Latest News

This is the Latest News Page for the Wiltshire Wet Leo's

November 30th 2008 - WONDERFUL SUCCESS FOR WILTSHIRE WET LEO'S. Well what can I say but many congratulations to the following members of the wiltshire wet leos team. At the Leonberger Club of Great Britain AGM it gave me great pleasure to see 4 members of our group receive awards for their achievements this year. They were awarded under the rules of the LCGB working section and presented by the Chair of the Working Sub Committee, Mr John Tyler. Charlotte Parry our youngest member received the Junior Handlers Cup for her fantastic handling of 3 dogs during our test day this October in very difficult conditions. Charlotte will have been competing against every other Leo junior handler in the UK, so a very big well done Charlotte, all your hard work paid off, we are all very proud of you. Also we must congratulate Lesley Garafoulakis with her boy Zeus who gained a water shield award with 15 points for her A and B Test passes this October a massive well done. I also took great pride in being the other recipient of a water shield award with 15 points for my passes's at A and B Test with my boy Ti and was delighted with the surprise of the award.

It was a very special moment for those present at the AGM to see our very own Fiona Parry receive the Working Sub Committee Special Award for her work and an A Test pass with her dog Echo. For those of you who don't know Echo suffers from suspected LP (Leonberger Pollyneuropothy) which renders the dog, in some cases, paralyses or with difficulty in walking and movement. Echo manages to keep her spirits up with the dedication and devotion of Fiona and her family and keeps as active as she can under the circumstances and we saw her, through bleary tear filled eyes, pass her A test this year a massive achievement for a dog with such problems. It was a very special moment so many congratulations to Fiona and Echo for such a well deserved special award, we are all so very proud of you both. I have added some photos taken at the AGM by Jamie to the gallery of the awards being given out for you to see.

Other news for this month:- our code of conduct for the group is up for all to see, the heads took great care to ensure that we have considered as many aspects as we can, but kept the flexible and friendly nature of the group going. I hope you will all agree it helps to clarify aspects of the running of our group for the benefit of all its members.

Lexi continues with her project to get the fleeces and polo shirts done for the group and we look forward to seeing the results soon. Lexi will also be trying to arrange a date with current members of the group to meet for a pre-season lunch to discuss the group activities for the year and have a good chin wag and catch up, so be prepared to book a slot for lunch sometime in March and thanks to Lexi for all her hard work so far in arranging these things.

Our new harness is well and truly underway and I am looking forward to seeing it delivered soon ready for next year. I'll get photo's of it up as soon as I take receipt of it. Many thanks Penny Tagoe for helping to fund half the cost of this project. The whole group will benefit from your generosity Penny, thank you.

For anyone who may be interested I am in the process of setting up another group for Leo's and their owners this time for Agility, contact me at Becki@leonius.net for more information if you would like to try your hand at this wonderful sport.

Well that is all our news for now, there should be some news for next month although I am expecting things to be a bit quieter now until March/April next year. Until next time, bye for now WWL.

October 31st 2008 - Now our season for 2008 is over you might think that there would be no news to report, but you would be wrong, the work still continues but this time not in the lake!

I have now confirmed the new dates for next years training sessions with our wonderful hosts, so check out the training sessions page where the dates for 2009 are to be found.

As a group we have now been together for one full season. It is now that we need to add some structure by selecting Heads for certain aspect of the group. We all have a role to play but have called on existing experience to fulfill roles that need to be dedicated to one person and for them to develop and train others in that role and take responsibility for it. Our new Heads of the group are as follows:

Head Trainer\Group & Website Administrator - Becki Belcher

Head Steward\2nd Trainer - Fiona Parry

Head Boatman - Trevor Jones

Head PR\Sponsorship & Fundraising - Carole D'Arcy Masters

Res Trainer\ Res Steward - Emma Field

All other member to Steward when needed.

This structure allows decisions about the group to be shared rather than be the burden of just one person it also shares the responsibilities for the group with other members. It will also allow the group to function if one of the Trainers is unavailable.

We have as our first task as Heads of the group started to put together a Code of Conduct for all our members to follow, members will also know where to come when they have any questions or problems. We feel this is a very positive step for our group and are sure that you will agree it will add clarity for everyone. All members will be asked to sign a copy of the Code of Conduct at the start of the next season, and the Code of Conduct will be forwarded to all members once it is finalised, it will also be available on the website for any new potential members to see how we operate as a group.

In other news: Our new harness is in the process of being quoted for, and hopefully then made, by a wonderful craftsman who has taken on this very special project for us, we look forward to using our nice new harness next season, hopefully having more than one harness will speed up the entry of dogs into the water and allow everyone a little more time in the water.

Lexi has been very busy organising our new 'Wiltshire Wet Leo fleeces' with our name and a Leo head Logo on the front. I look forward to wearing mine with great pride when they are ready and a big thank you goes to Lexi for her time and efforts in putting this project into action.

