Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2009 9:01 pm Post subject: What does 'your' gundog club do to introduce new members?
It's only a couple a weeks ago that I ran in a test and then suddenly noticed that nobody had spoken one single word to a 'new face'. I had a word with her and it turned out that it was the very first time that she'd ever run in any test and didn't really know a great deal about how tests are conducted or even how the score system worked. I see this type of thing too often and it made me think:
What does 'your' local gundog club do to introduce new members?
I know that we've got a few on here that are either on boards or are indeed WT sec's so it would be interesting to hear if there are any clubs that have some special initiatives for new members?
And to the 'new and up and coming stars':
What would like to have 'tried out?' or have the opportunity to try and 'have a go at' with in the club?
Natasha
____________
WLF All the Way!!!!
"Handle every stressful situation like a dog. If you can´t eat it or hump it. **** on it and walk away..."
i think clubs could do alot to help new members who like me are complete novices. They could run taster days with maybe a few tests - to show people what was involved in entering a test without the nerves and stress of an actual test.
The game conservancy tests were really good the other week. Ideal way to start - more clubs could try this approach.
What about a talk at the taster day or an article in the news letters or on the websites about what to expect at a test. What to do, what not to do! What to wear etc.
Also it could be made more obvious that people can help or watch the tests to encourage people to go along. This mayb needs to feature on the web sites as if you're already joined the club you're taken that first step.
This forum and people i've met through it have been invaluable in getting me into the gun dog world and without them, i'd still be confused, apprehensive about joining or going along to events
____________ Sam, Coal & Finn
It�s never too late to be what you might have been
All photographs remain copyrighted to me with al
I didn't know anyone at my first KSS training day (apart from KMH) and I just stood there with Jasper looking very awkward until she arrived. I then spotted Di and said hello to her at the end but I think if I hadn't of known KMH I probably would've left before the training started as no-one said hello or anything. Wasn't particularly friendly but I knew it was important for Jasper and I to be there. I admit I haven't been for a few months but even at my last class no-one said hello or spoke to me and I'm too shy to go over and introduce myself.
At SEGS I knew my trainer and KMH (again) which helped. BUt still no-one put themselves out to say Hi.
I think if you are very new to the lifestyle of gundogs and training it helps to make you feel welcome. But I got the feeling you were sized up as you drove in, when you paid your money and then in class as to whether you should be spoken to or not (or not in my case). Not everyone is brash and bold some are (like me) absolutely terrified of new situations like this and it doesn't help when you aren't made to feel scrutanized.
Maybe, a suggestion would be to put an advert up on their websites saying that for newbies to training/gundog life could meet 30 mins earlier on their training days to meet a handful of more experienced members of the groups to ask questions and maybe watch some very simple retrieves so that they have an idea of the goal?
Well Natasha I am member of quite a few clubs up here in Scotland and across the border in England, and a part from a couple that will offer some training days, most do nothing for new members.
There are even a couple in Scotland that don't even put on working tests, just a couple of trials each year, but they are still happy to take your membership money each year.
As a newbie to the Khaki-World this year, it has been a bit tough at times feeling like I am entering into a whole new world when I turn up in my Skoda, wearing my cut-off jeans accompanied by the slowest ol' gundog in the world and everyone else is parking their 4x4's, looking the biz in their moleskins and with a matching brace of Labs-on-Speed! I haven't found it to be unwelcoming though, but then I've only been to training and not competed, but I've had to make an effort to initiate conversations as everyone else seems to know each other and talk about things that are way over my head.
I end up asking a lot of questions about their dogs, and asking for advice and then once they see Zorro in (slow) action and had a bit of banter about his quirks, the ice is generally broken! Zorro's very good for that!!!
I think I went along with the expectation that I would be on the outside for sometime until I've served my 'apprenticeship'. I've found that trainers and other members have always been very happy to offer advice and show me the ropes, so long as I confess my ignorance and ask for guidance!
