Sunday, May 27, 2007

CCC OPEN MEMORIAL DAY, MAY 28TH

Remember the men and women who are now serving and have served in our armed forces....

MEMORIAL DAY HOLIDAY

As we wait for the rain to clear out of here this weekend, I wanted to take a moment to catch up here on the blog. We want to thank all our members for being more vigilant the past few months in regard to the doggie doodie situation. The head maintenance man has been happy with the noticeable improvement, and that makes life more pleasant for all of us involved with CCC! Before I leave this topic completely, I wanted to mention that, after 4 1/2 years, we have removed the protective fences from around the arbor vitaes in the small dog area. This speeds up the mowing process tremendously. These bushes are unable to handle urine from our big male DOG members...so we must ask large (male) dog owners to please avoid taking your pooches into the SDA if possible. For time-outs or a separation area, the first choice is the training yard. This is another area where we are trying to minimize urination, and especially marking on the agility obstacles. The marking distracts the dogs taking classes, since they want to sniff the obstacles and the grass. I consulted with Pet Supplies Plus and have purchased a spray that is supposed to eliminate the urine scent. It is a spray called "Simple Solution," and it, or another spray called "Nature's Miracle" will be located in the storage trunk in the training yard. Please exercise your dogs in the main park before going into the training yard, if possible. If your dogs do hike their legs on the obstacles, please spray the odor eliminator on that area. We appreciate your help and cooperation with this.

The training yard is available for use by our CCC members any time, and is also available to rent for non-members. There is little activity so far, but we expect it to be picking up. Some of our members will be using the training yard exclusively. If it is occupied, always check for a sign on the door, or check with the occupant before entering from the park. If we begin to have problems with more than one person wanting to use the TY at the same time, we will institute a sign-up sheet. Our Tuesday night conformation class has started, and beginning June 4th, we will be holding classes essentially Monday-Thursday evenings from 6:00-8:00 p.m. There are still spots available in all of our classes, and CCC members receive a discount on class fees. Please see our website's NEWS page for schedules, class descriptions, and instructor bios. All classes are reward-based and taught using positive reinforcement, and all are great ways to enhance the bond between the owners and their dogs.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

Happy Mother's Day! It's the first of many for CCC new mothers Maureen Dickenson (& daughter Clementine) and Suzanne Chick (& son Enrico). Congratulations to both families on the happy arrivals.
At the CCC, I've been up to my ears in computer/paperwork. I can never quite catch up--I'm still working on classes and schedules--I get class descriptions and bios from the instructors, do some editing, and send them to our daughter in CA, who does the website. This is the last week to sign up for the first session, which is hopefully starting next week--except for Flyball, which won't start for another month. We've got a lot of ball-loving dogs at CCC--I urge you all to consider taking this fun class, as well as the others we're having. Speaking of educational matters, my dog park discussion group recommended a great new book called "Visiting the Dog Park, Having Fun, Staying Safe," by Cheryl S. Smith. It is published by Dogwise and is available for $12 from www.dogwise.com . The book is short, has pictures, and is loaded with good information. I'm just starting to read it, and I ordered a couple of extra copies that I'm willing to loan out. There is lots of new information in the media about dog behavior and dog parks. I think that we can all say that the park has been a learning experience--and we're all still learning. I'm hopeful that all of us will make an effort to learn as much as we can to help us understand our dogs better, and make the park safer as well as more fun! Please make any suggestions regarding demonstrations, speakers, clinics, or educational experiences that you'd like to participate in this summer.
That's one of the things we'd like to do with the training yard this summer. More about the training yard in the next post..............coming soon!