Welcome to the Summer Newsletter. In this edition we look back at some of thegoings-on and past activities that happened at our Dog Club during the Springand upcoming events for 2012.

HOT WAYS TO KEEP YOUR DOGS COOL THIS SUMMER

Dogs can sunburn too, especially light coloured, thin haired breeds. Most common areas to burn include the tips of theears and the bridge of the nose. Keep pets protected from unwanted and painful sunburns and irritations. Designed specificallyfor pets' skin and coats, Petkin Doggy Sunmist Sunscreen for Dogs & Puppies 120ml RRP £4.99 www.amazon.co.uk

Body Cooler Pet Mat. The Pet Mat is a thin mattress with pockets filled with water-absorbing granules over its width.After being soaked flat in cold or cooled tap water, the thickness of the Pet Mat swells to approx. 4 cm. Ideal for travel, whenpets can be most uncomfortable. Body Cooler will stay cool for several days. Available in variety of sizes, but Ex. Large (75 x 100cm.) probably most suitable for GSDS. RRP £39.99 www.hubintsecured.co.uk

The Hydro Ball Dog Toy combines fun with refreshment, quenching your dog’s thirst whilst playing. It is the ultimate chew and fetch toy for your four legged friend. The moulded rubber bull has a foam core which absorbs and holds liquid, justsoak it in water and then when your pet chews or squeezes it the water releases through the specially designed holes. It is theideal toy for warm weather as it ensures your dog has regular access to water and can drink on the move. It is also freezable forlonger lasting refreshment. RRP £14.99 www.petplanet.co.uk

The ProSelect® Two-Speed Pet Crate Fans provide a refreshing airflow for pets wherever they travel, or while at home.Retractable arms allow the fan to be hung on a cage, crate or pet carrier. Fans circulate the air, removing warm air from the cageinterior, and can help to protect pet from overheating. Their quiet, two-speed operation will not disturb pets. Can be used invehicles and an additional 12volts cable can be purchased. RRP £19.99.www.splendidpets.co.uk

Not quite sure what to say in regards to showing Lego, but all started with me getting in touch with my dogs breeder,Philippa and she told me to go try ring craft training, of which there aren’t a lot of dedicated GSD ones, so I have to travel to Essington, Wolverhampton on Wednesdays and also train on a Friday afternoons in Solihull with two lovely ladies that i metthrough Phillipa, who are also breeders. The daughter of which handles Lego for me!! It paid off when we won at the firstregional of the year ‘Southern Counties with a ‘VP’ grading (the highest grade he could get at his age) under Judge Nikki Farley (Nikonis GSD’s)!!! I was so proud!!! Long coats are separated from the Short coats in showing and I cannot enter Lego into championship shows but the WUSV/GSDL has regional shows which long coats have classes for. These shows are heldthroughout the year (we have one in Scotland in August, and two in Malvern in October) and points are accumulated. At theend of the year a winner is announced as the ‘Best Dog’ and ‘Best Bitch’.

We are so looking forward to probably the most important show for us this year, The British Sieger, in September which weare entered for. Fingers crossed for us!! This show includes a working side in which GSD’s have to prove their worth with a ‘Courage test’. The showing scene is trying to get back to the ‘correct’ type of Shepherd which is ‘fit for purpose’. This is fabulous news as the German Shepherd is such a versatile working dog with great courage and intelligence.

Next for us is hip and elbow scoring which I have to have done before Lego is 18 months to be eligible to show him and aBreed Survey. Basically a breed survey is a detailed analysis of an individual dog performed by a breed survey master. He/Shewill give a critique on each part of the dog including height at the withers, weight, circumference and depth of the chest, eyeand nail colour, length and position of the croup, teeth, pasterns and front and rear movement. At conclusion of the critiquethe surveyor places the dog in one of the following categories: Class 1 (recommended for breeding), Class 2 (suitable forbreeding).

