Dog club in need of new home

CELEBRATING 20 years of happy, healthy and positively trained dogs, the Empangeni Dog Club is finishing off the year on a somewhat sombre note as it struggles to find a new premises for its Richards Bay clientele.

After having spent many happy years at various fields in the Bay, including the rugby club’s field and, more recently, the Mondi Sports Complex field, the dog club will find itself ‘homeless’ in Richards Bay come January, should it not find a replacement venue.

This is because its contract with Mondi is coming to an end and will not be renewed.

‘Our Richards Bay clientele is almost quadruple to that of our Empangeni numbers, so this is a huge problem for us,’ said Empangeni Dog Club’s Lynne van den Heuvel.

‘We would be delighted if we could find any secure or fenced area with lighting, to enable us to train in the evenings.

‘We would require the field for one weekday night (Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday) and we usually train from 5.30pm to 7.30pm.

‘We only use positive training methods to teach our dogs, and we require that all dogs are under control at all times.

‘All dogs are also on-lead at all times, unless specifically requested by a trainer for a specific exercise, which is only done with dogs that are obedient enough to be off-lead.

‘We have been training on a field next to practising soccer players and never had an incident – in fact, we have never had any incidents at all.’

The training includes responsibility of pet owners, which means the owners pick up after their dogs so no ‘deposits’ are left on the field.

‘Our motto is ‘properly trained, man can be dog’s best friend’, and we try our absolute best to educate dog owners to train and raise their dogs responsibly.

The club is willing to pay rental fees for their use of a field, to contribute to the lighting and maintenance.

Annual club membership costs R200, which includes all dogs in the household with all courses R500.

Apart from running courses including obedience, dog agility and puppy training sessions, the club is a community organisation and often assists with medical expenses for needy emergency animal cases and sterilisations.

For venue suggestions, or membership information, the club can be contacted on info@empangenidogclub.org.za or 083 6468429.

HAVE YOUR SAY

Like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter.

For news straight to your phone invite us:

WhatsApp – 072 069 4169

Instagram – zululand_observer