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Saturday, February 18 2017

Good Dog Training Newsletter - February 2017

By Raewyn Saville on Saturday, February 18 2017, 08:54 - Newsletters


WHAT IS LEARNING TO LEARN FOR YOU AND YOUR DOG?


I have a very interesting quote to start this…

'When the dog knows what his job is he can do it' Chris Hutchings.

Chris has said this often over the years and it is completely correct and chrystalises everything there is to know about dog training. A lot of people come to Dog Sports with their first dog, a rescue dog, a new puppy, a new agility prospect, or just about any other type of dog there is. Most people don't think there is very much to dog training. Every other dog they or their friends or they had when they were a child, was the perfect iconic happy friendly intelligent mutt that ever was. This probably isn't true as most dogs have a vice or two no matter what age they are, but they are very good at doing a con job on their owner so that the OWNER BECOMES COMPLIANT WITH THE DOGS' NEEDS.

I like to start out with the lowest common denominator. Short Tie ups. My expectation is that the dog will settle, lie down, become calm, and is ready to move on to the next learning thing. My expectation is that the dog will short tie up anywhere. Not just at home or at the Training Ground, but to the tow bar of my car when I go to the beach, or to a fencepost when I am on someone else's property. My short tie up sends this message. 'Please be calm, you are safe, I will be back for you.' So grows trust from the dog for you. My next behavior expectation is that the dog will lie quietly when surrounded by other dogs and allow me to stand astride him to keep him in my space. I am telling him 'All is well, the other dogs are fine, I am in control, and you are safe'. Dog is happy with this so we move on.

The point at which the dog is not happy, is jumping around is barking is panting and uncomfortable. Or has started lashing out at other dogs or people and is slow to respond to recall or correction, then it is obviously stressed. This is the point at which the dog has ceased to learn. Anything the owner/handler does forward of this point will be negative training for the dog. The dog will not achieve and remember anything after this with a positive view. This is why dogs who are failing to move forward at Agility are in the state they are in. They will be stuck in the same slow uncomfortable place for ever. They will pant and salivate throughout their work, causing them to move their heads around a lot. Circle or run away on the course, knock a lot of rails and find it difficult to concentrate, often seeing the judge as an obstacle to be reckoned with, people on the outside of the ring upsetting him. Dog has no focus or concentration, BECAUSE THE FOCUS AND CONCENTRATION WAS LEARNED BACK AT THE START AND DOG DIDN'T GET THAT TRAINING OR HANDLER DIDN'T THINK IT WAS NECESSARY FOR THEIR DOG.

One of the upsides of Obedience (the sport of) is that it focuses the dog on the handler, while that focus is on the handler the dog is just fine and can achieve amazing stuff. However, the dog only equates that focus with being in the ring, not with everyday behavior and a lot of dogs who are just great in the ring have no manners or obedient behavior in their toolbox once outside the ring. Again carrying behavior forward as a day to day condition of their lives is not something that a lot of people think is important.

Most people have a top learning capacity that they impose upon themselves. Sad though for dog trainers to impose that top learning capability upon their dogs. Intellectual threshold is something to be fought against. We all need to go on learning and moving our brains and bodies in a better way. I have never met a dog that stopped learning but I have met a lot of people who resign themselves to ‘being dumb'.

People also have the desire to move forward class by class because it means that they are achieving in their own eyes. This isn't necessarily so. YOU NEVER WANT TO BE IN A CLASS WHERE YOUR DOG IS THE WORST BEHAVED AND LEAST ACHIEVING. YOU WANT TO BE IN A CLASS WHERE YOU AND DOG ARE THE BEST BEHAVED AND ACHIEVING THE MOST.

With this in mind I often send people backwards. Some don't take it well. I sent Debbie and Sophie back to pre-Agility at the start of last year, because Sophie was so distracted by other dogs when she was working. A tribute to her early childhood education in Doggy Day Care, which she hated with a passion. The best thing about pre-Agility is that you have all sorts of nutty new dogs there who have no manners and Sophie got used to new dogs with no manners and didn't feel the need to go on the defensive or get mean.

