Recently in Lomita Obedience Training Club Category

Spring is coming, a time of new beginnings.

So how about joining a dog obedience class with your pooch?

These classes are invaluable in providing a good bonding experience between dog and owner -- but also for getting some of those basic skills down. The groups are usually small enough that personal help is always available from the instructors; they're held at local parks so you can get out in the sunshine.

Need more reasons? They're really a lot of fun.

The Lomita Obedience Training Club offers classes for dogs and owners at all levels, from beginning obedience to advanced workshops. If you want to have some fun -- and your dog has had beginning obedience and knows the fundamentals -- how about learning how to get your dog to do some tricks to music?

Most classes meet on Tuesday nights, with a couple offerings on Wednesday mornings, beginning this week (March 8 and 9). The class sessions last for six to seven weeks and cost $70 through the Lomita city recreation and parks department.

Click here for the class schedule. Signups (cash or check only)  are in the office at Lomita Park, 24428 Eshelman Ave., Lomita, which also is where the classes meet. If you can't sign up this time, new sessions will begin in May again.

There are descriptions of all the classes on the website also.

Questions? Call 310-530-4814.

 

The Lomita Obedience Training Club had a record turnout Saturday when dog owners gathered to get their canines tested for the AKC's Canine Good Citizen Program.

Of the 14 dogs who took the test, 12 passed.

The training club administers the test two to three times a year -- the next test has not been

scheduled but will likely come up sometime in late summer (late August). We'll be sure to announce the date here when it becomes available. (If your dog has been through one of the club's training classes, they'll waive the $5 fee for the exam; check out the group's class schedule and class descriptions on their website).

(Below are a couple shots from Saturday's event held at Hathaway Park in Lomita. Because of the numbers who turned out, there was a bit of a wait to get called onto the basketball court where the formal exam was held; that gave owners a chance to practice with their dogs a bit.)

 

So what's the test good for?

"I always think of it as the first step to doing something more with your dog," said Barbara Millman, who headed up the team of examiners on Saturday. "There are some people who can get a house or an apartment to rent because their dog has passed the CGC."

 

 

The test was established in 1989 and stresses responsible pet ownership and basic good manners for dogs. Once dogs pass, they are in a better position to continue training for obedience, therapy, agility, tracking or performance events.

My dogs, Tess & Cowboy, were among those who passed, which was a thrill. They congratulate each other, below.

 

 

 

 

The Lomita Obedience Training Club held its obedience and conformation match on Sunday. 

See how the good dogs do it.

On Sunday April 25, stop by Lomita Park at 24428 Eshelman Ave. for the annual Obedience, Rally & Conformation Match sponsored by the nonprofit Lomita Obedience Training Club.

 

An entry table opens from 8 to 10 a.m. with the Rally course (for novices and advanced) beginning at 9 a.m. and the Obedience trials beginning at 10 a.m. with "movement and handling" at 11 a.m. and conformation at approximately noon.

Food and drinks will be available and entry forms can be downloaded: http://lomitadogtraining.org/Match.pdf.

And if you (and your dog) would like to learn more about obedience, check out the group's ongoing classes. (The club's "Top Dog 2009" team is pictured above.)

See Josh's earlier post for more information about what the match entails.

A new round of beginning dog obedience classes begins at 8:30 a.m. Saturday (March 6) taught by retired LAUSD special ed teacher Barbara Millman. Barbara's been training dogs for many years now and raises champion Shetland sheepdogs.

Rocket, Tess & Cowboy have all gone through her class.

Barbara's excellent, she trains with a gentle touch and keeps up with the latest dog training ideas. She's also active in the Lomita Obedience Training Club which offers numerous classes.

The six-week class (7th week is graduation) is held in the parking lot outside Kritter Korral Pet Shop (in the process of being changed to "Dino's Pet Shop" under new ownership) at 1724 Palos Verdes Drive North (at Western Avenue) in Harbor City.

The first class this Saturday is an orientation for owners only, so don't bring your dogs.

Cost is $60 which allows you to bring the dog back for refreshers for free.

Call 310-514-4924.

(There will be a break in this next session as Barbara will be out of town in March for a while.)

