Interested in starting a GSD club in Ontario, Canada.

[Liesje]

Flyball is, like any sport, what you make of it. If you train it correctly it is not any riskier than any other sport (agility with steep contacts, SchH with a steep A-frame, high jump, and long bites). You don't need any other dogs/breeds unless you want to run Variety teams but are not required to. You can run any size dog. Our club has a variety team (Nikon's usually on it) but a lot of the clubs we race against just have 1, 2, or 3 Standard teams.

[Liesje]

Wow Trish was not kidding there are 30 U-Fli clubs in Ontario, and that's just U-Fli league.

[elisabeth_00117]

For me, I am not so much interested in flyball. Zefra was training with the club and a private trainer for schH and we do agility as well.

I think what we would like (at least for myself) is a good group of people to train dogs in and enjoy doing multiple sports with.

Angel and I enjoy doing a little bit of everything with our dogs and having a core group of like-minded people to do that with is the main goal.

As for the decoy's and clubs - yes, lots of great decoys in our area - again, a few hours drive with traffic and I personally work 12-14 hours per day so going to a club that is 1-2 hours away without traffic (with Toronto traffic.... could add 1-2 hours or more to that) is unrealistic.

We have talked to a few people from GSSCC who have been GREAT at helping to get our club going (have been for almost 2 years now) but we need to find people who are as dedicated at making something new work as we are. Also, the area we are in would be perfect for a club, even had some people offer to leave other clubs to come out here... we just need a location to train which has been the biggest issue. I am hoping to buy property soon but am still looking, this will help I believe as this has been our biggest stressor.

[onyx'girl]

Is there a police dept property that you could train on? Set up jump/a-frame(if you have them) and leave them there?
We were able to do this when we didn't have a place to train. And nobody messed with us, because they thought we were part of the LE's or something.
We tracked on nearby industrial park property(Sunday's~ no businesses were open) so it worked for us fairly well. We did pay the helper so it got expensive as compared to club dues, but we didn't have to buy sleeves/equipment for the helper, he provided blinds as well. It wasn't a 'club' but a training group/though it was a core group of dedicated teams.

[elisabeth_00117]

We have all of the equipment necessary and yes, we currently do train on police property (with permission) BUT there are no lights, so especially in the winter months... people tend not to train because we are in the dark and most people work until at least 5, so by then it is already dark dark outside.

[onyx'girl]

So Sunday's are not doable? No local training place you can rent winter months? We were lucky to use a dog day care on Sunday's, it was small but we could do obedience and work on some protection exercises.

[Liesje]

Yeah, space is hard because it has to be accessible for the club but not too public or you get random people crashing training. I used to train with a few friends during the week and we used local parks but many times had to leave because all the space was being used or ended up not getting much accomplished because of the distractions (moreso for us than the dogs, it's hard for me to concentrate on something like a problem solving track when five games are happening). Right now I'm not doing any SchH in the winter because my club is too far to drive in bad weather and it's pitch dark by the time I get home so I can't even train on my own. My neighbor has a bright light in the back but my yard is too small for training.

[elisabeth_00117]

Lies - that is EXACTLY our issue.

One of the main reasons I believe our decoy "vanished" was because of this issue. He is a great guy and I hope he comes back when we have a place to train regularly but we moved from location to location (due to light sources) but can't do protection on public property.... just not going to go there... LOL.. especially in our area.. lol.

I have looked into renting a bunch of places but it's too exspensive in this area for club members and because we are a smaller club (most of us newbies) we just can't afford it right now. Hence, why I am trying to purchase a place sooner rather than later.

I am changing jobs right now (promotion) so it might not be until the spring or even summer.

[onyx'girl]

no daycare's in your area? Usually Sundays are good days for them to make a bit extra...at least pay for heating, and if you get one that is into training with you...then bonus!

[Liesje]

Originally Posted by elisabeth_00117

Lies - that is EXACTLY our issue.

One of the main reasons I believe our decoy "vanished" was because of this issue. He is a great guy and I hope he comes back when we have a place to train regularly but we moved from location to location (due to light sources) but can't do protection on public property.... just not going to go there... LOL.. especially in our area.. lol.

I have looked into renting a bunch of places but it's too exspensive in this area for club members and because we are a smaller club (most of us newbies) we just can't afford it right now. Hence, why I am trying to purchase a place sooner rather than later.

I am changing jobs right now (promotion) so it might not be until the spring or even summer.

Yeah it's a bummer. I think our Schutzhund club lost access to the horse arena they used last winter so I'm not sure what is going on now. I guess we just train at the normal place if the weather is bearable enough. I'm OK training out in the snow, it's the driving 2.5 hours on a snow belt that I often have to put my foot down about.

We even have this problem with flyball, though it's now been steady for over a year. It bounced around from place to place for a while. Even now though we get kicked out if there's an event scheduled. We were supposed to have training today but they just assumed we wouldn't train on a holiday and booked another event in our spot. Even though it's a great facility and they give us a good deal, it still is nice if you have some space someone owns so you aren't at someone else's mercy with the scheduling.