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
September 2005
Next Meeting
The next meeting of the Dog Obedience Club of Las Cruces will be an outdoor meeting! We will meet on Thursday, September 1, 2005, at 6:30 pm at Veteran's Park on Roadrunner. Dogs are welcome, but must remain on leash. We will have dinner catered by Roberto's, and everyone who eats should plan to chip in to help defray the cost of dinner. We're hoping this will be a fun opportunity for us to get together with our dogs, so please try to come!
Classes Begin in September
Our Obedience and Agility classes will begin the week of September 12! If you are teaching this session, please plan to meet with your fellow instructors before the session begins in order to review the curriculum and make any necessary modifications.
Obedience Trials Right Around the Corner
The DOCLC obedience trials will be held on September 24-25. Thus, member attendance at the September meetings is VERY important, as we will be looking for people to volunteer to help out with this event. The success or failure of our trials depends critically on the participation and assistance of our members! Please come out to the meeting prepared to volunteer to help set up equipment on September 23rd at the park, and/or to steward on one or both of the trial days.
Meeting Minutes
MEMBERS PRESENT: President Vic Villalobos, Vice-President Nancy Chanover, Secretary Marjorie A. Henson, Treasurer Charlene Curry; OTHER MEMBERS: Shannon Murray, Pam Smith, Gayle Treakle, Paul Westbrook; VISITORS: Ellen Consolazio, Kim Fuqua, Nick & Erica Voges
The meeting was called to order by President Vic Villalobos at 7:02. Nancy Chanover moved & Gayle Treakle moved that the minutes be approved as presented in the July newsletter. The motion passed.
The Treasurer's report was made.
SEMINAR UPDATE: A report was made by Nancy Chanover, in the absence of Janet Miller the seminar chairman, that the Bud Huston seminar that was scheduled for January has been canceled as there were too many negative reports from people who had attended his seminars on several groups that Janet checks on. The board decided to do this at Janet's recommendation. The 2006 seminar is still scheduled. This was our agility seminar & no money was lost, as none had been spent yet for advertising. Charlene Curry wondered if there would be an interest in a Rally Obedience Seminar. It uses a lot of the same things as obedience. Pam Smith suggested that Charlene look into this if she was interested.
OBEDIENCE TRIAL: Premium lists are out. Because of the Whole Enchilada Fiesta we will be short-handed with workers for stewarding & set up. Perhaps we can have someone come & pay them for their help. This is a little hard for stewarding as stewarding the obedience ring requires training. It was suggested that perhaps after set up or early on Saturday morning we have a quick run through of how to steward. How much do we want to pay for the dog toy that each person entered will get? Shannon Murray moved & Gayle Treakle seconded that we have a $5/person limit. The motion passed. Charlene will reserve and pay for the rooms for the judges.
LIGHTS FOR THE AGILITY FIELD: Pam Smith reported that 5 lights are out in the agility field. The fixtures are not the best. She would like the club to replace half of the lights with metal halide lights. C. D. Park has had them for 5 years & hasn't had to replace them. We have to replace our current bulbs every couple of months. The cost would be $188/fixture with installation @$660. Nancy Chanover moved & Paul Westbrook seconded to replace the fixtures. The motion passed.
NEW BUSINESS: Vic is looking to make some changes. The September meeting will be at Veteran's Park with people bringing their dogs & perhaps ordering pizza. He's also thinking about having a Yappy Hour in conjunction with the Humane Society. Also would like to have new programs in the first 10 minutes of the meeting. If you have any ideas e-mail them to Vic. It's nice to do activities with our dogs. We should be trying to train new instructors. Perhaps a couple of classes for new trainers after our fall classes.
TRAINING CLASSES:
OBEDIENCE CLASSES The shortened classes were well received & people worked hard. Perhaps next year we can have 2 sets of this type in the summer if the number of instructors allow it. Registration is August 25 with classes starting on September 12. A discussion was had about who will teach the next session, or who might be willing to teach. Paul Westbrook, Nick & Erica Voges are willing to assist. Vic Villalobos will teach a Beginning class on Tuesday, Gayle Treakle will teach a Beginning class on Monday & Shannon will teach the puppy class. The curriculum is good but the first 2-3 weeks are a bit slow with too much talking. Suggestions about things to change between now & the time class starts should be given to Vic or Julie.
AGILITY CLASSES: Pam Smith will talk to the instructors about what classes to have and when. It was suggested that we could have a course set once a week & let people run it as many ties as they want for $5. This could start in September. Instructor availability will depend on when we have classes.
Flyers will need to be put out for the upcoming sign-up. An e-mail will go out & if everyone will print out 5 & take to the vets we'll be able to get them out. Paul Westbrook will have Lisa Westbrook post them at the vets she goes to.
New Board member: Paul Westbrook is the new board member taking over Gene Forsythe's term. A new agility training director is needed for the remainder of the year. The board recommended Pam Smith if she'd take the position. Pam declined because of the outcome of the last board meeting & will step back for a while. We can get by without an agility director of the remainder of the year. Pam will continue to be lead agility instructor.
An acknowledgement of Gene Forsythe's work for the club was discussed. Shannon Murray moved & Nancy Chanover seconded that we get him a $75 gift certificate for a picture. The motion passed.
NEW MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION: A family membership application was presented by Nick & Erica Voges to join the club. They have been helping in sign up & in training.
Brags were made.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:03