Club History

The Agility Club of Western Australia was started by Mel & Maureen Rhoden in the summer of 2001, after recognising the need for an agility only club located in Perth. Mel & Maureen were running agility training groups twice a week at the German Shepherd Dog Association (GSDA) and were looking at increasing that to three times a week due to the high demand. That was when Mel approached other passionate WA agility people to meet and discuss the possibility of starting an agility only club. The first meeting saw about twenty people from a variety of different local clubs coming together at Helen Moorehead’s house including Mel & Maureen Rhoden, Frank Fitzpatrick, Careen Bush, Karen Phillips, Pam Scurlock, Kay Brotherwood, Perry Faulds, Mark Wellock, Tom Weir, Pam Hind, Donelle Shepherd, Andrea Patching, Jan Welyky, Helen Moorehead, Richard Barville and Amanda Pacher. The second meeting saw the group agree to officially kick start an agility club and following much discussion decided that the club would be formally known as the Agility Club of Western Australia, shortened to ACWA.

In 2002 a committee was officially formed. The original committee were President; Mel Rhoden, Vice President; Frank Fitzpatrick, Treasurer; Pam Scurlock, Secretary; Karen Phillips, committee members; Maureen Rhoden, Kaye Brotherwood, Perry Faulds, Mark Wellock, Tom Weir and Pam Hind. ACWA’s very first training location was the GSDA club grounds with the clubs first pieces of agility equipment kindly donated by the Pet Pawformance group. In January 2005 ACWA commenced the process of becoming affiliated with Dogs West with Mel Rhoden and Karen Phillips working on the constitution that the club still abides by to this day. Following a twelve month probation ACWA was officially affiliated with Dogs West in January 2006. The clubs inaugural agility trial was held in July 2006. In March 2006 ACWA reallocated their training grounds from the GSDA to Dogs West where they still train today.