How Many People Here Use Berwick Odc's Facilities?

[Paulp]

Our club is having a few issues with the council and a local resident. She moved in across the road from our club about 15 years ago and promptly started complaining about the club, the noise (apparently dogs make more noise than the footy oval next door where people honk their horns every time a goal is scored) traffic etc. She has generally been viewed as a nuisance by the council and other residents and the club but it seems she has recently bullied some of the local residents into agreeing with her and managed to get an ear on council which is making it difficult for us. Specifically we are trying to get a second storage shed built so that we can store equipment that is currently housed off site at members homes as we don't have the room in our current shed. Her complaints have barred this and we are currently trying to resolve the problem with council.

It would be useful to get an idea of how many non-club members use the facility during the week when we are not training to point out to the council how much use is made of the facilities. The council has put in very little money to improve the facilities (laser levelling site, building of off leash areas) most of it has been funded by the club.

So who uses the club grounds?

[slk]

I'm checking them out today. I'm also going to check out the training classes so I could be a member too. Some people have nothing better to do than moan about things.

[Purpley]

She isn't huge fan of the flyball dogs

I am a member that uses the facilities.

ETF spelling

Edited January 24, 2010 by Isiss

[JulesP]

I don't think I would like to live on the road that my dog club is on .

[Stolzseinrotts]

Some people live to complain (ie: whinge) about things.............I wish the club lots of luck in getting a permit for the extra shed.

Edited January 24, 2010 by Stolzseinrotts

[Erny]

This is the same person who has been complaining for years now? I remember the Club having same/similar issues from way back.

I utilise the grounds - sometimes the (yard) facilities. I generally use it just as somewhere different to go and/or when I wish to generalise my boy's training.

[Paulp]

She isn't huge fan of the flyball dogs

No, shes not. Not surprising given that we are the noisiest activity that goes on at the club but from her complaints you would think we train all weekend and every Wednesday night. Team training, which is far noisier than intermediate and beginners only goes for 45min-1hour on Saturday. We wonder sometimes what she would think if we held a flyball comp at the club grounds.......She's lucky that she doesn't have a neighbour with a noisy dog that barks every day.

I don't know if I would either JulesP, but then I wouldn't move into the street in the first place.

Thats the one Erny, she has just been a pain in the side in general to all users of Kalora Park and the residents but when we finally got our application to a planning meeting at council (that is whole other story) she had put in this great long list of objections and had somehow managed to get some other residents to sign it. What is really annoying is that the list is a load of hogwash and if the council bothered to send someone to investigate (eg. to see that any traffic issues are the result of overflow from the footy ground next door or the real noise levels from the dogs) or even look at their own records (to see that we had the appropriate permits and permissions for all comps held at the club grounds) they would see so.

[Staff'n'Toller]

I'm guessing that even if there was close to complete silence she would still be complaining because there is probably more to it (i.e. she doesn't like dogs and would rather just enjoy the grassy view ).

However, I have trained with the agility group in the past and it is super noisy being in the next ring. No offence intended but I wonder if you could do a major overhaul of how you run the flyballers training and do a full audit of dogs (who may not even be in flyball btw) who sit in cars and spend much of their time at the club barking due to people walking past etc.

I understand that team training is just as much for the social aspect for the humans but I wonder if you couldn't give each team a 20min timeslot then the noisy dogs have to go in the car or be taken home. How much barking do the instructors dogs do? (I don't know) Inevitably instructors dogs sit in the car or their crates getting highly aroused but don't get to run until the end...maybe they only come to their own team training, or get brought along by the instructor's OH's at the end. :D

I have myself witnessed a SWF in beginners training who barked non-stop for the whole hour it's not good for the dog, and it's not good for the dogs around him, as a trainer I know he can still do flyball without the noise ;) maybe some of the newbies and some of the oldies with dogs that bark permanently need to be told to make some changes or do more control work with their dogs.

Just a few suggestions, from an innocent bystander :D I think if you can show the council you are aware of her concerns and are making changes you might get your shed.

I know it's a lot harder with Flyball dogs but at another agility club I train at it's strict rules about how the dogs are handled and where they are kept in between classes and during setup/packup. There is next to no noise and OMG it's bliss to train there. Dogs that are high on adrenalin don't learn well anyway, they can't focus and their chance of injury is highly increased due their pain thresholds.

[Andisa]

I am not a member there but do take the dogs down to the off lead area sometimes.

Shame the dear old biddy didn't stop and think before she moved in that the footy grounds and dog training facilities might actually get used which is why they are there in the first place.

Good luck - hope you can get the go ahead with your shed.

[Purpley]

Maybe it's all the noisy flyballing staffords!! Haha I just realised who you were Paulp.

We should invite her to a flyball comp and then she will realise that it isn't really that noisy at training.

[Paulp]

Hi Staff'n'Toller, the club has built, and are building more, enclosures at the end of the clubrooms for instructors, committee members and helpers to house there dogs during training days so they don't have to be left in cars or on the deck in crates.

We looked at moving flyball down the other end of the grounds but, among other reasons it is impractical, there is not enough room for adequate run back down there.

At flyball comps our marquee is actually one of the quieter ones, once the dogs get in the ring though most of them are just as loud as any other team, I'm glad to say that mine is unusually quiet in the ring, maybe just a bit too relaxed.

Hi Ississ, I figured out who you were from the pics in your sig. The only time Ebon tends to bark is when those noisy staffies are running around in front of him!

[shoemonster]

Noisy staffords.....where?????!!!!

[JulesP]

It is always noticeably quieter at Croydon when the flyballers are off at a comp