Hans K9 - Page 6

Typo sorry - WUSV

Steve are you in a schutzhund club or a party club?  We train in the morning -and in the evening- do Europeans drink beer in the AM while training?  I can't imagine.... lol...

That's funny. European clubs, at least the German variety, are a LOT different than most of the US clubs. The land for the clubs (not just SchH clubs, shooting clubs, tennis clubs, horse clubs... all kinds of sports clubs)  is usually on property owned by the local townships, used by recreation-interest clubs on long-term agreements for little/no rent, taxes etc., grand-fathered in. The clubs erect the buildings and improve the property, maintain it all with volunteer labor and materials purchased with club funds. VERY rarely are club fields located on private property. A lot of members may be local residents, maybe not sports enthusiasts, who enjoy the social aspects of the club environment. Membership numbers are usually high by comparison, dues low. Whole generations are essentially raised at clubs, literally second homes several days/nights a week. There are thousands of clubs in Germany, SV, DVG, Boxer, Rottweiler, Doberman, you name it. Don't like your present club anymore? No problem, drive a half mile or a mile and there's probably another one. Most of them host several events a year, participate in local festivals, parades, fund-raisers... nothing like here.

Clubhouses are like restaurants/bars, most with full kitchens, permanent holding boxes for club members, playgrounds for the kids. Some even have permanent kennels, space handed down through generations of members, and showers, even a guest room for visitors. All members have keys to the club.

Beer, alcohol and good food is a "given". The kitchens have a regular staff of volunteers and there always seems to be some old retired geezer or two who live down the street, doesn't even train for the sport? that maintains the grounds, lawn equipment, chief cook and bottle washer, babysitter... Its all much neater than 90% of the clubs here, most of which struggle to find a place to set up their blinds, always worried about noise, money, etc. Another nice thing- every region has plenty of judges. No need to fly in a judge, get them a hotel for a few nights, worry about a translator, any of that stuff... The judge arrives in the morning, judges the event, lifts a few glasses and goes home. Here it can cost thousands to host a club event, helpers are hard to find, and everybody is in a hurry to work their dog and go. There, training goes on and on, sunrise to sunset and after. Most of the fields have excellent lighting. People meet outside regular training hours in smaller groups whenever they have a couple of hours and want to get in a bit of trial prep.

I don't know of that many clubs here that have clubhouses and of the ones I do almost all are on private property at a professional trainer's place. Care, maintenance, taxes are generally borne by the kennel owner, although an occasional work-party is not unusual (except here at my club... where I do it all LOL)

SS

Happyday
If you are a Girl then i will certainly give you the time and i am sure Ronny would as well
Shelley
Yes, the local council does indeed own the land and the building, that is the good thing in Belgium they do try and help the people of there Dorp or villages
Our Pigeon Club is owned by the council With a Bar of course
Plus in the same area you have a Archery Club, and two other types of sporting clubs but have not been inside those, so not sure what they are
Regards our Club we maintain the upkeep of it, we maintain the work field, we keep the club house up together
We have a committee in the club who run it and we have a general meeting every year another one later this year as the club is holding the Belgian Championship
We do not get any outsiders coming into the club other than members, sometimes the members may bring there children but i think only a fellow named Dirk does that he has two kids who come along with him on a Sundays training  if the weather is warm enough
But for us the club is there for the Dogs to work and once a dog sets its feet on the training field then it is serious business. until it steps off the field it has to work and there is no messing about
We get two dogs on the field at once i have said this  before one goes into a long down, the other one works then they change over this of course is for the obedience phase, once they are done another two do the same and so on, then when all have done there stint we go onto Protection, which of course is one at a time but each dog will be treated according to how it has progressed by the Pakwerker, and one other helper 
Tracking is done earlier if some want it. but not of course in the evenings only on a Sunday morning
and that is the system we use
One thing we do have
If it is a members birthday,mine is on June 16th I have already booked the lady who helps run the bar for us to have Bread and Bacon, after training, and a drink
I pay for it of course
What it is is just crispy Bacon and slices of crusty bread, goes down well with a Pincher
Orsome bring the Belgain Cakes every now and then and we all help ourselves
The people running the bar are normally the wives of the members or even a member himself if he has not bought his dog
As regarding dogs let into the club house Only Pups up to nine months old are allowed inside, other than that the dogs remain out of the club house

Steve

Luvmidog, As I mentioned, I have never heard of a fee to evaluate the dog by any club...until the post by happyday. :-) Most clubs that I am aware of have a limited number of times onwe can visit, usually 3 or 4 times. After that, the person must join, or move on. I know of no club that allows someone to come out and train on a visit-basis for months.

Mystere
That is what made me post to start with the evaluation fee, When i joined the main club i am in, i went there six times and i liked the way it was run
everyone friendly and remember my brother and i are the only two Englishmen in the club, everyone else is Belgian, but they made us welcome, I asked the system to join and they said it was not fair to take money from us to send to the VVDH until the new year when everyone paid there yearly fee as it was the beginning of november at the time, but we still trained there for the rest of that year and had the same help as everyone else
Rinus the Belgian team captain then said come over to Freds Club on the tuesday evenings, and we have gone since that time but we only have to pay the fee at one club only
For my 65 euros a year to the VVDH i can train everyday of the week at different clubs if i so wish to, but i only stick to the two clubs, twice evenings a week and a sunday morning
Yes, it is very good over here to train the Dogs several Englishmen come over to train at our club during the year for a week or so, one is coming over on March 22nd for two weeks
Rinus and Marcel will give him there time during the days and at the club, but they will not charge him one cent, they love to help people and there Dogs, and there help is like owniing a goldmine in the Dog world
Steve

Our club recently instated an evaluation fee of $50. for non-members. The fee can be applied to membership dues if the prospective member goes on to join the club. We did this because too many local breeders are selling poor quality dogs who cannot do the work as SchH prospects, sending them to our little club where they would take up a couple hours of valuable training time (always in a rush) then decide the sport was too much time and effort and disappear forever. One even tried to steal something from our helper! (We got it back)

SS

My experience has been that the valuable club taken for "evaluation" is the time it takes ti "evaluate" the owner, rather than the dog. There have been occasions where no one had a problem with the dog, who had a nice, social out-going temperament and ability. But, the handler showed themselves to be insufferable idiots at best, or a major and damaging problem on the hoof at worst.