# Your club's policy on guests.



## bocron (Mar 15, 2009)

So just wondering where other clubs stand on allowing members to bring guests to watch. 
One of our members has brought guests on a few occasions. Usually it was visiting family, so whatever.
Tonight he brings his neighbor, the neighbor's daughter and her 3 kids, ages 2, 6 and 9. Of course they weren't really dog savvy so I spent the whole night making sure there wasn't an incident. As it was, the toddler got barked at when she got kind of wiggly and one of the dogs thought she should be addressed. 
Then to make matters worse, we were doing a birthday dinner for 3 of our helpers (all their birthdays are this month) and the 5 extra people was a bit of a stretch. One member ended up running to the store and getting more food just to help with the numbers.


----------



## lhczth (Apr 5, 2000)

That was EXTREMELY rude of your member!! Members must inform one of the officers (usually me) that they will be bringing a guest and make sure it is OK. Children are allowed, but I would be furious if I had to spend my training time supervising someone's brats (and, technically, that is what you were doing). I am not too tolerant in my old age.  I have gone off on members for not controlling their dogs so would have had no issue in making darn sure your member knew to never infringe on the club that way again. 

Anyhow, visitors are always welcome, but, as I said above, we must be informed. We also have specific rules about visitor behavior, children and pets.


----------



## Elaine (Sep 10, 2006)

What Lisa said.


----------



## lhczth (Apr 5, 2000)

Also, since our members must let us know about visitors, in your case I would have told the member that this was not a good night for them to come.


----------



## bocron (Mar 15, 2009)

Yeah, I was pretty sure that most clubs were alike in that members should notify the TD or the President. We are holding a trial in 2 weeks so are doubly nuts since people from other clubs are coming out to our practices to get a little time on our field. So to top it off we were hosting some other non-members.


----------



## skew12 (Aug 28, 2012)

lhczth said:


> That was EXTREMELY rude of your member!! Members must inform one of the officers (usually me) that they will be bringing a guest and make sure it is OK. Children are allowed, but I would be furious if I had to spend my training time supervising someone's brats (and, technically, that is what you were doing). I am not too tolerant in my old age.  I have gone off on members for not controlling their dogs so would have had no issue in making darn sure your member knew to never infringe on the club that way again.
> 
> Anyhow, visitors are always welcome, but, as I said above, we must be informed. We also have specific rules about visitor behavior, children and pets.


Sounds like a great response to. IMO that member took advantage of the situation and that shouldn't be allowed again.


----------



## bocron (Mar 15, 2009)

lhczth said:


> I would be furious if I had to spend my training time supervising someone's brats (and, technically, that is what you were doing). .


Yeah, to top it all off when all was said and done I never got my dog out on the field! I was so busy running around watching people and then running up to the house to make a quick pot of baked beans to add to the food I totally missed out on bite work.


----------



## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

I'm in Lisa's club now and I try to remember to let her or someone know even if my own HUSBAND will be joining me, lol. I would never invite someone without approval or at the very least letting a club official know in advance.

The group I trained with before that had a strict policy on guests and did not allow kids. That was because none of us owned the land we trained on. A mutual acquaintance set us up with a police/fire dept and they allowed us to park at their building and use part of their property to train, but because the club itself didn't carry any of the liability we only allowed visitors on certain days. So, if we had a few people seriously interested in coming out, we'd set a date and ask everyone to come with their dog on that day. If they were serious about joining our group, then they'd show up. Needless to say we probably weeded out 90% of the people that just wanted to watch and had no intention of training because they never even showed up to the guest days. We also only had one helper and at one time had all of our members working toward the same trial so we did not have the resources to accommodate spontaneous guests. 

And, the reason THAT group (the one where we met at the police dept) formed in the first place was because we previously trained at someone's property and there were always guests, often multiple families with young kids there to look at puppies and really had no interest or commitment to doing Schutzhund. It was incredibly distracting for those of us who were driving 2.5 hours each way to train towards very specific goals only to have little kids underfoot and having to stop to explain or justify every training tool/method. When it got to the point of interfering with how actual members were training then we moved to the police dept and never gave out the location unless someone was invited.


----------



## mycobraracr (Dec 4, 2011)

My club only allows visitors on the first Saturday of the month. There are always exceptions but... That is the rule we go by. One of the board members has to give approval and that's usually the TD. As for kids that has to be noted and addressed on a case by case. My TD has her kids out every training day.


----------



## bocron (Mar 15, 2009)

Many of our club members have kids. I'm fine with them coming out. The parents are dog savvy and have been instructed how to handle having kids out here. We don't want to be unfriendly, just sensible. Of course my kids grew up around Schutzhund and I think it was good for them AND the dogs. But the members have signed off on liability and they understand the risk. They also get that they are being careful because it's polite, NOT because the dogs are dangerous.


----------



## lhczth (Apr 5, 2000)

We had four guests yesterday, but all are dog people. We have a trial in 4 weeks so it is getting much more hectic here too. All the more reason why members MUST ask if it is OK to bring their guests especially non doggy friends. The training day for me ran almost 11 hours and I live here. Trials are difficult enough dealing with the public, but we accept that as par for the course. Don't need the added stress when training.


----------



## JakodaCD OA (May 14, 2000)

I know in our agility club, visitors are allowed to come 'watch', however, they can't disrupt training, and with that (including kids), if they are , they are asked to leave..


----------



## hunterisgreat (Jan 30, 2011)

Your club has three helpers? Damnit... I'm the only helper... This summer has been murder with the 100+ temps, 90+ humidity, and 10+ puppies & low drive dogs making me river-dance all over the place. 

Anyway, we let anybody come. We train at a public park so we can't really stop spectators anywho. We just let folks know, weeknights your guest dog may or maynot get worked depending on how long a night it is


----------



## bocron (Mar 15, 2009)

hunterisgreat said:


> Your club has three helpers? Damnit... I'm the only helper...


We have been there, too. For years my husband was the only helper most nights. Currently we have 5 (counting my husband, but he tries to only work the puppies since he likes them to get worked a certain way). One has a hurt shoulder from paddle boarding so will be out for another month or 2 at least, 1 just got accepted into the Navy Seals program so will be gone by spring. Which will leave us 2, both of whom can't come for the weeknight practice so not sure what we're going to do then.


----------

