Welcome everybody to Midday magazine for this May 3rd, 2024.
Have your host James with you and we're joined right now in studio by some great people
here.
The Wisconsin Ravis Kennel Club with us.
John and Melanie Wiltsie is with us and good afternoon to you two.
I appreciate you guys being here.
I have to say right out the gate.
I journalistically for this interview, I'm not going to have any integrity.
I love dogs.
I love what you guys do.
I love the Kennel Club.
So we're just going to have some fun today.
We're going to highlight these events that you all have coming up.
If you wouldn't mind Melanie first to start off, I'd like to remind people of what the
Kennel Club is and what you guys do.
The Kennel Club has been around for decades in Wisconsin Rapids.
We offer a place for people to come for classes, for the audience.
We also sponsor sports events for dogs through the American Kennel Club.
Our club is an affiliate of the American Kennel Club.
They have thousands and thousands of local clubs all over the country.
We went through a little bit of a hard time during COVID because we had a couple years
when the building had to be closed and we could not offer anything for dogs.
Our building suffered a little bit of aging during that time and so we're facing some extra
expenses, replacing our whole front facade on the street and some other things just repairs
that needed done.
But we have a lot of new members now.
We're so excited.
People adopted dogs during COVID and took them home and a lot of them were new dog owners
and now they're really appreciating getting some help making the dogs into better behaved
members of their family or getting them into some dog sports because dogs really love
to play.
How long have you both been involved with the Kennel Club?
Boy, you've got to think about it, it tells you a lot, right?
I'm not good at math.
I've been involved for quite a few years and my husband has just recently gotten more
involved because we have two dogs and we've started doing FASC, which we'll talk about,
which involves going places with the camper and spending a weekend and he runs one of
the dogs.
He's kind of excited about the dog thing.
I imagine it's got to be pretty rewarding too with the rise in the last five to ten
years of dog owners and your dog conversations and people loving dogs and communities becoming
more and more dog friendly.
I talked about this with Mayor Blazer, talked about Mayor Zach, when it comes to growing
communities there is one theme that is overly consistent throughout the whole country and
it's being dog friendly.
It may not seem like that big of a thing but communities that are dog friendly are grow
in population at the very least keep the population at the same level.
Their economy is different.
It just dogs, they're amazing, you know, enough said.
I want to get into the AKC FASCAT with you if you don't mind and you brought up a good
point in our pre-game a little bit of if people know what AKC FASCAT is and I'd like
to get into that a little bit with you, Manny.
So the fastest growing dog sport in the nation is FASCAT and there's quite a few reasons
for that.
Somebody will say, well, what did cats have to do with dogs?
I never even thought of that.
That's great.
Cat is an acronym for Coresing Ability Test.
So if you think of Greyhound Racing and you've got a whole group of dogs chasing a
lure around a track, FASCAT is a version of that but it's one dog at a time running
a straight course chasing a lure that your dog is not competing against any other dog.
The dog gets a time and that's, there's a formula for how many points the dog is earning
and they add up towards AKC titles.
There's also a cat without the FASCAT in front.
That one is chasing a lure, one dog at a time but it's a much longer course and it had
curves in it and sometimes there's actually like a ditch they got a jump or some obstacles
involved.
So FASC is just a fast version of that, one straight line.
Most dogs can do it in 10 seconds, give or take five.
I mean, really fast dogs can run the 100 yards in, you know, five, six seconds.
And then you got old dogs and tiny dogs that did longer.
And there's handicaps for small dogs too, if they're tiny they get more points for
time than a Greyhound full size.
Back when I was living in Decalbe we had a new dog, Gonzo, great little guy, Terrier
Mix, a really fun little dog, a lot of energy, a lot of energy.
We lived in a small apartment and everything and it was a lot for a little guy.
And I don't know if he really was the right setting for him but he adapted and he was
a really good one but he still had all this energy.
And my girlfriend at the time, Joy, she heard about this and thought, whoa, maybe we get
him involved in this and maybe that'll get some of that energy out.
Gonzo was never a problem at night after getting a part of this.
