Dear MembersI hope this newsletter

finds you all well, itis now February

and I am sure that we areall thinking of spring andsunshine, let’s hope itcomes along soon. I mustconfess to being a little disappointedthis winter as so far we have not hadany snow. I do not know about you butI know that my dogs really enjoyplaying in the white stuff when it hasfreshly fallen.Well now on to club matters, we havenever been so busy in both the agilityand obedience activities and this ismostly due to all the members thathave come forward this year to helporganise the activities (new and old)that we are planning. As our Secretarydetailed in her January update we havenow set up separate Agility andObedience subcommittees so that wecan devote more time to organisingthese two core activities of the club.The results of this some of you willhave seen in the activities that arebeing organised and communicationsthat have been put out by the variouscommittees but as thesesubcommittees are in their infancythere has been a lot of work going onand this has created rather a lot ofmeetings. Consequently at the lastmain committee meeting onWednesday the 4th February it wasdecided to help with this extra burdenby reducing the number of times thatthe main committee would meet to just

Welcome to our Spring newsletter!

Lett

er f

rom

the

Cha

ir

Obedience Agility Top dogs

! ?

Thinking of enteringyour first show?

On a personal note, as some of youmay be aware, one of mykelpies,Tegan, has not been verywell since Christmas, suffering fromwhat appears to be immunemediated polyarthritis.Thank you very much for all yourgood wishes since she has been ill.Thankfully she appears stable onsteroids at the moment.I have retiredmy fiery Sparks as she is 9 in Apriland Fraggle still needs more work onhis start line performance before Iinflict him on the agility going public.Chelsea is not quite ready forcompetition yet. Therefore I amtaking some time out of competing atshows for a while to concentrate onFraggle and Chelsea’s training, but Iwill be at shows and helping with thering parties that we normally do andI hope to see many of you there.I hope you all have a very successfulyear in whatever you try and do.

Kind regards, Ian

Golden Valley Dog Clubtraining News

Spring 2015

four times a year. Of course if there arepressing matters extra main committeemeetings can be arranged as required.I for one am looking forward to all newactivities that are being arranged andthere are far too many to mentionhere. If you would like to know anymore then please look at our websitewhich will be updated soon to a newmore useful version thanks to Sonjaand her husband.Now for a bit of sad news unfortunatelydue to personal reasons Kate Russellhas decided to step down fromcommittee and relinquish herobedience training role for theforeseeable future. The committeewould like to take this opportunity tothank Kate for all her hard work forthe club during a period when shehas often been under considerablepressure. We hope she will take awell-earned rest and recovery periodand wish her all the best. We hopeto see her again later in the year.

How to contact us: visit our web site goldenvalleydtc.co.uk

Ninety per cent of the work running the club goes on behindthe scenes. I would like to say a very big “thank you” to those

members of family who quietly help and support active memberswith this work load. Ann Radford for helping with shows andorganising training. My John with maintenance and general“dogsbody”. Sonja Smith’s husband Phil who has spentmany, many hours designing and setting up GV new web sitewhich will soon be up and running for us to use. Juliette Smith’s husbandPhil for helping out with clearing and cleaning the old caravan and clubhouse. Last month on an extremely cold day at a home Starter Leaguematch, Linda Bull’s husband John helped with pole picking as did KateRussell’s husband Steve. Assisting at Great Western home Matches thisyear was Sue Paul, Lenni’s mother.We appreciate the numerous times you’ve all helped out without asking,this article is just to let you know we do not take you for granted – thank youvery much!

Anne White

Upcoming Events:DATE FOR YOUR DIARY!! Golden Valley club internal competition day 15th March - opento all Golden Valley dogs - enter on the day and have fun! N.B. RAFFLE PRIZESREQUIRED if you have anything suitable to donate please contact Stewart Lovatt(stewlovatt@hotmail.com)

Agili

tyGolden Valley DTC Spring 2015

Star

ters

Lea

gue

Fly-Zak Summer Camps!!! Fully booked already, if you want a waiting list place onConnie and Michelle’s week of agility in August, contact Flybyagility@gmail.com

Barrie James training day 12th April for all grades, details on FB and goldenvalleydtc.co.ukOnly a couple of spaces left so don’t delay!! Contact stewlovatt@hotmail.com

Golden Valley Spring Agility Show Monmouth 19th April: Michelle Waugh hastaken up the mantle of Show Manager, so we wish her well and all the other Clubmembers who devote so much time and energy to making the Show a fantastic successevery time.