Anyone in the group who has a project, idea or event they would like to progress for the benefit of the group should e-mail the Heads with their ideas so we can help you to progress them.

The Water Test Certificates for the A and B test passes have now arrived and I shall be sending them to members who took part in this years Tests soon, along with a copy of a CD (which will go to all members who attended throughout the year) with all the photo's taken during the year, I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. Our thanks for all the lovely photo's must go to Mark Green, Jamie Belcher, Ross & Fiona Parry and anyone else who I have forgotten who contributed photo's this year for our groups website.

I spent the 19th October with John and Maureen Tyler helping on the Discover Dogs stand at the Leonberger Club of GB Championship Show. Lots of people expressed interest in working leos and we could have some new recruits to our group as a result of our days promotion in April 09.

As you will have noticed our group has a new website name www.wiltshirewetleos.co.uk, this means our address is much easier for new people to remember and reflects who we are more appropriately then when it was filtered through my own personal website. It also means with more website space we can have more images and articles on water work added to our site. If you as a member have an article you would like to contribute to the site or a story to tell, please send it to me for inclusion at Becki.

I hope to have some good news regarding our group at the end of November so come back then to hear all about it.

Well that's it for now, take care and count the days until our first session of next year.

Bye for now WWL.

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October 11th - It's amazing the difference a week can make. We all got together for our last day in the water, and the weather conditions could not have been more different to that of our test day just a week ago. Today we had sunshine to spare, no wind and nice warm conditions, perfect. So we all got into the water and enjoyed our last day of the season, doing a chosen activity that each person decided they wanted to try, which led to some rather imaginative combinations.

The dogs made the best of it, diving in and out of the water as if they knew it was the last time for a few months. With the morning session was finished we all tucked into an American style lunch which was delicious, everyone bringing a lovely selection of food for all to enjoy. The afternoon was a chance to try some boat launches and general boat work and everyone was very relaxed.

I must also say thank you from myself, Fiona and Carole, to our group, who presented the three of us with a wonderful gift each in thanks from them to us for getting the group up and running and for all the fun they have had this year. I can say on behalf of the three of us that they are more than welcome and from our hearts that all the hard work has been very much worth it.

It is going to be very hard to wait nearly five months before we can get back into the water but we shall grin and bear it. Our last pictures of the year are now in the Gallery, enjoy.

Anyone who would like to join our group for next year please contact either Becki or Carole for more details.

I have posted both the Test Managers Report & Judges Report for our 2008 Test day on to the Tests & Successes page for you all to read. We as a group are rightly proud of them both.

We look forward to welcoming new members for next year and keep an eye out for next years dates which we shall publish the minute we have them confirmed. We hope you have had fun following our progress over this past year and we look forward to posting more news next year.

Bye for now.

From all the Wiltshire Wet Leo's

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October 4th - Well what can I say, we had a wonderful day, the weather was awful, very windy which played havoc with the boat, some rain and it was very cold but our spirits were not dampened by this. We started our first ever official Leonberger Club of Great Britain Water Rescue Work Test Day with the judges briefing and the tests followed swiftly. We must say a massive thank you to our Judges for the day, John Tyler and Midge Clayton, who spent the day assessing our dogs and to our members performances. Everyone present did exceptionally well with all dogs behaving themselves with exemplary behaviour. All our members stepped up the plate and helped out, everyone taking a turn to do some some stewarding. Special thanks go to Trevor who did the lions share of the boatwork in very difficult conditions with Mark stepping in to give him a chance to take his own test with his dog and to have a rest. Special thanks also goes to Fiona, my right hand man and backbone on the day, for bringing the additional and much needed extra equipment and for running around like a whirlwind organising everyone. Also many thanks have to go to my long suffering husband, Jamie, for standing in the cold and taking all the wonderful photo's to document our day which can now be viewed in our Gallery.

Now to our results, we had a wonderful success rate, out of the 11 dogs that took part today 10 successfully passed their A Tests. The judges then invited 3 out of these 10 dogs to take their B tests and out of those 3 dogs 2 of them went on to passes their B Tests. I am immensely proud of everyone who did so well today.

These wonderful results have now been documented in the Test-Successes page for all to see, so go and check out how everyone did individually.

Our next and last day in the water this season is the 11th October (depending on weather conditions) when we shall have a half day of fun training and a half day BBQ to round off our year. Anyone who has taken part in the Wiltshire Wet Leo's this year is welcome to come and join us for the day, but please let us know if you are coming so that we can make sure that you know if we have to cancel the day at the last minute. It will hopefully be an American Style BB/Lunch so be prepared to bring a contribution to the day if you are coming.

This is a very tired but very happy trainer signing off from a most wonderful day of achievements. Goodbye for now, WWL WRTG.

