SHCA Mentor Program
Attention all current and future SHCA mentors: The mentor list below has been updated to include only those mentors meeting the 2009 Mentor requirements. If you have any questions, please contact SHCA Judges' Education Chairman Donna Beckman for further information. Also, please send any contact information updates to SHCA Judges' Education Committee.
To become an SHCA-approved mentor, an individual must:
Be a member in good standing of the Siberian Husky Club of America, Inc.
Have documented twenty years in the Breed
Either be an approved AKC breeder-judge; OR a breeder meeting the requirements set forth by AKC for judges' approval (with the exception that professional handlers may become approved mentors)
Attend SHCA's Judges' Education Seminar
View SHCA's CD-ROM on the Siberian Husky
Attend an SHCA-conducted Mentor Workshop and/or adhere to SHCA's Mentor Guidelines
Submit a Mentor Qualification Application form to SHCA's Judges' Education Committee for review
And/or, in the case of extenuating circumstances, be approved by an advisory committee upon review of extenuating circumstances.
Please note that these requirements are more stringent than those proposed by AKC. As the mentors are SHCA-approved, it was felt that mentors should be SHCA members. The mentor workshop will include such topics and miscellaneous requirements such as an individual may not mentor a class in which he or she has a Siberian in competition; how to stimulate and answer all questions by adhering to the Standard for Siberian Huskies; never offering a comment contrary to what appears in the Standard; not offering opinions about people, specific dogs, and kennels; how to answer questions; things to consider and discuss; etc.
And, although allowed by AKC, we believe that an approved mentor should not mentor while exhibiting. Therefore, our expectation is that approved mentors will participate in Ringside Observation on days they have entries in the breed they are teaching until the class at which they have an entry assembles. From that time on they are to refrain from further interaction.
This, of course, allows approved mentors to be more easily available since many mentors are also Siberian Husky exhibitors. But, exhibitors as mentors must clearly understand that as their class assembles, they MUST remove themselves from any area of mentoring. As a requirement set forth by AKC, it automatically becomes a requirement of the Siberian Husky Club of America, Inc.
How To Become A Mentor
If you feel you meet the requirements listed above, and wish to join the list of SHCA-approved mentors, please complete the SHCA Mentor Application Form, and return it to SHCA's Education Chairman at the address listed below. We would like our list of mentors to be as complete as possible by the first of the year!
New SHCA-Approved JE Presenter Program
At the meeting in March, the SHCA Board of Directors approved a proposal for a program for SHCA-Approved Judges' Education Presenters. For information about this new program, including application requirements, please follow this link: Presenter Approval Program.