VOLUME 14 / ISSUE 2 / APRIL 2021 rally update | obedience trial report flyball nationals | disc dogs | agility introducing scentwork | cc passes IN THIS ISSUE EDITOR’S NOTE About BDOC ...............................................................3 Written by Maelyn Draper Bits and Pieces ...........................................................4 Rally Update ...............................................................5 Welcome to another issue of the BDOC Newsletter. As Obedience Trial Report ................................................7 we bid goodbye to the warm weather, I hope you are all Flyball Nationals 2021 ..................................................9 keeping warm and staying safe as flu season approaches. Disc Dogs @ BDOC ...................................................10 Agility Update ........................................................... 13 I’d like to thank our hardworking sport representatives for Introducing Scentwork ..............................................15 ensuring this issue is a big one! Newsletter submissions S1 Canine Companion Passes .................................... 17 aren’t restricted to the Committee, any member can BDOC Shop ..............................................................18 submit something for publication by emailing it to news@ BDOC Training Dates 2021 .........................................19 bdoc.asn.au. We’d love to publish your dog-related articles, photos and brags! Cover photo: Splash the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling BDOC has had a busy start to 2021, and we’ve already Retriever, photo by Maelyn Draper. hosted two trick trials, a flyball competition, an obedience trial, an agility trial, and five disc competitions. Many of our sports have run their first intake of new teams for the year, and if you are interested in starting a sport, make sure you visit the office and put your name down onto the waiting list to ensure you don’t miss out. Our Session 2 canine companion classes are now in full swing, and again I’d like to welcome our new members and their dogs to the club. I’m quite excited to be returning to Beginners with my new puppy Splash. It’s been 9 years since I’ve done Beginners and the syllabus has changed a fair bit in that time. Speaking of syllabus changes, the CC syllabus team is working hard on the next lot of changes. Those of you in Silver and Gold may have already noticed some items that we’ve removed. Expect some information about the SCRATCH OUR BACK! upcoming changes soon! BDOC is run exclusively by volunteers. We’re always on the lookout for more helpers! A big thank you to our instructors who taught classes in Session 1 of 2021: Interested in volunteering? We’re looking for a range of different skills, including administration, cleaning, grounds Amelia Allen, Angela Hagedorn, Anne Lewis, maintenance, weeding, help with events, shed Anne Lewis, Barbara Brown, Bruce Mills, Carleen tidying, catering for events, fundraising, class Voegeli, Caroline Pappas, Catherine Griffin, Cheryl assistants, instructors and lots more. Neal, Christine Bates, David Statham, David Walsh, Debbie Veenendaal, Dorothy Xu, Fiona Volunteer as little or as much as you like and are Fraser, Heather Swinbourn, Jacqui Killian, Jane able to. Every bit helps, and you get the chance to Halsey, Jane Tong, Janet Almond, Jenny Drake, make more dog-loving friends! Jodie Spies, Justin Allen, Leonie Stubbs, Lise Sandenbergh, Lyndal Hasselman, Michelle Turner, See the BDOC Office or emailvolunteer@bdoc. Miriam Strmecki, Niccola Hardaker, Nicole Hoare, asn.au if you’d like to join our volunteer team. Robin Renwick, Ross Miller, Simone Mak, Stephen Baily, and Steve Meyer. VOLUME 14 / ISSUE 2 / APRIL 2021 BELCONNEN DOG OBEDIENCE CLUB / 2 ABOUT BDOC CONTACT US The Belconnen Dog Phone (02) 5105 0992 Obedience Club (BDOC) was formed in 1975 to Email [email protected] provide dog training instruction and facilities for Website www.bdoc.asn.au people living in northern Canberra. Newsletter [email protected] The Club’s main activity Address Corner of Flemington Road and is our canine companion Morisset Road, Mitchell ACT classes, which teach basic obedience and valuable life skills to pet dogs and their families. Our canine Office and Shop Hours (during CC session only) companion classes are open to fully vaccinated dogs of Thursdays 7:00pm to 8:30pm all breeds. Sundays 9:00am to 10:30am We also offer training in dog sports including agility, dances with dogs, disc dogs, flyball, trialling obedience, rally, and tricks, and have many teams ranging from COMMITTEE beginners to the top trial and competition levels. President + Flyball Rep DWD + Tricks Rep The aims of our Club include: Sally Provins Heather Swinbourn • Having fun with our dogs [email protected] [email protected] • Promoting responsible dog ownership • Helping our members to become proficient dog Treasurer Disc Dogs Rep trainers in general obedience, and also in the dog Monique Meacham