TAKE THE LEAD DOG TRAINING CLUB
Northwood, Stoke-on-Trent
Take The Lead Dog Training Club was formed in 1991, (initially as St. Mary's Dog Training Club - taken from the name of the Church Hall where the classes were held), by two friends, Helen Fletcher and Brenda Spencer, who were both Secretaries and Instructors with two local Kennel Club registered training clubs. The Club ran from that Hall for 12 years until it was refurbished and dogs were not allowed back. So, therefore, we had to find new premises. It was not an easy task, the mere mention of dogs struck horror into people's minds.
We eventually found two Halls that would allow dogs, so we decided to run two nights, one on a Thursday and one on a Friday. Initially, the take-up was excellent, especially for the puppy class and course on the Friday evening. However as puppies grew older, there were fewer and fewer people having new puppies, so this was discontinued, as was the course on the Friday. People seemed not to want to go to training classes on a Friday evening. Maybe it was because it was the end of the week and people went shopping - we don't know. So it was decided to wind up the Friday classes and just continue with the Thursday only.
Thursday became difficult as at that time both Helen and Brenda wished to go to agility classes with their own dogs and these clashed. Fortunately Wednesday evenings were available so the classes were changed to Wednesday. And so it continues.
The basic pet obedience courses continue to be well filled and are usually booked up well in advance. The Intermediate class is also currently well filled. In the Advanced class we have some members who have been with us for many years - in fact some of them have come back with other dogs. We even have one member who travels all the way from Market Drayton and as we don't finish until around 10 p.m, she can't get back home much before 11 p.m. We must be doing something right!
Should you wish to contact us our numbers are Brenda Spencer - telephone 01782 847150, email brenda.spencer@btopenworld.com ; Helen Fletcher - telephone 01782 856416.
