Newsletter of the Dog Obedience Club of Las Cruces, Inc.
Nancy Chanover, Editor
4210 Sotol Drive, Las Cruces, NM 88011
(505) 522-0812
chanover@zianet.com
DOCLC Club Phone Number: 527-3983
August 2004
Next Meeting
The next meeting of the Dog Obedience Club of Las Cruces will be a restaurant meeting! We will meet on Thursday, August 5, 2004, at 6:30 pm at the Bountiful Bakery on East Lohman (at the east end of the Petco/Marshall's/Ross shopping center). The restaurant serves sandwiches, salads, soups, some light dinner fare, and exotic pastries and coffees, and we will have a private meeting room. For those of you planning to skip the food, you should probably join us around 7 pm since we need to leave the restaurant by 9 pm at the latest. Hope to see you there!
Thank you Currys!!
Thanks once again to Charlene and Jack Curry for allowing the club to enjoy our summer potluck dinner at their lovely home. The food was great, the swimming dogs provided us with MUCH entertainment, and the meeting was a very fruitful one. Thanks Charlene and Jack for your gracious hospitality!
Fall Class Registration is This Month
Registration for our fall session of agility and obedience classes will take place on Wednesday August 18 in the Pearl Higgins Room of the Branigan Library. This is the same room (upstairs) where we held registration for the Spring 2004 class session. Returning student and agility class registration will take place at 6:15 pm, while new obedience students will register at 7 pm. Please plan to arrive shortly before 6 pm to help with set-up and stay as long as you can to work the payment, vaccine check, and collar/lead sales tables. Thanks in advance for your cooperation!
MINUTES OF THE DOG OBEDIENCE CLUB OF LAS CRUCES
July 11, 2004
MEMBERS PRESENT: President Cheryl Smith, Treasurer Janet Miller, Secretary Marjorie A. Henson; OTHER MEMBERS: Nancy Chanover, Charlene Curry, Julie Goodrich, Shannon Murray, Gayle Treakle, Vic Villalobos; Visitors: Jack Curry, Lisa and Paul Westbrook
The meeting was called to order by President Cheryl Smith. It was moved by Nancy Chanover and seconded by Vic Villalobos that the minutes of the last meeting be approved as presented in the newsletter. The motion passed.
Mail was presented.
There was no Treasurer's Report.
SEMINAR: The seminar went very well and made money. The Hilton was pleased and is willing to work with us again when we're ready to have another seminar. Janet Miller received lots of e-mails about the seminar, thanking all of us. Everyone requested another one and said it was very well done. Janet Miller received a round of applause for the wonderful job.
OBEDIENCE CLASSES: The Spring classes are over.
AGILITY CLASSES: There are 2 more agility classes. The next registration is August 18 in the Pearl Higgins room. Instructors are needed for the classes. If there are no instructors, there will be no classes. Vic Villalobos and Julie Goodrich said they could teach classes on Monday evening. Vic will have a class starting at 7:00 and Julie's class will start at 8:00. Shannon Murray said she would do puppy class at 7:00 on Monday. Classes start September 13. Cheryl Smith has fliers for distribution to the vets.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS:
INSURANCE QUESTIONS: Our insurance company answered the questions that were brought up several months ago about who is covered when teaching. Our insurance only covers our classes, trials and meetings. It doesn't cover facilities not listed or someone training a shelter dog or dog not owned by them. For a bite by a dog handled by someone other than the owner, the owner would be liable. Shelter dogs may be covered by the shelter's insurance.
AGILITY LIGHTS: No new information has been gotten.
AGILITY TRIAL: There still is no one willing to be Agility Trial Chairman and Secretary. Nancy Chanover says that we might be able to do 1 ring only on Saturday & Sunday. We need decide this as a group. Two rings are just too much for the club. A good Chief ring steward is needed. Sandra Hendrix says she would be chief ring steward. Agility Trials are our only real money raisers. A Trial Chairman oversees the trial, the transportation and care of the judges, equipment and grounds. The grounds may not have power since the city is working on those fields this fall. Search & Rescue may have a generator that we could use. We need new club members. A discussion was held about the lack of new members and fun things for the club to do with their dogs (fun agility matches, show & goes, other things in public). Perhaps we need to pay instructors to train dogs? Back on subject about are we having an agility trial or not? There is a discussion about the lack of interest & how to get more interest. The fun has gone out of it because of the competition. Vic Villalobos moved & Janet Miller seconded that we not hold an agility trial this year. The motion passed. The judges will be notified.