Lego is now 13 months old and I’m looking forward to entering lots more shows with him. It’s been hard work getting him to ‘walk out’ in front for the showing, especially as I am training him to ‘heel’ for his display training but he is taking it all in his stride. It just shows how versatile GSD’s are, obedience and agility one day and showing the next!!!!!

Victoria Keates

GUIDE DOG FLAG DAY

This year, the Guide Dog for the Blind Flag Day was on Saturday April 14 at theRothersthorpe Service Station –South Bound side as last year. 14 Club Memberstook part and raised a total of £590.97 - Many Thanks to those members that gaveup their time to collect.

Beverly and Clive Smith with their dogs Sadie and Lightning and Stephanie Petrusevicius with Blitz.

Wales a step ahead in improving dog welfare.

The Kennel Club has welcome plans by the welsh government to prioritise steps to improve dog welfare and public safety,through key changes to dangerous dog legislation in Wales. The plans, announced by First Minister of Wales, Carwyn Jones,will see an overhaul of current dangerous dog legislation to ensure that new dog control procedures, through theintroduction of a new control of Dogs Bill next Spring, would better protect the public and improve the welfare of dogs.

This change would see action being taken where dogs attack people or other animals on any property; a shift in focus to thebehaviour of individual dogs rather than on certain breeds, something GSD owners would be grateful of (punish the deed,not the breed) and also the promotion of responsible dog ownership with strong training and education requirements fordog owners.

Caroline Kisko, Communications Director at The Kennel Club,said: “We are pleased that the Welsh Government are once again putting dog welfare at the top of their agenda by responding to our campaign efforts and making effective dogcontrol one of their key legislative priorities. “The Kennel Club and Dogs Trust recently lobbied Assembly Members on theissue of dangerous dogs, and the urgent need for new legislation to deal with the welfare and public safety concernssurrounding the issue, in light of the increased devolved powers that came into force last year allowing the Government totackle this important issue. For more information on the Kennel Clubs dangerous dogs campaign, visitwww.thekennelclub.org.uk/dangerousdogs

Man trains his 27th Guide Dog puppy.

News Hound!

The great-grandfather has been training puppies tobecome guide dogs for 23 years and now his hard workfor Guide Dogs has been recognised. Peter, who liveswith wife Muriel in Carrville, Durham, has been nominatedfor a Lifetime Achievement Award in this year’s Specsavers Guide Dog of the Year Awards.

“I am very proud, but I just didn’t know what to think when I got the call,” said 80-year-old Peter. Peter startedtraining puppies, which have included Labradors,retrievers, German shepherds and cross breeds, in 1989after retiring as a police constable with DurhamConstabulary. Along with Muriel, the couple are nowtraining their 27th pup, four-month-old German ShepherdBetty.“We have had dogs in the house and when our lastdog died, you have them 12 to 13 years, we decided notto have any more,” said Peter.

“We had just moved house and I saw an advert looking for puppy walkers.“It was only meant to be committed for a year but here I am still doing it,” said Peter, who is a dad of three, grandfather of five and great-grandfather of two. Peter has becomewell known around his home in Durham’s Carrville area for walking pups in training. He and Muriel even gave a Labrador,George, a home after he didn’t make the grade as a guide dog. “I really enjoy it, I get out and everyone talks to me and when I go out without the dogs they are asking if I have forgotten something,” said Peter, who is a charity branch manager and collection box co-coordinator. The pups, who come to the couple from the age of six to seven weeks old until they are 14months, are given obedience training and training to get them used to traffic, going on public transport and into shops. Twothirds of the pups they’ve looked after for Guide Dogs, the new name for the charity The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, have made it through all the way to become official guide dogs, and most of those that didn’t make it failed because of health problems.

Peter, who has helped collect at least £150,000 for the Durham fundraising group, said: “Being shortlisted for the Lifetime Achievement Award is a wonderful surprise. Being a volunteer for Guide Dogs is great. I love being a puppy walker too, as it’s great to think that the puppy you’re training will help a blind or partially- sighted person one day.”

