Articles published in this Newsletter do not necessarily reflect the views of the Committee or the Editor. Nothing may be copied unless permission is granted by the WTA.

Dates & News:
Your Editor is going to retire and an invitation to all, if interested, to take over the job for the WTA News Letter? This will be my last WTA News Letter. My plans are to produce my own newsletter with ZimDog News, which can be accessed from: www.vanerp.net.

Some dates and reminders for you all to put into your diaries for this year and the coming one: Your AGM is planned for the early morning of the 14 March 2004 [after the DJ Show].

Membership:
This is due to be paid at the end of the year and the membership person to pay is Gladys Little. Last years membership fee was $ 200,- and the fee for 2004 will be $ 500,-. There is only one kind of membership and that is per person, whether in or out of town.

Show Dates:
2003: One more DJ is on the 5th October for this year. An Open Show [can be used on the 1st November] might be planned for DJ and perhaps CD
2004 Booked show dates
    DJ on March 14, 5 & 6 June
    WT on 3 April, 12 June and 7 August
    Obedience on 5 & 6 June

New Arrivals.
The Hidaka family have had an influx of puppies. Their beautiful bitch Windsfair Cheri 'V', AD [out of Rocky and Della, both worked by the Dryden's] and Ch von Brinson Dieter 'V'. AD [out of Carlie vd Kahler Heide and CH Belle] have now 4 Bitch puppies and 3 Dog puppies. Congratulations from all at the WTA. We whish them a successful show career ahead.

Get well:
Eisen has undergone a very big operation, due to his craving for rubber. He had a 20% chance to survive, but thank goodness he is now on the mend and soon will participate again. Our best wishes for his health and grand future.

Show Results
19 July the GSD Club Harare gave their first Working Trials show since1995. Amazing what a work they made of this show. Catering was very well organized, prices were abundant and the atmosphere was really very good. Four CD's had entered; only one competed on the day and Heather and Eli did very well with 60½ points.

It was a nice venue the club even put up a cooking tent and lots of eats were being cooked with a full range of drinks for all. Part of the competitors on this picture. Gladys qualified with her little Pippa and is now out of TD1 and has to go into TD 2 next time, well done Pippa. Ursula with Kelly in TD 3 had various problems one of which was the track. She worked so hard and did complete the track amazingly as one area was so messy, which could not have been avoided due to the track pattern. The judging was different and very interesting.

20 July the Obedience show of the GSD Club. Just as good or even better organised again with masses of prizes for all. Beginners saw Paul and Tamar coming into first place with qualifying marks, well done Paul and goodbye to Beginners! Clare Miles came 3rd with dear little Susie and Christine Baseotto 4th. Novice had masses of entries Sam and Calib 1st with losing only 1¾ point, what a fantastic team that was, a pleasure to judge and to look at. 2nd was Paul with Tamar, having just come out of Beginners, this was his first attempt in Novice and again a great performance with losing only 3 points, just behind Tamar with losing 3½ was Cozac and John. Are these two men going up together in future? You better start training for A test, with less commands and slapping of thighs! Class A had no members of WTA competing. Class B saw Gladys with Rauri in 3rd and Pippa in 4th place. Class C: Kelly in first place and Helen with Tam in 3rd place.

Dog Jumping at the GSD Club on Sunday.
Grade 11 Pippa (handled by Ursula) came first with a clear round so Qualified. 2nd was John with Cozac 15 faults (10 time and 5 jump faults) 3rd Sheila and Gaele with 33 faults (3 time and 30 jump faults).
Grade 1. 1st Clive / Kama 2nd Ursula / Kelly both were disqualified

August 2 & 3 Working Trials Shows.
This weekend was run by the WTA and quite a number of competitors entered. On Saturday we had 4 in CD with Gaele coming first and qualifying. Well done Sheila and Gaele, at last after so many times, you now have a titled dog. In 2nd place Eli, 3rd Tamar and 4th Cozac. TD 2 Had Pippa trying the first time in this higher stake and see she did a wonderful track and qualified TD 2, Xobi came 2nd. TD 3 the most senior stake and quite an achievement to come this high, had Kelly as a competitor.

Sunday we had the CD dogs with different results: Cozac 1st, Eli 2nd, Tamar 3rd and Gaele 4th. A great effort of Heather handling both 'white' dogs on both days and really coming into this side of 'Dog sport'. Well-done Heather! Xobi was competing in TD 2 and Kelly in TD 3. Unfortunately no qualifications on this day.

Having been at the Working Trials show I overheard: "My dog's nose is getting depigmented, why? Does he suffer from a dietary deficiency"? As we live in Africa most cases could be the ultraviolet rays of our sun here?
This article is: Donated by Borg Cardona and Co. Ltd.

DOG'S NOSE : ORIGIN OF ACQUIRED DEPIGMENTATION

A) Nose depigmentation, only one symptom observed It is the most difficult case to explain : let's see different possible hypothesis.

1) Vitiligo
Inherited disease, but not present at birth : it usually appears by the age of 2 years old. It is the "pink nose" syndrome, that is mostly seen in following breeds : German Shepherd, German Pointer, Belgian Shepherd, Newfoundland, Doberman, Rottweiler, Bobtail ...
Mechanism : lack of pigment (melanin ), due to a non-explained destruction of the melanin-forming cells (melanocytes).
The evolution is extremely variable : the depigmentation can lay over the whole nose, or disappear. Usually, the lesions do not become ulcerated, except in case of prolonged exposition to the sun.

2) Discoïd lupus
Autoimmune disease, rather frequent in dogs : it is the only one autoimmune disease that does not exhibit any other clinical sign. It occurs mainly between 3 and 8 years old ; predisposed breeds are German Shepherd and Colley.
Mechanism : destruction of cutaneous cells that contain melanin (keratinocytes ).
Evolution : almost always towards ulceration, formation of crusty lesions on the nose, the bridge of the nose, eyelids, sometimes even on the pads ... UV rays have a very worsening effect.

3) Sunburns
In some breeds (Colley, Shetland...), nose depigmentation can follow prolonged exposition to strong sun radiations.

The follow up of this article will appear in the "ZimDog News", accessed on the website: www.vanErp.net with more on nutritional aspects

Do you walk you dog?
It is getting colder, but what scenes to see at just past 6 in the morning. Last week very frosty and all is white, then often there hangs a mist, which combined with sun-up is just too beautiful to admire. Tree feet in frost, tree trunks in a blanket of mist and tree tops golden colored from the upcoming sun. Everywhere around grass had been burned and most of it, started by some cold people? Even the short golf green was burned at places. On the way back I saw, in the distance, an old trunk smoking, or so I thought. Coming near, it appeared to be an ant hole! As it was so cold the 'smoke' was visible and holding your hand above it, it was a place to 'warm' your hands.

These ants keep the ant colony at a constant temperature all the year round. Amazingly beautiful those walks become with so many things to admire and enjoy.

Advice to the new Editor and read in the GSD Bulawayo news letter: Should the next Editor of the Newsletter wish to know whether his / her efforts are, in fact, being read, make an error, and your phone won't stop ringing!!!

Signs: At a towing company "We don't charge an arm and a leg. We want tows."

As this is my last Newsletter for the WTA that I shall compile, I say cheerio and Fare Thee well.