This has enabled Sophie to move forward, because her fear of other dogs is the very thing that stops her achieving. My little Border Terrier X Fae is absolutely magic in 10a.m. Saturday class. She exudes a bored air concentrates on the exercises and copes off lead. Because she is so switched on to bunnies, she can't move forward without making runaway mistakes so she stays where she is happy and contented and is becoming very good at making other dogs feel comfortable too. That is her job, along with controlling rats and rabbits on our small block. She has jobs. They are the one's she copes with best and excels at. That is where I want my dogs.

My old dog Chan was still learning right up to the day we put him to sleep. The month before with only one functioning eye, he won jumpers C and got his first AD. I had never tried for AD before with him. I was so proud of that dog. Chip is at an interesting point. He is stuck in a couple of places and moving forward in others. His dog on dog distraction can be there at times so he is still in Behavior class and there is vast improvement there. Becki-boo is 12 and still learning and improving. Her sprints are still getting faster. She is still able to get around a Champs Agility Course within course time and is still gaining ADs.

Pansy is in behavior class and going ahead in 11a.m. Saturday class. She thrives in Mini Club. Her dog on dog distraction is better but still got a way to go. She needs to be able to play better under distracted circumstances. But we are getting there. She has gone from a runaway non compliant dog that attacked both people and other dogs with menace five months ago, to having a job doing agility and learning compliance. She is certainly a different dog, but not different enough, the sky is the limit for that little dog and I want to keep her moving forward. I know when she is out of her depth. She gets slow. She is not naturally slow. It is an inability to do the job fast because there are other distractions to concentrate on. Focus must improve. Maybe a bit more Obedience work. The important thing is not to back away from the things dogs are naughty or bad at. Don't practice avoidance, because that vice is the very thing that will ruin your future work with your dog. Train it out.

BRIGHT SPOTS ON THE TRAINING HORIZON.


Benni the poodle. Five months old. Learning at a huge pace. His compliance is still coming. Obedience is pretty good. His tricks and pre agility are in a happy place. His ball play and tug are excellent. His dog on dog is comfortable. He has never been hurt or put in a place where he feels at risk. He lives in a pack with five other dogs who all adore him. His body conformation and fitness is correct for his age. His diet is very good, mostly natural with kibble as a mid day top up to make sure he is getting all the vitamins and minerals he needs to grow strong. Of course his breakfast is fresh goat’s milk so his calcium levels should be fantastic. Won't it be interesting to see him go forward and see at what point he reaches his 'I dunno this, can't do this job'. So far nothing is fazing him.

Jessie James the Labradoodle/Spoodle. How old is JJ now 3 and a half? Jumpers A and still going forward. Novice Intermediate and going forward. Focus in the ring 90%. Focus on obedience behavior outside the ring 55%. Christine Longton, knows no limits. She pushes forward to keep learning herself and working her dog to the level she wants. Very positive stuff. Best combination I have ever trained Storm the Working Dog. Sixteen months now. Learning at an absolute pace. Focus on handler 100%. Focus on games 100%. Focus on work 100%. Concentration levels still coming. He is a very young dog. His concentration is in exactly the place it ought to be for a dog of his type and pace. Again Christine Longton knows no limits. She does tricks, she does training she does discipline. Again the sky is the limit for this combination. I am so going to enjoy watching the achievements here.

I watch all my trainees for ability and capability. When it is obvious that the handler considers that they have reached the place they want to be, I do not push them to train any more. Because there are real limits to time and opportunity for a lot of people. All they want to do is get out and do the shows. That is good too. They are happy to have 'own goals' and 'social time' with their mates and achieving is not a biggie. After all it costs $1,000 minimum to have me train a dog to Elementary level Agility. So it isn't cheap. Although some people greatly overcommit themselves by going to Champs before they are ready, that doesn't bother me too much as learning the system and getting to run lots of courses is good education for the handlers. Once people have done a few Agility shows and been bitten by the Agilty bug (it is addictive) then they will get another dog and my hope is that they have learned enough to not limit their own and their dog's opportunity to be better. Most people do improve. Some don't. They are the wonderful people at the bottom of the pyramid paying money into a sport for other achievers and enjoying it.

