News, News, News! Jan 2011

Welcome all to 2011 and hope all enjoyed Christmas and the New Year. Our members enjoyed Christmas lunch at the clubrooms in December but we have continued training through Dec/Jan on Tuesday night and Sunday to keep members and their dogs interest so that we can hit Feb 2011 up and running.

Meeting: Ballarat AGM will be held at the conclusion of training
Date: 20 February 2011
Time: 11.30am
All Members are asked to attend & to please bring a salad or sweet for the BBQ lunch which will be held after the AGM. 
 

Training Notice for Sunday 20/2/2011. 

This coming Sunday puppy class will commence at 9.15am and will run until at least 10.00am. After that we will start classes for the older dogs -we have had to stagger the classes to give the puppies a fair go as well as the older dogs.

After training finishes we will commence our Annual General Meeting which will be followed by a BBQ lunch for all. If anyone would like to bring a salad or a sweet that would be really appreciated however let Noreen know if you are bringing something for catering purposes please.

It looks like the weather will be cool however it is important that anyone who does not come from Ballarat to bring water from home for their dog - Ballarat water when they are not used to it can cause stomach upsets which I can assure you is not too good when the dog has to travel home in the car with you.

 Don't forget your treats - cooked sausage, liver, chicken or cabana (cut small) & preferable to dry food--as it takes too long to chew and distracts the dog from what it was doing. Favourite toys are to be brought along for play sessions also and it is best if all that is packed into a carry bag with a zipper that can be taken into class so everything you need is with you and not at home or in the car.

Look forward to catching up with everyone.

Marilyn Wrigley.

Training Administrator. GSDCV. 

The first week back we are catering for a two day show for the Ballarat Dog Club with the German Shepherds being featured on the Sunday of the Show with Mr Rod Vernon judging for the day. As we cater for a number of shows that the BDC hold we miss a few training days and that is one of the reasons we have continued training through the break for our members.

Photo: Our youngest Tracker - “Rayna”.

Our tracking workshop was held on 16th January 2011 and commenced at 7.00am in Victoria Park for the practical side of tracking dogs which we were able to complete by lunch time. Unfortunately when we got back to the clubhouse we discovered that our clubhouse had been inundated by water in the heavy rain the week before and so we had to remove the sodden smelly wet carpet in half of our clubhouse and then set to and mop up the water prior to having lunch. We had experts assisting in this exercise as two of our members are from Creswick and have gone through cleaning up after the September floods and being flooded again last week - we were very glad of their know-how. We fired up the BBQ and soon lunch which included salads and sweets that members had bought along for all to enjoy. Thanks all.

 Photo: Just Beginning Tracking - “Sparta”

Our afternoon had a practical session on map drawing and a discussion on tracking training followed by questions from members. All in all a most successful day and we look forward to our obedience workshop on Jan 23rd at the clubrooms. This will commence at 9.00am and finish in the afternoon and will be concentrated on socialisation, getting focus from your dog, keeping your training interesting and fun plus consistency in training, as well as a video or two on some common training problems.

Photo: Karen & Xiva putting into practice the “focus” work. 

We are then looking forward to the catering days on 4/5 Feb and especially the German Shepherds being shown on the Sunday. It will be a busy time for our members but as this is where we make money to run the branch we look foward to their support to make this a big success. Not sure what the weather will be, one can only hope that the weather is kind and is on the cool side on Sunday for the GSD's.

Welcome to Jo & Garry with their puppy who joined us late last year along with Tony & Lauren with "Harley" and to Danny, Sandra & "Rayna" who joined us last Sunday. As you will see with this report we have a photo of Rayna along with our soccer playing "Harley" and possibly one or two other photos as well. Should you wish to see more photos of our dogs then please visit our Ballarat website. 

Photo: Harley our soccer playing GSD
 

Pleased to hear from David Zammit who unfortunately due to work committments has been unable to attend training with "Ria". He hopes to get to training when possible in 2011 and members would love to catch up whenever that is--they miss his positive influence. Hopefully by the time members read this Bev Hardenberg will have made a good recovery from her broken leg which turned out to be much worse than Bev thought it to be--surgery to have break repaired then having to have a trip back to hospital followed by "resting" (something Bev is not familiar with) to assist in the healing process so we hope that all has gone to plan and is successful and look forward to "Zac" and her training again.
 

Photo: Just waiting for Mum's leg to get better so I can see my friends at Ballarat again!

Ballarat Branch members are looking forward to 2011 and what it holds for themselves and their dogs, being responsible dog owners and learning more about the German Shepherd Dog and wish other GSDCV branches a successful year ahead. 

Considering x-raying your GSD's Hips & Elbows?Why not do it through the GSD Council Breed Improvement Schemes!
The HD/ED schemes allows the GSD National Council to gather the genetic information to assist in lowering the incidence of the Hip & Elbow Dysplasia  problems in the German Shepherd Dog. It also gives breeders valuable information in selecting good hip producing stock.

To participate in any of the GSD Council Breed Improvement Schemes that are conducted for or on behalf of the GSDCA you must be a member of an affiliated member Club of the GSDCA.

IF YOU ARE CONTEMPLATING HAVING YOUR GERMAN SHEPHERD DOGS' HIPS & ELBOWS X-RAYED, PLEASE CONTACT THE GSDCV INC ASSISTANT HD/ELBOW REGISTRAR  Gillian Cafari Ph: 5420 7385 
 ****** NB Please check your dogs' tattoo which is located in the dog's right ear before sending for the HD & ED CONTRACT ******