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September 27th - Planning for our first test day on the 4th October is well underway and we are all getting really excited about the possibility of getting as many of our members their 'A test certificate pass' as possible. We will post the news and results as soon as they have been taken so come back next week and check out the results on our successes page.

Anyone wishing to enter their dogs during our test day please send in your entry forms ASAP so that you can be added to the list. Schedule and Entry forms can be downloaded from the Tests and Successes page.

We must share some fantastic news with you, one of our Wet Leo's, owned and loved by Gina and Perry, their 18 month old boy Nicco has passed his P.A.T. test and will start work as a Pets As Therapy dog in the very near future. We must say many congratulations to you all on your wonderful achievement and we look foward to seeing you at Wet Leo's again soon. Check out this latest picture of Nicco looking very handsome.

We have some images from Fiona of our August 30th's training session which include Thor who visited our group on the day and the pictures of Nicco the groups first newly crowned PAT dog.

I am currently working on the 2009 Wet Leo dates and hope to have these confirmed shortly, keep an eye on the Training Sessions page for further details.

This year I shall be helping at the Working Section for Leo's stand at the Leo Club of GB Championship show, so if you would like any information on Water Rescue or working Leo's come along for a chat and say hello.

Well until next week, I wish our members the very best of luck for the test day and hope the weather holds up for our big day.

Bye for now, WWL.

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September 18th - Sadly our training session on the 20th September has to cancelled as our trainer is poorly and won't be well in time for our next session, so our next time in the water will be 4th October, this will be our much awaited TEST day. So keep your fingers crossed for good weather, good health and good luck.

On a happier note the training session on the 13th September went very well. We all did a dry run of the A test using the stop watch and I am very hopeful that if the dogs do as well as they did at this training day we shall have some good news to report after 4th October. We don't have any photo's from this days training but please feel free to check out the other photo's from our gallery pages.

Our test day on 4th October will be for Tests A & B only, anyone interested in entering their Leo can download the entry form from the Tests and Successes's page.

Until next time, take care, WWL.

August 31st - August 23rd saw Wiltshire Wet Leo's do their first ever demonstration. This was an excellent experience for all who took part and we all learnt a lot from it. The dogs were a little distracted by the amount of people who were watching but, all in all, they did very well, they completed the tasks with lots of enthusiasm and we have to remember they are still very young dogs in their water work life. The demonstration was to our hosts the Cotswold Sailing Club, I couldn't think of a better way to say a very big thank you to them for allowing us to be a permanent fixture at their venue. We had an excited and patient audience of some 40+ people who asked lots of questions whilst our demonstration went ahead. Each dog entered the water completed a set task and did very well, especially considering we had had a break of 4 weeks since the last time in the water. At the end of the presentation and display we asked for any volunteers who wanted to have a go at being rescued by the dogs and lots of children came forward to give it a go. So with parental permission given each child entered the water with a handler and a dog was sent into do the rescue, each rescue went very well with the children enjoying themselves, some going in for a 2nd and 3rd time. We have some pictures of our demonstration day in the Gallery so please feel free to take a look.

Our last ordinary training session was on 30th August and went very well, most of the dogs are making excellent progress, with the weaker area's starting to show real improvement. We all took the plunge into the water, which it has to be said is starting to feel a little less friendly now that the year is marching on and the colder seasons are just around the corner. We have just 4 training session left for this season before we take a break through the worst of the winter weather and out of these we will have one test day to see how we are progressing and try to get some, if not all, of the dog passed their A Test certificate.

We were also joined by a visitor called Thor, a lovely male Leo who's owners, the Arnold's, whilst on their holiday in our area came along to see what we were up to and what water work is all about. We put Thor into the water to see how he would do and he was amazing, he took to the water like a duck, quite happy to have swimmers in the water with him, his face was a picture and not one that I will forget, just like most Leo's the first time they see one of us mad humans in the water with them, it was a 'Wow, you guys can swim too!' look, and he thoroughly enjoyed pulling us out of the water. We hope that he and the Arnold's enjoyed their day and find a group near them soon so that they can enjoy this wonderful activity some more. Don't forget to visit us again when your next down this way, you will be very welcome. We hope to have some pictures from our time in the water from this session soon.

Our next training session will be on the 13th September so if you wish to try out water work before the season comes to and end for this year, just send a note to either Becki or Carole and we will give you all the information you need to join us.

Until next time, goodbye for now, WWL.

August 2nd: Firstly we want to say how happy we all were to hear the Digby is making a good recovery from a poorly leg and hopes to rejoin the group soon with his owners Yaz and Sean, get back fast you guys we miss you. Also on the topic of Digby, we have been granted a free link from the LCGB to our WWL site so that anyone logging onto the links page will see our site, we are represented by a wonderful picture of Digby taken during one of our sessions earlier in the year, go take a look at the LGCB Links page, I think you will all agree he does us proud.