If you have anything you would like to add, contribute or share in the Autumn2012 edition of our Newsletter then please email gsdnewshound@live.co.ukor alternatively you can speak to Kayleigh, The Newshound. If you attended a dogshow or activity, have any unusual photos of your dog or any topical items, thenadd them to YOUR dog club Newsletter

Guide Dog cheque presentation evening.The Display Team and Club members, attended the Guide Dog Annual Social Evening onWednesday June 27th 2012. Our Chairman, John Swannell presented the Club’s cheque of £1,500 to the Guide Dog Representative during the evening. Club Member Martin Dale took somefantastic pictures and really captured the evening! Many thanks to him.

The daily dog walk, something we all do religiously, but how many of us can sometimes find it repetitiveand monotonous walking the same old routes. Finding new places to walk can be difficult, there areelements that you have to consider, such as where to park, will there be stiles to climb (hard for someGSD owners and dogs!), will there be loads of other dog walkers etc. So here we can share walks that wehave found and use with our furry friends. Please email gsdnewshound@live.co.uk and share yourfavourite walks around Northamptonshire.

Focus on Summer Leys Nature Reserve

This walk is around a nature reserve run by The Wildlife Trust. It is a wetland is made up of floodedgravel pits, flood meadows, species-rich neutral grassland and mature hedges.

During the winter large numbers and a wide variety of ducks can be seen, including teal, wigeon,shoveler, pochard and tufted duck. They are joined by large numbers of golden plover, sometimes over athousand, which roost on the islands and fly out to nearby fields to feed.

Sixteen species of dragonflies and damselflies have been recorded. Summer Leys is one of the best placesin Northamptonshire to see the uncommon hairy dragonfly, a species that colonised the county in thelate 1990s. Look for them on the edges of Marigold Pond from mid-May to the end of June.

Summer Leys

OS sheet 152: SP 885 634

Directions:

Wellingborough 3 miles. From A45 heading north, take Great Doddington exit (B573) and followbrown ‘Summer Leys nature reserve’ signs. Access is via car park off minor road to Wollaston.

Bus Northampton to Wellingborough to Great Doddington and walk one and a quarter miles.

Nene Way long distance footpath passes within half a mile of site.

Things to consider:

It takes approx 45 minutes to walk all the way round, (that’s at a good GSD pace!)there are a few Footpaths of f of the main walks, which you could explore and extend your walk. Water birds aresensitive to disturbance, as this is a nature reserve, The Wildlife Trust insist that all dogs are kept on leadwhilst on the site. I look at this as a positive, especially if you have a dog that doesn’t like other dogs running around them etc. It means you can get on and walk without worry and it is also goodobedience training for both you and your dogs. There is a good size car park, which is free, but can getquite busy at weekends.

Working Trials are a competitive Working Trails was originally based on police dog work andincludes a variety of exercises to test a working dog. They develop and test many canine skills–obedience and control, intelligence and independence, searching and tracking, agility and fitness.Trials are physically demanding for both dog and handler, but are also great fun and extremelyrewarding.

Dogs compete in ascending levels called ‘stakes’. From the lowest stake, Companion (CD),through Utility (UD), Working (WD), Patrol (PD) and Tracking Dog (TD) at the very top, the dog isrequired to obtain 70% of the marks in each section and 80% overall in order to qualify andthereby progress upwards to the next stake. Two wins in Championship TD or PD stakes qualifythe dog to be awarded the title of ‘Working Trial Champion’.

Although there are placings in each trial, the goal is to qualify. Each trial is divided into sectionsand you have to obtain a percentage of the marks in each section to qualify and to move up thestakes you have to qualify in the earlier ones!

The only stake you can enter straight away is the Companion Dog. A recent innovation is theintroductory stake based on the CD but lower jumps and shorter stays and extra commandsallowed. This is what it says on the tin and it’s a nice way to start trails, but does not qualify for any other stake.

Companion Dog Stake:

Control- Heelwork on and off lead / Recall to handler / sending the dog away / Sit (introductory 1min) CD 2 min/ Down Stay (introductory 5 min) CD 10 min out of sight.