Some of the members of the Starters’ League Team

Kingstone Agility Fun Show, great for beginners, very laid back. Great for the moreexperienced dogs to have a bit of a fun day. Also Kingstone RallyO type obedience andcompanion show, so something for everyone! Saturday, June 20 at 10:00am

The Starters team had three matches – 2against Tuffley, 1 home & 1 away & 1 awayagainst Prestbury – unfortunately Prestburywere unable to get a team together for thehome match. Each match consisted of anagility course, a jumping course & timedrelay to finish.Whilst we did not win any of our three

matches - our away fixture against Tuffley was VERY close – we didmanage to bring lots of rosettes home and most importantly hadsome real FUN.A brilliant team spirit made every match and training sessionenjoyable despite the weather! Our special thanks to Michelle Waughfor the coaching, especially the relay rules!Very well done to Chris Jackson and Jack who got our only 1stplaceas well as a 2nd in Jumping and a 3rdin Agility; Hannah Thomas &Chipwho came away with 2 brilliant seconds in Agility and a 3rdin Jumping;Viv and Perri for an excellent Jumping 2nd and Sarah Williams andRuby who stepped in for our last match and bagged a 4th in the agilityand not forgetting Ian Radford and the infamous Fraggle with afantastic 4th in Agility. Every dog showed so much promise – watchout for these guys in the coming season!

Starters in action!!

When Team practices beganback in October I explainedthat we were winter trainingfor two reasons or goals:-Firstly to win the GWL!Which barring a miracle,isn’t going to happen.Secondly, to train for thenext competing season. TheGWL practices were aimedat the gap betweenindividual training andstructured formal classes.Undertaken with a littlecommitment the GWL seasonis a very convenientcondensed short time frameto focus and develop withthe matches providing snapshots of progress to assesspersonal development.In 3 months you can observethe development between ahandler and dog and alsobetween handlers within agroup which has beenremarkably noticeable andrewarding to see.It’s based on the second goalthat I judge the GWL thisyear a huge success. Towitness the development ofevery handler has been apleasure.Therefore I would like tothank all the members ofGVDTC GWL team for theirhard work, effort,enthusiasm and humour.Have a great season and yesyou all can run!

Stew Lovatt

January 2014

When I was remindedthat it wasdeadline for

articles for the news letterI suddenly realised I wastrying to pen an article indifferent circumstancesthat I had hoped for. I hadhoped to be describing asuccessful season in theGreat Western League butsadly not, but not for lackof trying! It’s notimpossible but unlikely wecan make the final. Butthen having time to thinkabout it and on reflection itwas hugely successful in allbut the final result.We managed to beatTuffley home and awaywith some good individualperformances and overallteam performances butWye Valley proved to be adifficult task. We won bothagility and jumping classesin both matches despite notshowing our true formwhich meant due to thenarrow margins bothmatches went to therelay....both were lost.Having a team of all largedogs has its drawbackssometimes perhaps onlywhen the relay is against ateam of mixed sizes. Thatsaid we didn’t deserve itand the better relay teamwon on both occasions.Relays are something towork on in the future forsure but duplicating thepressure is difficult nearimpossible, probably bestadvice is if you can avoidthe relay decider then winit in normal time!So why was it hugelysuccessful then after allthat?

GWL team at Tuffley after a narrow butgreat win!

GREAT WESTERN LEAGUE2014-15

GWL

Great Western League Best Dog Award -the highest best scores from any twomatches from the season.Simply add together the points gained inboth agility and jumping,then take thedog’s best 2 results and add themtogether. GVDTC GWL top 4 dogs are:Hayley Atkins and Raven, Lenni Paul andZuko tied in 1st place, with 59 pointseach.Les Turner with Trev in 3rd with 57points.Stewart Lovatt and Blade in 4th with 54points.

Hayley and Lenni will be put forwardagainst the other teams’ best dogs afterthe last match is completed in a bid to beoverall winners.

Some of the team and dogs with 7 of apossible 8 rosettes............well done all !

Golden Valley DTC Spring 2015

Club

New

sAg

ility

Tra

iner

s

Mid-week agility classes continue apace as popular as ever, with Ian on Tues, andMarie Lou on Weds (along with Christmas hol specials!!)

