19/03/2024
CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
For the year 2023
Welcome to all members and guests to our 61st Annual General Meeting.
I would like to welcome our President, Mrs Engela Fekete, Vice-President, Mr Eric Quarmby, and Honorary Life member, Ms Marianne Bras. Welcome to all members and especially the new training members.
I believe it is a huge honour to be associated with a club that has successfully maintained an excellent standard and is currently one of the oldest active dog training clubs in Pretoria. The results of a club with this history can be seen in the solid clubhouse, extensive dog jumping equipment, and large, well-maintained grounds. Unfortunately, we have lost several meters of our grounds on our eastern boundary fence to the Tshwane Municipality, which is used as a road for ongoing developments. We are still in a situation where we are unsure if the City of Tshwane will let us continue with our lease.
It is not easy running a club of this size and I would like to thank my awesome committee for their hard work and dedication throughout the year. Also, to the enthusiastic “behind the scenes” members who, I’m pleased to say, have now become too numerous to name. But one very enthusiastic club member stands out, and that is Bev Lastrucci, who is actively maintaining our social media pages. Thank you to our trainers Tania, Peter, Charene, Louiza, and assistant trainers Brett and Ute. Our trainers give up their valuable time to help us form lifelong friendships with our dogs through obedience training. A sincere thank you to our Treasurer, Ruben who works tirelessly on our financials, with the assistance of his daughter, Marissa. A very big thank you to our secretary, Charene, who is always at the coalface and beavering away at secretarial duties. She has been an absolute star in 2023!!! Thank you to Pete who always arranges the music at our events. In September we spent a month maintaining our jumps. Thank you to everyone who assisted! Last, but not least, thank you to Scott Quarmby of Pest Control Pros for eliminating our pest problem.
Puppy Club continues to be a success under Charene’s leadership, and our obedience classes are well run, thanks to our trainers. Protection classes have been going strong due to Peter Verheijen’s continued dedication.
2023 TROPHY WINNERS
Manwork – no trophies were awarded.
Obedience Male Dog – Leoni and Boris
Obedience Bitch – Jenni and Ava
Other awards:
Nicola and Lemmy – Most Improved
Louiza and Vlooi – Most Improved
Johan Coetzer and Zeus - Perseverance
This year we took a break from our annual dog jumping competition and created our very first gymkhana event. It comprised an obstacle course, flyball and 4 x 4. The winner of this event was Leoni and Boris with Charl and Cindy winning the Veteran’s section. Our 4 x 4 track was eventually launched and a big thank you goes to Louiza and Tania who put so much effort into the design! Louiza went so far as to organise a huge front-end loader to move the logs!!! You go, girl!!!
We usually close the year off with a dog jumping competition, but this year we held our very first Adventure Hunt. It was great fun and next year we aim to raise the bar and push for placings! Thank you to the wonderful ladies who brought the delicious food! We ended the year with our usual trophy hand-out and a braai.
A big thank you to Montego for their sponsorship of dog food prizes, Bravecto for the goody bags, and Wendy from Tasty Treats who sponsored the raffle.
Our very active club had several events, ranging from Valentine’s Day, Canine Good Citizen’s Tests, St Patrick’s Day celebration, Easter Egg Hunt, Gymkhana, Christmas braai and Adventure Hunt. This year our Canine Good Citizen test had 20 members succeeding in Bronze, Silver, or Gold. These events play a huge role in educating our members as well as bringing our families together in a community atmosphere. Thank you to our judge, internationally well-known judge Ms Kathy Clayton.
Gloria’s lapa was replaced by Pete’s lapa and we had the privilege of holding our year-end braai under the new lapa!
This year we lost one of our most ardent supporters, John Cox. “Our sincerest condolences go to Sandy Cox and her family with the sudden passing of her husband, John Cox. John was an instructor at our club for several years. He left the Pretoria Shepherd Dog Club they moved to Jeffrey's Bay.
