I went to a Dog Sports Committee meeting last Friday. How lucky is our Club to have this committee. They are grounded, sincere and real trouble shooters. As a trainer at the club I am really only a consultant when they need information and to forward training programs for the advancement of the club. However between the Club and I it has been possible to make some changes to the way the training advances to free Club training.

It has been decided that after we get trainees to the stage when they can do all the equipment and move around about 12 obstacles that they will go to a social agility class from where they can move to competition class if they wish or they can stay in social agility for ever. This class will be run by Rosslyn Prichard and will be free to Club members.

Social Agility is my space with my dogs because I have a messed ankle and leg and all sorts of other body function disabilities which mean in spite of my former athletic youthful self, I am no longer able to gallop around Champ Agility courses. Been there done that, quite successfully but lets not kid ourselves it was 15 years ago. At 60 the horizon changes somewhat from where it was at 45.

A lot of my learners in Training classes are older, so there have to be challenges but they need to be relevant, local and achievable by all.

Dog Agility is not Brain Surgery, anyone can do it. Put in twelve months learning and you can be as good as anyone at all the obstacles. You can achieve a good A Frame, dogwalk, cross over and learn to do all the contacts. You can jump your dog at some sort of height, regardless of dog size, and I prefer big dogs to jump low and little dogs to jump low and in between dogs to jump medium. I still believe the Kennel Club maxi and midi heights are ergonomically incorrect. Why would you ask a big boned collie or shepherd to jump a huge mega height and ruin it's body and its opportunities for a long athletic life. They should be jumping the current midi, and midi should be one below, mini is about right and should also be the giant jump along with micro where it is now.

As Dog Sports is not part of the Kennel Club we can do fun competitions to meet the needs of all participants. It is not the difficulty of the equipment that is the trick, it is the combination of equipment to be achieved within a set time that is the challenge for competitors.

In saying that there is absolutely no reason why, when we have ambitious achievers, that they cannot go out and do Kennel Club sporting events. At present we have two people doing this, this can grow and Judy Casey is the right person to lead this group. If you are keen to compete at the top level in New Zealand and have your weaving technique under control they this is the group at Dog Sports for you.

Even if you don't do this level the Club will still take you to Ribbon Trials run by Kennel Club Groups, where the standard is a little more achievable for most of us, and after a year or so of trialing at Ribbons you may find you want to do greater things, or you may find you want to do more social fun training like Flyball, or our Homemade Agility Competitions where laughter is a prerequisite.

As well there is the option of doing the NALA courses. These are eleven courses per year of both Agility and Flygility which happen on our club grounds and the results go to a Recorder via the Nala Computorised system and your dog gets a Nationwide ranking. We have been doing these courses for about 5 years now and we have had some great achievements by our members. There are after all hundreds of dogs doing this Nationwide every month. So if you start the year at 455th and finish at 320th you have done well. Our fly teams consistently come third in NZ, we have had the occasional first place, but we have never managed to win for a whole year. Chelsea Marriner beats us every time.

This Blog is supposed to uncover the layers of fun you can have with dog training which starts out with me as a 'control' exercise and can go on to become a great social quality of life exercise for dogs and handlers and can also become a major sporting event for those who want to go there.

The big thing is to think of all the dog handling challenges as fun and neat experiences you share with your dog. Dog Sports is all positives, it is the cheapest Dog Training Club in New Zealand and this Club will support you and your dog throughout your lifetimes. Children and dogs, Families and dogs, and older folk and their companion dogs.

I am very proud to be a Trainer of beginner dogs with this Club.. Hope everyone in Rotorua catches on to the Dog Training craze real soon. Raewyn