Anyone who would like to test where their dog's sticking point of learning is, what the thing is that is keeping them slow or unfocused, is welcome to get in touch with me and we will go through the entire gamut of behavior and find the thing that is ruining their opportunity. Most people know what that is, sometimes secretly, but they don't confront it and they don't train to solve it, leaving themselves and their dogs stuck in a strange place of knowing how to do everything and achieving nothing

.....speaking of Summer Sprints Season.


This Tuesday night program is proving very popular.

Top Big Dog with Handicap (A Team) is Storm who is now on 6 obstacles and still doing consistently under 12 seconds (current average is 11.19). Other dogs in A team are Sophie (Deb) Minnie and Sophie (Nicole). These are our best and fastest large dogs in the Club

Top Small Dog with Handicap (A Team minis) is Jessie James who has graduated through to Flygility Senior level Sprints with 6 obstacles and has only three more levels to achieve before he falls off the end of the competition. Other dogs in A team Minis are KC and Jade both belonging to Pam and Dave Sharp. These are relatively untried dogs they are doing very well and are learning how to cope with hurdles in their sprints run.

B Team on the flat is currently lead by Chip (Raewyn) who refuses to do .50 of a second faster and graduate. But the amazing new dog Awhi is now in second place and will have no trouble overhauling Chip and graduating to the A team very soon. Bree Kimmy and Star make up the rest of the B Team large dogs

B Team Minis are lead by Boo and Pansy with Gracie Chips (Nicola) and Fae trailing behind but at each competition all the minis are cutting their times.

We are running a 12 meter flat Puppy sprint( the 12 meters needs to be accomplished in under 6 seconds) a further meter is then added to the run .

Leading the field at present is Benni followed by Linda and Dash. They are just learning to trust and run away the twelve meters and come back. Super puppy training.

The Summer Sprints Competition is very infectious. Addictive has also been applied to it. Apart from the flat and handicapped sprints we also run a sendaway recall Novelty which is currently working on Advanced with weaves. Everyone gets to do this regardless of their level. Each week we work through the levels we have done a Beginner level, an Intermediate level, last week's senior level saw Sophie (Deb) beat Storm for the first time. The work was just a bit much for Storm very understandably at his age. I thought I had it sown up with Chip who loves complicated courses, and then Sophie beat him by 2 seconds. Great Sport.

All the dogs improve in speed and fitness every week. About three weeks ago Deb's Sophie got a bit slow and didn't look comfortable. Sure enough she needed a treatment on her back from the Chiropractor. After a brief rest she is now back up to speed. Sprints make it possible to pinpoint falls in fitness and speed. They increase muscle tone and the dogs learn independent running over 100 meters.

Just superb. On top of that we have raised about $300 towards the winter rent.....It’s a winning combination. Bring on next Tuesday. Oh and as we pay prize money to the winners no guesses for who takes home the most money each week. But we are working on it. Having high quality dogs in the competition makes us all work harder to achieve better times.

There is still 6 weeks to go in this competition so anyone who wants to start now should come and have a sprints lesson FREE and see if you can get yourself in contention for those lovely trophies at the end of the year.

Club Captains Report


Here we are well into another year. Just over a month to go to the end of the Financial Year for the Club. Year ends 31st March. By the time the books are prepared and the trophies are engraved it is usually late April or early May for the AGM.

Last year we trialed a new system of Membership. We created an Executive Membership which cost $180. It includes keys to the containers so that members can go train at the grounds whenever they wish. The idea for the $180 was to put aside the rent money in advance so in the event of bad weather through the winter we still had the money available. Jenny Williams (Club Treasurer) will be able to tell us at this year's AGM, how that system worked.