 

One advantage to being in a dog obedience class is that you get all the latest announcements of doggie events that are going on in the local area (Tess and I are currently going through Barbara Millman's beginning obedience class at Kritter Korral in Harbor City).

At 6:30 p.m. Thursday (Oct. 22), the Lomita Obedience Training Club will host Halloween festivities for dogs and their owners.

It happens at Lomita Park, 24428 Eshelman Ave., Lomita.

The party will include fun games such as bobbing for hot dogs (your dog will have to be pretty good in order to beat Barbara's star sheltie, Perry, who, I'm told, excells in that particular competition).

Costumes optional.

The nonprofit club was founded in 1954 (originally called the San pedro Obedience Training Club) and meets on the fourth Thursday of the month at the Lomita Park (normal meeting times are 7:30 p.m.). Check them out sometime, guests and visitors are always welcome and the club offers a full array of training classes for all ability levels and interests.

Call 310-530-4814 for more information or go to their Web site at the link above.

The Lomita Obedience Training Club will sponsor a dog obedience and conformation match this Sunday, April 5, at Lomita Park, 24428 Eshelman Ave., Lomita.

Spectators are encouraged to come and watch. Admission is free.

The day's full schedule begins with a rally event (9 a.m.) and then moves on to obedience trials and breed conformation. Food and drinks will be available for sale and the activities are set to end at around 2:30 p.m.

These matches are definitely worth the time.

And if you realize that maybe your canine needs some work, you can sign up for one of the many obedience classes the club offers.

You can bring your dog along to watch Sunday's match, by the way, but he or she must be leashed and generally well-behaved (absolutely no aggression issues).

 

The fur flew earlier this month (and that's a good thing) when nearly 1,500 dogs competed at North High in Torrance during the annual dog show sponsored by the South Bay American Kennel Club.

If you've never been to one of these shows, it's a great opportunity to get a peek behind the scenes: owners and handlers doing the last minute grooming and preparations before the dogs go into the ring, the judges as they check the dogs and make their final calls. (This show will be back again next year, but in the meantime, if you missed this one, there are schedules for other local dog shows listed online.)

There were dogs of all breeds, sizes and colors, from Welsh terriers to Great Pyrenees to greyhounds to dalmatians to bull terriers to border collies. You knew you were getting near the Old English Sheepdog station by the clumps of groomed hair seen skittering along the ground like tumbleweeds.

The overall Best in Show winner, as Josh reported in his Daily Breeze coverage of the Aug. 9-10 event, was a black standard poodle named Champion Randenn Tristar Affirmation -- from New York, no less.

Saturday's program was devoted to breed conformation where judges choose the best of breeds and then the best in a group of breeds, such as this judge at right who's ready to make a final call in the sporting group.

I missed the Sunday program due to church, but that was the day the dogs competed in obedience and "rally."

Barbara Millman, a San Pedro dog trainer (Rocket's  trainer, in fact) who has raised and trained champion Shetland sheepdogs, was overseeing much of that part of the show.

She told me later that a border collie, Highland the Next Generation UD (OK, so the name was really a lot longer but, as border collie people like to say, "That'll do") owned by Louise Meredith of Los Angeles earned a perfect score -- 200 out of 200 points -- in the rally competition. The dog earned 199 out of 200 in the utility obedience portion of the show.

To put it mildly, that's really quite remarkable, Barbarba said. And she should know, she's been the obedience trial chairwoman for the Lomita Obedience Training Club for more than a decade now.

"It's one amazing dog," she said of "Highland." But it doesn't come without top breeding qualities in a dog and lots and lots of work, both by the dog and owner.

As for Rally, that's fairly new to dog competitions in which owners work as a team with their dog to navigate a course with signs posted at various obedience stations.

If your dog knows basic obedience skills -- sit, stay, down and come -- you can sign up for the rally class offered at 7 p.m. Fridays by the Lomita Obedience Training Club. They have lots of other great classes as well.

But back to the show.

While I was there on Saturday, I snapped some pretty random pictures you can see here and on the jump to get a feel for the event if you missed it.

   

Here's a handler giving a blue merle shetland sheepdog a final once-over before heading into the judge's ring.