How We Got to Be So BAD!


"I'll count to three and we'll jump off!"

Cartoon by John Wilkins of Maclean & Co.


1 April 2017

Happy 20th Anniversary to the Beardie Agility Diehards! We have grown from 33 members and 38 Beardies in 1997 to 243 members and 570 Beardies in 2017.

Our Beardie Agility On-Line Group started on March 14, 1997. It grew out of the search for our NADAC and USDAA Beardies. In the process, many of those I contacted felt that they would like to be in touch with one another. There was such interest, that we wanted to form our own group identity as Beardie Agility Enthusiasts.

Within a week we held a contest to "Name That Line." On March 18 Karen Drummond suggested BAD as our name and Gretchen Blackburn improvised on the theme with about 20 possible ways to define ourselves. We loved the acronym and decided to call ourselves BEARDIE AGILITY DIEHARDS. We adoped the name and began our BAD lives on 1 April 1997. It seems very apt that April Fools' Day is our Name Day! Gretchen then offered to design us a Logo, which is what greets you on the BAD Home Page.

Though we are international in our scope, we work closely with the BCCA Agility Committee and Awards Chair. We also send in Agility Stories and Statistics to the BCCA Bulletin, where we receive great support for our activities from Lillian Esposito, the editor.

In September of 1997 we unveiled our Logo at the National Specialty by sporting our new BAD T-shirts, designed, printed, and distributed by Gretchen "the Grape" Blackburn, who will be forever christened in our minds by the grape juice which purpled her from head to foot after our Specialty Grape Stomp. Also at the Specialty I met with Karen Norteman of Sun Microsystems who who designed this incredible Website for us before turning it over to me as "my life's work!"

The BAD Website was launched on 1 January 1998. Currently 795 Agility Beardies are hosted on the BAD Website. Of these 517 are BAD Beardies from the USA and Canada and 53 are BAD Beardies from Abroad. We enjoy learning from our International members.

Since we premiered our Website, we have received several "star site" awards:

Mary Jo Sminkey of the Dog Agility Page-On 1 January 1998, after only 12 hours on the Web, we received the following message from Mary Jo Sminkey: "I love it! What a great site, you should be very proud! Right now I have it marked with a "New" icon so people will know it's a new page, but it will get a Star once the New icon comes off. Which also qualifies you to display the Dogpatch Star Site award, which is attached to this message. Congrats on your first site award, you deserve it!"

Bud Houston of Clean Run--"I've found the coolest agility web site in cyberspace. You MUST go check it out!" "You have a great web site. I hope more performance dog sites approach their web presence with such creativity and humor. . . . I've known for a long time that Beardies are quite special. I had an agility student about ten year ago with a Beardie that weaved so very fast, and learned to do so in only about two weeks. In those days we didn't realize how fast weave poles could be done. But these days when I train my dog I train for the performance of that Beardie so many years ago. I'm waiting for one of this breed to take it all in national competition." (Which Leslie Dawson-North did in 1998 at the AKC Nationals with Chase!)

Sandi Dremel of the Dog Infomat--"BAD was founded by Libby Myers-Buhite, out of a desire to network Beardie people who were active in agility. While geared toward Beardie owners and enthusiasts, the site provides a nice model for other clubs and organizations who may want to develop user friendly and informative websites. 3 Stars."

Our BAD Website won first place at the 1999 BCCA Nationals both from the Specialty Website Judge, Scott Gormley, and in Peoples' Choice. Many thanks to Karen Norteman who designed the prototype and Gretchen Blackburn for our outstanding Logo! Scott Gormley, Art Director of Internet World, a weekly publication devoted to news of the Internet computer community, judged the site from New York City. Before he assumed the Art Director's position in 1997, Scott worked as a Special Editor/Graphic Designer for Gannett Suburban Newspapers, and was Acting Assistant Art Director for USA Weekend.

Since the 1999 Specialty in Olympia Washington, we have held annual BAD Awards dinners to honor the accomplishments of our BAD Members.

