Every once in a while a club finds a person that is a really great club member--finding
these people are rare. San Diego Diensthund is sad to say good bye to one of these people. Jim Downey joined the
club a year before he even got a dog. As soon as he joined, he started to work on becoming a helper and learning training/handling
skills. A year later he got his first puppy, Temple of the Tree's Aderes ("Addie"). Jim and Addie
were at the field every practice and the two of them worked hard to learn the ropes and earn titles. Jim quickly
became a great club decoy--he has helped bring many of the young dogs along, helped to fine tune the trial dogs and became
a good friend to all the members.
Jim's job with the Coast Guard is moving him accross the country to Michigan, in
July 2008. The club members all feel priviliged to have been a part of Jim's life--through the birth of his
two sons, traveling to seminars/trials together, training every week, going to the beach with the dogs and all the other
activities that goes along with being good friends. Jim and Addie recently earned their SchH2 and were the High
SchH2 scoring higher than three other teams.
The entire club wishes Jim and his family the very best with the
upcoming move and all of his future dog training/competition endeavors. We will all keep our fingers crossed that he
is stationed in San Diego again soon. Keep an eye out for this pair at the upcoming AWMA Malinois Nationals!!
Good Luck and We Will Miss You!!!
