The NSTRA Dream - Taking Flight

I started this endeavor in the Fall of 2019. The dream was to start a NSTRA Chapter on the Canadian Prairies of Manitoba.

Fast-forward to the Fall of 2020 and the dream has almost become a reality. Through the support of friends, acquaintances, and other NSTRA Chapters, we're nearly there!

Our next step is for us to all attend the NSTRA Judging Training Webinar being held via Zoom Conference on October 25th, 2020 (please sign up if you haven't already). This webinar will teach us all the rules of the NSTRA trial format as well as how our dogs will be judged and scored.

Because of this, I can't recommend enough that ALL members attend this webinar, no matter your level of participation at the events. That said, we certainly need as many judges as we can get. Just because you're judging doesn't mean you won't be competing either - there are provisions that allow judges to compete and judge at an event.

If you plan on helping us judge events, then it's imperative that you also sign up for a NSTRA membership if you haven't already. The reason being is that you need to have been a NSTRA member for at least 6 months minimum before you can take the judging test.

A lot of people are trying to fast track our chapter for becoming officially recognized for 2021 so that we can immediately start running official trials. If you get your membership in October 2020, you will be able to take the judging test in April 2021 ... just in time for our trials season.

As for the next steps after that ... well ... let's leave that for another post in the near future.

Here's to kicking dirt and barking good times!

Jeff Barrett

Canadian Prairie NSTRA Chapter President