News, News, News! August 2011

Training at Ballarat like at most of our branches at the moment has been in wet and muddy conditions for all. The dogs do not mind the water and mud - only the handlers object to the muddy paws and wet tails. Our ground, because they play soccer on it,  at times has certain areas which are out of bounds for training as it is too slippery and muddy.

This month our tracking day was held at Victoria Park on July 3rd and "someone" asked us to be there at 7.00am. Who was it that did this I ask? You could not see a hand in front your eyes until at least 7.30am as it was still dark and then we had rain to contend with as well. Before our next tracking day I will be watching as to the time daylight occurs and when a suggested time is offered I will have my two bobs worth if it is not proper daylight time. 

We had almost a full crew turn up even though it was raining, windy and quite cool and we say a big thank you for that.
 All dogs tracked very well and we had some star performances on the day which made it all worthwhile. Doug was kind enough to go back to the clubhouse early and get the heaters fired up and the kettle boiling so we could go back and warm up and have some lunch together while we watched a DVD.

 
In our training, we continue to work on focus from our dogs getting them to pay attention to the handlers rather than the dog alongside them - this is paying off and making training a lot easier for all.
We continue to work on class exercises and finish off with socialisation for all dogs and handlers and anyone else who is visiting, in the clubhouse or on the oval at the time. So popular is this part of our training that member Jocelyn travels home each weekend from Melbourne just to join in. Hear tell that the neighbours in her neck of the St Kilda woods think she is the best socialised neighbour they have and is gunsure.

By now we should have Danny and Sandra home from the US so we hope that because they have heard the weather is cold up here, that they are not hiding in Warrion waiting for that rare occasion in Ballarat that the sun comes out - if you are home you two, come up and catch up you big chickens. 
We have another member Lynne who hides in Charlton telling us she is working at the local centrally heated hospital on most weekends, the sad side to this tale is that we believe her.

Members Bev and Yvonne and their dogs Zac and Nemo have just been passed up to class two and will be presented with their pass up cards next week - well done! Alan and Noreen are housebound at the moment - their excuse is that Alan is on call for work for some weekends and then on the phone for SES other ones, but we think we have worked these two out - we think they are on their second honeymoon and have just not told anyone and are using the long nights and short days to their advantage. What about some photos for the News please Noreen.

We have a tracking trial coming up in August so hopefully Alan will have that weekend off so he can come and help set out tracks and then reset tracks etc at the trial.
We will set another tracking day for branch  members next week at training so keep watch on our column to see if the ploy of getting us to tracking early before daybreak works - I don't think so.
Until next time good training and enjoy your dogs.

Team Ballarat.