He got all of his energy out a part of the FASCAT and he just became a very mellow dog
at night.
It really did help.
I'm not saying that this does this for every dog or anything but I think a lot of people
out there, they love their dog but they get frustrated sometimes and this frustrates
me when a person gets frustrated with a dog being a dog.
I mean, it's a dog.
What do you expect?
It only is going to do dog things.
But if you're looking for another opportunity for something fun to do with your dog, looking
for something to help it get its exercise out and get some energy out of it's system,
I would think a KC FASCAT is a good option and it works pretty good.
Have you seen some of that yourself?
Yes.
And one of another reason for the popularity is it really requires no training, usually on
the part of the dog.
Dogs come programmed to want to chase moving things in the grass.
So sometimes it'll take a dog a time or two or people will stand with a new dog and
let them watch the other dogs chase it.
Usually, you know, you're not spending years training your dog for an agility trial
or something, FASCAT is just fun.
And the dogs, there's usually a photographer will have one, it's at the fire end taking
pictures of the dog.
The dogs actually smile.
Those seconds chasing that lure are that really the happiest I ever see our dogs and they're
pretty happy dogs, but they're just really happy.
And that makes it fun for the adults.
Some people will identify with, you pay off this money and you take your children to
Disney World and all they do is wine and complain and wait, they're not very appreciative
of it.
Well, when you see your dog just in complete joy of the moment, they're not thinking about
what's going to happen at the end of the run or what happened when they got there.
They're just having a great time.
It's so wonderful to give a living thing a really great time.
It's one of the more rewarding things you can feel.
You can have as a human being.
There's no words for it really.
And anybody that wonders if a dog can smile, take them to this, you will see, you will
see your dog smiling.
In fact, we have an opportunity for you to do that coming up.
We wanted to tell everybody about, we got some dates coming up for an AKC fast cat right
here in our area.
Yes, we're having a fast cat, May 10th, 11th and 12th.
That's Mother's Day weekend.
It's out at Country Paws, which is just off of Highway 10 on J. The address is 6-7-6-0,
Bird Oak Road.
We will offer what they call fun runs.
If you want to do an actual AKC entry for points and towards titles, that costs quite a
bit of money every time your dog gets to run.
Depending on if you registered early or not, you're talking about $25 for your dog to
run a few seconds, which, believe me, it's worth it.
But for $5, you can bring out a dog who's never run before and do a fun run.
You won't get AKC points, there's no paperwork to fill out.
But you will get ribbon at the end with your dog's time and the miles per hour that he ran.
I mean, some people would just be, I'm surprised, my little Jack Russell, who's 11 inches tall
runs sometimes 22 miles an hour over that hundred yards.
It's kind of fun to see those numbers and to see all that, to get that kind of information.
That's cool.
Yeah.
So those fun runs will be available.
We hope to have them, we're going to set up on Thursday night, that's the 9th.
And hopefully the field will be set up and we can have some fun runs.
This will, you know, the trial won't even be going.
And the way to find out if that happens, because stuff can happen when you're, you know,
driving posts and setting up fence and the lures and working or whatever, you can look
on the Wisconsin Rapids Kennel Club Facebook page, because I will be posting on there three,
four in the afternoon and say it looks like it's a go if you want to bring your dog out
and have a try at this, come.
The Kennel Club actually has two Facebook pages.
They have a little different flavor, but that notice will go on both pages.
So if you just Google Wisconsin Rapids Kennel Club and go to our page, we'll, I just tried
it out in real time and it popped right up, popped right up.
So a very simple way to do it, if you're looking for a way to find that and otherwise you
can throw it into your Facebook search bar as well and it should pop up.
But be sure to like that page and subscribe and support to what the work they're doing.
And any questions you might have, that's a great way to ask them and keep up the data
and the information of this event and other events coming up.
Right.
We also have, we'll offer fast cats, Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the afternoon when
the big rush of the people who've paid to complete compete is over and you can come out
and pay your $5 and get in line and we'll fit you in between the competition entries.