A late update on our last training day I'm afraid (today being 18th August) as I have been away on holiday. We started our training day on 2nd with the rain keeping us company, but were fortunate to see the sun make an appearance in time for us to have half the session with lovely conditions. The water was very still and for a change quite warm and all the Leo's had a great time going through the elements of the Test A. We are continue to practice ready for our test day, which should be either late September or early October, and all the dogs are improving steadily with some also ready for a try at Test B. I have added some of the images from our day to the gallery, there are some shots which should make some of you laugh and make Carole a little happier at not being the only WWL member with their bum on display in a shot on this website.

We also welcomed a new member to the group during this session, Honey, a 2 year old Leo girl, and her owner Kathleen, Honey did extremely well on her first tryout in the water and we look forward to them coming again and becoming members of the group and regular visitors.

This session also saw one of Racquels new puppies, Caruthers, finally take the plunge of his own accord and swim with one of our more experienced dogs, he did wonderfully well and we were so pleased there was more than one eye with a tear in it. For any Leo owner it is a proud moment when their babies finally feel brave enough to take the plunge on their own and swim without the owners help. So well done Racquel for her patience and to Caruthers for being so brave, your sister Millie is not far behind joining you so watch out.

Our next time in the water as a group will actually be a special demonstration day for our new hosts at the Cotswold Sailing Club. This will be a WWL group experienced members only function so unfortunately no visitors or new members will be able to join us on this occasion. This will be the first demo we have done as a new group and I am already organising, with John Tyler of the Hinchingbrook Wet leo's a well seasoned group who have many displays under their belts, for help and guidance. I shall try to get some images of the day so that you can see how it went but I have total faith in the dogs and owners who have been able to volunteer to come and help out.

Our next ordinary open training day will be the 30th August, anyone interested in joining the group or coming along to see what we are all about should contact either Becki or Carole for further information before attending.

Thats all our news for now.

Until next time, goodbye for now. WWL

July 27th 2008: Great News - Our new home has been confirmed, we now have a new and permanent home at the Cotswold Sailing Club, our group would like to thank Peter for all his hard work in getting this agreed and organised and to the Sailing Clubs Committee and the Club Members for being so welcoming and supportive of our activities at their location. We are extremely grateful to them and we look forward to a positive friendly and fruitful relationship with our new hosts. THANK YOU.

As a result of this confirmation the dates for our training sessions have changed slightly so check out the training sessions page before you come to make sure you have the right dates. The location details have also been updated, but please note that this is not a general public access site but private, and entrance to this venue is strictly by invitation only, so if you are not already a registered member of our group you must contact either either Becki or Carole if you wish to visit us at this new location. Thanks in advance.

Our next training session is the 2nd August, so see you there. WWL

July 19th 2008: Firstly we would like to start with some 'Get Wells', to Digby who has hurt his leg - keep resting, to Gigi who has a poorly cough -keep taking the medicine and to Juno who is feeling a bit under the weather too, we miss you all at club so get better soon and we will see you hopefully next time.

We had our second training day at our potentially new home, again we must thank Peter and his club who are very kindly letting us use this venue for the timebeing, also for getting our launch site ready for us and letting us all in and out of the venue, so THANK YOU Peter your help was invaluable to us. We don't have any further news at the moment as to whether our new venue will be a permanent home, this is due to the finer details of insurance that need to be checked and worked out, but we at least have the support of the whole committee at this site who would very much like to see us with a permanent home there, so hopefully this last, but important item, will be sorted soon and we shall then have some good news to report, we will let you know the minute we have been given the decision, good or bad.

As for training, we were lower in numbers today due to a few dogs being away poorly and some members not being able to make the new dates this time, but we did have 10 dogs in the water, 4 of these being puppies.

The bigger dogs concentrated on 4 elements, retrieve an object - which all the dogs achieved at some level and did very well, improvements are being seen in this area so keep up the good work. Next an owner rescue - these always go well and there is never any question from the dog regarding the task they have to achieve so well done to all here. Next was the controlled swim, this is an area to which we saw massive improvements this week, the dogs are getting more comfortable with this activity and everyone did very well here. Last, and probably one of the more difficult items of the day, was the dog launch from the boat - we saw two of the dogs achieve this for the very first time and they did wonderfully well considering they have not done this task before, the rest of the dogs had already done this task and were very calm about it. The weather held off just long enough for us all to go into the water 4 to 5 times and as we had finished the days objectives by 2pm. With some time to spare we all decided to let the dogs off and into the water for 30 minutes of play and fun, it was nice to see the dogs in the water together all doing as they were told but playing nicely and swimming just for the fun of it.

We have some more wonderful photo's of our day on the Gallery, so check them out.