The Executive Membership is available to people who are current members. That is it cannot be a new subscription. Most current members have been members for the last six months at least. For those people who want to train three or four nights a week plus have extra coaching or just want to practice on their own, this is a huge saving in $2 coins. If like me you are training at the club four times a week then I would spend around $300. $180 is definitely a big saving. So think about it and pick up a current membership form. There won't be any changes to subscriptions this year. Feel free to ask any of the Club Committee about this option. We would be happy to help you with any queries.

Dave Sharp looks after our gear at the Club. But hey team we need to be a bit more careful about the way we handle our gear. Especially the hurdles. We know the new plastic cups on the hurdles are delicate but with care they can last a lot longer than they currently do and the cups are expensive. Dave doesn't mind helping out but it is becoming a full time job replacing cups on hurdles. Dave has made and donated a set of boxes for training. Raewyn requested them. We used them this week at Mini Club, they are just amazing. I think they will be cropping up quite a bit in classes from now on. Thank you Dave.IMG_4292.JPG

The placings are very close for on the flat Sprints for the year. The Trophy will be decided in the next two Club competitions and the next month of weekly sprints. The dogs in contention are Skyla, Jewel, Chip, Bella and Bree. Maybe they might like to give winning it a go and attend some of the sprints meets and make sure they are defending their place at the Club Competition!

There is currently a series running on TV 1 Wednesday night called “Vet Tales”. Last year a clip was filmed on Megan Hill and her dog “Jack”. A group of us provided a back drop with our dogs, this should be screening over the next couple of months, unfortunately we don’t know which episode!

See you out there.
Deb.


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Saturday, September 17 2016

Good Dog Training Newsletter - September 2016

By Raewyn Saville on Saturday, September 17 2016, 09:17 - Newsletters


Staying insired to train people for agility


I have been running classes and organising Agility continuously for 17 years now. It is a long time. I have to look for inspiration sometimes to motivate me to continue doing what I do. I find behavior training a lot less demanding and ideally it is what I want to do long term now with my retirement looming in about five months.

It is about that long ago that there was a big stir up happening at the Kennel Club Agility Committee. There was an unwritten rule that Agility was for adults only. I believe there were children running their parent's dogs in novelty events but they definitely weren't competing in the real thing. Then there was this little eight nine year old girl called Chelsea who wanted to run in the real competition. Her dog Brodie was a couple of years younger than her but was still aged five when she started being trained for Agility. However Chelsea had been doing all sorts of tricks with the dog since they were babies together and the dog knew every word that her young master uttered. I was one of the few who supported that there was no reason why a young person couldn't run in a real competition and compete against adults. Now standards back then were very patchy. There were a lot of very ordinary performances. The inevitable happened, the little girl beat all the adults. Wow how inspirational is that. Chelsea single handedly lifted the standards of Agility in New Zealand because nobody wanted to continuously be beaten by a child and she put young people firmly into the competition arena as equals to the adult competitors.

Alex and Chelsea Marriner and I started a Junior Agility Group to train young people up to compete. I had them first to teach them some control and how to do the equipment, then when they got good enough they went into Alex and Chelsea's class. We had quite a large herd of variously talented young people but two of them were standout and both for different reasons. They were sisters and the elder sister had a beautiful Border Collie. She quickly graduated into Alex and Chelsea's class. The little sister grizzled and complained so much to her mother that she wanted to do Agility too and she wanted a dog as well that her Mother let her get a puppy from the SPCA. About the only thing that resembled a border collie about this dog was that it was white with black. Could have had some Labrador, could have had some heading dog, anyway little sister Katherine turned up with her ten week old puppy at my beginner class. At that time the age for training a pup for Agility was 18 months old and in hindsight I believe this probably is the right age, given that the dog needs to grow and mature its body in order to have the strength to learn agility.

