From: Vickie Shields
Date: Thu Jan 27, 2005 1:50 pm
Subject: Winners! -- Roanoke, VA
Hi ICATers,
The Roanoke ICAT show was organized by the Star City ICAT club, held in the same hotel complex as a CFA show. 53 cats came over to try ICAT, plus a few of the adoptables (most of which were successfully placed). Many thanks to Carol Osborne, Carolyn Shelburne and Charlotte Shelburne!
In addition to watching all the cats try ICAT, two Agility Officials were apprenticed during the busy weekend: Carolyn Shelburne, Carol Osborne, and Dave Van Der Zee are now ICAT AOs, congratulations to each of them!
We had a special demonstration on Saturday afternoon of clicker training by Carolyn, who does agility with her Border Collies. She brought Shelby in and showed us timing of the clicks (it takes some anticipation of what the animal is about to do, so the click sounds at exactly the desired moment), charging the clicker (rewards for her dog were not just food, sometimes a ball fetching session was the reward), back chaining obstacles, delaying the click for two or three obstacles, and also the importance of body language when communicating instructions to her dog, although we are a long way away from those subtleties with our cats!
Crackers, an Oriental Shorthair owned by Cindy Crenshaw, who loved the agility ring so much he was pawing to get back in there whenever he came back into the agility room, was the only cat who we let in to watch the clicker training demonstration with the dog. He was fascinated, glued to every activity, and we wonder if he picked up any pointers on what he's expected to do in the ICAT ring next time? Crackers was also featured in article in The Roanoke Times on Sunday, including three photographs. Here is the link to the online version, http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke%5C17361.html. Be sure to click the small photo for a slide show of more cats.
One of the local television stations also visited to film a segment and interview Carolyn and some owners of cats who were doing well in the ICAT ring. (I left too early too see it, hope it turned out well.)
Congratulations to the winners of the weekend, and to the memorable fun by others
CATS:
1st Place -- Durango, Turkish Van, owner/handler Deb Hayes, 36:19, 0 Faults (Clean Run)
Durango came back for several other runs for the news station cameras, in addition to his two official Clean Runs.
2nd Place -- Autumn, Abyssinian, owner/handler Bruce Alexy, 36:28, 0
All of Autumn's runs, for time or the television cameras, were goodfast ones. This is a cat who loves the agility ringand learned the obstacles quickly. Notice that her 2nd place winning time is only 9/100's of a second slower than Durango's!
3rd Place -- Frosty, Abyssinian, owner/handler Sandy Scheurer, 1:21:09, 0
Frosty's first time in the ring was on Sunday afternoon, and she did very well for her first timed run.
KITTENS:
1st Place -- Skyhawk, Ocicat, owner/handler Carolyn Causey, 49:28, 0 Faults
2nd Place -- Skymaster, Ocicat, owner Anne McCulloch, handled by junior handler Xan (short for Alexander), 1:39:22, 0 Faults
3rd Place -- Mininese, Burmese, owner/handler Paula Cornet, 2:59, 2
Mininese, the runt of her litter, learned the obstacles by following a spoonful of cat food, and was rewarded for each successful maneuver with a lick from it.
JUNIOR HANDLERS:
1st Place -- Xan McCulloch, handling Skymaster, Ocicat, 1:39:22, 0
2nd Place -- Caroline Melia, handling Tate, Burmese, 1:00:36, 3
3rd Place -- Chelsea Parker, and her 3 younger sisters, handling Dominick, Tonkinese, 2:50, 6
Dominick was surely the most loved, kissed, and most patient cat at the show.
Thanks again to Star City ICAT for hosting the ICAT show. The cats at the new shelter in nearby Radford will be benefiting from ICAT, too, as Carolyn brings the set there for training the shelter cats, staff and prospective adoptive owners, starting at the grand opening of the new shelter in April.
Vickie