With my involvement on the committees of numerous dog clubs, I began judging club handler competitions at this time, and progressed to judging heats of All Breeds Junior Handler competitions, when I began training for my Gundog judges� licence in 1985. Over the subsequent years, I have continued to assist and train individual juniors, with several of my students reaching the Finals of a number of handling competitions available to them.
I have seen a large number of them, even at 7 or 8 years of age, progress from the Junior Handler ring into breed competition rings and not only compete successfully, but most far surpass their adult counterparts in handling finesse, showing their charges to many BIG & BIS wins.
I was responsible for the introduction and co-ordination of the PEDIGREE PAL Junior Handler�s training programme for Western Australia in 1996, as part of my role as Professional Services Manager for Uncle Bens� of Australia. This programme comprised weekly training sessions for both novices and the more advanced Juniors, and ran for 9 months of the year.
This training programme has the distinction of producing 6 of the top 8 Qualifying Finalists at the 1997 State Final of the PEDIGREE PAL Junior Dog Handler Competition, a record equalled in 1998 and included both the State Winner and Runner-Up.
This feat was repeated in 1999, and saw 5 of the top 8 places filled by students from this training scheme, with Western Australia�s Representative, Miss Joanne Stewart, chosen as the Runner-Up at the National Final. Another of my students was also successful in winning the very competitive Junior section of the Handler Finals at the 1999 Perth Royal Show.
I was honoured to judge the 1999 New South Wales State Final of the PEDIGREE PAL Junior Dog Handler Competition in Sydney in July of that year, assessing some of that State�s most competitive Juniors.
In 2002, one of our trainees, Miss Jenny Vaughn-Davies was not only successful in winning the State Finals of the PEDIGREE PAL Junior Dog Handler Competition, but went on the win the National Finals, and represented Australia at Crufts in the PEDIGREE International Junior Dog Handler Competition, where she was awarded as the Runner-Up.
In 2003, the State winner of the PEDIGREE PAL Junior Dog Handler Competition, was Miss Natalie Dilley, and was extremely gratified by this win, as Natalie & I had worked together for several months on individual training and her performance in both the State & National Finals was without fault.
Still actively involved in the training scheme on a regular basis, I, along with Natalie and another of our former Junior�s Darryl MacDonald, hold classes for both novices and the more advanced juniors on a 6-block weekly basis. I also remain involved in the training of individual handlers on a weekly basis.
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