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The 'Wil' to Succeed

At the GSDCV Restricted Trial held on Saturday 1^st December 2001, history was created.

There have been many great Trialing teams, but never before have we experienced the achievement on that day. Andrew Saliba and his dog "Wil" (Bodecka Fatal Fury "A", "Z") competing in the Utility Class achieved the perfect score of 200 out of a possible 200 points.

Andrew is a long-standing member of the GSDCV, of 19 years. Over this time he has trained and trialled 3 dogs which have all been outstanding working dogs in their own right.

Andrew not only puts a lot of time and commitment in to the training of his own dogs, but has been an Obedience Instructor at the Western Branch of the GSDCV since 1984, and thoroughly enjoys helping and encouraging others to achieve the best they can from their dogs.

Andrew is no stranger to Trialing success. With his first dog "Mead" he achieved the titles of CD, CDX, UD and "Top Dog" at the Royal Show for many years. As "Mead" began to get older and unable to keep up with Andrew, he purchased a young puppy named "Ky" who Andrew began to nurture through the early stages. As we all know, every dog is unique and Andrew had to draw on all his skills to get the best from "Ky", which he also did. "Ky" went on to also achieve his CD, CDX and UD.

After the passing of "Mead", and as "Ky" also began to get older, Andrew again went looking for another puppy to continue to work with.

By this time Andrew had amassed a great deal of personal experience, and felt he knew what he was looking for in a puppy with working ability.

Andrew went looking for a litter that had a high play drive, and started asking around for suitable matings that were being planned. He specifically homed in on 2 litters that seemed to meet his requirements. The method he employed was to videotape both litters at play with their littermates. Apparently Andrew particularly liked one puppy from each litter. He recalls it was a very tough decision to make but he decided to go with "Wil".

"Wil" took to Andrew and the family like a duck to water. As for his older dog "Ky", he found "Wil" annoying, as he never left him alone and followed him around like a shadow.

Even though "Wil" is the third dog that Andrew has put through obedience training, "Wil" proved to be a challenge to train as he only responded to the gentle training, rough play and positive reinforcement method of training, plenty of praise.

Right from the start Andrew realised that "Wil" responded best to play training.

Whilst this was a different training method from Andrew’s first 2 dogs, he has used this method from time to time in a class situation and the response was encouraging.

The team of "Andrew and Wil" has already achieved many magnificent results.

Andrew entered "Wil" in four Novice trails with the fourth being the 2000 Royal Melbourne Show. "Wil" gained his Novice title by winning every Novice class entered and taking out Highest Scoring Dog or Best Dog in Trail at every trail including the 2000 Royal Melbourne Show Obedience Dog section. Wow, was this a buzz, but this was the easy part they now had OPEN and U D to get through.

They then entered in three OPEN Class trails, the first two they won the class and highest scoring dog in trial, with the third trail they came second by one point to another great working German Shepherd.

The utility class proved to be a challenging task for them both, as Andrew had to discover how "Wil" would respond to Utility class training. Well you guest it, "Wil" bombed the send away exercise, in fact it took them a lot of patience and persistence, over six UD trails to gain their Utility Dog title. The patience paid off though, as the three passes in Utility were all class winners and Highest Scoring Dog or Best Dog In Trail.

Currently they have four Utility passes towards "Wil's" Obedience Champion title (five passes required) all four passes have been class winners and either Highest Scoring Dog or Best In Trail with all four passes. Only one more pass to go to gain the OC title.

All the scores "Wil" has achieved have been in the 190's with the majority being higher than 195. Previous best 199 points in the open dog class.

In Andrew’s words:

"Wil" is well on the way to being a more consistent dog than my previous dog, the late "Ky".

We are not lucky, we play hard, train lightly and I do the planning, my aim is to have a happy working German Shepherd.

Wil and other top working G S D have proven that with the right attitude and training the German Shepherd Dog is going to be around and will be a joy to own, there are not too many other breeds that have competed in the obedience ring with the same consistencies that the German Shepherd Dog has.

When it comes to obedience training, our breed has not yet achieved anything near it's best, I do believe that after nearly 20 years with German Shepherds we are still only scratching the surface of what can be achieved with this magnificent breed.

Congratulations Andrew and "Wil" on achieving such a magnificent score in Utility Dog, and also a remarkable achievement through all of your trials.

Good luck for the future, with gaining your Obedience Champion title.

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