MONTHLY MEETING

SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 2005, 9:00 A.M.

MR. COOK'S PROPERTY (CALLAHAN, FL)

Meeting Minutes

Stephen Rosasco, club president, called the meeting to order at 12:05pm .

Members and quests present: David Goodie, Marcus Frisbee, Caleb Frisbee, Dennis and Brenda Ryan, Mike Haney, Zach Raulie, Larry Raulie, Stephen Rosasco, Brian McMillan, Charles Burns, Jane Vittitoe, Bill Dumas, Marilyn Dumas, Chris and Aimee Brinkac, Wayne and Dillon Chandler, Tommy Brooke.

Reading of last meeting’s minutes:  Last month’s minutes were not available.

Treasures Report:  Stephan Rosasco, filling in for treasurer Matt McKenzie, read the treasurer’s report.  The club had balance of $1675.01 in the checking account as of the end of May.  A detailed accounting may be obtained by contacting Stephen.

Presidents Message:  Club President, Stephen Rosasco, welcomed new member Jane Vittitoe and quests, Wayne and Dillon Chandler. He also gave a synopsis of his trip to the National HRC meeting where he represented our Club.  Some of the highlights; Total points to obtain a Grand Title was increased to 340; No immediate family member can run under a judge from that family; The charter fee for clubs was reinstated;  The Grand  in the fall of 2006 is going to be held in Savannah, Ga.; and new officers were elected.

Old Business; None to report

New Business: 

Snake Proofing: Stephen Rosasco attended a snake proofing clinic earlier this month and suggested that our club may want to hold a clinic sometime in the future.  We need a snake handler or a vet that handles snakes.  If you know someone who might be interested in helping out; contact a club officer.

Vet on premises for hunt test; we need to find one who may be interested.

Marshalling Seminar:  It was suggested that we try to co-ordinate a joint seminar with CFHRC.

Fun Test: Sept 18 has been selected as the date for the clubs ‘fun test’.  This will sort of be a dry run for the club’s preliminary test which will be held in the spring of 06.  Various committees will be formed in the near future.

Equipment: CFHRC has graciously offered the use of their equipment for our club to host the ‘fun test’ and later the Preliminary.  That solves our immediate need, but the procurement of equipment for our events will be the most important business of our club.  There is a need for a trailer to both store and haul equipment.  This is not a real pressing issue, but it was agreed that if someone comes across a deal to good to pass up, we can act upon it.  We can use four wheelers, gators, golf carts at our fun test. If you have access to any of these and can transport them to the field, and are willing to let the club use them, they are very helpful.

Raffle:  The club will plan to hold a raffle at our Preliminary test.  This is a good fund raiser for the club.  Think off unused or unwanted items to donate for the raffle. 

Events:  Drill Days #2 to be held June 25

               Training Day: CFHRC meeting at Betsy Reiney's place July 9. 

                                       NEFHRC members are invited and encouraged to attend.

                                       The next NEFHRC meeting will be July 17 in St.

                                        Augustine.

               DOCOF:  A team obedience competition for dog clubs held Labor Day

                                Weekend.  Contact Betsy, if interested in  participating.

DRILL DAYS

SUNDAY, JUNE 5, 2005, 9:00 A.M.

M&M Dairy (Northside Jacksonville)

Meeting Minutes

Attendees:  Mike Haney, Zach Raulie, Stephen Rosasco, Susan Schultz, Jane Vittitoe, Don Imfeld, Caleb & Marcus Frisbee, Bob Hyne, Charlie Burn, Chris & Amy Brinkac, Jeff Leonard, Fred Irving, Ernie Wade

Drills Days#1 Meeting Minutes:

About 15 trainers and their dogs joined in this past Sunday for the NEFHRC Drills Day #1. A slightly lower attendance than expected, but a very quality turn out at that. All levels of dogs were in attendance which gave us a wide variety of skills, but made the event very beneficial for all.

The M&M Dairy provided superb training grounds(very short grass and a wide open area). This made for a great place to conduct the variety of simple and some complex drills needed to advance our retrievers vocabulary. If you didn't make it this past Sunday, you missed a great opportunity to train in this type of situation which is rare to find in North East Florida. Make sure you don't miss the next Drills Day, soon to come.

Don (VP) started off the Drills by explaining the importance of aligning your retriever to marks. This was a very good topic for all of us. He explained that by properly aligning each of our dogs for singles, doubles, and even triples it will allow our retrievers a better opportunity to identify each mark. We used boxes to "place" and align each retriever that was on line. This aided in proper marking alignment.>

Don also explained the benefits to having our retrievers sit on the whistle command. "Whistle sits", whether for conducting advanced hunt test blinds, simple pattern blinds, or just being able to stop the retriever in a safety situation can really help to finish our retriever's bag of skills. Then entire group conducted a nice exercise showing how to start this process from sitting with a lead to a whistle sit.

We ended our field session by running a few singles and doubles for all the different dogs. The M&M Dairy also provided an excellent swimming pond where we gave all dogs the opportunity for singles, doubles and some blind retrieves for the more advanced dogs. We even christened a dog to his first swim!!!!!

After our session ended, we thanked all for joining in todays drills. A few of us stayed afterwards and enjoyed a nice lunch in the shade of the Dairy and discussed the overall day and what we would like to see next time for our drills day. We then proceeded to the Jacksonville Gun Club where we successfully did our damage to unsuspecting clay birds. 3 rounds later, a little tanner and a lot sorer we resided to our air conditioned vehicles.

What a day it was. Hope to see more of you next time.

