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Hi to everyone from K9 who was at the Whippet Workshop yesterday. It was an information packed and fun day and the food as usual was superb.
The event itself was highly organised and finished within 5 minutes of the scheduled time. A lot of people had kindly brought along their dogs for the participants to go over and tremendous thanks are due to these folks. I lent dogs but didn't handle them as I was a candidate who was being assessed.
For those of you who weren't able to go I'll give you the gist of what occurred. Apologies if you've been there and done that, but hopefully lots of other people will be encouraged to go to a similar workshop.
The day commenced with Edith Newton of Nevedith Whippets and the President of SYWC welcoming all and giving an overview of the standard. In a previous life Edith was a head teacher and retains the knack of being able to keep her audience interested and entertained. I wish she had been able to have more time on the matter. We then split into 6 groups and undertook a detailed look at the Whippet as three separate sections. Head, shoulders and front movement as one, the torso including chest and loin as another with finally the hindquarters and rear movement as the third. As you can gather there being 6 groups there were two sets to each section. Group leaders were Edith and Editha Newton, Patsy Gilmour, Jo Davies, Pat Dufty and Sandra Marshall. Editha kept everyone on track with regards to moving round at the correct time. Lunch was taken and then it was down to the nitty gritty for the assessment candidates. The three dogs involved in the assessments belonged to or were closely associated with each of the assessment panel members. These dogs and the assessment candidates were brought into the main hall and each of the dogs were moved so the candidates could assessment movement in coming towards and going away plus in profile. We each took our notes during this exercise. These dogs left the hall and the non-assessment candidates went over the dogs which they had not seen in the morning and were given experience of writing a critique and discussing why they had placed the dogs as they had. During this time the assessment candidates were sat on the stage very nervously awaiting their turn. Each candidate had 10 minutes to go over each of the dogs and make their notes. Crunch time came when we were taken to the assessment panel. The members of the panel were Edith Newton, Jo Davies and Patsy Gilmour, President, Chairman and Vice-Chairman respectively. Talk about nervous, it felt like death by fire squad! Must say though that all the panel members were very considerate towards the candidates. Naturally, I can only speak for myself, but I am sure that this would have been experienced by the other candidates too. Me being me, gabbles even more than usual when I am nervous. I gave my critique. Questions were asked by the panel and then I was allowed to go. Boy oh boy, talk about relieved. I was shaking before I went in but was even more so when I went out. Good thing was though, we were to be put out of our misery and given our results before we left at the end of the day. My darling girl Asharna, who is a real mummy's girl, saw me as I came back in the hall and greeted me as if I'd been gone 6 months, so I felt much better after that. The non-assessment candidates concluded their activities and we all gathered round for a question and answer session which was very informative and relaxed. This was led by Editha Newton whilst the assessments came to a close. After this we finished for afternoon tea in the form of lovely scones with jam and cream.
I was so nervous waiting for the results whilst we were eating our scones. Richard Mason, the Secretary, brought the envelopes through and I just couldn't bring myself to open it. My very dear friend, Maurice Bellamy, opened mine for me and grinned at me which told me all I needed to know. Passed!!!!! I then began to relax and told him that if I hadn't have passed it would have been his fault as he taught me most of what I know!
I was so relieved I could have cried. Isn't it funny that this thing we are supposed to do as a hobby and for fun, is so deadly serious on occasions?
Hopefully I have given an accurate description of what happened yesterday and encourage everyone who hasn't been to, to go to one of the the South Yorkshire Whippet Seminars in the future. It was a very professionally run and friendly event and I am sure everyone who went could not have failed to learn something more about our beautiful breed. I know I did.
Sorry it's a bit long but it really was a full day.
Jan Fiers
The event itself was highly organised and finished within 5 minutes of the scheduled time. A lot of people had kindly brought along their dogs for the participants to go over and tremendous thanks are due to these folks. I lent dogs but didn't handle them as I was a candidate who was being assessed.
For those of you who weren't able to go I'll give you the gist of what occurred. Apologies if you've been there and done that, but hopefully lots of other people will be encouraged to go to a similar workshop.
The day commenced with Edith Newton of Nevedith Whippets and the President of SYWC welcoming all and giving an overview of the standard. In a previous life Edith was a head teacher and retains the knack of being able to keep her audience interested and entertained. I wish she had been able to have more time on the matter. We then split into 6 groups and undertook a detailed look at the Whippet as three separate sections. Head, shoulders and front movement as one, the torso including chest and loin as another with finally the hindquarters and rear movement as the third. As you can gather there being 6 groups there were two sets to each section. Group leaders were Edith and Editha Newton, Patsy Gilmour, Jo Davies, Pat Dufty and Sandra Marshall. Editha kept everyone on track with regards to moving round at the correct time. Lunch was taken and then it was down to the nitty gritty for the assessment candidates. The three dogs involved in the assessments belonged to or were closely associated with each of the assessment panel members. These dogs and the assessment candidates were brought into the main hall and each of the dogs were moved so the candidates could assessment movement in coming towards and going away plus in profile. We each took our notes during this exercise. These dogs left the hall and the non-assessment candidates went over the dogs which they had not seen in the morning and were given experience of writing a critique and discussing why they had placed the dogs as they had. During this time the assessment candidates were sat on the stage very nervously awaiting their turn. Each candidate had 10 minutes to go over each of the dogs and make their notes. Crunch time came when we were taken to the assessment panel. The members of the panel were Edith Newton, Jo Davies and Patsy Gilmour, President, Chairman and Vice-Chairman respectively. Talk about nervous, it felt like death by fire squad! Must say though that all the panel members were very considerate towards the candidates. Naturally, I can only speak for myself, but I am sure that this would have been experienced by the other candidates too. Me being me, gabbles even more than usual when I am nervous. I gave my critique. Questions were asked by the panel and then I was allowed to go. Boy oh boy, talk about relieved. I was shaking before I went in but was even more so when I went out. Good thing was though, we were to be put out of our misery and given our results before we left at the end of the day. My darling girl Asharna, who is a real mummy's girl, saw me as I came back in the hall and greeted me as if I'd been gone 6 months, so I felt much better after that. The non-assessment candidates concluded their activities and we all gathered round for a question and answer session which was very informative and relaxed. This was led by Editha Newton whilst the assessments came to a close. After this we finished for afternoon tea in the form of lovely scones with jam and cream.
I was so nervous waiting for the results whilst we were eating our scones. Richard Mason, the Secretary, brought the envelopes through and I just couldn't bring myself to open it. My very dear friend, Maurice Bellamy, opened mine for me and grinned at me which told me all I needed to know. Passed!!!!! I then began to relax and told him that if I hadn't have passed it would have been his fault as he taught me most of what I know!
I was so relieved I could have cried. Isn't it funny that this thing we are supposed to do as a hobby and for fun, is so deadly serious on occasions?
Hopefully I have given an accurate description of what happened yesterday and encourage everyone who hasn't been to, to go to one of the the South Yorkshire Whippet Seminars in the future. It was a very professionally run and friendly event and I am sure everyone who went could not have failed to learn something more about our beautiful breed. I know I did.
Sorry it's a bit long but it really was a full day.
Jan Fiers
