Henry often writes for the German Shepherd magazine so we thought we'd give him his own space on the website to add his articles to.  Keep checking back for Henry's latest news......

July 2007 Reigate Branch News  -   by Henry Beavon  

Hello to you all from the Reigate Branch members and their Shepherds.   

I will start the report with a big “Well done” to Joe Demichele who successfully passed the second part of his dog training Instructors exams in April.   Joe is now a full time part of our excellent trainer team.

The Branch Annual General Meeting was held on 19th March.   Sue Bedford had to stand down as Chairman and Peter Baldwin was elected as our new Chairman.    We are please to see that Sue still attends most of the training meetings, keeping a watchful eye on proceedings.

Seven new dogs with their owners have joined Reigate Branch since the last report and we wish them all lots of fun with their training :-

Jacqui Lacroix with puppy Shadow;  Jon Cash with puppy Scooby-Doo;   Suzanne Alfield with rescue Pippa;   Louise Wakeman with puppy Sheba;    Anne Cook with puppy Jura;   Matthew Benedict-Taylor with puppy Buddy;   Bill Richardson with puppy Charity.

A date to note in your diary    Our summer barbecue will be on Saturday 28th July starting at 7pm.   The venue is at Judith Gardner’s,  Norwood Farm in Effingham and a warm dry evening has been booked.    There will be a nominal cost of £5 per person

Inter-branch Match Report.   The inter-branch meeting was held on Sunday 13th May near Camberley.   I was unable to attend so thank-you to Sandra for giving me information for the following report.

Firstly we would like to thank Camberley for hosting the event.   Your branch worked hard preparing for the event and on the day, also congratulations on winning.    Also congratulations for all the branches who took part and I think everyone who was at the Match deserves a very big pat on the back.   In many cases it was the first time branch members had taken part in any sort of obedience competition, so well done to you all.

Reigate managed to get two teams together this year although it was all a bit new to most of the members.   We believe it has been a good learning curve towards next years challenge and yes, all the members have volunteered for next year.

Reigate teams were mainly made up from Reigate members with Vicki from Byfleet and her Shepherd Polli joining one of our teams.   Our volunteers for teams A & B were ;-

Pre Beginners    Judith with Ava; Jane with Stryder; Diana with Sapphire and Lindsey with Floyd.    Beginners    Roger with Tom; Ann with Misha;  Joe with Max and Margaret with Inca.     Novice    Vicki with Polli;  Margaret with Katie;   Sandra with Saffron and Ann with Cara.

Margaret and I (Sandra) were so pleased with the performance of our teams particularly as we had hardly any free time to prepare our teams.   Only April and two weeks in May were available due to members having other commitments.    Previous to April we were all giving as much help as possible to Joe by giving him as much practice time of the floor as possible.   This of course proved to be very worthwhile.

The weather on Match day was quite appalling and we all got very wet.   However everyone enjoyed the experience and look forward to next years event.   We have already started training so we will be back with a lot of competitive spirit !!

Best wishes to all branch members and their Shepherds and a special thank-you to Eric Newman for producing this magazine.

August 2006 Reigate Branch News  -   by Henry Beavon

This was the first time that Reigate had ventured into the Inter-branch, we have never really put our mind to it seriously before, but decided to go for it this year, and boy are we glad that we did, we came fourth out of twelve teams.  We would like to say a big thank you to Oxhey for hosting the Match, especially to Judith and Bernadette they put so much into getting this off the ground, also thanks to  all the other club member for their hard work and to the Judges and stewards for given up their day.   We had a brilliant day.  Our team was going to be all Reigate members, but then we had an offer that we couldn’t refuse, Byfleet had a willing “victim”.    Therefore our team was made up of :-

Pre Beginners    Veronica with Indi (Reigate) and Jackie with Rosie (Reigate)

Beginners          Joe with Max (Reigate) and Ann with Cara, (Reigate)

Novice               Margaret with Jack (Reigate) and Vicki with Polli (Byfleet)

Three other members from Reigate and Byfleet stepped in to make up full teams for other branches :-

Margaret with Katie (Reigate) worked in Oxhey B team

Sandra with Saffron (Reigate) worked in Oxhey B team

Viv with Strider (Byfleet) worked in Bicesters' team

We would like to thank our club members who worked their dogs and for the willing volunteers.    Also thanks to those that came to supported us.  Well done to Camberley for winning and to all the branches that put in teams.   It was lovely to see so many Shepherds together.

