News, News, News! June 2011

Over the past two months a lot has happened at Ballarat as I hope to relay some of that to you in this report.

At the National in Sydney on the Easter weekend one of our members - Kazkiri Kennels - Noreen/Alan Symes, had two dogs co-owned by Angela Borchard and Alison Robinson, competing in conformation who gained first place in their respective classes.
Branch members congratulate Kazkiri Kennels and the owners on this great success as well at the dogs Kazkiri Xavi and Kazkiri Kreuzer on a unique performance at the highest level in conformation at the annual competition for GSD's at the GSDCA National Show and Trial held this year in Sydney over the Easter weekend - well done all.

Our tracking day at Victoria Park in May was well attended with all members and their dogs showing progress and keen to do well.
We are to hold another tracking day in the very near future so will be interested to see how all dogs are going along then.

Two of our members attended the Sue Hogben lecture at Albury in May which was most interesting to all. Thanks to Gordon and Albury Dog Club for organising such an interesting event and it was good to see a number of Vic people from Werribee as well as other dog clubs made the trip to Albury to take part in the workshop.

Our tracking trial held last weekend at Haddon was quite successful pass wise and congratulations to those who did gain passes over the two days. Thanks to Ballarat member Alan who helped out over three days, also members from Ballarat, Bendigo and Warrnambool Dog Clubs for all their help on the Friday and during the trial and it was good to see Julia Tahourdan and one of her group come up on the Sunday to watch a couple of tracks and see what will be expected of her when she starts trialling.

Our training at Ballarat varied over the weeks since our last report - we are lucky to have a number of puppies at the branch.
Just a reminder puppy class starts at 9.30am no matter what the weather - just rug up with waterproof jackets and footwear -the dogs do not care what the weather is really - they are quite happy to be with their owners doing fun things.
Older dog classes start at 10.15am and run until 11.00am where all join in a class for socialisation. If it is wet and your dog coat gets wet bring along a towel to dry the dog off prior to them going home in the car.

We have been doing some formation work for older dogs and handlers and held a tunnel day for all May 1st after training.

As well as this we continue to have learning of various exercises in the different classes keeping members interest.

Wish to welcome Mandy and Sally with their dogs and also Karen and her husband who have shifted from Qld to live in Ballarat (I think the weather has been a shock to them both) but we hope the warmth of their welcome at Ballarat Branch overshadows the negatives re the weather.

Jetsetters Danny and Sandra are in the US at the moment and we are looking forward to their return and catching up and also to see how big their puppy has grown as she will now be over 6 months.

Thank you to Karen C for taking classes one Sunday in May and last weekend during the tracking trial. Looking forward to using our video camera through our TV to watch handlers work their dogs - this will be a great held to handlers/instructors in improving performances overall.

Thankyou to the helpers at our May working bee - good news is we got a lot done that day - the bad news is that we still have more to be done,so when we have decided on a date will ask all members to come along prepared to help again.

Pass Out cards have been handed out twice over the last two months to a number of our handlers - well done all.

We will have a couple of puppies due to pass up to Class 1 in the next couple of weeks so they will get their cards soon.

As a reminder to all our members that even though the weather is not always kind to us in Ballarat on training days the branch instructor creates the positive atmosphere for dogs and handlers to train in and so no matter what the weather we try to make it interesting for you and your dog.

We have been pleased on holiday weekends attendance has been quite good with a number of handlers starting to show good results for their patience and perserverence.

We are looking to start up trial training for those at that level over the next months so that will be good for higher classes.

Until our next report Ballarat wishes all great training.

Team Ballarat.