The Montana Sharptail Chapter will be hosting a spring training and annual meeting April 20-24 in Three Forks Montana. The event will be at our usual location on Karyn Conner's ranch.
The annual meeting will be Saturday, April 23 at 10:00 am. We will be discussing the upcoming season events including testing and training opportunities. Also on the agenda will be to nominate and fill open Board positions. The Chapter will be electing Treasurer, Secretary, and President as well as adding and/or replacing Board members. A few folks have expressed interest in joining. If you are interested please contact a current board member or myself to find out more. The meeting will have an open forum for membership to share ideas. We want to hear what membership would like to get out of the chapter.
We are bringing in a professional trainer to assist members during the event. The trainer has extensive experience with NAVHDA testing and training including handling multiple Versatile Champions.
This will be an outstanding opportunity for folks to gain training skills and get hands on help. He will be focusing on Utility Testing skills but will also provide Natural Ability assistance. If you are wanting assistance with UT training he recommends that at a minimum your dog has a solid "recall" command and understands "whoa".
We will be charging a minimal fee to cover the trainer's expenses. The training fee will be somewhere between $60-$75 + bird expenses per participant based on how many folks attend. Bird costs are $5 for pigeons and $12.50 for chukars. We will need to get an approximate count on how many folks would like to participate so we can order enough birds and determine the training fee.
Please let me know if you are planning on attending.
The event will be limited to chapter members.
Additional information will be posted on the website and via email.
I look forward to seeing folks in April.
John Arkins
Montana Sharptail President