Agility- Clear jump 3ft (intro 2ft 6) / Long Jump 9ft (intro 6ft) / Scale 6ft (intro 5ft)

Nosework- Retrieve a dumbbell/ Search square 15x15 yards, 3 articles, 2 to qualify

Utility Dog Stake:

Control and Agility the same without heelwork on lead or recall. Steadiness to gunshot plusdumbbell retrieve.

Nosework- Track that was laid 5 hours before dog is sent to find 2 articles, 1 to qualify. A 25x25yard search square, 4 articles, 2 to qualify. In both CD and UD stakes only the jumps are lowereddepending on the size of the dog.

Working Dog Stake:

Control: Heel free, send away, dumbbell retrieve, down stay, steadiness to gunshot.

Agilty: Same as UD.

Nosework: Track that was laid 1.5 hours before dog is sent to find 2 articles, 1 to qualify. A 25x25yard search square, 4 articles, 2 to qualify.

Tracking Dog Stake: Similar to WD but the Track is 2 hours old and sendaway includes aredirection. No dumbbell retrieve, a speak on command instead.

Patrol Dog Stake: Also the same as TD stake plus;

Patrol; Quartering the ground/ test of courage/ search and escort/ recall from criminal/ pursuit anddetention of criminal.

It is a time consuming sport, there are a lot of elements to train and your dog must be fit and agile.But it is a lot of fun, everyone roots for to qualify and the dogs really enjoy themselves, especiallythe nosework.

For more information talk to Dianne Ashton-Bowtle as she competes in Working Trails with herdog Finn or visit www.workingtrialsworld.co.uk

COMMITTEE CORNERIn this section of Our Newsletter we aim to inform our members on information from ourCommittee, however in this edition the aim is for you to get to know our committee a little better.

The Members of the Committee are: John Swannell–Chairman/ Marlene McNulty–Secretary/Stephanie Petrusevicius–Treasurer and Instructor/ Dianne Ashton-Bowtle/ Pauline White/Paul Dale/Carol Pasfield.

This issue will focus on: Dianne Ashton-Bowtle

Some years have passed since my last prose, summer newsletter 2001! So an update on our GermanShepherd Gang: Oban joined Tanser as a PAT dog, Paddy and Kelly both had cancer. Oban’s brother Ben came home a year after him. When Tanser died he took over PAT duties with his brother. Bonnie wenttotally blind virtually over night, lost her place in the Display team, so Oban took over! He was known asthe team clown, even had a clowns hat! Smokie III sadly succumbed to age and CDRM, born and died ahooligan, but very much loved and still missed character.

Working Trails took my attention, firstly with Bonnie then she went so Oban had a go, very agile for a bigboy, but at 6 years old, a bit late to start. (Apart from learning to chase bunnies not a help on sendaways!)

A puppy then! So Smokie IIII, not a good specimen but we enjoyed learning. Meanwhile we were asked tofoster Kia, needless to say she ended up staying! A great worker and if she had been in more experiencedhands would easily have made TDX, but hey we had fun trying and now she loves her occasional agility(lower jumps).

Oban and Smokie IIII both died young and unexpectedly hidden internal problems. We rehomed Cindy whounfortunately doesn’t like other bitches, so when she got too rough for Ben, JD joined the firm. Ben enjoyed a comfortable retirement until both he and Bonnie developed cancer, luckily very quick so that they didn’t suffer for long.

Our latest and probably our last pup is Finn, hopefully he will take me on in working trails, who knows wemay even achieve that TDX. Training Methods have changed radically since our first Smokie, certainly forthe better as far as I’m concerned. We still think there is nothing to touch a GSD in our opinion, so enjoy your dogs whatever they are, we certainly enjoy ours!

