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
February 2005
Next Meeting
The next meeting of the Dog Obedience Club of Las Cruces will be a restaurant meeting! We will meet on Thursday, February 3, 2005, 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, please join us at 7 pm since we need to leave the restaurant by 9 pm at the latest. Hope to see you there!
Class Registration a Big Success
Thanks to all club members (current and prospective) who helped out at class registration (Margie, Gayle, Shannon, Gene, Steve, Vic, Charlene, Nancy, Julie, Kay, and Lisa... I'm sorry if I forgot anyone). We had a large turnout and our obedience classes are nearly full at this point. Remember, obedience starts the week of Feb. 7, while agility starts the week of Feb. 23.
From the President
What a great turnout we had for the Jan. meeting! This is a great way to start the new year. I hope to see even more of you for the Feb. meeting and remember to tell all your dog lovin' friends. Class start up is just around the corner and by the looks of things I think we have alot of people interested in taking classes, so we can use your help if you'd like to assist.
Janet has also been busy getting our next seminar together and will be updating us at the meeting, rumor also has it that Janet has a game or two planned for us in the coming months. I would like to take a moment to thank a few people who seem to always be going out of their way to help the club, alot of times without even being asked to do so. Janet always making the long haul into town and finding us new and exciting things to do, Pam making sure all the little things are always taken care of not to mention we spend a good part of our time in her back yard, Julie who makes sure we have all we need for obedience classes even when we call her the night before class because one of the instructors forgot something, and Steve who is always there to move something, teach a class or lend a helping hand when ever needed. Thank you all for your help and thanks to everyone else in the club who also do so much for it, I could go on and on about so many people that do so much but then Nancy, who puts out our newsletter and maintains our calendar on the website, would get mad at me since she proofreads my terrible typing.
We also have our Retreat coming up to go over some ideas for this coming year; Charlene and Jack have generously opened their home to us on Feb 17th at 6 pm. I think we have some exciting times ahead for us and look forward to seeing you all at the meetings. Please feel free to e-mail me if you you would like to be added to the agenda or have any suggestions (vic@thriftynickellc.com) or call at 496-4215.
Thanks,
Vic
MINUTES OF THE DOG OBEDIENCE CLUB OF LAS CRUCES
January 6, 2005
MEMBERS PRESENT: President Vic Villalobos, Vice-president Nancy Chanover, Secretary Marjorie A. Henson, Treasurer Charlene Curry OTHER MEMBERS: Gene Forsythe, Julie Goodrich, Janet Miller, Shannon Murray, Brian Owen, Pam Smith, Steve Stochaj, Gayle Treakle, Paul & Lisa Westbrook VISITORS: Janina Carlona, Kay Suri, Jennifer Yara & Ben Parker
The meeting was called to order by President Vic Villalobos at 7:05. The visitors were welcomed.
Brian Owen moved & Julie Goodrich seconded that the minutes be approved as presented in the newsletter. Motion passed.
Treasurer's Report: Janet Miller made the treasurer's report as outgoing treasurer. The club spent $915 more than we brought in in 2004.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
OLD BUSINESS: There was no old business.
SEMINAR: A deposit of $200 has been sent to Bud Houston for the December seminar. He is much more attuned to the different breeds of dogs than some of the other people giving seminars. He's also into movement and how to move their dogs. Helps people to think outside their own bag of tricks. The seminar is Thursday & Friday (December 1 & 2) The seminar is for those with Open titles if they're attending with dogs. Janet doesn't want to charge club members for anything except food. Just got notification on schedule. Janet has someone in mind for a 2006 seminar.
AGILITY TRAILER: Steve has some ideas on how to set the trailer up. He's copied the design from another clubs set-up. It will be completed by December.
NEW BUSINESS:
OBEDIENCE CLASSES: Obedience Training Director will be Julie Goodrich. The classes start on February 7 & 8. Sign-up will be at Branigan on January 24. The sign-ups are set up for the rest of the year. Help will be needed for sign up. Returning students come at 6:15 and new students at 7:00. Set-up is at 6:00 p.m. Flyers are available. Instructors & helpers are needed. Shannon will teach the puppy class, Kay will help. AKC wants CGC evaluators to pay to a test in order to become evaluators. If the club were to pay for Julie & Charlene to take the test would they take it so the club could offer the CGC tests. Gene Forsythe moved & Gayle Treakle seconded that the club pay for Julie to take the test. If there is no interest in the CGC class it wouldn't be worth having her take the test as it's only good for 2 years. Motion passed. Julie & Vic will teach the beginning classes. Extra help will be needed the first night. We will have 2 puppy classes if numbers require it. Sign up materials are needed for registration. Gene will do replication of the things we need. He's had to do by Saturday. Brian Owen will remaster the forms.
The December transition board suggested that we should change the curriculum to incorporate McConnell's book. The books are designed for working with six-week classes. Janet changed her class outline to reflect the book schedule & handouts. This would give behavior in classes. The last weeks are handouts, etc. Would help the club to make sure core behavior knowledge is getting out there. Vic thought that Janet, Pam & perhaps Julie could come with recommendations to change our class outlines for the May sessions. This won't change the number of handouts. Steve says this will give people a book to take home.
AGILITY CLASSES: Agility Training Director will be Steve Stochaj. Brian Owen has volunteered to help. Instructors are needed for classes. It will be same sign-up date but the classes will start 3 weeks later. It will consist of Handling classes and an Introduction to Agility. Also will have some advanced courses to run. Brian will help set up courses and help on Wednesday. If either class gets big can have another one on Wednesday. The Obstacles & handling classes will be on Tuesday & see what the enrollment is for Wednesday. Do Wednesdays as Primary Agility class and have an overflow class on Tuesday.
The possibility of having a retreat at Charlene Curry's for the coming year was discussed. It was decided to have a planning session on Charlene's, two dates that were discussed were January 31 or February 17. It was decided that February 17 would be the better date from 6-9 p.m. We need to have something to unite this group. New Therapaws members should have an initial invitation to the club with a free membership the first year.
If you have basic agenda items to follow, e-mail them to the board members about what you'd like to explore.
Options for collars need to be shown to the classes, Halti's, chest harness, soft collars. Show Halties to people as part of the curriculum, especially for larger dogs.
NEW MEMBERS: A membership application has been received from Kay Suri.
OBEDIENCE TRIAL: The corresponding date for the Obedience Trial is September 25 & 26 since New Year's Day fell on a Saturday.
Pam Smith & Janet Miller presented awards.
Brags were presented.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:20.