Our next training session will be on Saturday 2nd August 2008. If you would like to come and join us then, as usual, please contact either Becki or Carole for more details.

Until next time, good bye from the WWL.

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July 5th 2008: Today we had the first training session at our temporary (but hopefully permanent) new home. It was a fabulous day, both the weather and location were great, the rain stayed away just long enough for everyone to have 4 goes in the water and a short training session in boat handling for all members. John and Maureen Tyler came to see how we were getting on and it was nice to have them with us again for part of the day.

We have a massive thank you to say to Peter for allowing us temporary use the lake while his Club's Committee consider our use of their home on a more permanent basis, so THANK YOU PETER. Whilst there we also had the pleasure of meeting some of the lovely members of the Club, they all made us feel very welcome and we would like to thank them too for their words of support and their interest in our activities.

As for us we spent the first half of our day running through some key rescue elements, 'rescue a stranger' for which our junior members Connor, Charlotte and Sasha came in very useful, thanks again guys for being such wonderful rescue victims. We also did retrieving an object from 6 meters, most of the dogs do this well but it always needs a bit more practice and some still need to perfect the art of keeping hold of the object until it is taken from them at the shoreline, but progress on this is good and getting better as the handlers learn to perfect their skills too. Then we moved onto a straight rescue of the owner/handler, never any problems here, but this time we increased the distance to 20 meters to start preparing the dogs and handlers for the Test B rescue, in fact some are so keen you can barely hold them back and they all coped very well with the extra distance. We also practiced controlled swimming, which is harder than it sounds, keeping the dogs at an arms length while swimming along together can be quite an art and all our dogs did really well at this, some doing this for the first time.

Today for the first time we also had a 10 minute session, for each member present, in the boat to learn some basic skills on handling the inflatable. We are very lucky in our group to have 3 people who very kindly navigate the boat very well for us each session, but we have been rather unfair in letting them do every training session so far . . . . soooo . . . . to give them a break, we all took to the water in the boat, everyone taking a turn to have a quick go of the controls to see how we coped. I am happy to say that most coped very well indeed and I think with a bit more practice we may have a fight on our hands as too who gets to drive the boat next session as it was lots of fun.

I am in the process of arranging our Test day with John Tyler, hopefully this will be at the end of September, so I shall let you know when it is arranged and when schedules and available for entry to the test day.

We hope to have some good news to report after the 10th of July regarding our status at our new venue so come back soon for an update, when hopefully we will be able to reveal all and promote our new home.

I have added some more photos to the 22nd June's session, thanks to Trevor and Lexi for those. We have a few photo's from our 5th July training day and will be adding some more in a few days.

Our next training session will be on Saturday 19th July 2008. If you would like to come and join us then, as usual, please contact either Becki or Carole for more details.

Until next time, good bye from the WWL.

June 29th 2008: Wonderful News, as we announced at the end of our last posting Wiltshire Wet Leo's were in desperate need of a new home. Carole D'Arcy Masters and myself have worked tirelessly over the last few weeks trying to find a new venue for our group, not an easy task I can assure you. We are pleased to announce that we have a temporary home, with a strong possibility of becoming permanent, subject to our new venues committee approval, we hope to be able to confirm some more good news in about 3 weeks time. This means that training will continue at a new venue but with a slight change to the dates we had originally planned. During this time of change we shall not be advertising our new home's location until things are more certain, so if you need to know where we train so that you can join us, please contact Becki or Carole.

To accommodate our new venue we have willingly agreed to change the days on which we train. We will now meet on Saturdays from 9.30am to 4pm instead of Sundays, so check out the Training Sessions page and make a note of the new dates. So we start at our new venue with immediate effect with the first training session being held on Saturday 5th July. We look forward to seeing our current members there with a very big smile on their faces.

I have also uploaded the photo images taken from the sessions on the 8th and 22nd of June so take a peek, many thanks to Fiona for the lovely 'in water' shots, a different perspective I think you will agree. Bye until next week. Wiltshire Wet Leo's.

June 22nd 2008: We had another brilliant day at the lake, this time we were very fortunate to have John and Maureen Tyler from the Hinchingbrook Wet Leo's join us for the day. Our thanks to you both for coming to see how we are doing. John was able to help assess our progress and give us hints and tips for areas that needed some tightening up or improvement. All his comments were taken on board and practice will continue to help us polish our developing skills. That said the day was very positive, we had a mornings practice and in the afternoon we did 'test run' for the Test A certificate to see how the dogs were doing. We are happy to report that the majority of the dogs are ready to attempt the Test A, with some also ready to try Test B. This is wonderful news for our handlers and has justified all their hard work over the last few months of training, so well done and hear's to the tests in September.

