NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 2000

A GEM FROM THE PAST

PLEASE DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME

Whenever the dog barks in the course of the day you should give him a really good shaking on the choke chain and make him lie down in a voice that is unrelenting and authoritative. If he is then good and quiet you must be sure to praise him generously.

At night, by showing both firmness and love, you must get the dog to lie quietly in his basket when you leave the room, should he either get up or bark, you must rush back just once and scold him really fiercely. You must sound very angry and once you have left the room for the second time you must not come back however much the dog may bark or whine.

POSSIBLE DISRUPTION AT FAREHAM

CHOCOHOLICS BEWARE!

Just a word of warning to any of you who have dogs that love chocolate...

You may have heard that chocolate is not good for dogs, but have not taken this too seriously. Let me tell you a tale of Jack, our Rhodesian Ridgeback, and chocolate poisoning.

Jack loves just about anything that he sees us eating, and has a very bad habit of 'counter surfing' - just cruising the kitchen looking for anything he might be able to reach. One evening I was baking chocolate cookies and had set my ingredients on the counter. My son asked for some help, so I left the kitchen for a couple of minutes. When I returned I found the entire 3lbs of chocolate drops were missing and then I saw Jack in the back garden. Having chewed through the plastic container, he was just finishing the chocolate when I reached him.

I gave him lots of water and expected him to be sick but didn't figure there was anything else to be done at this point. (We now know that we should have immediately taken him to the vet to have his stomach pumped.) He was fine for a couple of hours (albeit a bit hyper) and then he became distressed and eventually began vomiting.

We had a sleepless night - with Jack vomiting intermittently - and by dawn he was out of control, racing around the house. Then by 8am he was asleep and we thought that was the worst of it. My husband telephoned our vet just to check with them. When he explained what had happened the vet told us to bring the dog in immediately especially if he was at all listless. At this point it was all I could do to wake him to get him to the surgery.

Our vet warned us that Jack was in fact now desperately ill and might not make it. He told us that chocolate was a serious poison for which there is no antidote. He was kept in and put on an I.V. drip. The vet telephoned the Royal Veterinary College in London and had some medication sent down by courier. He put Jack on Beta Blockers to try to slow down his heart rate and we waited. Jack was then a 40kg puppy and as strong as an ox. It was terrible to watch him lying there in such distress and seemed incredible that this was the result of a chocolate binge.

Fortunately by the following morning Jack began to improve. We don't really know if any permanent damage has been done but we appear to be lucky - Jack is relatively fit and healthy.

We know that given the opportunity, he'd do the same thing again - he still loves chocolate, we are now a lot more careful to make sure that all forms of chocolate remain entirely off limits.

AGILITY NEWS

Also at Longleat
Kerry & Chance 8th in Novice Agility
Sandy & Timber 12th in Novice jumping
Jo & Cara 12th in Elementary Agility at their first open competiton

AGILITY POINTS are the same as the last Newsletter with Timber in the lead and Tricki second because nobody has handed in their points!! Points can be gained for anything from a clear round at a fun day to a win in open competition. With the winter league about to start there will be a lot of points for the taking. Sandy very kindly volunteered to collect and collate agility results so please show some enthusiasm.

WINTER TRAINING Hoplands Farm, Kings Somborne is our superb new venue for training in the winter. Thursday evenings with Don, Sally & Russ. Sundays will continue as normal, weather permitting. Please book early if you would like to train on Thursday evenings so that we can organise the groups. The cost will be £5 per session and as for Sundays you will be required to make a commitment for four weeks - £20 payable in advance. However, unlike Sundays this will be strictly enforced because we cannot afford to rent such a superb venue and spend £2000 on equipment unless we fill the classes every week. I am sure you all understand this. Sunday training during the winter will of course be occasionally disrupted by bad weather but unless it is officially cancelled or you have indicated in advance that you are unable to attend then the session must be paid for. Your instructors love spending all day Sunday teaching Agility but would rather have a full class than just one or two especially if it's freezing cold!

SOUTHERN AGILITY LEAGUE

League matches will be staring in October. One a month throughout the winter. For the team we need 4 dogs & handlers for each class. Starters Agility, Novice Agility, Novice Jumping & Open Agility.

This is a wonderful opportunity to acquire some experience of competing before plunging headlong into open Competition.

No pressure whatsoever - only joking - we're in this to win! With Timber & Tricki having recently won out of Starters we will be needing you one o'clock folks to get your act together and train hard for the team!

Details of all match fixtures will be available soon. Team dogs will be expected to train at least twice a week.

FLYBALL

The Introduction to Flyball day in July was a roaring success so by popular demand Flyball training will commence on Sunday afternoons in October. The flyball box is now here and the hurdles are being painted. We need to know how many people want to take part with their dogs so that we can work out a plan of action. As flyball is very much a team sport as opposed to an individual pastime everyone who takes part in the training will be expected to take a turn at box loading, holding other people's dogs and generally being part of a team. We will probably have to limit the numbers and priority will be given initially to those who attended the training day. Some of these handlers may then be called upon to help with the training of any new participants as and when places become available. Please e-mail to register your interest.

VOLUNTEER STOOGES STILL NEEDED

We are very grateful to the few people who regularly help us out by stooging at our rehabilitation classes. These classes are usually held on a Friday and we always need people who are happy to walk around in the field with their dog or one of ours whilst we work with dogs and their owners to overcome aggression problems. If you are free during the day on a Friday and are interested in dog behaviour and it's modification and would like to help us please e-mail us to volunteer your services.

JUMPING UP CLASS!!!

It would seem that there are a few dogs out there, mostly Labradors that are a little exuberant when it comes to greeting members of the human race. If you have one of these dogs and you would like to participate in a group training session with your dog then register your interest and we will arrange it. Please e-mail us if you think your dog would benefit from this class.

ADVANCED COMPANION CLASS

This is a new name for an old class. Throughout last year a small group of people and their dogs got together occasionally, with Sally and did a bit of dog training, some heelwork to music, learnt some new tricks, did the odd bit of agility, some of it in formation and a lot of chinwagging and drinking coffee.

Occasionally they attended shows, fetes etc. and did some of it for an audience as the Scallywags Display team.

Now that the summer is drawing to a close and the displays are all over apart from one for environment week in October, they were wondering if anyone would like to join them, probably in the field on a Sunday morning for some more of the same.

Dogs must be sociable, reasonably under control off lead and willing to learn and add to their repertoire.

or feel free to post any questions/comments on our message board

or ring us on 01329 833813