Indoor evening sessions are equally popular with Marie and Mark on Weds, andMichelle and Connie on Thursdays. See GVDTC website for further details.

Ian Radford Marie Lou Parker Mark and Marie Douglas Michelle Waugh Connie Sellers

Sonja Smith isdoing a magnificent

job keeping the Club web siteup to date - for any info,contact details, what’s up

and coming, class times etc.go to: goldenvalleydtc.co.uk

Lyn Caldicot is now organising thetraining timetable, any queries email:

gvdtcagilitytraining@gmail.com

Christmas saw asusual the Fancy

Dress competition. £29was raised for theClub’s 2015 nominated

charity,Hereford and

WorcesterRescue

On the Club Committee this year we have ..... Sue Baines, Sue Baigent, LynCaldicot, Marie-Lou Parker, Juliette Smith (Treasurer), Sonja Smith, IanRadford (Chairman), Jan Roberts and Anne White (Secretary). Two sub-committees have been created to manage the growing needs of Golden ValleyDTC. Agility Sub Committee chaired by Ian Radford, Lyn Caldicot as Secretary,with Sue Baigent, Stewart Lovatt, Sarah Miles-Griffths, Marie-Lou Parker andAnne White. Obedience Sub Committee chaired by Sue Baines with JanRoberts, Secretary, along with Juliette Smith and Anne Weston.

When the Man waked up he said,'What is Wild Dog doing here?'And the Woman said,'His name is not Wild Dog any more,but the First Friend,because he will be our friendfor always and always and always.'

Rudyard Kipling

SueBainesgetting

wrapped upby the menfrom theMountainRescue

In 2014 GV raised astaggering £1,481 for charitywhich went to the LongtownMountain Rescue Team. The

charity for this year isHereford and Worcester Dog

Rescue.

A hardw o r k i n gmember of theCommittee formany years,J u d i t hTrickett hasnow handedon the baton.Sterling workJudith, havefun plantingyour newgarden!

Golden Valley DTC Spring 2015

Doggie quote of the day

Sheila Lane has retired fromteaching agility but still

enjoys training with her owndogs Millie and Tessa

I am sure that you are all aware that there has been a great deal of speculation about whatis going on in the Obedience Section of the club at the moment. So at last here it is an updatefrom ‘the horse’s mouth’!As with many organisations there comes a time when it is necessary look at what you havebeen doing, to reflect, review, assess, evaluate, update and re-launch. In brief that is exactlywhat we have been doing.In October we began an ‘in-house’ Instructors training course. The aims of the course are:

· To raise standards of teaching· To bring the club forward in the use of modern, kind, fair and effective methods· To improve reputation and appeal· To provide the opportunity for suitable handlers to move into instructing· To increase the quality and number of instructors

So how are we going about achieving these aims?· By providing a progression of grade of instructor

· By having a highly qualified, experienced Senior Instructor

· By educating instructors who in turn educate handlers in the use of modern up to date methods

· By providing planned courses for all levels of ability

· By improved organisation

· By improving the accuracy, standard and tone of information on the website

· By improved systems of communication

· By providing a handbook to enable instructors to deliver consistent content, approach andstandard of courses

· By instilling professionalism

· By complying with the KC and APDT Codes of Practice

Obviously this cannot all be achieved at once and we are in a transition period, when to the‘outside world’ things can often appear to get worse before they get better. We thank youall for your continued support and encouragement through this transition time.Our Puppy Course now complete the KCGCDS Puppy Foundation and are taught in the useof clicker. There have been five full puppy courses since October using only kind, fair andeffective modern methods. All instructors are taking part in two clicker courses leading toa qualification in clicker training. Instructors are also busy preparing and working towardstaking their APDT Assessment in June, hopefully leading to a nationally recognisedqualification. We are gradually working our way through Basic, Intermediate and AdvancedClasses and are appreciative of your support and patience as we strive to eventually providemembers with an effective and efficient obedience section at GVDTC.

By Anne Weston Senior InstructorWritten on behalf of the Obedience Section Sub Committee

Cani

ne In

stru

ctio

n

Don’t forget Crufts! 5 - 8 March 2015

Thursday 5 March - GundogFriday 6 March – Working and PastoralSaturday 7 March – Terrier and Hound

Sunday 8 March – Toy and Utility

Watch live every day on Youtube

Golden Valley DTC Spring 2015

Jess

Connie Sellers goes from strength to strength as shecontinued her winning streak with brilliant success atOlympia in December. Watch out for her competing atCrufts in March!!

