steve was lucky to work some of the clubs best dogs that came hard and fast with a lot of power, they were such a thrill to work with and I was grateful they trusted me with such great dogs. I too worked as hard as I could all weekend trying to adapt to the subtle rule changes between USA and DVG and to the instructors different styles. All said and done it was very encouraging and I almost made the championship level helper certification. We are going to keep working very hard, and hold another certification seminar in Scottsdale in January to see if we can make it!

So our young fledgling club is fortunate to have two certified helpers at the current time.