Winter update

We are finally looking for the weather to improve after many weeks of cold winter weather. Sunday mornings have been really frosty or just plain cold and wet over the past month or so. We have had rain resulting in a slushy, muddy surface to the centre of the reserve, especially after Rugby games on a few Saturdays. Thankfully the reserve has been big enough for our classes to find a reasonable surface somewhere around the edges of the ground.

Our classes have continued despite the weather with smaller than usual Foundation Class intakes over the last few months. As a result of the reduced intake numbers and the weather, the class sizes have been nice and small, usually with Foundations Classes of around 4-5 dogs or less per class. We have had regular promotions from classes 1, 2 and 3 resulting in these class sizes also being very reasonable. If you can gather your enthusiasm on the cold Sunday mornings and get to training you will enjoy very small class sizes.

This year we have not had a midyear Fun Day which is probably a good thing considering the weather. We will definitely have one at the end of the training year in early December. For new members who have not attended a Fun Day, it is a day without formal classes where members can try a variety of dog sports and activities. We usually have a BBQ and our sponsor, the 4Legs dog food company usually give us food packs for our members to take home for their pooches to enjoy.

Bree Mitchell, one of our trainee instructors has recently completed her trainee period and is now confidently taking her own classes. Congratulations Bree! Bree brings to our instructor group a long term interest and experience in positive reinforcement training and has been one of our Flyball Instructors for several years. She has been giving Max pointers on training his young Border Collie Birdie for Flyball! Bree's red gear has been ordered, she should appear in red in a few weeks. We are very appreciative of Bree's efforts and generosity, she travels from the south east side of the city and has a young demanding family as well as working full time. Having Bree as a new instructor takes some of the pressure off our very small group of long term instructors.

If any of our members has an interest in learning more about positive reinforcement dog training and becoming one of our very valued instructors please have a chat with Rob or any of our instructors.

Our AGM is planned for October this year instead of the usual November, we will give you more information about this in the next few weeks. Max, who has been our Treasurer for the past 14 years has decided that it is time to pass the task on to someone younger with fresh enthusiasm for the task. If anyone is interested and has the appropriate knowledge and experience please let us know.

Moonee Valley City Council is finally looking at reinstating the steps down from the carpark at the southern end of the ground. We look forward to this work being completed.

A reminder to keep up your training every day with short positive training sessions with your dog. The members and dogs who are promoted are those who find a few minutes each day to have fun with their dogs and to go through some training exercises. Dogs are very eager to learn especially when their efforts are rewarded.

Pictured is a very small training class with Anne on a very cold morning in July.