The weather for our day was very windy to say the least, and it seemed to affect the dogs confidence as they were somewhat distracted by the sound that was created over the lake and the movement it gave the water, however, this was also a good thing as they need to get used to training in all types of weather conditions. So they did very well considering. Our designated boatman also had their hands full as the boat was perpetually pushed out away from the shore and the dogs due to the heavy winds and poor Sean fell foul of 'sea-sickness' from the motion on the water, thankfully we had Trevor who took over while Sean rested and lost his 'green tinge' (hope your now feeling better Sean). Thanks to Trevor and Sean for doing yet another great job in the boat under difficult conditions.

We also got the Junior members in the water more this week and they kindly volunteered to be rescued, over and over again, to give the dogs the opportunity to get used to rescuing a child, an extremely important part of our training aims, so many thanks go to Charlotte and Connor for doing a fab job, thank goodness the water was warmer for you today.

We don't have our pictures from the 8th June's sessions yet but we hope to have some soon and also we hope to have some more images from today but these will take a while to upload to please bear with us while we get them organised.

Once again thanks to everyone who stayed behind to help tidy the kit away and for doing so well with the dogs, keep it up.

Our next training session is due to be on the 6th July, this date is currently under consideration and will be confirmed shortly as we are awaiting news on a new venue. This is due to the considerably high attendance of the general public at our current venue during the summer months, it makes training the dogs very difficult, so as a result, use of this venue is not possible in July and August. We are trying to locate another venue for the training in July and August so keep an eye of the website for the latest news on this topic and don't forget to check the website before the next session so that you can get the latest update in case this session has to be cancelled.

Until next time that is all our news for now so we shall catch up with you again hopefully in two weeks time. From all at the Wet Leo's group goodbye for now.

JUNE 8th 2008: We had a fantastic day, both on the weather side and in achievements. We had 16 members and 21 dogs going into the water.

In this session we concentrated on one element of the water rescue which is to rescue a stranger from the water. Each member took turns to prepare their dogs and a volunteer, not too well known to the dog, would go into the water and then handlers would encourage their dogs to rescue the volunteers. I am happy to report that not one of the dogs failed in this task, some needed a little extra encouragement but everyone managed to complete this more difficult rescue with success.

Rescuing a stranger is something very different to rescuing an owner, who, the dog will quite willingly follow almost without question. A stranger is a more unusual request and the dog has to overcome the strong natural bond to stay with the owner, to leave them and go to a stranger to do a rescue. A huge achievement in the step forward to becoming a successful and confident water rescue dog.

We also tried something new for a bit of fun, this time in the boat pull, getting the dogs used to swimming to the boat first and them pulling the boat back to shore with the rope. Most had already done a swim to the boat on a previous session but this time they had to go to the boat and then retrieve it with the rope provided. Again nearly all the dogs managed this and some who joined the group slightly later still managed a good level of achievement in this area. So well done to everyone for trying so hard today you all did so well and made very good improvements in the next steps to qualifying your dogs in certificate Test A.

Special thanks once again to Sean and Trevor who worked tirelesly throughout the day being our boatman and to Fiona who came into the water to help with many of the boat pulls for the more inexperienced dogs. Thanks also to Charlotte and Connor who were our child volunteers for some of our more confident dogs to try rescue attempts. An important part of Water Rescue Work is to get used to rescuing all shapes, sizes and ages, so you filled a very important role today Junior members, thank you for being so brave. Thanks also to everyone for staying behind after to help tidy up and put the equipment away, once again this was very much appreciated.

We have some pictures to the days events on the way but it will take a few days to get them up and running so come back in a day or two to take a peek in the Gallery.

We also welcomed two new dogs to the group in Racquels puppies who both just the tender age of 4 months old, they both did really well getting used to the water in the own time splashing about just deep enough for them to get comfortable. We look forward to seeing them becoming more confident as the months go by.

Our next training session is on the 22nd June so if you want to pop along and join the fun or just come to watch we will see you then.

So that is all our news for this fortnight, if anyone wishes to come and join our Wet Leo's group, contact either contact Becki or Carole in the first instant for further information. Until next time, W.W.L.

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JUNE 3rd 2008: IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR MEMBERS: Slight Venue change due to other events being held on our site this weekend, please come to Lake 31 (turn left after entering the Keynes Country Park Site we will be the lake on the left) this site has a good launch area so lets make the best of it. See you on Sunday, take care and travel safely. WWL

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May 25th 2008: We started our day with the rain keeping us company, it was extremely heavy too, a terrible a shame as I think it put most of our members off coming, but I don't blame them. We had some competition against our day anyway as the Bath Championship Dog Show was also being held today, some of our members had dogs entered so we knew that attendance would be down. So by 10.45 with only 3 members arriving, lack of attendance at this particular training day meant that safety was compromised and the very bad weather did not help, we decided for safety that we could not continue with the days training. The few members that did come let their dogs go in for a swim at the dog swim zone, but safety must come first and with not enough members to control the safety aspects we decided to call it a day. Thank you to those who came to support the group despite the weather.

