First place getter, Southern Cross Tzu, I love this dog, he and his owner live on our small property, and Tzu reminds me of my old dog, Woo, to whom he is closely related, the way he wears his medal you would think he knows he is a most important dog!

My own Trublue Shooter got a third, shown below, her medal and certificate, she did well, but would not send, this in the protection section the only thing I entered in, Shooter is entirely untrained in protection, she acts fast and protectively when threatened up close but could not care less what happens at some distance away, in real life, this would be just as well for I would never hold her if she decided to chase after some person who might be going on in a silly way, but mean us no harm, let them come close however and it is all on, no way will she let them get within touching distance. In a sporting situation, of course it is a fault not be able to send your dog, a little work in prey drive would fix this in a trice with Shooter.

Held on the 17th 18th and 19th of November 2006 outside Manilla, which is near Tamworth is NSW several of us travelled from QLD with our dogs to attend and meet Butch Cappel and Tony McCallum, Butch flew in from the USA to attend the seminar and trial and Tony made his property available as the venue.

Both are extremely well versed in all aspects of dog training and all those who attended came away knowing much more than they had previously known. I know I saw first hand the reason to work a dog in both prey drive and defence, I have never worked my dogs in prey, and thus, could not send Shooter to get the decoy, but dogs from my lines could be sent no problems, simply because they had done a little of prey type work (or play), I also realised to work them in prey will not cause them to become prey driven killers, as I half feared it might,we have a lot of problems where I live with dogs going hunting and killing stock, so I have never at any time encouraged my dogs to even play in prey drive!

Tony's property is an ideal spot to hold training seminars, in a valley with a beautiful river right behind the self contained cabins made available to those who had travelled from afar, this would be the ideal place to take a break and have your dog trained at the same time, if you are looking for some quiet time in a very relaxing rural setting.

Most of those who attended were not seasoned trialling folk either in obedience or protection type events so all were pretty even in experience. I was absolutely stoked that dogs from Trublue lines were placed so often in the trial.

Never having won more than a chook at a raffle I had a bit of a hard time believing it when I came in third in the Protection section, with the only dog I entered in naything, Trublue Shooter, I took 3 dogs down but only entered one, Shooter. could have entered Zoe but just did not think to, we were going to enter Bob but had to scratch him, as he is not my dog and although he is reasonably obedient to me, if he felt he was in danger he would attack with a will and might not listen to me to out, and as part of the trial called for the dog to be sent off lead and Bob was visibly pumped and wanting to get at the man who had stirred him the day before (Butch), I would not take a risk and let him loose, just did not bother to put Zoe in as my reason for taking her was to show her to Butch as he had once said to a mate in USA who had taken a Trublue dog to him for testing that he would like to see some more of them to see in they were all that good, (he now says they are)

We are now looking at holding other events in different venues so if you are interested in educating your dog, and it behoves all of us with big dogs in particular to do this, do make contact and we will be keeping in touch and seeing what can be done to start a rolling string of events across the country, you do not need to start with a trained dog, and it is a great family pastime for those who love their pooch. Nor must you have a big dog for that matter.

Katrina and her magic old dog Bolio, he deserved to win but was sore footed on the day and a bit too slow, but is an exceptional dog in all ways he is also a very old dog for a Bandog being at least 11 years old.

Ryan's two dogs, Southern Cross Tzu in foreground, I love this pup, he reminds me of my old dog Woo, to whom he is related, Trublue Rat Attack in back, Rat is a magnificent dog needs to be seen in the flesh to get the full force of his power and personality.

Another Abcalert Neapolitan Mastiff doing Pro Storts, Honey was just great she has not been able to keep attending which is a pity, she is a natural, took to it as if she did this sort of thing every day, when in fact it was her first time ever.