NEWSLETTER SPRING 2001

Now that the spring and summer are on the way (hopefully), we have lots of events and activities planned to keep you and your dogs trained and amused. The field at head office is over 4 acres and fully enclosed giving us lots of room to hold classes and events. As well as one big event a month from March onwards we will be holding regular outside classes.

Recall and walking on lead classes in the field were very popular last year and so we are scheduling the first ones for Sunday 25th March at 3pm (following weekend if wet - call if unsure) No need to book for these classes - just turn up on the day. £6 per dog for an hour.

March the 3rd is our first Open Day. This is an opportunity for you to come and have a go at Agilty, Flyball or both, chat with an instructor about your dog and any problems you may be having or just take your dog for a walk around the field to socialise with the other dogs and owners. This is an ideal socialising opportunity especially for young puppies or a chance to let your dog off the lead if you haven't found a suitable area already.

There will be experienced agility and flyball dogs on hand to show you how it is done plus the shop will be open and free tea and coffee will be served. This is a totally free day so please come along!

Our first Funday for the year will be May 13th. This is a day long event with lots of different competitions and activities for you and your dog to join in with. Lots of prizes to be won! The fundays are open to everyone who wants to have a great day out with their dogs and always prove extremely popular so make sure you put the date in your diary. Look out for more details closer to the time.

Click here for pictures from our last funday

You may or may not be aware of a little excitement at Scallywags head office over a certain person being sued. The reason?... she offered an opinion to a large local retailer on electric shock collars for dogs which was partially responsible for the chain of stores then removing the products from sale.

The manufacturers of the collars decided that this was bad news and that they would sue her for loss of business totalling a potential £4 million!!

Wow!! What a result!!

Joking aside, electric shock collars are being made more readily available to the general public in this country. This is of extreme concern to all of us who are involved in the welfare and training of dogs. As all of you involved with Scallywags know, we wholly advocate training through rewarding the good not through punishing the bad, so the prospect of people pressing a button in order to teach their dogs to sit, come and not to jump up (a few of the things the manufacturers recommend their collars be used for) is horrifying.

As we're sure you can imagine, such use of punishment can have some very damaging effects on a dogs behaviour. Making things worse, the product is manufactured as a 'Remote Trainer' - very innocent sounding - meaning that many people, pet store staff included, are not even aware of what the collars actually are.

What can you do?

There is an alliance which has been formed by some of the large animal welfare, training and behaviour organisations in this country. The purpose of this alliance is to get legislation to ban the collars completely and they are planning to launch their campaign at Crufts dog show.

There is an MP who is supporting this campaign - Liberal Democrat, David Rendel. Please write to him, offering your support - the more people who do, the quicker we can get these horrible devices off the shelves. You can also urge local pet shops not to sell them and magazines not to advertise them.

For more info have a look at 'prepare to be shocked'.

The flyball training on Sundays at Shedfield has up until now been a bit casual. To structure it a bit more we will be starting a new beginners group (limited to 6 dogs) on Sunday 18th March at 11am. It will be a four week course for £16 and will aim to get your dog proficient at operating the 'box' and at tackling the jumps. We do now have a small group of pretty hot flyball dogs who are keen to have a few more to join them.

Competing in flyball is great fun (if a bit noisy) and even if you don't fancy that, come along and try it for fun. The jumps are easily adjustable so size of dog doesn't matter - they do need to be fully grown though. Dogs don't need to be ball mad but if your dog is then this is the sport for you.

We have been asked to do at least one flyball display this year and we hope to incorporate it into our general displays as well so keep a look out!

Over the winter we have been having our one a month league matches against three other local clubs. But we don't want to talk about it. Suffice to say that they have all been away matches so we intend to storm the next two which are at home. Also for those of you who are involved in competing at matches we would like you to know that vast quantities of confidence - boosting alcohol will be provided before the next two matches!

If you fancy a go at Agility for fun or to compete then we are starting new groups of beginners regularly on Sunday mornings at Shedfield and on Thursday evenings at Kings Somborne.

The next start date for Shedfield is Sunday 18th March at 10am. Kings Somborne is to be decided - call the office at check. Don't forget you can always start agility on a one to one basis during the week - only £6 for a half an hour lesson. A great way to fast track your way to being brilliant - you can then join a group to show off!

Due to the current outbreak we have decided to cancel Agility at Kings Somborne until further notice as it is an equestrian centre and is subject to some movement restrictions.

As the field at Shedfield is not in an agricultural area there will be no change in lessons there at this time.

We will keep you informed of any changes.

Contributions

If anybody has anything that they would like to contribute to the newsletter we would be pleased to receive it. Personal doggie stories, interesting news items, competition ideas, poems are all welcome - so please let us have your ideas.

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

or ring us on 01329 833813