One point we would all like to continually stress to keep your retriever successfully progressing forward in it's training would be to conduct drills or train on obedience on a daily basis. A solid training base of here, heel, & sit can never be overlooked. Even if you can only spare 10-15 minutes, as long as it is quality time, it will be well recieved. You will start to see your retriever evolve into a great companion and trained retriever.

One of the main topics that seems to be coming up in each of our training days and over some emails we receive is the problem of the dogs dropping bumpers/birds before they reach the handler. In a STARTED hunt test this is somewhat acceptable as the retreiver is allowed to do so as long as it is at the feet of the handler, but is totally unacceptable in SEASONED and FINISHED test where it should deliver to the handlers hand. I believe that at some point we should have a session on force-fetching. If you do not currently have a book about training a retriever or do not have one that discusses force-fetching, I would recommend that you do find one. Please look to our "LINKS" section on the website and feel free to contact any of us at NEFHRC for tips because we have all been there too. There are many books available that offer step-by-step advice on properly force-fetching a retriever. When done successfully and thoroughly it will take your retriever to the next level.

NEFHRC MEETING

SUNDAY, MAY 23, 2005, 1:00 P.M.

MR. COOK'S PROPERTY (CALLAHAN, FL)

Meeting Minutes

Attendees:  Stephen Rosasco (President); Don Imfeld (Vice President); Zach Raulie (Temp Secretary); Mike Haney, Colby & Michelle Eason, Allen Powell, Jeff Leonard, Susan Schultz, Duane & Shelly Thompson, Casey Williams, Betsy Reiney, Dave & Ginny Fincel, Charley Burn, Roger & Sally Laird, Dennis & Brenda Ryan, Buck Mann, Tracy Stubbs, Brian Parker, Roy Clarke, Mark Travis, and Phil Harris.

Club President, Stephen Rosasco, called meeting to order.  Everyone’s attendance was greatly appreciated.  Stephen expressed thanks to the landowner, Mr. Cook, and to Janet Wentworth for also helping our group gain permission to train.  Mike Haney recommended we all introduce ourselves, which we did. 

A separate water and land set up today allowed flexibility and simplicity for all levels of dogs training this morning.  Everyone was well pleased with the property and today’s setup.  A special thanks was made to Central FL HRC (Tracy, Brian, & Betsy) for aiding us with equipment and their vast knowledge of hunt tests.   

It was expressed that the group should use the NEFHRC Roster to contact each other for more training in-between monthly training sessions and to help find members that are located nearer to each other. 

Mike Haney provided tan and olive drab t-shirts with the NEFHRC logo available for sale.  These were a definite success for all the members and the club.  Mike also took orders for the nicer Columbia collared shirts.  Mike stated that we sold 27 t-shirts and took orders for 14 embroidered shirts.  This totaled $981.00 collected. 

Stephen discussed a few upcoming events:

1. Snake Proofing Clinic

-Was recommended that we put this information on our website

-Was recommended that we hold our own clinic on this topic

-Need to find a Veterinarian or professional to conduct clinic

-Will need a minimum of 20 dogs in attendance

2. D.U. Regional Sporting Clays Shoot (June 11^th)

-Mark Travis will be organizing this group

-Should take banner, t-shirts & information to promote NEFHRC & HRC

-Individually or 4-person teams

-8:30 a.m. Registration

3. Clay County Ducks Unlimited Banquet (June 18^th)

-Mike Haney & Zach Raulie will be in attendance

-Should take NEFHRC applications and promote at banquet

4. September “FUN TEST”

-$10 to $15/dog running

-Invite all area clubs

-Determine which weekend will have the best attendance

-Conduct as normal Hunt Test but allowing corrections

-Location?

-Offer lunch at a fee, similar to today

5. HRC National Meeting to be held in Memphis, TN on June 11^th.          

-Stephen, Club President, will be in attendance

Other Recommendations:

1. Conduct seminar on “How to be a Bird/Bumper Boy”
2. Need for an Equipment Manager
3. Need for a location to store equipment and gear
4. Need for ATV and/or Trailer for equipment

   Meeting Adjourned at 1:35 p.m.

NEFHRC MEETING

SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 2005, 12:30 P.M.

Mickey Wells's Place (Blanding and Morse)

Meeting Minutes

ATTENDEES:

Stephen Rosasco, President

Don Imfeld, Vice President

Brian McMillan, Secretary

Colby Eason

Michelle Eason

Allen Powell

Chris Brinkac

Jeff Leonard

Debbie McMillan

Duke Dubose

Susan Schultz

Duane Thompson

Sheily Thompson

Bill Dumas

Sharon Bowden

Jim Bowden

Marilyn Dumas

Claude Caviness

Stephen Rosasco, Club President, called the meeting to order. Everyone was welcomed to the NEFHRC first official meeting. Stephen opened the meeting by expressing appreciation for the turnout and the enthusiasm of the group. Everyone agreed that our first training day was a great success and that the dogs and owners had a good time. Special thanks were given to Mickey Wells, the owner of the property, where the club trained today. Introductions were made and the group was asked to vote on the "theme" for our Club. "Always for the Dogs" seemed to be the favorite of the group. Stephen shared our Logo (developed by Roger Snyder) with everyone and stated that we're in the process of getting a website and t-shirts, etc. Stephen referred to the article in the Florida Times Union last Sunday, April 17th, about our club and reported that 15 phone calls have been received as a result of the article. Jim Bowden, Field Rep from HRC and UKC, was in attendance and shared some of his valuable experience with the hunt clubs. We were encouraged to have monthly training days and to simulate hunting conditions as much as possible. The training days are very important; we can attract potential members by having regular training days. Another benefit is gaining new friends, hunting partners and support group, etc.