We have some images that we took while we waited for members to show up and for the rain to pass off. So take a look at the lovely birds we share our venue with in our Gallery. We also have some additional images added to the 11th May training day gallery, our thanks to Mark for these.

On a brighter note, we hope to arrange a judge and date for the first set of test certificates soon, so will let you know when this is done via the update on the training page. We shall then publish any results on our successes page so come back and visit again soon for more news.

Anyone interested in coming to join our group of Wet Leo's should, in the first instant, contact Becki or Carole for further information.

Thats all our news for now, so until next month, keep splashing, even if it rains! WWL.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Use of Lake 32 has been approved for this Sunday. So please meet as usual in the same place as before. See you all there on Sunday. WWL.

May 11th 2008 - We had another fantastic days training on Sunday with the added benefit of a near heat wave, the sunshine was amazing and helped to keep everyone warm in between sessions in the water. With such good weather we made use of it and stayed to the bitter end with us finally packing up at 3.30, thanks to everyone who stayed behind to help tidy up and pack away.

We had another great turn out with 18 dogs and 21 members with all of them going into the water. We also welcomed some new members to our group at this session, so a big well done to our newest members Mark with Zeus, and our two new Junior members Sasha and Aron Cox, you all seemed to really enjoy your day out.

At this session we started to focus more on the 3 elements of the 'A Test' Certificate: A 6 meter swim to retrieve an object; a 15 meter swim and return to shore and a 15 meter swim to boat and return to shore. Everyone did really, really well and I think we have a good percentage of dogs and handlers who will pass their Test A this season.

After several goes at each of the above and with everyone ready for something different, for a bit of fun, we let some of the more confident dogs and handlers try their first boat launch, they all did remarkably well for a first time with none of them failed to jump over the boat side and into the water. Even our youngest pup member, Gigi, after having a ride in the boat and getting used to the sensations, saw mum go in and was all too pleased to take the plunge after her from the boat and join her, well done Gigi. Thanks to Sean and Trevor for being our boatmen for the day.

We have loads of photo's from our day so check them out on our Gallery and many thanks must go to Mark Green for coming so far to take loads of great photo's for us. We are expecting some more images soon from Ross so come back again in a little while to see some more smashing images from our day.

We also have some more images from April 27th's training session so check them out in the Gallery and a big thanks to Ross who is putting his new camera well and truly to good use.

Our next training day should be May 25th and as we may have a change of venue please check the website for updates before you come so that you know where we will be.

If you want to come along with your Leo and join in the fun don't forget to get in touch with either Becki or Carole for more details.

Until next time, splash away, The Wiltshire Wet Leo's.

April 28th 2008 - We were a bit worried the night before, that our members would spend our second training day hiding under umbrella's in between training runs into the water, but, the bad weather that was predicted (heavy and persistent rain all day) didn't arrive, instead we had beautiful sunshine all day and not a drop of rain was seen.

We had another good sized group for our second training session with a total of 14 dogs all of whom went into the water and 13 members 12 of whom went into the water. We all concentrated on 3 elements of water rescue, the Controlled Swim, the Retrieve and a single person simulated rescue. Everyone did really well taking on board advice and seeing the dogs learn and improve very quickly.

We split the day into two parts stopping for coffee and biscuits at 12 midday. Going back into the water by 12.30 we all had another 2 goes each until by 2pm we had all been in the water 4 or 5 times. Having all achieved good results from our day, we all decided we had done enough. I am sure the dogs would have kept going for another few hours, but safety is paramount and swimmers were getting tired, so we called it a day just after 2pm and were all comfortably exhausted.

Jamie took some lovely images of our training day so check them out via the link on the Gallery page, thanks also to Ross Parry for being our unofficial photographer for the day as Jamie wasn't able to stay for long on this session. Ross's pictures will be added as soon as he can get them to us so come back and check them out soon.

Thanks to everyone who came to our second training day and to those who stayed to help us tidy away all the kit afterwards, a big thank you.

Our next training session is the Sunday 11th May so if you would like to come along and join in the fun, don't forget to get in touch before hand with Becki or Carole to get all the info you will need.

See you all again on 11th May. The Wiltshire Wet Leo's.

April 2008: Well, what a start to our new group. A very big, THANK YOU goes to everyone who came to the very first training day of our new Water Rescue Group, it made all the worry, stress and hard work to get it up and running so worth while.

Sunday 13th April began very cold and quite overcast, with rain forecast we knew we would get wet one way or another. Jamie and I, along with my 2nd in command, Carole D'Arcy Masters, John & Maureen Tyler, Bev Reeves and Mark Green all turned up early to start preparing our area ready for the flood of Leo's to come. Putting up safety netting, inflating the boat and getting equipment ready, displaying with great pride, our lovely new Leo Water Work signs to advertise who we were and what we were doing (thank you to Hawes Signs Limited, Graphics & Design for making and donating our wonderful new signs free of charge, and thanks to Bev for organising this to happen).