Reigate Branch seems to be buzzing with new members and their fluffy young shepherds.   It is also good to see that many are progressing to the next class.  May I welcome the following to the fun world of training :-

Michael with Angel, Stuart with Honey, Arnold with Jasper, Nat and Carly with Lara, Alan with Ernie, Roger and Sally with Tom, Janine with Eris, Kate with Penny, Karen with Demon, Sara with Kyo, Phil and Robert with Kia, Mark with Buddy and Sally with Dexter.

Good luck and happy tail wagging training to you all.

Congratulation to Joe Demichele for passing part one of the Instructors course.    All his hard work and taking some “stick” when working with the senior class has paid-off.     Celebrations included the eating of a big chocolate cake.

Ann Dean’s Micha did have six puppies, so the wonders of modern technology that predicted a round half dozen were indeed correct.    Rumour has it that one of the puppies will be joining the Reigate Branch.

Many thanks to all our trainers without whom we would have no well trained shepherds and a special thanks to Pat Scragg for taking our training for an evening at short notice.  Best wishes from Reigate to you all.

Here's an old extract from 'The Shepherd Dog', BAGSD, by Henry:

Four months ago I was writing the last report and welcoming new puppies to the world of training.  A few weeks ago as I watched those same young dogs doing their training, I realised how quickly a German Shepherd grows during their first six months.  Crispin is now seven and I had also forgotten just how much fun the young dog gets out of their early training.

During November the branch held its annual competition and many thanks to Peter and Joan for judging and stewarding on the evening.

Joe and his young dog Max won the Puppy Class, Martina with Heidi won the Thor Trophy, a cup that was presented to the branch by Margaret.  Judith and Joy were Reserve with me and Crispin in third place.

The Christmas party was the usual bag of fun and our dogs enjoyed the evening as least as much as we, the owners did.  Many thanks to those who organised and prepared the food and drinks.

It all started with a demonstration of scent control, although control may not be the correct word.  I am sure that German Shepherds have a gene that gives them a high level of devilment.  This was evident when some of the dogs (yes Crispin, you as well) meandered through the scent articles, looked up at their owner, wagged a tail and returned with a wrong article.  I don't remember who won but does it matter.

The retrieve a sausage team game was the usual very noisy success.  No team was a clear winner except for the dogs who ate most of the sausages.  The best return was Judith's team with 3 and a quarter sausages out of a possible 7.

The sock relay race involved three teams and Judith's team were again the winners.  I wonder why some German Shepherds find it difficult to run when wearing socks without the socks falling off.  Crispin was useless and my team came a distant last.  I'm going to use sticky tape next year.

The quickest down was won by Margaret with Katie.  Katie was lightning quick.  Several dogs performed party tricks.  Heidi did a 'silent speak' sitting on her back legs with front paws in the air - very cute.  Sam sang a tune all of his own!  Kara very politely shook paws and has obviously been to many parties.  Molly gave a very good impression of 'playing dead'.  Joy sat and presented alternate paws.  Katie performed several left hand twists and Margaret has promised that Katie will also learn the right hand twist by next year.  Crispin gave a very scary demonstration of guarding a toy with growls and snarls and then let Margaret take the toy with lots of tail wagging. 

Twenty plus attended the post Christmas dinner at the Seven Stars pub in Leigh.  An excellent new venue with a good menu and not too expensive.  No dogs were allowed but I noticed some 'doggy' bags with left-overs so some four legged friends were not forgotten.  Thanks Sue for organising the evening. 

I forgot one of our new dogs in the last edition.  Robert with his puppy Bronson, sorry Robert.  Another new member Paula has three dogs: Carla in the puppy class, Ella in the 2nd class and Leila in the 3rd class. 

By the time you read this it will be spring with longer day time for longer walkies.   Best wishes to you all from Reigate and have a lovely summer.