Prizes and Rosettes

Group Walkies

Clever Ruby won a photocompetition, and lots of

rosettes this year, well doneSarah Williams!

Golden Valley DTC Spring 2015

Presentation of Awards from the Golden Valley AGMPuppy Improvers Award – Juliette Smith & GypMost Improved Obedience Dog – Heather Suff & BenObedience Handler of the Year – Natasha Harrison & RufusYoung Obedience Handler of the Year – Jess Radnor & AprilAgility Handler of the Year – Les Turner & TrevorYoung Agility Handler of the Year – Lucy Russell & HogiDave Vernalls Memorial Award for Best ABC – Eileen Gilmour & RupertDemon Derek Award for Best Rescue – Jane Davies & JasperMost Improved Agility Handler – Jackie Watkins & Megan

There was also a special award given to Stewart Lovatt who made heroiclife saving efforts at an agility competition on another competitor who,without his efforts would possibly not have survived

Heather and BenNatasha and Rufus

(N.B. Many apologies if I missed anyone out !!- if it’s not on FB thenI probably don’t know about it , unless you tell me - Ed.)

Eileen and Rupert

Lucy

Anne White and Ty Du Tosca doing a Tidy job

Sue Baines andAngela Shears run a

monthly dog walk forMembers. 11am start

on a Sunday and agentle, sociable walk

around theHerefordshire country

side. Optional publunch afterwards!

Forest of Dean Dec 28th 2014

Vivien Waldron andPeri have beencompeting withgreatsuccessthroughoutthe Winter

Juliette

Les Turner -terrific stuff!!

Well doneTrev, G’boy!

Well doneHayley Atkinsand StewartLovatt onyour many

successes andamazing

dogs!

First of all, if you have never 'won through' a grade, you are aGrade 1 (there isn't a Grade 0). But in order to compete at a show your dog

really needs to be able to manage all the obstacles in class including at leastsix weaves. (And of course to be perfectly focussed on you her handler, and

never run off or get distracted by interesting smells...)

Golden Valley DTC Spring 2015

And with a fair wind inyour sail you should

eventually end up withone of these as well!

goldenvalleydtc.co.uk Compiled and edited by K.A.Adams 31/01/2015

Thinking of entering your first agility show? Not sure whereto start? Here’s a quick guide to get you up and running!

There are several different types of show including the one withthe most kudos, the Kennel Club (KC), but there are also Independent,UKA, and

FAB shows - more about these in our next issue. To find out the dates ofupcoming shows use AgilityNet or iSS Internet Show Services - both are free toregister. Schedules can be downloaded so that you know what classes you are

eligible to enter,you can see the date of the show,and the closing date forentering, which for KC shows is 6 weeks before.

Before you can enter a KC show your dog must be registered with the KennelClub. If you have a KC pedigree dog, or a KC registered sheepdog you're in luckbecause your dog is already on the Kennel Club radar. Otherwise you need to

register your dog on the KC Activity Register, by completing a P5 formavailable from the KC web site. The registration fee is £15.00

The other 'must' before you can enter a KC show is tohave your dog measured at a KC measuring session.Dates for these are a little elusive, but you can findsome of the dates on the KC web site for a month orso ahead. GV have a measuring session in March orApril each year. Your dog needs to be 15 months or

older and microchipped. You get a nice littlehandbook (£1.50). The measuring session costs £4.

*N.B. Just for the record, oneAgility win is equivalent to 3Jumping wins, and you canalso progress through theearlier grades by a pointssystem - see the details inany of the Schedules.

To win through to the gradeabove, your 1�� place winmust be a clear round andwithin the given Coursetime…piece of cake

As a beginner and a Grade 1 handler you will most likely be looking in the Schedule forGraded classes in preference to Combined classes, as these offer a 1st place rosette forthe fastest dog in each grade, rather than only one 1st place rosette between all thegrades in the class. (See note below)* Grade 1 is usually offered along with G2 andsometimes G3 as well, e.g. That said, sometimes a Grade1 dog will run better than a Grade 2 or 3 dog, and as a beginner your main objective isprobably simply to get a clear round! Obviously you also need to enter your dog in theappropriate Large, Medium or Small category of class.

