We had a beautiful autumn day for German Shepherd Rescue of New England's "Walk 'n' Wag" Dog Walk Fundraiser, held on Saturday, September 28 at Borderland State Park in Easton/Sharon, MA. It had rained overnight, but the wonderful brisk wind dried up the field and kept temperatures a bit lower for a super day for humans and dogs alike. It was perfect weather for a Dog Walk!

After registering, the walkers gathered for the group walk through the beautiful scenery of Borderland State Park. The walk was led by GSRNE member George Achi and his adorable GSRNE rescue dog, Abby (the dwarf GSD). Some people stopped at our water stop halfway along the way, which was manned by GSRNE member Patrick Miller, and many dogs took advantage of the beautiful pond along the walk route, stopping by for a quick dip and swim. Walking with other dogs lovers in such a beautiful setting was a real treat for us all!

When our walkers returned, they were greeted by a host of tables to visit and activities to check out. Many thanks go out to our volunteers who set up and manned these tables! Some of our tables and activities included:

* The Working Dog Program table. The Working Dog Program is designed to identify and place with law enforcement groups those GSDs with working ability who may beappropriate for "K9" work. These are dogs who may have excessive drive, energy, and confidence, making them less suitable for a pet home, but perfect for police service work. WDP helps save their lives, so that they can save yours!

* The Sale table. There were wonderful dog-related items and GSRNE items for sale. Thank you to all who donated items for this table!

* The Silent Auction table, which had many nice items to bid on. Thanks go out to those people who made these wonderful donations!

* MA Vest-A-Dog set up a great table and offered to take your dog's picture in one of their K9 vests. They had items for sale, and a free raffle. MA Vest-A-Dog raised money to pay for vests for the 2 K9s in the K9 demo we held!

* Paw Painting, where your dog could become an artist!

* Bay State German Shepherd Dog Club sponsored a Canine Good Citizen test all day. They brought tables and tents too! A big thank you goes out to Jim Brown, President, Bay State GSD Club, to all his volunteers, and to Charlotte Creeley, the CGC evaluator. We were very happy to have the support of GSD clubs for GSD rescue efforts. Cheers for Bay State members and their help!

* Delicious food from Acorn Productions helped round out this event. What a treat it was to have them there!

Our demos were definitely crowd pleasers. We had an Obedience demonstration, which showed people some nicely trained GSDs! And of course, we held the ever-popular Rescue Parade - it was wonderful to see that the dogs we took in from shelters and other rather sad situation are now happy and healthy with their new families! There were big smiles and some happy tears shed by GSRNE members and volunteers involved with the rescue efforts for these dogs.

The MA State Police K9 Demo was a big hit! This demo was put on by Trooper Eric Ramsland and K9 Wolf (who is a GSRNE/Working Dog Program dog), and Trooper James Devlin and K9 Heiko. Wolf was found at a shelter by GSRNE evaluators - he was going  to be euthanized for just being "too much dog overall," but GSRNE evaluators knew what they were looking for and we were thrilled to find him! We took him and showed him to the MA State Police and they took him right away. Heiko had been through 3 families by the age of 10 months and he was being given one more chance to make it when he was donated to the Mass State Police K9 unit. And boy, did he make it - Trooper Devlin has done very well with Heiko's drug-detection and tracking abilities! Thank you's and gratitude go out to Trooper Ramsland and Trooper Devlin for a wonderful demo!

Towards the end of this gloriously sunny day, we held some games for the dogs and their humans, as well as funny contests like "The Lickiest dog" and "The Waggiest Tail." It looked like everyone had a lot of fun participating in or watching these canine antics! It was nice to see so many GSDs along with some other breeds there too - Goldens, Shelties, mixed breeds, a Weimaraner, a French Bulldog, and even a dachshund (boy, is that little dog a happy, happy dog!)!

 Between donations and our corporate sponsors, this was a wonderful effort. We'd like to thank Certified-Labs.net (our major sponsor) and we'd also like to thank Bay State German Shepherd Dog Club, VBA Consulting, and Mark Rosenthal. (see www.weatherblast.com)

We did a *very* good job for future rescue GSDs! We want to send a big thank you to everybody involved, from sponsors to volunteers to walkers.

Thank you for making our 2002 Walk 'n' Wag a fantastic success!

See the wonderful items that were in our Silent Auction  listed here!