NEWSLETTER CHRISTMAS 2000

Before taking our usual break for Christmas and New Year we will be holding Christmas parties at all of the training venues!

Party dates are as follows:

Portsmouth - Thurs 14th Dec

Agility    - Sunday 17th Dec

Wickham &
Merryoak   - Tues 19th Dec

Fareham &
Havant     - Weds 20th Dec

Your class times may vary on these evenings as we sometimes put classes together for more atmosphere! You will be told what time to come along but if you miss class for any reason a week or two before, please check to make sure you know when to come. Christmas parties generally consist of lots of fun (but educational) games for you and your dogs such as musical sits, recall races & musical statues, so come along prepared for a laugh! And if that isn't enough there will also be mince pies for you and a pressie for your dogs - so make sure you don't miss it.

We will be officially closed between Thursday 21st Dec and Wednesday 3rd of Jan. The shop will be open for food collection etc between these dates (except the bank-holidays) but please call to check we're around and don't just turn up as this is our holiday too!

We will also be contactable by phone on 01329 833813 if you do need any help or advice. Please be considerate about what time you call us. If you call and get the ansaphone please leave a message - we are probably in but just taking a break from answering.

In order to clear space for new stock next year we have decided to have a weekend sale!! The shop will be open for bargains galore between 10am & 4pm on Saturday and Sunday the 9th & 10th of December. All stock will be reduced - some a little, some a lot.

Come and get your dog & cat food and don't forget your dogs Chrissie pressie - toys, treats and stockings will all be here. The field will be open free of charge for you to walk your dogs and there will be free coffee and mince pies for all (human!) visitors.

The winter league agility matches are now underway. Four local agility clubs including ourselves participate in the matches which were originally started to keep the agility dogs and their owners in training over the winter when there are fewer shows.

We have one match a month excluding December - half home (Shedfield) and half away at the other club's training venues. So far we have played one match - home against Southdowns. We started off well and won both the agility classes but unfortunately things went downhill from there and we were beaten in both the jumping classes. The final result was that we lost by a few points. Our next match is away to Upandover on the evening of Thursday 30th Nov. Please come and support us if you are interested - we are bound to perform better with an audience!!

The other purpose of the matches is to encourage the new up and coming dogs and handlers to get in to competitions and to help ease them in gently. We have lots of partnerships with big potential so listen you lot - KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK AND WE'LL WIN THE NEXT ONE! (no pressure!)

Flyball is now beginning to take off on a Sunday morning at 11am. We have some pretty good dogs now and we are learning more about what we should be working on so if anybody would like to give it a go please call the office or come out and watch. It's great fun and the dogs love it, a few, more and we could have a couple of really good teams - come and have a go! A few of the dogs and handlers are intending to enter their first pairs competition in a couple of weeks time so watch this space for how it goes.

Apologies that this newsletter is a little shorter than usual, it had to be done quickly to get out all the Christmas information. For those of you who are interested the competition results from Septembers newsletter will be available in the next proper newsletter at the beginning of next year.

If anybody has anything that they would like to contribute to the newsletter we would be pleased to receive it. As you can see from the brevity of this one, we weren't exactly inundated this time! Personal doggie stories, interesting news items, competition ideas, poems are all welcome - so please let us have your ideas.

All the instructors at Scallywags would like to take this opportunity to wish you all A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR and we look forward to working with you all again next year.

P.S. Don't forget human chocolate is poisonous for dogs so please don't be tempted to treat them to it for Christmas however turkey makes a wonderful treat and can do amazing things for a dogs recall response!!

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

or ring us on 01329 833813