Small Agility Graded 1 2

Photo Focus

Lucy - GV Young AgilityHandler of the Year

Chris Jackson and Jack have had a verysuccessful season

Rupert, Best Golden ValleyABC, handler Eileen

Connie and Flint at OlympiaDecember 2014

Good Luck toMichelle

Waugh who iscompeting inLuxembourg

in theSummer

Stewart Lovatt receiving aspecial award for life- savingfrom the Chair Ian Radford

Jane Davies and Jasper - Derek Demonaward for best Rescue dog

Golden Valley DTC Spring 2015

GOLDEN VALLEY DOG TRAINING CLUB

Income and Expenditure y/end 30 Sept 2014

Income 2013/14 2012/13

Limit Show 0 2212Spring Open Show 5905 0Summer Open Show 14321 16754

20226 18965Club Income

Training Fees 23639 22490Membership Fees 2822 3128Donations Received 869 1325Club Events 150Venue/Equipment Hire 0Seminars/training 640 725Miscellaneous income 412 333record books 0

28381 2815148607 47116

Expenditure

Limit Show 0 1712Spring Open Show 5292Summer Show 10963 14094

16256 15806Club Expenditure 30894 36883

30894 3688347150 52690

Excess/(Shortfall) of Income over Expenditure 1457 -5573

The Income and Expenditure Account for the year ended 30 September 2014 agreeswith the information and explanations given to us and represents a fair view of theclubs affairs at 30 September 2014

The Club Accounts for year ending 30th September 2014

2013/14 2012/13

Note 1a - Limit Show Income

Entries 2087Stalls 125

2212

Note 1b - Limit Show Expenditure

Rosettes/Trophies 371Processing Services 182Judges Expenses and gifts 200Marquee 314Toilet Hire 102Consumables 97PPS 106Catering 100Timing 230Licence 10Refunds

0 17120 500

Note 2a - Spring Show Income

Entries 5780Stalls 125

5905 0

Note 2b - Spring Show Expenditure

Rosettes/Trophies 1349Processing services 831Judges Expenses and gifts 410Venue Hire 300Equipment Hire 1583Timing & Radios 268Catering 484Consumables 68

5292 0

2013/14 2012/13

Note 3a - Summer Show Income

Entries 11333 13612Camping 2578 2694Trade Stands 410 448

14321 16754

Note 3b - Summer Show Expenditure

Internet FeesJudges Expenses and gifts 1288 1795Catering 384 460Kennel Club Licence 70 80Site Cost & Marquee 2992 3028Toilet Hire 300 312Rosettes/ Trophies 2672 3481Rings/Timing 570 730Processing Services 2032 2076Ring Parties 300 407Consumables 356 442Fire Extinguishers 238Secretaries Expenses

10963 13049

Note 4 - Club Expenditure

Ground Maintenance 1000 1000Building 1365 4613Equipment 2008 3921Charity payments - club charity 1750 1950Charity payments - Dogs Trust 100Trainers 20870 21212Venue Hire 1020Club Events 540 1687Sundry exes 2341 2400

30894 36884

Note 5 - Charity Donations

Spring Show - Cake stall 184Summer Show - Tombola 159Kingston Show 64Fun Dog Show 300Other Donations 161

869 1325

GVDTCAnnual Accounts

These are the clubs audited accounts; this report was produced by our auditor and was presented to those whoattended our AGM in November last year.

In 2013/14 the audited club accounts show a small profit of about £1500 as opposed to the loss of over £5500 in theprevious accounting year.

Due to reduced entries for the Summer Open Agility Show the show income was reduced by about £2500 incomparison with the previous year but fortunately savings of around £2000 had been made in show expenditure sothere was still an overall profit on the show. Further savings will be attempted this year and the number of standardruns available will be increased to four in the hope of combating reduced entries at all our shows.

If you have any questions about these accounts please email it to ian.radford2753@gmail.com and we will endeavourto answer you within 5 -10 days.

Regards Ian

Reconcilliation to Bank

Cash at bank c/fwd 9385Paypal c/fwd 6

Cash c/fwd 80210193 10193

Income 48607Expenditure -

47150Balance

11650

CreditorsRosettes 1332

Less prevous year creditorsRosettes -952Welsh Water -26

354Debtors

0 12004

Cash at bank c/fwd 11852Paypal c/fwdCash c/fwd 152 12004

0