Get together

Elly Elsenaar said:

What about the Netherlands???????

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Fine with me! I love the Netherlands. Selena and the rest of you have to sell us pups if we are in the country, right??? :lol:

But Jerry, lemme throw out something to you. I have to admit you got me thinking...

We have a good a social mix of experts and "responsible" newbs here (and me). Why not have our own dog convention? Here's a few ideas...

1. Target mid-October in Minneapolis. Picking Minneapolis because it will be awesome that time of year and we can be almost certain that weather wouldn't affect dogs. Lots of land, lots of local clubs with indoor/outdoor facilities. Most importantly, it's a NWA hub (Andres and Al Reanto, cheap flights, seriously) so there are lots of direct flights and lots for spouses/partners/kids to do if you bring them. Mall of America (no tax on clothes), casinos, some of the best restaurants and shopping in the nation, and the best parks and lakes in the nation.

2. Have a day or two of structured stuff where people from various disciplines (Mondio, ASR, Sch, SAR, PSD, MWD) strut their stuff for the group at large. Make it fun and conversational and instructive.

3. Have some "open" class competitions around obedience, protection, tracking, etc. geared towards the individual dog's abilities and training and judged by the group on "style" and conformation to sport/working rules and expectations. This would allow for a lot of flash in mixed dog types.

4. It would be nice to have a public demo of the dogs and skills. I think it's important that you all show people the quality of the dogs you have and the discipline they have. There is a wonderful place in Mpls where the Minnehaha Creek empties into the Mississippi by way of a 50-ft waterfall. Lots of covered picnic tables, lots of land which then Parks board would rent (I think?).

5. Get some local clubs and kennels involved (Minnesota Valley Schutzhund Verein, Leerburg, Red Star Kennels). Red Star in particular is supposed to have some very impressive Presas they can demonstrate. Might even consider having a "closed" session for local folks with interests...we can charge admission to recoup costs.

6. Cater in some group dinners, have fun, have some awards and some joke stuff.

7. Get some late-night Hold'Em games started early.

8. Could invite in a speaker...I think most of you think a lot of Mike Ellis? Ivan Balabanov? Armin and Doug (Doug is right, Der Schutzhund is a fantastic book, Armin translated it)? I don't know.

And about anything else you can think of...

I'm a bit biased on Mpls but I can't stress what a great place it is...schedule in a few days before or after to explore, go up North and hit the Boundary Waters, or we can charter some walleye launches up in Mille Lacs, etc. It's just a blast.

But something like this would be a lot of fun. I'm with you, Jerry, my second-favorite part of dog stuff is the people here and elsewhere I get to interact with. It would be a blast to have a structured thing around our own interests which didn't exclude any forum interests. (No dog dancing.)

So, these are just ideas, feel free to ignore them, but at the end of the day...I'd love to host something like this and have vacation time to burn. We probably should get T-shirts first. :lol:

No harm done if this is lame, just got to thinking about it this afternoon and realized that we didn't need some other event or speaker to localize a place.