Is for people that haven't, I'm sorry if I cut you off, if for people that haven't done
this event before, is there anything that would be good for them to know coming into it?
Make sure that you get some water for your dog or those kind of things.
Water, bring two leashes, preferably bring a friend because somebody holds the dog at the
beginning to let go and then somebody's down at the end.
If it's a new dog and they're a little confused but they'll come when you call them, then
you should be the one at the end calling them.
So when the hunt master goes tally ho and the dog is released, you should at least
go down to the end and somewhere during the run they'll usually say, what's that moving
in the grass and they'll get focused on the lure in a couple of times and they've got
the game, they know what they're supposed to do.
Please don't bring any bitches in heat onto the grounds.
Yeah, that's an important one to keep in mind.
At AKC events, we do not allow prong collars or shot collars or just a flat collar for running.
Yeah, I think that's good.
Again, this AKC fast cat coursing ability trial will begin May 10th, 11th, and 12th of
our country pause athletic center at 6760 Burr Oak Road in Stevens Point.
You can find out more information by calling 715-570-1157.
Be sure to keep up to date on the Facebook page as Melanie was telling us, so we'll keep
you up to date right there.
And again, we're speaking with John and Melanie from the Wisconsin Revit's Kennel Club.
One of the talk about another great event coming up a little bit at the end of the month
in the beginning of June, the Rapids Flyball Frenzy.
This is a popular one.
Yes, we'll have our flyball tournament is a couple weeks later than we've ever had it
due to issues getting the rec center, which is where it'll be held here in point at
turn to point.
Rapids at the hockey rink.
This event is a fun one.
Can we tell people about what takes place here at this event?
Yes.
Flyball is a relay racing team event for dogs.
And there's a track, a double track set up.
There's four hurdles.
And at the end, there's a box with a ball inserted.
The dogs run over the hurdles.
They hit the box.
The ball shoots out.
They grab it bit air and turn around and run back.
So whichever team, therefore dogs manage first, are the winners of that heat.
So the teams are getting points.
So the teams will be placed, first place team, second place team.
But the dogs are also earning points individually, you know, if they're on a team that together
they managed to run it in 20 seconds each dog on that team will get so many points.
It's very fun to watch.
It's fun to watch.
The other thing that we have there is our big money making event, at least the flyball
team does is a raffle that will be there.
And the public can come in, we have great baskets and some individual larger items.
Not all of them, but we have a lot of outdoor camping sort of stuff because the teams who
will come from all over the Midwest to participate, a lot of them camp.
So they'll buy raffle tickets for the latest fancy cooler or can't or whatever we have.
And you guys, I mean, as much as this community loves dogs and we've seen a lot of that,
this community really loves raffles.
I mean, you put a raffle up and people are going to show up.
So that is very smart, very nice to have that.
I love the added touch for the out of towners, if you will.
Speaking of that, you guys, over the years of this event, we know the farthest somebody's
come to get here or anything, or do you get to see a lot of out of towners at these
events?
Last year we had some people from Iowa and somebody came from Oklahoma.
It's mostly Midwest states.
So how far the farthest person is kind of, I don't know.
Oh, but that's still kind of interesting just to hear even those states mentioned.
That's pretty cool.
And of course, our local Midwest states.
And our FASCAT is drawing from, who do we have?
We have somebody coming from, he's the secretary for FASCAT.
I talked to a woman yesterday that's coming from Des Moines, Iowa, by way of Nebraska.
She's going to one this weekend in Nebraska, and then we'll be headed to Steven's point
for next weekend.
All excited because her dog was going to get an award at our event and trying to plan
how many points the dog could get at each event to get the rose out at our event.
That's one of the calling cards, the attractions for the different events is how fancy the
ribbons are.
Yeah, I can see that.
So our club has been making our own rosettes, so they're very unique and no two of them
are alike.
Wow.
Was that cool?
People are really like, I'll drive there.
We had a couple people come from Colorado last year.
It's a long drive for like 60 seconds of dog running over the course of three days.
Yeah.
I didn't mean to put you guys on the spot with that, but I asked for a couple of reasons.