I think that the idea of having a newbies- taster-test session would be extremely useful, as would any written literature about what to do and what to expect. A kind of 'buddying' arrangement where an experienced member takes you under their wing would be wonderful too in an ideal world. I don't know that I would have ventured this far without Lab Forum encouraging me on, as I come from a completely non-countryfide background and wouldn't have had a clue where to start otherwise, nor what was on offer out there.
But on the whole, I have found the Khaki-Folk I've met to be a lot more friendly and welcoming than any of the other dog-sports that I've done in the past (and not nearly as wacky as The Triangles!!!! )
This year was the first year in about 15 years that I have been to a "Gundog" club. Believe me it used to be worse. This year, there were 3 "Newbies" and we did stick together. I made an effort to get to know the trainers and club team.
I have a young Lab, but I decided at the beginning that we would not enter any trials or tests, but see what goes on. I therefore "volunteered" myself for as many working tests I could. This has given me the opportunity to meet the Judges, test secretaries and see what goes on at a test. It also gave me a chance to see what others do with their dogs. Walking up to an owner after they have completed a test and congratulating them is an ideal chance to start a conversation.
The original post was about clubs and what they do for newbies. The club I am with has a Working Test Training Day, but at the end of the summer. Ideally for the start of the working season. It would be nice for a list of those members that offered training sessions away from the club training days. Or a list of other members so that you could create your own self help group, but with backing from the club. I have loads of ideas, but don't feel that I am in a position to make the suggestions. Rocking the boat and all that...
On introductions etc. Yes, most people know each other as they have been doing it years, but if you say "Hello" most will respond back.
Don't worry about rocking the boat Willu. And welcome.
Problem is that most of us who have been around for a while have not been "New" for so long that we tend to have forgotten what it was like when we were new. It's not that we deliberatly cut people out, more that we have made friends with people who we possibly only see at training so are catching up on probably a months news. I did try to circulate before training and have a word with all of my class, if only to brief them on what I was intending to do that morning.
At the first gundog club that I joined, I was asked to come along to a novice test to have a look at what we'd be aiming towards.
On the appointed day, I followed the directions I had been posted, and the membership secretary waited for me at the sign-in table, and then introduced me to the committee members nearby. We then walked off towards the first test (he was competing), and I was invited to come and stand near him during the test. I got to hear the judge describing what was going to happen, I got to watch him work his dog, I got to see the dog in action. Then we moved on to the next test, and the next, etc. Each time, after he'd done his test, we were allowed to watch the next person doing it, and that was when I was allowed to ask him questions about why things were done certain ways etc.
Then, after that day was over, he emailed me and asked me if I was free to help out at a test in a few weeks time. So I did, and again he met me, introduced me to people, and then found me a job to do on each test. It was fantastic, I learnt so much in those two days, and by the end of them, I may not have known everyone's names, but the faces were familiar, so I wasn't so shy in chatting to people at training after that.
It was a fantastic introduction to Khaki Land in the UK, and I felt like the club was investing some time in me, which was wonderful.
Even though that club is now 250 miles from where I live, I am still a member, and we try to time our visits Oooop Norf to see family with an event at the club I can assist... or shock horror, enter Vegas into
I tried phoning my local club and then emailed them twice before I got an answer. When I explained that my Labrador was a deer tracking dog and that I felt that training her also for field work would be a benefit it seemed to me that the communications from their end got a bit frosty.
I'm now however working with other deer trackers to set up our own website and tracking club for all tracking breeds. So far we have had two 'deer tracking dog days' and we have a lot of interest growing from the various websites we post on. I'd say that we have at least forty hard core members and as many again that are very interested.
Some of us are filthy rich and turn up to events in BMW X5's others like myself are just ordinary working class people and drive tatty old Land Rovers, but this doesn't matter a jot; infact on one 'dog day' a chap walking his Cocker saw one of our roadside signs and came to have a look, no one knew him but within five minutes of arriving we had him up infront of the class as part of the demonstration!
I personally feel that some clubs take themselves too seriously and try to deter new members that are from the wrong side of the tracks, that is their loss.
Our club hopes to have it's website up and running before Christmas and we will be having a two day training course in European deer tracking methods in early spring which will be hosted by two Danish Schweiss Registered deer trackers.
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