NNASC Newsletters for  2008

From the:

Northern Nevada Australian Shepherd Club
September, 2008 Newsletter

From: Cynthia Kennedy

Our Next Meeting: We be playing over at our house (Cynthia & Patrick’s) this Friday, September 19th, starting about 4pm. The agility arena will be set-up with a course & we can run our dogs for a couple hours. Then, we’ll move up the hill to the front porch & have a BYO meat & side dish to share, BBQ. We’re tying to get in all the activities we can until the snow flies & we aren’t able to play outdoors as easily. If you have friends who might be interested in our club, please invite them. They don’t have to have Aussies.

We live at 500 Fandango Pass in the Virginia City Highlands. Our phone number is 847-9847.

PLEASE RSVP!

To get to our house from Carson City: Go to Virginia City (Hwy 50 east to Hwy 341). Drive thru VC, about 1 ½ mi. north of town you’ll see an exit for Lousetown Rd (don’t turn there) on the right, a little further on you’ll see a telephone microwave tower on the right, a little further on you’ll see a stone marker in a turn-out, also on the right. Just past that, turn on your LEFT blinker. There will be a road called Calavaras off to the right (don’t turn there), instead turn LEFT (south) on Fandango Pass (the street marker isn’t there presently). There is a billboard on the side of the mountain that says, “Ride the Train!” Drive up & over the small hill to where the road dead ends in a T. Go up the driveway that has a Smiling Pinto Station sign at the base. Then, if you’re doing agility, drive down past the barn to the agility area.

From Reno: Take Hwy 395 to the Virginia City exit. At the light at the Summit Shopping Center, turn left (east) & drive up the mountain towards VC. When you get on top of the mountain, it flattens out & there’s a straightaway. You’ll see the brick pillared entrance to the VC Highlands (don’t turn in there). Stay on the hwy, after a few more curves, you’ll see a Geiger Peak elevation sign at a turn out w/a big pile of dirt. Put on your right blinker. A block past the dirt pile you’ll see our street on the right & the “Ride the Train!” bill board against the mountain. Turn right there. Drive up & over the small hill to where the road dead ends in a T. Go up the driveway that has a Smiling Pinto Station sign at the base. Then, if you’re doing agility, drive down past the barn to the agility area.

Our Last Meeting: On August 23, we met at Gwen Marsh’s home. Katrina brought along some fun Gamblers/Jackpot courses & we ran our dogs over Gwen’s verdant agility field. It was a hot day, so after about an hour, we segued up to the house for our lunch & meeting. What a spread of food we had! The cherry on top was the homemade vanilla ice cream that Gwen churned, piled on top of the two delicious cakes that were brought. It was a major pig-out! We had 14 people at the meeting, including guests Noelle Leon-Cota, and Salli & Ron Dulco. Carrie Dempsey managed to get herself out of bed for the meeting, as she was suffering from a devastating bout of food poisoning. Portia Jelinek was also a bit subdued, as she’d just gotten back from a week of fire-fighting.

After opening the meeting, President Kennedy, and VP Jelinek had nothing to report. Secretary Lamoureaux had typed up the minutes from last month’s meeting. They were passed around, read & approved.

Treasurer Dempsey had an interesting report; our credit card number had been stolen & used for some very odd charges. Bank of America was informed of the theft & covered the losses. The card has been cancelled & a new one re-issued. Currently we have $2,800 in the bank.

Expenses: The baby gates were ordered & have arrived. They cost $674 for a 60 x 60 ring. The canopy expenditure has been put off til the spring. We still need to buy the new easels & dry erase boards. If we happen to earn a lot of money with some endeavor, we should think about having our own club trailer.

Our Obedience Pre-Trial at the ASCA Nationals: Entries are coming in & we now have over 50. The LV host club would like to use our baby gates & obedience equipment for the nationals. We would let them do this if they would waive the $500 they’re charging us for the two rings. We need some new panel & bar jumps. Carrie’s husband Mark, will build them. The club will borrow another broad jump from Cynthia.

New Business: Sherry Roach & Cari Carlson asked if the club would be interested in having Jennifer Cannon do a handling & grooming clinic before the Bonanza Kennel Club show at the end of this month. Financial specifics weren’t available as to how much this would actually cost us to fly Jennifer & her dog down here from Oregon for the clinic (she required this). We left it up to Sherry & Cari to come back with this info so we could determine how much it would cost divided by the number of people we could reasonably expect to participate.

There was no other new business, so we discussed our next meeting site. The alternative to Patrick & Cynthia’s was Portia’s home, so we’ll probably meet there in October. Then, we adjourned.

After the meeting, we all went back down to the agility field for more play. The dogs had a terrific time jumping in the creek & chasing around the trees. One of the reasons for meeting at Gwen’s was to ascertain if her rancho would be big enough for an agility trial. Our hopes were high that this would be possible. In looking though, at how much additional space would be needed for set-ups & parking, we realized that it just wouldn’t be practical. We were very disappointed that Fuji Park is till the only game in town.

Thank you very much, Gwen for hosting us.

You have the most fabulous home & agility field!

A brag from Ginger Firestone & Tux: Well, my brag for the week is that Tux got his title in Chances and Regular Labor Day weekend.  I am so excited about it.  It’s only Novice (vet), but we did it and we are so proud of our first accomplishment in agility with NADAC.  More to come next season.  I doubt we will do any more this season, but we still have tomorrow and the R2R show in Oct.  Still, we don’t have enough Qs already on the books to make anything else a reasonable expectation.  Next year, we hope to get Novice all filled out with outstandings and possibly even superiors.  Well, one can dream . . . . . .

Several of us were at the HA=HA trial & had some good runs. I know Portia was on a winning streak.

I didn't hear from anyone, though.

The Happy Tails Dog Walk is scheduled for Sept. 27 at Somersett Town Square, 7650 Town Square Way. Registration begins at 8 a.m., and the walk starts at 10 a.m.

Animals from the SPCA shelter will be on hand, along with exhibitors, demonstrations, music and dog contests. Donations to the SPCA thrift store of clothing, furniture, toys and other saleable items also will be accepted on site.

Proceeds from the event will go toward SPCA of Northern Nevada, a no-kill animal shelter.

Details: www.spcanevada.org or 324-7773.