For one, I think it's just kind of cool, and it does speak to something you were speaking
to earlier, Melanie, how much we love our dogs, what we'll do for our animals in that
great line right there, by the way, where how you go for 60 seconds, that was funny.
But I also wanted to bring this up because as we're talking about these events, and we
want people to be a part of them and take them in and have fun with their animals.
I hope everybody is keeping in mind, at least in the back of their head, where this started,
and what Melanie was telling us before, that you guys are in a little bit of a crux that
you guys could use some financial help, and that's where we as a community step up, we
come in, and we can take part in these events, be a part of these events, bring our dogs
down to there by those raffle tickets, you know, those dollars and cents you're spending,
that is an investment.
That is an investment in your community.
When you help out the Kennel Club or something like that, you may not think of it as the
most gigantic of things, it really does trickle down and affect our whole community.
We just got done talking about just off the top of our heads, some people that have come
to our area, come to Wood County, and spent their money, and spent money here.
That adds to our economy.
This is something that dogs do, a dogs do a lot in our society, a lot in our society,
and here's one more thing that they do, bringing an economy.
It goes a long way, so I encourage people.
Even if you're not, they don't have a dog necessarily, you just want to come and watch
these events or something, or if you want to spread the word about them, please continue
to do that.
It not only adds to the betterment of our community, the mental health of our community, the beauty
of our community, but the economic part of our community, it also impacts that as well.
We also have needs sometimes for volunteers at these events, and their jobs that anybody
can do, like somebody letting the person out the gate at the other end at FASCAT.
A lot of people are involved in the book work part of keeping score and all that kind
of stuff, but there's jobs for people.
I also want to say that the Wisconsin Rapids Kennel Club heavily supports the Wood County
animal shelter, and we also do things like offer free classes to people who adopt
rather than shop for their pets.
We are going to have puppy classes, and therapy dog classes during the summer, those will
start in July, and you can look for the information on those and how to sign up on, again, on
the Facebook groups.
That will be there.
Excellent.
Is there anything else you guys wanted to touch on before we let you go?
Come on to the events.
There's no charge if you're just showing up.
If you come to the ice arena for the fly ball, bring your ear plugs.
It's not quite as loud at FASCAT, the dogs are cheering each other on, or maybe they're
not always cheering on, but lots of barking, lots of happy barking.
Come on and take a look.
Yeah.
Thank you, John.
Thank you, Melanie.
Appreciate the time.
Paul Frenzy goes, kicks off May 31st through June 2nd.
It is a fun event.
It is free admission, free parking, free parking, awesome raffle.
Go ahead and check it out at the South of County Rec Center, 2711, 16th Street South in
Wisconsin Rapids.
I see that Lori has a number here to contact her.
Should I give that number?
Or did you guys want to give information if people have follow up questions where they
can go?
You can give that number, but the posters and stuff are all posted on the Facebook pages.
There is a, if you have questions and you don't manage Facebook, you could email.
We have WRKC, that's for Wisconsin Rapids Kennel Club, FASCAT, all one word, all over
place at gmail.com, and my lovely husband here will get you an email and he'll figure
out what you need.
And again, as Melanie was saying earlier, all this information and more, you can find
at their Wisconsin Rapids Kennel Club's Facebook page, encourage you to type in your search
bar, Wisconsin Rapids Kennel Club.
Like their page, keep up the day and all the great work that they are doing over there.
Both of you really do appreciate what you're doing for our community, what you're doing
for these dogs, and joining us on the airwaves today.
I really do appreciate it.
Melanie, I have to tell you, I love that shirt, as a fantastic shirt you have there.
John, I do want to apologize, not featuring you more, but that was self preservation on
my part because I can't compete with that voice, sir.
That's a great voice, I can't compete with that, so that was just my part, but I do appreciate
you being here.
Thank you very much for the time, you too.
Thank you, James.
We appreciate the opportunity.
We'll talk again real soon, guys, and we'll have more midday magazine for you next week
right here at 975 FM 1320 AMWFHR.
We are locally grown radio.
