M&P Winter 2024

the schedule of events, please put up your hand and volunteer to do it. Thanks so much and contact either myself at Sandra.PretariHickson@gmail.com or Sandra Wolfskill at sandywolfskill@gmail.com. Any and all help, even if it is just for an hour, is welcome and appreciated. Sandra Pretari Hickson From the Outgoing President Dear DDTCA members, I hope your holidays have been filled with joy and pleasure. May your New Year be the best. So here we are approaching a new year and I look back and say where did these past three years go? I have had the very distinct pleasure of working with a group of people, the Board, friends of our Dandies working on behalf of this wonderful breed. We found ourselves deep into the pandemic – COVID. Things had to be rearranged, canceled, but the DDTCA Board took on Zoom meetings and surged forward. I wanted to have our bylaws cleaned up and changes that needed done. It takes the approval of the AKC and then the membership to pass the changes, which you did with not any votes against the changes. We are only allowed to make changes to bylaws once every five years. I had asked Sandy Wolfskill to chair the committee to do hours and hours of work. I then asked that she continue with the same committee to work on Policies. That has been a 11-month ongoing work completed with approval in the last meeting of this Board on December 28. Thank you to the entire committee and especially Sandy for all the hard work – Zoom meetings twice to three times a month. Thanks, Trisha Smith, Earl Hunt, Diane Hanowitz, Karen Dorn, Barbara Baese (yes, I was part of that committee). It took months of work. Beyond that there were other committees working all the time – new appointments of persons to head a committee or position to work with the AKC in conjunction to working with the DDTCA . We now have adjusted regions and those will be revealed to you in another message (see page 6, this issue). You will also see that Karen Dorn has retired from being our AKC Representative after years of doing so and keeping us well-informed. Thank you, Karen, for years of caring and working on behalf of the Dandies and the DDTCA. A grateful thank-you to Jody Moxham for all her work with SAC, wishing you well for the next adventures with other projects. I cannot thank all of you enough for the pleasure of serving the DDTCA and my beloved Dandie Dinmont Terriers. I am grateful for your belief in me and I hope you are happy with my work on your belief. I would be remiss if I did not thank my supportive other half, Steve Houser.

Thank you again to the Board for your patience, caring, and friendship. As ever “Dandie” Richard (Dick) Yoho From the Incoming President How to make yourself feel “old” – look up the birthday of your original Dandie Dinmont Terrier – yikes! But enough ancient history. As you are reading this message, your new Officers and Board of Governors are already hard at work reviewing the accomplishments of the previous Board and planning for the next three years to ensure the continued growth and development of our club. As a result of the policy updates recently passed by the Board of Governors, the DDTCA now has standing committees totaling: A. 10 committees B. 18 committees C. 24 committees D. 32 committees E. None of the Above If you selected A – 10 committees, the Board would have to be very, very busy! If you selected B – 18 committees, you might be getting close, but not correct. If you selected D – 32 committees, you might be a potential leader of more projects! If you selected E – None of the Above, you obviously suspect this is a trick question. By now, you may have realized that the answer is C – 24 committees! What does that mean? It means we have numerous opportunities for every member to become involved with the growth and development of the club. Why is this important? We are the organization that serves as the representative of the Dandie Dinmont Terrier as a pure bred dog breed. We are the guardians of the breed standard, that statement of what makes a Dandie Dinmont a Dandie Dinmont. For over 100 years, we have been recognized as a member club of the American Kennel Club – and we have the banner to prove it! The DDTCA is the AKC “parent club” for the Dandie Dinmont Terrier breed in the US. Sounds impressive, right? Yes, we have been around a long time. Our breed is one of the oldest recognized breeds, imported, I admit, from Scotland and Britian. We are also what the Royal Kennel Club (formerly known as The Kennel Club in the United Kingdom) calls a “vulnerable breed.” Our numbers are not in the top 20, or even top 50 of all breeds registered annually with the AKC. In the 2022 AKC breed popularity rankings, Dandies ranked 186 out of 199 breeds. In 2021, Dandies ranked 174 out of 197 breeds. Cause for concern, yes; cause for despair, NO!

Mustard & Pepper

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Winter 2023