BetCo September Special

Hello ,

This month we want to focus on our upcoming annual event, our Responsible Dog Ownership-Day or short

DOGGY DAY!

Mark your calendar to visit us on

Saturday, September 10, 2016
between 10 AM and 4 PM!

- We have the largest and best line-up of vendors ever!!! Check out our list of vendors below! Lots of these vendors will have special offers or donated door prizes, so don't miss out!

- Make sure to come to our Welcome Tent and get your door prize tickets! Find out how many sheets your kids can collect at the vendors in the scavenger hunt! They can show them to our team member at the Welcome Tent and to get to pick a prize!

- Watch our scheduled demos, listen to our feature presentation, win a door prize and meet lots of different dog breeds - some well-known and some unusual and rare breeds! We listed the schedule for you below!

- Let us feed you and your family with free hot dogs, cookies and water or a soft drink; let your kids take part in our scavenger hunt; bring your friendly dog to stroll around together; get a nail trim and/or microchip for your dog(s) for a special discounted fee;

- The Better Companion will, at their booth, be revealing the details of our own new BetCo Rewards Program!

We want to reward you for your continuous training and your loyalty to us, starting with a series of specially designed bumper (or notebook) stickers and later including some other fun, collectible goodies for the ongoing students of our sports classes.

Check out the first for sale TAGulators and BetCo stickers! Read below for more details on our brand-new rewards program.

All clickable links in this newsletter are in PURPLE.

Enjoy the journey of dog training,

Claudia

List of Vendors:

Here's our most current list of vendors, with more vendors requesting space as I'm writing this:

- The Journey Dog Photography - donating free photo sessions with your dog - as a door prize and also in a drawing for all dogs microchipped at the event
- