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Wednesday, February 20 2013

Moving the Dog Club

By Raewyn Saville on Wednesday, February 20 2013, 09:07 - Club Corner News: Events & Results

For the last four years we have had a dog training club running from the Rail Park in Ngongotaha. For many and various reasons the Rail Trust and the District Council did not like us being there. When we first moved there we had 19 dogs and about 14 handlers. Now we have close to 40 handlers and about 50 dogs in various stages of development and playing various games. This growth caused huge anst to the Rotorua District Council because we did not have Resource Consent to train dogs in the middle of the Ngongotaha Township. Either in panic or out of some form of pique the Rail Trust decided to rip up the Memorandum of Understanding they had with us, while claiming we owned back 'rent' and did not pay for 'events' that they thought we were holding. Basically I think they were worried about us being there without Resource Consent. There was nothing in the Rail Trust Consent to allow Dog Training so it may not have been in their best interests that we were there.

Every month without fail we paid the Rail Trust the contents of our 'koha' box. We asked every person coming onto the grounds for training to make a gift to our money box and this was paid to the Rail Trust. We never paid 'rent' as such as we understood their lease to the crown specifically disallowed subletting by the Trust. So anyway we needed to find a new home. I came up with several ideas most of which fell short of reality. For example, the Rotorua District Council had no intention of letting a dog training outfit set up on any of their many rural and suburban reserves. So it was a matter of finding private land again, that the Club could afford.

The Stock Car Club at Paradise Valley was one of my suggestions. On first look this does not seem like a very exciting venue, however, they have allowed us to park our Shipping Container of gear in a prominent corner, we have water at a tap - right there. They are happy to help up get power back on to our container so we can make a cuppa and heat the soup in winter and turn the light on on dull days, but best of all they want to help us get a night flood light so that we can do evening training through the winter months. This is just awesome. What is good about the stock car grounds is that it is mostly a huge parking lot in grass and dirt. We couldn't hurt it if we tried. Everyone can drive right to the ringside to train their dogs. They can work their dogs out of their cars. The dogs are comfie, we are comfie as we can sit in our cars to take five and eat our lunch or whatever. Wonderful. The toilets are more than adequate. Tonight the 20th February 2013 we had our first training night for Agility at the new grounds. It was absolutely spectacular. The scenery is just gorgeous, the peace and quiet are superb, the space is just massive. Training was fantastic, what else can I say. It looks like we have a great future ahead of us at this venue. It isn't cheap for a small group. $250 per month, so we have to beef up our funding arrangements. We have made the Koha from the old venue into a compulsory $2 green fee payable once a week. If you train twice a week it is just $2. So far our calculations are holding up and we will make the grade with this. The big issue is wet days no training days, so we have to have a couple of fundraiser things every month just to help us feel secure. We will continue with Flyball which makes about $25 per week after expenses and we may hold a raffle or two each month. Just little things that make $50 here and $50 there.. When we needed money at the start of the Club 7 years ago, we used to cater brilliant morning teas and charge $2 for a cuppa and whatever yummy morning tea things were brought in by Club members. This was very popular so we might need to re-institute some of these things.

As the Club Trainer I am very relieved that we have found a home. The biggest thanks goes to Christine Hutchings who has moved and shaken this whole fiasco. She has applied herself to the limit. Her committment to the Club is just the greatest. She sets a brilliant example and if the new Committee get on board Chris' enthusiasm then we will truly have a Club that is going places. The Resource Consent from the District Council was not the easiest to obtain and it cost us something short of $900. Which truly is a lot of money for a small club to pay for the right to train dogs at a country venue where the land owners and the neighbours had agreed that we were suitable tenants. We did wonder what the District Council had on its mind, charging this kind of money to a community organisation, in particular an organisation that takes responsibility for training some of the district's difficult dogs and acts as a support group for all dog owners in the Rotorua District whether they are members or not. In particular we have had a number of 'hard to train' rehomes from the Rotorua District Council Pound. But to Chris for her perseverence in the face of a quite negative set of circumstances, I can but say thank you again from the bottom of my heart. If she had not done the hard yards to get us moved, I doubt the Club would have survived.

So here's to the future of Dog Sports Rotorua. A truly alternative style dog training organisation without ties to the NZ Kennel Club, with a place for every dog and assistance for all dog owners. It is Flyball night tomorrow night. The first one at the new venue. I just can't wait. It truly excites me to be the games organisor for Dog Sports. See you all there...

Raewyn.

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Sunday, February 17 2013

Fae the Fat Fairy learns Agility Episode 14

By Raewyn Saville on Sunday, February 17 2013, 08:03 - The Adventures of Fae the Fat Fairy

Well what a busy fortnight I have had. My person is now my boss and I listen to her a lot better than I used to. She has taken me out of the Agility sequence class and put me in the Agility Equipment class which is much more fun for me.

When I started at Dog Sports Rotorua I was in Puppy class and learnt tunnel and how to run around with other dogs and how to follow the boss and how to sit and how to stay and how to come. But most I learned more about tugging.

Then I went to Control Class for six months and I learnt even more about walking alongside the boss and sitting when told it was called heelwork and I learnt to sit with all the other dogs for one whole minute and not move. I learnt a downstay for a whole minute as well. I learnt to wait until I was called and sit in front of the boss and I learnt to send away and come back and to do a toy retrieve and it was a blast. All the dogs in my class were awesome and they all kept coming so that they could learn more about Agility equipment. The boss sayes that the Agility equipment teaches the handlers to bond with their dog really well. They learn to communicate. Whatever, I really like communicating. It was about this time when I noticed that there were a few bunnies jumping about and they always seemed to be jumping about when I was running through the flat hurdles, so I could do the hurdles and then run after the bunnies. The boss told me this was not what she wanted and I kinda knew that. I am allowed to chase bunnies and rats at home, but not when I am learning the work with the boss. I just couldn't stop doing the bunny run even if I played tug and really loved it, as soon as I started running through the Agility Equipment the old bunny pull just kept happening.

By now I had started going to Flyball Thursdays as well and I just love touching the box and catching the tennis ball and bringing it back to the boss so we can play tug, I can do this when the bunny is around pretty well as the ball and the tug are just such high value things to me. This week I ran 25 meters on my own to the flybox, hit it, grabbed the ball and ran really fast back to the boss to play tug, even though the bunny was hopping around just outside the fence right by me. My poor old mate Astro just couldn't keep his eyes off the bunny and his boss Dave was really annoyed with him. Gee I just know how he feels.

So this week for the first time instead of doing the Agility Sequence Class I did Agility Equipment class and we learnt Crossover which is a contact piece of equipment with four down ramps. It was so much fun and I can stand two feet on two feet off for ages now and the boss was so proud of me. So now I know how to do all the contacts properly, no sloppy work. The A frame, the dogwalk, the crossover and the low seesaw. I am a good fast tunneller and I love the hoop and the longjump, so it is really just the hurdles I have to get a handle on. They are more like hard work than all the other stuff but my boss says I will get it eventually if it takes two years. I am only 15months old and I am learning fast.

I still love my Obedience Class, I am in beginners and I really love it, I look at the boss all the time to see what will happen next and the food treats are really nice. This is the only time I get food treats now so I want to make the best of it.

I am still a bit fat though and the boss has told me to stop eating the chook food, but it is hard, I see those horrible rats eating the chook food and I kill them and then I can eat the food with the chooks, they are such good dining companions. The ducks are a bill silly and squabble but the chooks are neat.

The boss says I am probably trying to learn too much at once, but I love being busy. Tonight just on dusk me and Paddy the Cat had a real big flat out run around on the farm, in and out of the birds, through between the goats legs, we were going for it, rest time now. I will keep letting you know how my Agility and Obedience are going, I hope I have some more adventures soon as well, but right now I just don't seem to have time for Adventures.

from Fae the Fat Fairy

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Tuesday, August 28 2012

Sorting Home Problems Part 5

By Raewyn Saville on Tuesday, August 28 2012, 21:43 - Dog Handling

How your Dogs' Daily schedule could work:

So having gone through getting your two puppies who are crated and have been to Puppy School and who are now starting to walk about two kms per day, what comes next.

Now you get up every day including Sunday, at 6a.m. and head off for a walk with the dogs. On week days they get breakfast when they get home and go in their outside kennel and run arrangement, unless it is very cold and wet in winter, when they go in the garage with their crate doors open.

Before you leave for work, you throw two 'kongs' in with them which you have stuffed with peanut butter or wet dog food or whatever or a mixture including cooked liver and they will spend several hours trying to lick them out. Kongs are quite large rubber/plastic dog toys that are hollow in the middle but they have a place where the dog's tongue can fit in there and lick. They are quite wonderful. Now you could have left them with a big juicy bone each... well I wouldn't. Even cannon bones, big and solid as they are, may be able to break off and stick in throats or jam on teeth.

You could have a toy box that you have several favourite toys in, you will then know when you get home that they have been playing with toys, as with all children, they get them out but seldom put them away.

You could also cut a large branch off a fruit tree and leave it in their enclosure. No small branchlets, just the trunky bit, they will chew on it for hours, it might stop them demolishing their bedding or their kennel or any other wooden parts of their run. It does have its dangers as they can chew bits off and swallow them, although this has not been my experience with fresh wood, they tend to just gnaw away at it. Do not use dry firewood or anything that can splinter.

 I always advise all my friends that I have puppies and if they are throwing away towels, bedspreads, floor rugs or anything else mildly warm and cuddly, that I will take it over.  I find that shredding the bed is a favourite pass time when I am away, so the bedding will get destroyed regularly to the point where it is dragged from the sleeping space, chewed, torn and ends up mixed up with the day's poos and piddles and basically is  just going in the rubbish by the time I get home.

This is 'normal' dog behavior even if it is a pain. Until a dog is about three I would never buy a designer dog sleeping arrangement for it, as I say above shred the bed is jolly good fun.

So while I am out there earning money to pay the vet bills and buy quality dog food the dogs have sucked on their Kongs for about an hour and maybe gone back to it for a bit more time, chewed on the tree, pulled all their toys out of the box , played tug with the bedding and slept about three hours - so I can account for about six hours of activity. By the time I get home they will have been waiting one or two hours for that event.

This is the moment, Ma and/or Pa are home. Good idea, I am going to make them wait another ten minutes while I rush in and change into my dog clothes. I am also going to put my garden gloves on. I will pick up my throw toys on the way into the back yard, open the gate to the run and throw the toys into the yard, they will run out manically and jump at me and bark at me and play - no matter what I do, this is the most exciting moment of their day and I just have to wear it. I really try not to wind them up. But I throw the tennis ball and kick the soccer ball and in a few minutes they wander off and have toilets and life settles down into the late afternoon/evening chores, in what passes for normal in a dog owning household. In summer it is nice to go for a short stroll with the dogs in the evening after dinner. In winter we tend to find things to do inside the house or the garage which are a bit of fun. I might like to do some heel work and sit and down stays, just to make them feel like they are working and important. Some time during this precious evening I need to get that outside kennelling system cleaned out, sometimes in winter, by torchlight, refresh the beds, put all the toys back in the box, check the water supply, check the tree trunk and wash out or clean up the doggy do.

Because you want your dog to maximise it's potential you attend a Dog Training Group. This will help your dog to use it's abundant brain and a bit of brawn as well. You do not need to want to compete at top levels to enjoy tracking, sledding, agility, obedience, or any of the wonderful sports available to you in most cities. Just go for the fun of it, enjoy the sociability of being a Dog Sporting Club member, don't think of your dog as a genius, just go along and do your best. It is important for you to enjoy your dog's sense of humour and over a period of two years you will be surprised how bright your dog is and how quickly he learns.

You have now dealt with your dogs' security, exercise, intellectual needs, veterinary needs, diet needs and have owned your dog for about three years. This is when it all falls into place, the dogs have settled into their routine, they love rides in the car, they love walks, they ignore visitors to the house and don't climb on them or try to eat them, they even enjoy going to the Kennels when you go away, and are happy to get home at the end of it, as you are. They understand a lot of words, and can do some work for you like carrying in the mail and/or the newspaper, fetching wood from the shed to fill the wood basket, retrieving things from the yard back to the house, tools etc. They enjoy going to Dog Training and are into Flygility and Agility which you attend a couple of times a month just for the fun of it.

They are your friends and companions and other people comment on how well and happy they look and how well behaved they are, and you know all the troubles were worth it, and by the time they are old and grey you will not remember the puppy misdemeanours or the hours of sleeplessness as new puppy howled in the laundry on his own. They will just be one of the most exquisite experiences of your life, and very possibly when this generation pass on you will do it all over again.

Raewyn Saville 28th August 2012

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