ODD is off to Dubuque, Iowa

Wishing Team Canada all the best as they begin their journey to Dubuque, Iowa today. The DockDogs World Championships are being held at the Five Flags Centre in Dubuque, Iowa from Friday November 16 – Sunday November 18, 2012.

We will be doing our best to post updates on twitter with updates on how Team Canada is doing. We will also post updates on the website when possible.

Click for a larger version!

2012 Year End Party!

This post contains all the details about our 2012 Year End Party – members and non-members welcome (see invite for details). Join us for a fun evening where we will celebrate our 2012 season with an Italian style dinner, awards for club achievements, a video presentation and more!

(click on the image for a larger version of the invite in PDF format)

$1377 raised for Autism Service Dogs!

Ontario DockDogs has been proud to support Autism Dog Services this year by raising funds for them at our raffles we held at each of our events. We are pleased to announce that we have raised a grand total of $1377 for them! Thanks to everyone that has supported our raffles!

We started off the year by raising $500 at the Chatham Kinsmen Fair for Ede’s Educators – a local Chatham group with the goal of fundraising for Autism Service Dogs to cover the cost of Ede’s service dog Muskoka. Ede is 5 years old and has Autism. While the service dogs are provided free of charge his family decided to fundraise the amount that the service dog cost to train. We had so much fun supporting Ede’s educators that we decided to support Autism Service Dogs for the rest of our season raising an additional $877 through our raffles held at Brantford Barks, the Merrickville Fair and Carrotfest.

Autism Dog Services fosters the integration of children between the ages of 3 and 18 years of age with autism, aspergers and related disorders by training, placing and supporting service dogs. A service dog offers safety, companionship, and independence in addition to acting as a physical and emotional anchor, thus enhancing the life of the child. These dogs are provided free of charge to those that need them however, it costs over $10,000 to train an Autism Service Dog.

We’re mailing out the official cheque this week!

Carrotfest – another success!

A big thanks to everyone that came out to Carrotfest. It was our 5th year in a row participating at Carrotfest and we had a great weekend with lots of competitors, dogs and nice weather. This event seems to get busier and busier each year. Thank you for everyone’s patience! All of our waves sold out and we were running waves with 55-60 dogs so we did get a little behind schedule on Saturday.

Event results can be viewed here

Mike Millar was on-site taking photos all day Saturday and his photos can be viewed here

Also a big thanks goes out to our sponsors Northern Biscuit and Pet Valu Bradford. Last but not least we can’t forget to thank our fantastic volunteers and board – we wouldn’t be able to have events without them!

Everything you need to know about Carrotfest this weekend

Carrotfest is happening this weekend – we have been doing this event since 2008 and it is one of our busiest events! If you missed out on pre-registration there are 15 spots available per wave for on-site registration. We recommend getting there early on Saturday morning to avoid disappointment. Registration opens at 8am. We will only be allowing registration for the Big Air wave on Sunday on Sunday. You can not register on Saturday for the Big Air wave on Sunday.

Location/Crating
The pool is set-up in the Bradford Community Centre parking lot (125 Simcoe St.). Crating is in the usual location (along the tennis courts on grass).

Volunteers
We still can use volunteers for this event as it is our busiest event of the year. Our volunteers help keep our events running without a hitch and on-time! If you are not sure how to do a volunteer job just ask and we will be happy to show you the ropes. Our volunteer sign-up list can be viewed here: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0A4BA4A92DAA8-carrotfest
If anyone is interested in helping out with set-up we will be beginning at 12:30pm on Friday August 17th.

Getting there Saturday morning
Please note that competitors will need to enter at the west entrance to the Community Centre parking lot. You can come in this entrance, unload, then you must turn around in the space provided and park either on Simcoe St or go around to the north road above the ball diamonds to park. There is NO parking near the pool as all parking lots are full with the midway and vendors. There is no cost for parking.

Because of road closures on Saturday, getting to the Community Centre will require some creative driving. If you are coming from the west (Hwy 400) you can take Cty R 88 to Collings Ave, turn left onto Maplegrove, left onto Luxury then left again onto Simcoe St. The entrance will be on your right. If you are coming from the east (Yonge St.) you must turn left on Morris St then left on Centre St. Continue to Simcoe St and turn left (south). The entrance will be on your left. Or, you can turn left on William St and follow it out to Simcoe St.
For GPS users here is the address:
(Centennial Park)
125 Simcoe St., Bradford, Ontario

A full list of road closures is available here: http://www.carrotfest.ca/directionsroad-closures.html

Be sure to check out Carrotfest’s website at www.carrotfest.ca to see what else there is to see and do!

Be sure to check out DryPet one of our sponsors at their booth over the course of the weekend. Pawsitive Play will also have a booth set-up on site, and Mike Millar photography will be on-site taking photos of the dogs in action all weekend. Northern Biscuit is our silver sponsor of the weeked.

Stacey Shaw a RMT will also be on-site offering massages for the dogs with proceeds going to the BAARK Foundation! Cost is $10 and appointments can be made directly with Stacey.

Attending Merrickville this weekend?

If you are attending the Merrickville Fair this weekend please read this post!

ADMISSION
If you have pre-registered for this event you will get in for free. The front gate (at the end of Main st, by Read St.) has a list of all pre-registered competitors. Please enter thru this gate all weekend.

CRATING
Is along the soccer goal nets. Tents can be set up here. Please do not set up your tent at the end of the pool.

ON-SITE REGISTRATION
On-site registration is available beginning at 8am on Saturday and 9am on Sunday. On-site registration is limited – we are only taking a maximum of 40 dogs per wave. There are approximately 10-15 spots available per wave for on-site registration.