John spent several hours mentoring me and several club members. He had 60 years of dog training experience gained in the Rhodesian Police Force, and was always open to discussing any training problems, from tracking, to scent-work, to working trials, to obedience, to man work - at length and without hesitation! He was well-known for being the first person to train his dogs to walk a tight-rope. This is a photo of Jessie walking the rope. John and Sandy (an excellent dog trainer) gave the most amazing demonstration with Jessie, still a young dog, flying through fire hoops, advanced send-away with re-direction and scent-work.
Our training visits to John's farm were always enjoyed with the kindest hospitality by John and Sandy, either breakfast with John's famous chicken livers on toast, Sandy's mouthwatering drop scones and tea, or lunch with John's famous potjies!!! I'm so bitterly sorry we didn't have more time together!
On John's dog training bucket list (at the age of 70 years), was the desire to teach Jessie to herd sheep, a hobby he had never tried. He was an avid student, who put much effort into training Jessie with success on sheep. I'm so pleased I could fulfill John's last dog training wish.
"Rest in peace, John. I will miss our valuable talks, especially regarding Josh whom you have mentored for the past three years."
Another great tree has fallen...
A photo album of John, Sandy, and Jessie is on our FB page.
Much love
Tania Quarmby, committee, and instructors
Pretoria Shepherd Dog Club”
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Elvis and his team have kept our grounds looking like a suburban park and we are extremely grateful to them! We have planted several trees, and plan on planting a few more. We are blessed with so many trees making our lives much easier during the summer months. Thank you to the past club members who planted trees during the 1980’s. You have left a legacy!
I sincerely believe our club will continue to grow and that the members and training members will enjoy their time here. To our new members, I would like to once again encourage you to get involved with dog shows, which is a wonderful way of spending quality time with man’s best friend.
And, finally, I would like to say a warm “thank you” to my husband, Eric, and our sons Gordon and Scott for their support throughout the year.
Thank you.
TANIA QUARMBY
CHAIRPERSON
PRETORIA SHEPHERD DOG CLUB
16th MARCH 2024
CLUB HISTORY
Our club was established in 1963, and a complete and accepted KUSA constitution was put into place by 1964. In those days, our AGM meetings were held at the Caledonian Hotel, Assembly Hotel, Hellenic Hotel, Boulevard Hotel, Zottelhexe Restaurant, and Mr and Mrs Binder’s home in Waterkloof Holdings and Kameeldrift. On the 1st June 1978, Mr Walter Binder signed an agreement with the City Council of Pretoria to lease the current grounds for 30 years. By 1979 the clubhouse was built, with a kitchen and two toilets completed. More toilets, fencing, and grass were completed as club funds allowed. The club was 17 years old at the time and one of the only dog clubs country-wide with the facilities that we enjoy today (which is still the case). All training, shows, and meetings are now held at our clubhouse in Menlo Park! Our club was strong with a record entry of 130 dogs in 1967, with show enthusiasts coming from Natal and the Cape. In the 70’s we held a show at Hillview High School with specialist German judge Mr Steenbok and had over 200 entries. Another successful show was at the KUSA National Show at the Pretoria Showgrounds, where we entered 46 dogs. Twelve dogs were used for an obedience display for which our club won a bronze medal! By 1980 the club had 208 training members including 63 ordinary members – a remarkable achievement, although the club was 18 years at the time! In 1989 our name was finally changed to the Pretoria Shepherd Dog Club. Much of our achievements were due to the leadership of our President, Mr Walter Binder, his dear wife, Christa, Mrs Engela Feketa, our Vice-President, and several members no longer with us. Alan Dixon was a trainer in 1965, ’66, and ’67. He was a regular visitor to the club and made several pertinent comments to many of our members. Unfortunately, Alan passed away in 2019. His friendly face will be missed!
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The biggest loss to this club was the passing of our President, Mr Walter Binder, on 22nd December 2020. His big shoes will never be filled.