I let Katherine do tunnels with her pup and feed him on the equipment. I picked her and her sister up from time to time and brought them to class when their Mummy was working and generally encouraged both the girls. The Club Committee at that time warned me that I was allowing training on equipment by a dog under the age of 18 months. I just laughed at them. However it got fairly nasty. In my opinion the kid and her dog weren't doing anything that would endanger the puppy or the child. Anyway it got even more serious and I had to resort to subterfuge to allow Katherine and her Pup to continue. I managed to get a key out of the Club which was almost unheard of, but as they would not allocate time for Flygility Training I offered to train on Sunday mornings and to organise the Nala Fly for that time as well. As no committee members were available to open the club, I was able to have a key. This enabled those who wanted to do extra training an opportunity without the Committee of the Club being aware of it. That they didn't realise I was bending the rules and allowing early training was quite amazing. However, Katherine got her pup up to a standard where she was ready to compete.

There were a lot of sacrifices made by the girls' Mother to keep them involved in Agility. It is an expensive sport and to have two children and two dogs competing on a very small family income was a great challenge. Other Club Members including Alex and Chelsea helped to get the sisters and their dogs to shows and on occasions paid entry fees and supplied lunches and accommodation so that they got the opportunity to compete as widely as possible. As a few years passed Katherine was the sister who continued to want to do Agility and who worked hard with her dogs to bring them up to the standard that she wanted them to be at. Katherine always had determination, passion and flair with her dogs.

Last Sunday in Taupo there was a dead heat in the Jumpers A. Chelsea Marriner and Katherine Martin. There was a run off. Katherine up first. The course wasn't at the top end of A difficult but had a couple of tricky little loopy bits and some nasty little call offs. Katherine's run was passionate and exciting and she smiled at her dog. Her body language was lovely and her dog never missed a beat. The run was clear. Then it was Chelsea's turn. Her run was calculated and scientific, all the corners were cut at just the right time. The experience and maturity that she has, showed through the whole run. Her run was clear and was the winning run deservedly.

Both those young women were inspirational and I saw those little children now leaders in their chosen sport. Those are the moments that make it possible for me to continue to help people get started in the sport.

Whenever I have Nick Chester as a Judge I remember the young man from a Rotorua College who came to training in his school uniform that I also used to pick up and bring to training when he needed it. Contrary to the young women who came to training Nick was fairly hopelessly laid back for the first couple of years and his dogs ran all over the top of him. I used to despair of his lack of concentration. I am amazed by his lovely courses and his judging style and his still laid back capability. It is great to see a young guy go forward in the sport dominated as it is by female competitors. Nick Chester also inspires me greatly to carry on introducing people to the Sport. Even those who may seem to take a bit of time to get a handle on their dogs may just go forward and end up doing some incredible things.

Inspiration also comes from those I train who have huge life issues which stop them from full time training or just make training very difficult. Those older people who are training for the first time with their first dog. That they persevere and meet the physical challenges of the sport and enjoy the moment of competition.

But I must confess that the future of the sport rests with the younger generation and unless there are young people coming into the sport all the time it will come to a point where it struggles to continue to improve the standards and meet the needs of the mid 21st Century competitors.

So I was quite shocked to receive this text recently.

“Raewyn in the dog world ribbons are for achievement and it takes a long time to get to a level to gain one. That is completely different to encouragement and in my opinion should never be used for this reason”.

It has become a laughing matter and this is not the first time this has happened. I think the club needs to clarify this before all the high achievers are gone elsewhere don't you think?'

This txt refers to my awarding the ribbon at Club Day to a little girl called Charlotte and her little mixed breed mini dog. The person writing the text was not at the Competition on the day Charlotte won.

This is what I saw in Charlotte. A small child with a fantastic bond with her dog. The dog noticed the Child's commands. The dog was obedient to the child achieving an A frame, collapsible tunnel bendy tunnel and several hurdles including a wing jump. The child rewarded the dog and smiled and the dog responded. At the sprints run, Debbie Trimbach taught her how to get her dog to run away to the bucket and come back and she and the dog achieved it, I was inspired.

One day that little girl is going to remember that ribbon experience and she may go ahead and do some sort of animal work. She has the x factor. I have seen it before read top four paragraphs. There is another child in our club who has the same x factor, but she doesn't have a dog that she can call her own yet. I am watching her very closely, at some point she will probably also win a Club Ribbon.

