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ABOUT
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Sno-King Agility Club
Sno-King Agility Club was formed by a group of dog enthusiasts interested in promoting the sport of dog agility in the South Snohomish/North King County area of Washington state.
We offer classes, seminars, demonstrations, and practices.
We are open to all breeds and mixed breed dogs, and our members compete in AKC, USDAA, CPE and NADAC.
We host three trials each year: AKC trials in May and November AND a CPE trial in August
We have expanded to include classes in other dog sports – Scent Work, Rally, and More!
History
In The Beginning…
Sno-King Agility started as the brainchild of Kay Jackson and Jo Ann Mather, both of whom were tired of driving over an hour to their respective practice facilities. Pooling their resources, they purchased contact equipment and a tunnel and spent countless hours building PVC jumps and weave poles. Classes started in the fall of 1994. We soon had a core group of enthusiastic students.
Officers were elected (Kay Jackson, President; Eileen Gillette, Vice President; Jo Ann Mather, Secretary and Patty Taylor, Treasurer) at the first organizational meeting in early January of 1995. There were ten people in attendance at that meeting. The name Sno-King Sno-Bounders was decided upon since we were essentially from the south Snohomish and north King County areas. Sno-King was a reality!
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In July we held our first more or less official fun match – a show and go and “introduction to agility” at Jennings Park in Marysville. It was highly successful. The event was well-run and made a good profit. It was a dress rehearsal for the Olympic Kennel Club (OKC) show to be held the following month.
In preparation for the OKC show, we practiced setting courses, timing and scribing, setting bars and all the other major and minor jobs involved in putting on a trial. Randy Mather developed a special computer program for the administrative part of the trial and to help with the scorekeeping. The big day arrived. We had 88 entries, with most in the Novice A class. A total of nine Sno-King dogs earned legs, and we came home feeling very proud of the job that we had done. We had lots of positive feedback. It was a financial success and Olympic Kennel Club was pleased.
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Since most of the Sno-King members own AKC-registered dogs, and since AKC trials could be held with only a small core group, we decided early on to concentrate on holding AKC trials. However, we are not exclusively AKC. Most of our members compete in the other venues; in fact, Kay Jackson's Corgi, Katie, was one of the first dogs in the Northwest to earn the coveted Agility Dog Championship from the United States Dog Agility Association. NADAC trials are always popular with Sno-King members as well.
The next two years saw lots of growth and changes for Sno-King. We held an agility demonstration for Seattle Kennel Club's 100th anniversary show; we put on two “Introduction to Agility” workshops, moved to a different stable, and our classes were taken over by the club. We changed our name and by-laws to meet AKC requirements, becoming Sno-King Agility Club. We became incorporated under the State of Washington and purchased a trailer – the realization of our first big goals. In the Fall of 1997 we moved into a larger and better training facility. All the while, our members competed successfully in the various venues. Laurie Dorsey and Toby won the very first Columbia Cup NADAC trial in Vancouver; Jo Ann Mather's Semi became the first MX dog in Western Washington. Kay Jackson's Katie earned her ADCh.
In 1998, Sno-King really came of age with our first “very own” trial, held at Twin Springs Arabians in Bothell. With an entry of nearly 175 dogs, we were the first club in the Northwest to offer the new Jumpers with Weaves class. Our judge was Marquand Cheek, and he was a big hit with his hilarious briefings and great courses. The trial received rave reviews from everyone.
Realizing that the dearth of judges in the Northwest was hindering the growth of the sport, we appealed to Sharon Anderson to hold an AKC judges seminar. That seminar, hosted by Sno-King and held at the Pony Farm in Mt. Vernon resulted in sixteen new AKC judges, six of them from the Northwest.
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Year 2000 marked some milestones as well. We discontinued our partnership with Olympic Kennel Club, deciding instead to branch out and offer other “flavors” of agility — in September we held our first USDAA Sanctioned Match. Sno-King added two Master Agility Champions to its rolls — Kay Jackson's Sam and Laurie Dorsey's Toby. Several teams earned MX and MXJ titles, as well as NADAC Elite titles. Our first USDAA trial was held in 2001, and in 2002 we added the “Vers-Agility Award” to our USDAA trial. Also in 2002 we added a second AKC trial, held in November at Argus Ranch in Auburn. Our classes, held on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights, were meeting at the facility in Clearview.
And here we are now…
We continue to be innovative and positive in our approach to training and to trial organization, and we encourage anyone who lives in our general area to join Sno-King and participate to whatever extent they are willing and able.
History by Jo Ann Mather
2024 Board
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Gary Webster
PRESIDENT
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Sheila Leitch
VICE-PRESIDENT
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Darcey Woodard
SECRETARY
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Kathy Losacco
TREASURER
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Tina Maier
MEMBER AT LARGE
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Carole Petenski
MEMBER AT LARGE
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Al Hasegawa
MEMBER AT LARGE
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2024 Committees
Audit – Sheila Leitch, Carole Pettenski, Donna Sands, Lisa Smith
Awards – Melody Mierisch, Teresa Brown
Budget – Kathy Losacco, Kendal Harr, Melanie Berger, and Gary Webster
Club Gear – Wendi Donaldson, Melanie Berger, Cathy Broberg
Donations – Kathy Losacco
Education – Carole Pettenski, Winnie Simon, Janet Bredl, Gary Webster
Scent Work - Gary Webster
Equipment – Al Hasegawa
Facilities – Carole Pettenski, Al Hasegawa, Winnie Simon
First Title Recognition –OPEN
Historian – Wendi Donaldson, Tina Maier
Hospitality – Sheila Leitch And Darcey Woodard
Christmas Party –Sheila Leitch, Darcy Woodard
Summer Picnic –Sheila Leitch, Darcy Woodard
Sunshine – Connie Nethkin
Wags & Brags – Sandy Cox
Library – Mary Berry
Membership –Ane Brusendorff, Sarah Mahoskey
Newsletter – Gary Webster
Nominations – OPEN (August 2023)
EVENTS
Practice – Carole Pettenski, Gary Webster
Seminars and Workshops – Donna Sand, Lynne Hill, Melissa Dachs Gue
Demonstrations – Tina Maier, Gary Webster, LeaAnn McNeill
PUBLICITY AND OUTREACH
Social Media/Facebook - OPEN
Group Email – Sandy Cox
Website – Mike Vorkapich, Kendal Harr, Lynne Hill, Wendi Donaldson
TRIALS
Trial Chair (AKC)(May) – Melody Mierisch
Trial Chair (CPE)(August) – Al Hasawega
Trial Chair (AKC)(November) –Joyce Brombaugh
Rally - Melody Mierisch, Donna Sand
Club Documents
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The Constitution for the Club. This simple document describes what the club is for and what it will do.
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Bylaws govern how the club will be run. Everything from business meetings to election of officers
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Standing rules are contained in a living document. These are the decisions made by the club.
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A code of ethics describes the ethical standards we expect our members to meet.