Vic Villalobos will work with public relations for the club. Julie Goodrich and Lisa Westbrook will help.
NEW BUSINESS:
NOMINATING COMMITTEE: The Nominating committee needs to meet by August 1. Julie Goodrich and Gene Forsythe will be on the committee from the board with Charlene Curry, Nancy Chanover and Vic Villalobos as the other committee members from the general membership.
EQUIPMENT TRAILER: A different place is needed to store the equipment trailer as Chuck says there is no room for it at Pam's and his place. One of Vic Villalobos' customers (Car Connection) has a secure place behind wire that we could store it. Vic Villalobos moved and Marjorie A. Henson seconded that the agility trailer be moved to Car Connection to be stored in exchange for obedience or agility classes if the owner or Car Connection would like them. Motion passed.
Next meeting will be somewhere other than St. James on August 5. Charlene will find a place to hold the meeting. This will probably be a restaurant meeting.
The Committee for the Constitution & Bylaws hasn't been able to agree on the criteria for lifetime memberships. Since we only have one current lifetime member, Janet Miller would like to nominate Marjorie A. Henson and Pam Smith as lifetime members for all there years of service to the club. Vic Villalobos seconded the nomination and the motion passed. The committee will have to meet to establish a criteria for lifetime memberships.
OBEDIENCE TRIAL: The premium lists will go out on July 24. Vic Villalobos was asked to get the Mounted Patrol to do the security.
There were no brags.
The meeting was adjourned.
From Our Members
Submitted by Marjorie Henson:
I would like to thank the club for making me a life member. I will continue to serve the club in anyway that I can.
Marjorie A. Henson
Submitted by Cheryl Smith:
Thief Is So Fetching, Victim Is Forgiving
Police Camera Solved Mystery of Missing McLean Lawn Ornaments
By Maria Glod
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 15, 2004; Page B01
The thief -- caught in the act on police video that was broadcast on national television -- didn't show even a hint of remorse when he showed up on Ruth Breiner's McLean doorstep Friday evening.
The man with him began apologizing profusely, Breiner said, and handed over the ceramic fawns, chipmunk, squirrels and foxes that had decorated her front yard before they were stolen in the dead of night. Then a woman walked up, and she, too, said she was sorry.
But Magnum, the bandit, who happens to be a 110-pound black Labrador retriever, just sat on Breiner's stoop while his victim patted his head.
"He was just sitting there, that silly dog," Breiner, 75, said. "I couldn't get mad at him. They are big, old, slobbering dogs that are friendly as all that."
The mystery began in April, when Breiner noticed that a ceramic raccoon had disappeared from her lawn. Over the next few weeks, a fawn went missing, then a second fawn, and then a squirrel.
At first Breiner thought the thefts were the work of teenage pranksters and simply replaced the animals. But about a month ago, as the new animals disappeared, she began getting a little nervous -- and plenty fed up -- and went to the police.
Fairfax officers slipped a surveillance camera in Breiner's bedroom window and, to their shock, captured images of a Labrador making off with a squirrel, a chipmunk and a fox, Breiner said. Last week, police released the video to the media in hopes of identifying the suspect.
"It was actually refreshing," said Officer Sophia Grinnan, a police spokeswoman. "We thought it might be somebody targeting the elderly or some juvenile miscreants. To this date we don't make handcuffs" for dogs.
Magnum had delivered two figurines to his owners in recent months, Grinnan said, but they didn't learn the scope of his thievery until the Fourth of July weekend, when they discovered a stash of the animal figurines in their back yard.
Grinnan said no charges will be filed, though Magnum's owners, who returned the ornaments after seeing footage of their pet on television, have promised to keep him under "closer scrutiny."
Police said they don't know Magnum's motive, but Breiner, who is happy to have her animals back home, noted that the dog is a retriever.
"The detective said he never sniffed them, he'd just go right over and pick them up," Breiner said.
"He never bothered the baby rabbits or the mama rabbit and they were the most expensive of all. . . . He never bothered the bear either."
(c) 2004 The Washington Post Company