Catherine Griffin sports of their choice [email protected] • Helping our members to develop enjoyable Secretary relationships with their dogs Katherine Waterhouse Trialling Obedience + • Promoting the pursuit of recognised dog sports Rally Rep Agility Rep Cheryl Neal Our Club is staffed and run by a terrific group of Dorothy Xu [email protected] volunteers, from the Club’s Committee, office and shop [email protected] workers, to our incredibly dedicated team of instructors. General Members Canine Companion Rep Leesa Jess If you have enjoyed your time at BDOC, please consider David Walsh volunteering! We are always on the look out for helpers caninecompanion@ for our various trials and events, and we run training for bdoc.asn.au new canine companion instructors twice a year in January and June. If you’re interested, please email the Club at [email protected]. Got something that you’d like us to publish? Email it through to us at [email protected]! The BDOC newsletter is published around the beginning of each session. VOLUME 14 / ISSUE 2 / APRIL 2021 BELCONNEN DOG OBEDIENCE CLUB / 3 BITS AND PIECES SESSION RAFFLE Congratulations to Jacqueline Killian, Monique Meacham and Sharon Lee for being our lucky Session 1 raffle winners! As part of the BDOC’s fundraising activities for 2021, we will be holding a raffle each session that’s open to all members. There are 3 prizes up for grabs and tickets are $2 each or 3 for $5. Tickets will be available for purchase during office hours or online via JotForm (https://form.jotform. com/211046227066852). Each session’s raffle will be drawn at the Committee meeting following the end of the session and winners will be contacted by email. MARCH WORKING BEE A big thank you for those who showed up on a cool windy, slightly wet morning to help tidy up the grounds, we managed to fill a 23m3 skip with green waste and was a massive effort by all. If you are a green thumb and are looking to be more involved with the club, please email us at [email protected]. Photo: Steve Provins, Charlie Giles and Kat Waterhouse REMINDER! The BDOC Committee would like to remind our members and visitors that BDOC is a smoke-free environment, and members and visitors are not allowed to smoke in the paddocks, the car park, the clubhouse, and the driveway. The club rules and policies can be found on our website (http://bdoc.asn.au/club-rules.html). VOLUME 14 / ISSUE 2 / APRIL 2021 BELCONNEN DOG OBEDIENCE CLUB / 4 RALLY UPDATE Written by Anne Lewis Following BDOC’s double trial on 14 November 20, I spent a considerable amount of time reorganising and adding to our Rally Sign library. I called this my art and craft project involving lots of laminating, renumbering and sticking on of Velcro. New Rally rules became effective from 1 January this year. Rally group continued training throughout the Christmas break to familiarise ourselves with the changes. There are now 76 stations, some of which we are sure are a memory test but are much fun to learn and practice. As coordinator of the trialling group, and due to the introduction of new rules and many new signs, I have experienced difficulty gaining access to updated software to produce weekly courses and sets for the group to practice. At the moment I am relying on an Excel Spreadsheet created by my daughter. She spent hours creating a usable program for me. Thank you, Jacinta! At the end of the year, we held an early morning combined Rally and Obedience Christmas Party which consisted of fun games and eating amazing food provided by all attendees. Thank you also to Jacqui Vandenbroek for donating the most enticing toy (a fluffy pink elephant) for Figure 8 distraction practice. Apparently, some of our teams fell victim to this seemingly harmless fellow at a trial last year. From Advanced level up there is a Figure 8 Station with either food and/or toy distractions. This can be quite a difficult station to master! A foundation group for Obedience and Rally commenced on 11 April 2021 following an introductory presentation held on March 14th run by myself and Jenny O’Connor. Jenny and her lovely Golden Retriever Chillee provided the demonstrations even outside in the pouring rain. Thank you Chillee and Jenny. We are looking forward to introducing fun and precision trialling skills to our new enthusiastic members. TITLE! TITLE! Zimri (Dual CH (R) Llandwyn Crescent Moon (AI) CD RAE JD GD SPD HTMI FSI TKS JC) Handled by Niccola Hardaker On 6 March at the CDC Rally trial, Zim earned the last two passes needed for his Rally Championship. This means he has earned ten passes in addition to his Rally Master title with a score of 90/100 or higher. For those not familiar with dog titles, this also means he has earned his Rally Novice (RN), Rally Advanced (RA), Rally Excellent (RE) and Rally Master (RM) titles previously. Having also earned his Confirmation (Show) Championship (proof of meeting his official breed standard physically and in temperament) has earned Zim the title of ‘Dual Champion’.