Jack Russell Terrier Missouri Earthdogs Club: Jack Russell Terrier Racing,  Jack Russell Terrier Go To Ground and Jack Russell Terrier Conformation.

See you at our next Fun Day, Sunday, September 14, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. at Purina

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Just when trial things were beginning to heat up, way back on April Fool’s Day 2000, as 700 prize lists lay ready for mailing for this year’s Memorial Day Bash, who should contact Susan Parsons but Cindy Robinson of Jupiter Entertainment of Knoxville, TN. with the impossible statement, "we’d like to film your trial for a new series running on Arts and Entertainment this fall". After determining that this was not a joke and that they were, indeed, coming to our trial, we jumped from the frying pan into the fire. Their timing in contacting us turned out to be fortuitous, as it allowed me time to slap a neon sticker on each prizelist proclaiming that race day would be a filmed event. E-mails with Cindy at Jupiter began as the groundwork was being laid and information was collected about the trial, the breed, judges, hunting, etc. Around the second week of April, Cindy bowed out as she was assigned another event to cover and I met Zak Weisfeld, the producer of our documentary, via email. He and I would correspond at least weekly if not more often and it would not be until May that we actually would meet face to face. Because an employee in their office in Knoxville owned a JR puppy, they were aware of the GTG and racing aspects of trialing and had already nixed GTG as an entertaining commodity to present to the general public on t.v. Racing would be the focus of the documentary but they wanted to zoom in on one race and do extensive interviews and film coverage of only one race and its contestants. Normally, any decisions concerning the trial are made by "The Committee": myself, Susan Parsons, Charlene Schlueter, Marcia Gay and Bonita Knickmeyer. This time, however, the decision would lay with our trial Racing Steward, Charlene Schlueter of Sullivan, MO. Charlene, without hesitation, tagged the Adult -Dog – Over race as the most exciting and competitive. She and I came up with a list of competitors we thought would be attending the trial who would run dogs in this race. I then contacted each person by phone to see if they were agreeable to being interviewed and could I give out their phone numbers to Zak in Tennessee. When Zak requested general information on the JRs other than just those with Over Dogs, I consulted with the Committee again, made more phone calls, and e.mailed Zak. Our base of information was growing; it needed to when Zak informed me that the documentary was going to run an hour on t.v. and it was just about us! Although I did not hear back from anyone who was interviewed I know the interview schedule went something like this: In Chicago, a film crew interviewed Steve Geroux and Jennifer Gilligan and their dog, Oliver. In St. Louis the film crew arrived on Tuesday prior to the trial. On Wednesday, Jerry Waelterman was interviewed at his home. His dog, DC Rick O’Shea, would be a major competitor in the Dog Over race. Wednesday afternoon, Brock Fitzgerald of Purina was interviewed at Purina. Wednesday night, Zak and Paul, the cameraman, came to dinner at my house (we finally meet!) and also met the Knickmeyers. Thursday, Bonita was interviewed at her house and went hunting with Zak and Paul. Thursday afternoon found Zak and Paul at Charlene’s house. Thursday night our judge, Geoff Burnhill, arrived and stayed at Charlene’s. He would be interviewed at the trial. Ricky and Joy Helms of Jefferson City were scheduled to be interviewed at their home but due to lack of time, were interviewed Friday at Purina. The rest of the interviews would conclude at the trial site. On Friday, set-up day, the set up crew, all three of us, realized how serious Zak was when he said "we want to see everything that happens so we’ll be in your face a lot". Susan Parsons was interviewed on Friday and so was I. We were keeping an eye out for Tony Anderson of Kentucky but he had yet to arrive when the "crew" left at 4 PM. Saturday morning, the first day of the trial, dawned dark and ugly, rain coming in sheets. By 9 AM the rain had stopped and we had two camera crews following us around instead of one. I wore a wire as the trial office opened at 7:30 and the semi-controlled chaos that is a trial began. After determining that I would never stay in one place during the trial, the wire came off. Both camera crews worked non-stop all day, interviewing most of the participants and filming all the events at the trial, including Lee Rebalko’s Olympic Events. By now the film crews were comfortable with the Jack Russell thing and were tossing around words like "Go To Ground", "Super G" and who had an "Over" or "Under" dog. Saturday night is traditionally a buffet dinner at Purina with our judge answering questions after dinner and this also was attended by a very tired Zak and Paul. Although they tried to sneak out after dinner, the promise of surprise presents for them and "you said you wanted to see everything that happens" kept them with us. Their presents from the club, by the way, were a box of Wheaties with the front line of the Rams on the front, and a box of Kurt Warner’s cereal, just to rub it in (Tennessee Titans, get it?). Sunday, Race Day, was what the film crew came for and they were busily coordinating their cameras and more and more interviews and focusing on the group that would be running in "their" race, Dogs – Over. A very small camera was hanging over the back of the bales at the finish to capture the dogs as they came through and at one point I saw another camera inside the number three box of the starting box to capture the race from the dog’s point of view. How were we to know when we ordered our beautiful new starting box from Ron Morris last year that it would be on television this year? It truly is the Cadillac of starting boxes. Racing heats progressed along under the experienced guidance of Charlene, Art Womack, our Racing Judge, Paul Kimmerly, announcing, Kandi Henson, Starter, Vannah Teschner and Bonita Knickmeyer, Pre-entry, Jerry Waelterman, Lure Machine, Finish Secretary Joy Helms and Marcia Gay, Start Secretary. Over 90 dogs raced in the flats. When the dust settled on the Dogs – Over race the camera crew had more drama than they could ever have imagined from a little Jack Russell trial in Gray Summit, MO. How did it all go down? You’ll just have to tune in to Arts and Entertainment in December to find out.