So I apologise to those Club Members who feel that I am undermining the integrity of the Club. I hope you will forgive me for indulging in rewarding Inspirational performance against all odds. It is the one thing that has always kept me going.

.

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Saturday, May 7 2016

Good Dog Training Newsletter - May 2016

By Raewyn Saville on Saturday, May 7 2016, 07:39 - Newsletters

Its all about behaviour!


So here we are again another month in 2016 May and it has to be one of the warmest autumns on records. Great for night Dog Training.

Over this last six months I have been doing lectures at the SPCA in Rotorua with their permanent paid workers and permanent volunteers. This has been a most enlightening experience for me and hopefully a new way of looking at dogs for the receivers of the information as well.

I started the lecture season with a chat about Interaction. You see to me 'Training' an animal is not really what I want. I want a two way conversation with that animal by way of Interaction. I don't really want to have to beat an animal over the head and tell it 'I am boss' listen to me. I want the animal to love and respect me while knowing that I will love and respect them in return. I like to get an understanding with the animal that it is not the lesser being but we need to get our behaviors meshed in some way so that we can do things together for the benefit of each other.

Now the more I thought about this, the more it became a wacky way of looking at our life sharing with other creatures. For example I own a pet Cow. Her name is Wave. We have been living together and sharing for 13 years. It’s a long time to know an animal. She is just lovely and we understand each other. There is nothing nicer than the cold winter mornings in the shed with her. Leaning against her surprisingly warm body and releasing her steaming creamy milk while she munches on whatever I have prepared from the garden or from the bakery in town for her. She has a wide and varied milking diet and absolutely loves molasses but you can't beat a good strawberry lamington. I can groom her and hug her and she trusts me to do a lot of stuff even to holding her while the vet does procedures. In a word it is 'Trust' that she has in me. This is not unique of course, millions of people experience a great two way relationship with a large number of creatures outside of the human race. That is what having a pet animal is about. Sharing your life with another creature. Many people will vouch for their relationships with pet mice or parrots. And many people have tamed wild things to interact with them. Like hand feeding sparrows until a particular one becomes your best friend.

So having qualified that maybe I am not a Dog Trainer, but perhaps I am someone who enjoys interacting with other species by way of body language, smooth voice sounds and providing a safe haven and food for that particular creature.

I notice when I start to have people coming to training with their dogs that they totally do not understand what their dog is about. what it's fears are, how much it trusts it's handler, why it is behaving in a particular way given particular stimulation and how after two or three sets of that particular stimulation the behavior (for better or worse) becomes ingrained as a part of the interaction under those given circumstances.

Let's take the pet sparrow for example. Every day I take a piece of bread outside to a table on the deck and I feed the birds. I sit quietly in a chair by the table and eventually one cocky fellow comes up and takes the food from my hand. Next day same time same place that sparrow does it again, so I start talking to the sparrow while it is eating. Next day I start talking to the sparrow as I come out the door of the house onto the deck. That sparrow knows my voice already and he is down there sitting on the table as I sit down at the chair. .Then he hops on my hand to take the bread. Next day I call him he flies down from the roof, lands on my hand, I carry him to the table, feed and talk with him and then he flies away, etc. There is a growing sense of trust. Food is the catalyst for that trust. Providing food for its young is something all mammals and birds do. So in order to win the trust of any creature it is important to hand feed that thing, then it is important that the creature hears your voice in conjunction with that food. By supplying food to that creature we are offering to be a parent to the creature to give it a safe food supply and to give it willingly.