BAD continues to be an on-line group, On 13 January 2000 we started an E-mail List for the Beardie Agility Diehards (both for dues paying members and affiliate members). This is hosted by Yahoo, which currently is the server for the Beardie Line, the Herding Line, and various other Beardie interest groups. I am the List Administrator for the Beardie Agility Diehard E-mail list. I am inviting all the Diehards to join this list for our Diehard discussions. On the whole, our correspondence is focused on Agility, such as experiences in competition, brags, new titles, and questions and discussion about training and equipment.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BeardieAgility/join

For details on Membership and joining the E-mail list, click on the Beardie:

Since the 2002 National Specialty in Monterey, California we have presented the Diehard Trophy each year at the annual BCCA Awards dinner to the agility Beardie with the highest accomplishments in AKC agility for the previous year.

We are known to several of the AKC Reps and to USDAA, NADAC, and CPE, who are now very aware of and appreciative of our Agility Beardies.

Over the last fourteen years I have really enjoyed coming to know so many of you and look forward to many more years of being BAD!

Libby Myers-Buhite

Founder of BAD
Bearded Collie Club of America Agility Co-Chair
Northern California Bearded Collie Fanciers, Agility Chair


Last updated 15 April 2011

BCCA

BCCA Agility Committee

 
For those of you who are history buffs, you can find accounts of our fourteen trials along with scores and pictures at:
http://www.BeardieAgilityDiehards.org/BADagility/BCCAn.html

National Specialties from 1996 to the present

Highs in Trial from 1996 to the Present

BCCA National Specialty Agility Trial 2010-Judge Deborah Funk

BCCA National Specialty Agility Trial 2009-Judge Tom Slattery

BCCA National Specialty Agility Trial 2008-Judge Ann McQuillan

BCCA National Specialty Agility Trial 2007-Judge Rhonda Crane

BCCA National Specialty Agility Trial 2006-Judges Gill Crawford and Kera Holm

BCCA National Specialty Agility Trial 2005-Judge Greg Beck

BCCA National Specialty Agility Trial 2004-Judge Joni Weed

BCCA National Specialty Agility Trial 2003-Judge Edith Allyn

BCCA National Specialty Agility Trial 2002-Judge Kera Holm

BCCA National Specialty Agility Trial 2001-Judge Kathy McCoubrey

BCCA National Specialty Agility Trial 2000-Judge Jean Munger

BCCA National Specialty Agility Trial 1999-Judge Gillian Crawford

BCCA National Specialty Agility Trial 1998-Judge Donna Gomer

BCCA National Specialty Agility Trial 1997-Judge Tammy Fields (Wiebe) Domico

BCCA National Specialty Agility Trial 1996-Judge Beth Canner

 

BCCA Annual Reports from 2000 to the present

BCCA Awards from 1996 to the present

 

BCCA Agility Awards - 2008

BCCA Agility Awards - 2007

BCCA Agility Awards - 2006

BCCA Agility Awards - 2005

BCCA Agility Awards - 2004

BCCA Agility Awards - 2003

BCCA Agility Awards - 2002

BCCA Agility Awards - 2001

BCCA Agility Awards - 2000

BCCA Agility Awards - 1999

BCCA Agility Awards - 1998

BCCA Agility Awards - 1997

BCCA Agility Awards - 1996

Diehard Trophy

Denia Award

High in JWW Trophy in Honor of Mirage

Preferred Trophy

Sunshine Award - based on Denia Points

Standard Certificates - based on Front and Finish Points

Ryan Awards - based on Front and Finish Points


Versatility Beardies - Masters and Excellent

ROMA and ROMAX


BCCA Website

BCCA Website Agility Pages


AKC Champions

USDAA Title Holders

NADAC Title Holders

CPE Title Holders

UKC Title Holders


BAD Honors:

BAD Honors Top Beardies

Beardie Agility Firsts


BAD Awards:

BAD Awards 2009

BAD Awards 2008

BAD Awards 2007

BAD Awards 2006

BAD Awards 2005

BAD Awards 2004

BAD Awards 2003

BAD Awards 2002

BAD Awards 2001

BAD Awards 2000

BAD Awards 1999


Off to a BAD Start
 
 

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