I knew we would have a good turn out on the day having registered a grand total of 34 human members, including 4 junior members which is wonderful, and 30 Leos. We were glad to have such a large park as in the end we had a nice turn out of 27 members (24 going into the water) with 18 Leo's (16 of whom went into the water) some for the very first time and all doing exceptionally well. The age range of our Leo's was good too, with the youngest being just 16 weeks old and the oldest nearly 10yrs.

We were also thrilled to see so many people who came along just to support us having heard we were to start a group, some wanted to know a bit more about Leo's and wanted to watch, so thank you for coming and visiting, we hope you enjoyed your day too.

Our training began with a safety talk from John Tyler and then, Leo's taking the plunge - far to enthusiastically considering the temperature - with owners following to a chorus of 'ooooh's' and 'arrrrrhs', from the cold water. We were very fortunate to have both John Tyler and Bev Reeves from Hinchingbrooke Wet Leo's, who have agreed to give up their time to help us train until we are self sufficient. Without them there would have been no group, so a very, very BIG THANK YOU for your help, expertise and time.

Our thanks also go to my husband Jamie and to Mark Green who both took many wonderful pictures of our day, some of which are now in our gallery, so thanks to Jamie and Mark for all the lovely shots of our Leo's having so much fun.

John, Maureen and Bev were kind enough to put their experienced Water Dogs in to the water and demonstrate to us the various aspects we are to learn, we saw Topaz do a boat retrieve and a 2 person rescue, pulling two small child volunteers from the water at once, Ozzy do a boat launch in dramatic style and Paige Reeves, one of the junior members from Hinchingbrooke, do a marvelous 'Man over Board' with realistic screams and cry's for help, for the Leo's to rescue, well done Paige and thanks for volunteering.

Our thanks must also go to the Managers and Rangers of the Venue, Chris and Shelley, of the Keynes Country Park for their support, without their venue we would be using my garden pond!

So our groups first training day went really, really well, we have much to build on from our first session. Please take a look at our Gallary so that you can see how much fun we all had.

Our next training session is April 27th - so come along and join the fun even if you just want to watch you are more than welcome.

If you wish to come and go into the water with your Leo contact Becki for more info and for safety & membership forms.

See you then from, The Wiltshire Wet Leo's Water Rescue Training Group.

February 29th 2008: Well after just one month of being launched we have had a good response to our new site. We have had just over 200 new visitors in the 4 weeks we have been 'live', not bad considering we have yet to start our training days.

The launching of this website has also inspired lots of questions and requests for more information from people interested in starting Water Work, from questions about how to set up a group of their own in areas where there are currently none, to finding a group near where they may live. I hope that some of the advice that has gone out in the first month alone will spark new groups, or, new member and support for groups already out there.

As for our update we have approximately 18 dogs signed up to join with their owners and we hope that about 13 of these will be at our first training session. We have most of the equipment we will need now and I am still on the scrounge for more and finding the generosity of people sometimes overwhelming.

With our boat ready, our harnesses on the way, soft safety fencing, signs (thanks Bev they look fab) and barrier poles all collected, we also have our tent for shelter and/or shade. We have a few more things to collect before we have everything we need but are well on the way to being ready for April 13th.

Don't forget if you are at Crufts this month visit the Leonberger stand at Discover Dogs and support the volunteers who give their time for free to educate everyone about our wonderful Breed, the Leonberger, and for more information about Leonbergers and the work they do. Bye for now.

February 2008: Firstly I would like you to welcome you to this new website for the Wiltshire Wet Leo's Water Rescue Training Group and thank you for your interest. This is the first entry to this websites latest news section and we hope, as a group, tobe able to update it during the summer months to share with you our news and progress as we train our Leo's in this wonderful activity.

For anyone interested in joining our group with their Leo's please e-mail me at Ti@wet-leos.co.uk or becki@leonius.net.

I have managed to finalise the groups meeting dates for April to October and these can be found on the Training Sessions page.

We have many people to thank even at this early stage for all the help in starting to get our group up and running and our thanks go to; John & Marureen Tyler and Bev Reeves of the Hinchingbrook Wet Leos Group who are helping to provide us with kit and banners for our group, also for their invaluable experience, support and training they are offering during our first year as we get going. We also have to thank our Breed Club, the Leonberger Club of Great Britain, who are providing a boat and engine, Dog harness and insurance support so our group can run in safety.

We hope to run two Water Test Days to give our members the opportunity to pass some of the first levels available to us and this we hope will be July and October.

The first training session will be held on April 13th meet at 9.30 for a 10am start. So come along and join the fun.