With this in mind it is only natural to me that if I want to win over a dog, I am going to use food. If I want best behavior outcomes and good interaction and good response to voice or clicker or whistle, I am going to use food. Food is not forever, as once you have the dog's trust you can get rid of the feeding by hand constantly while teaching new things, although I still really like to reassure my dogs by feeding by hand and later on throwing them their food to catch. I like their food smelling of my DNA. It is part of my interaction with my pet. The donkey loves hand feeding, the goats love hand feeding, and it is a very special sharing, in the same way as dining with your family is a very special thing to do. If you want the best warm fuzzies, sit down and hand feed your dog and let him lick your fingers for the gooey bits. The time you take to share food with your dog will be well rewarded by your finding it easier to get him on side to do extra things for you. Especially to get him following you around like you are 'the goddess' or 'god' himself. My Chip is a devoted fan of mine. He hates it when I go without him, but we have an agreement. I tell him to 'Stay, I will be back soon' and he lies quietly in the porch without muttering a word until I get back. Then I don't make a fuss, just a nice low 'good boy' and he wags his skinny tail and lies down again. About ten minutes later I will take him for a wander to do his toilet and then we will be together while I do stuff around the house. Just boring old dog and human interaction. Nothing profound or genius, just a nice comfortable trusting relationship. There are a few things we are still working on but at 21 months he has pretty much nailed it that if I tell him to 'leave it' then that's the rule. I say leave it once and I walk away and he just has to come with me. I am more important to him than fresh cow poo. Now that's a reassuring thought isn't it?

Forget Training - Interact with your chosen 'other creature’ the rewards are constant.


Club Captains report


Another good productive month for Dog Sports Rotorua. We now have 32 (+ a few pending) paid up members. But the best news is that 10 people signed up for the $180 per annum subscription which includes as much use as they wish to make of the Club and the option of a set of shed keys. The Committee took a bit of a punt on the idea in order to avoid what happened last year when for about three months through winter we didn't take enough $2 ground fees to pay the rent to the Stockcars. The money collected in advance will be put aside in a savings account to fill the gaps in the rent should it occur again. Club member numbers are up but Club usage falls due to the cold nights. For example for two nights this week we would normally have had 37 members use the Club. Instead we had 22 and the really cold times haven't hit yet. That is a difference of $30 over two nights. It makes a difference to paying the rent in the long term. Remember that the Ground fees are not checked or demanded, we rely on honesty of our members to put the money in the box. You can put in $10 for five uses and keep note of it in the sign in book so you can remember. Or you can be generous and give us $3 instead of $2.

We have the Club AGM coming up on June 10th which is a Friday night. Please note your diaries and make an effort to come and enjoy a bit of snack food and a cup of tea or coffee plus our Trophy and Certificate presentation for the year and the AGM which shouldn't take longer than half an hour. Most of our Executive are happy to stay on, however if you have a passion to work with us in the Executive all of our current elected members are happy to have someone step up and work with them. All positive input to our group is welcomed. Our meetings through the year are open to all members and we usually have a shared dinner before them and share all the club information openly.

The Club Executive gets very little feedback from the members as to whether they like the program as the Club runs it, or whether they feel good about their dog work or not. If we know that there are things working well or not then we can tweak the system to make sure everyone is comfortable with their training.

The Club is responsible for Club Competition once a month. A lot of members don't attend even though we advertise it widely. The points earned add up throughout the year and result in trophies and certificates at the end of the year. If you keep winning in your class you go up to a higher level. It gives focus to your training and really is a great day. It is also an opportunity to do our Sprint Competition. What is really amazing is that two new people did their first sprint and won out of B team and into A team on their first outing, so congratulations to Linda and Minnie and Carol and Jade. I finally won out with my Sophie to A Team as well but it has taken twelve months to get there as it has for Pam and KC but we got there in the end. Our Sprint Champ never let us down Nicole and Sophie (2) did three obstacles in A in 11.45 secs.

It is very competitive and great fun. You don't need to train for it and in terms of dog fitness and enthusiasm Sprints are very worthwhile. If you haven't tried Club Competition the next one is on the 14th of May, so come along and be part of the fun. There is no pressure and it is so nice to see all the levels of Club Members working alongside each other. Come and join us as often as you can, that is what Dog Sports is about.

Please send me your photos, adverts, stories, poems etc to be added to our newsletter.

Check out our nationwide placings for some of our NALA dogs in results—awesome !

Happy training
Debbie Trimbach
Club Captain.

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