Dianne

Trainers Tips…

Hide & Seek by Stephanie Petrusevicius

Equipment needed:Short line or flat collarHelper/Treats/toy & lots of fuss

This game will encourage your pup or adult dog to want to be with you and it’s easy to playand all the family can help. Start by getting your helper to hold your dog on a light line orflat collar, encourage your dog to look at you (you can show the dog the food or toy) as youquickly pop out of the room leaving the door open as soon as soon as you are out of sightyour helper should let the dog go, if your dog comes quickly to find you reward like madwith either food toy or a big fuss. If you have a very excitable dog that jumps up at you orlikes to grab hold of you, use your food or toy to get the dog focused repeat this game afew times, then try it in the garden and other parts of the house, you can then move on totrying it outside at the training field or in the park or woods, don’t make it too hard, we want your dog to succeed and have fun, do be aware what is going on around you (peoplechildren rabbits and other dogs can take your dogs attention away from you) you can extend thegame by when your dog has found you and had its reward your helper can hide and call thedogs name so they can find them. This game will help with your dog’s recalls attention on you and searching but most of all HAVING FUN with you and the family.

We are also looking for donationsof raffle prizes! If you have anyunwanted gifts, dog themed goodsetc please drop them at the frontdesk, to help us with many of theraffles we run throughout theyear.

DISPLAYS: Due to the dreadful weather we havehad, there were a number of cancellations of Events,5 in total, consequently the PACESTTERS have onlyperformed 3 displays to-date, but the Team arebooked to perform at the Jaguar Show atRockingham Castle (nr. Corby) on Sunday August 5and at Coventry on Sunday August 26 and MondayAugust 27 (Bank Holiday w/end) at ArburyHall,Coventry. Both of these are big events, so ifyou any members and friends, have an afternoon tospare, it would be great if you could come along andsupport the PACESETTERS.

WINTER TRAINING:Winter training will start onTuesday September 4th 2012,all Classes will be back in theHall. A letter with the detailsof the timing of classes etc. is

available.

RACE NIGHT:The 2012 Race Night is on Saturday October6th 2012, in the Village Hall. Don’t forget to buy your horses and also come along in theevening, it is a really good night and weneed the support of our Members.

CLUB CLOSED: Please note the Club will be Closed onTuesday August 28th 2012.

House of Canine

Based on the out skirts of the historic village, Brixworth, Northamptonshire, we are a familyrun Day-Care and Boarding kennel. Taking only a few dogs at a time to give the bestattention possible. I have been involved with both horses and dogs since childhood, in 2006my love of dogs led me to join Duston German Shepherd Club, and soon became a memberof the PaceSetters Display Team. 2010 I became sure that my future is with dogs and as aresult searched for a suitable opportunity. In late 2011 an opportunity came to purchase akennel in Brixworth suitable for day care and boarding, training, and the supply of productsfor dogs and owners; House of Canine was born..................

please take time to come and visit

Call

All kennels are heated with large outside runs.

Our individual kennels are all of good size and can accommodate more than one dog ifrequired. There are two enclosed paddock areas for supervised, free play and exercise time.

All dogs will have 2 walks per day. Dogs will have regular breaks to relieve themselves duringthe day, and a late evening stroll before bed at 10pm, in order to keep their kennel stay asaccident free as possible.

House of canine supports and is directly involved with many dog sports, and has close tieswith specialised trainers. Our network of trainers can provide support in the right direction.

There will be many different activities and we will keep the website updated with any newsof changes and developments.

Special requests may be catered for, as required.

Actual in kennel time is kept to a minimum.

Call Caroline on 07869 178940

www.houseofcanine.co.uk

If you have any spare orunwanted dog beds, duvets,blankets and towels then pleasecan you pass them on toCaroline French for her newbusiness venture, House OfCanine boarding kennels.

Sponsored Walk

Many thanks to everyone (including dogs) who took part in the SponsoredWalk on June 19th 2012, to date we have raised £442.20, are very goodeffort, we are still waiting for a few sponsors.

The Dog Of The Issue (or DOTI) features Bailey having funin his paddling pool, he is 9 years old and owned by

Victoria Keates.

If you would like your dog to have a chance to be DOTI inthe Autumn Edition of the newsletter then please send

your AUTUMN themed photographs togsdnewshound@live.co.uk and see if your photo is picked

to be the next Dog Of The Issue!