First MSGDA Events of 2023!
April 12, 2023
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Hello everyone, we hope you had a great Christmas, and we wish you all a Happy New Year!
We have some exciting news to announce, we have found the support we have been looking for to move forward with the process of hosting the 2024 NAHRA Invitational. This will be the third time we have hosted this event and this event is open to all NAHRA MHR’s or higher, or dogs with MH’s and two NAHRA Senior passes. With that being said, we have adjusted some of our events this year to have more opportunities for Intermediate and Senior dogs to get qualified prior to 2024. We have added an extra day (Friday) to most of our licensed events for the higher stakes, there is no change to the regular weekend events, please check our schedule on our website for 2023 event dates. Upcoming Events – Midnight Sun Gun Dog Association (msgda.org)
For 2023, you will also see that we are bringing back Evan Graham to hold a more in-depth seminar than the one he did last summer. We hope to get as many handlers and observers signed up for this great opportunity. Evan Graham Seminar – Midnight Sun Gun Dog Association (msgda.org)
Lastly, please remember to renew your memberships if you haven’t done so already, Membership – Midnight Sun Gun Dog Association (msgda.org) MSGDA has renewed our leases for Square Pond MSGDA Square Pond – Midnight Sun Gun Dog Association and Pt. Mac MSGDA Pt. Mac Training Land – Midnight Sun Gun Dog Association . Please don’t forget to update your access cards for 2023, and get your hold harmless agreement turned in.
We look forward to what 2023 brings! Thank you for all your continued support.
Evan Graham
Smartworks
Handling and Transition
July 21-23, 2023
Sponsored by Midnight Sun Gun Dog Association and Wetland Retrievers/Baron Rea
Hello everyone, you asked for it and we are very excited to have the opportunity to bring back Evan Graham and his assistant trainer Vince to Alaska.
First a little about the seminar, from Evan, “Our standards for seminars. We have a finite amount of time, and a vast amount of information to cover. Because of that, there is a standard announcement I make the first morning at our seminars. That is: “This is not a train the dog day. It’s a train-the-trainer day. With that in mind, I have no idea which attendee’s dogs will actually work, or to what extent. But, because of the nature of this event, we will do our best to involve as many dogs as are instructive to the group as a whole; no more, no less.”
Our goal in any seminar is that all of those who attend will be substantially better trainers when the event is over than they were when it began. I believe that is how I can be of most value during our time together.”
There will be 20 handler dog teams that will be chosen, and an unlimited amount of observer spots. We know there will be lots of interest into becoming involved in the seminar. The handler/dog teams will be “chosen by us” that will best demonstrate what Evan is looking to teach on specific days. This 3-day class will have advanced basics and marking setups. Demonstration dogs will need to be forced fetched and through basics up through TT, having swim by and decheating is preferred. If you wish to be a handler/dog team you will need to sign up as an observer first, then drop us a note requesting to be upgraded to a Handler/Team. Please use [email protected] for all correspondence. Handler teams will be picked by July 10th, and an additional Invoice will be emailed to those chosen. A list of the handler’s teams will also be put on the MSGDA website. All payments are via PayPal, or you can also mail in a check made out to MSGDA. Prices are below, please note there is an additional fee to use PayPal, this covers our costs to use this service. The PayPal button on the MSGDA site will only be set up for observers and will be active on the MSGDA website very soon.
Handler / dog team $300 PayPal (Invoiced an additional $75 after selection Process
Observer spot $225 Check/$235 PayPal
Class locations will be in the Mat-Su Valley and could be as far out as Pt. Mackenzie. You do NOT have to be a member of MSGDA to participate. One thing to note regarding this class, this is not a fundraiser for MSGDA, or Wetland Retrievers. Our purpose of this class is to support and promote the local retriever community and make everyone better at what we love doing. With that being said, we will have expenses. To limit as many as possible, we are looking for volunteers to house Evan and his assistant for a few days, as well as airline miles or a companion ticket to help cover airline expenses. If you can help with that, please reach out to the email above. Thank you
Midnight Sun Gun Dog Association
P.O. Box 241291
Anchorage, AK 99524-1291
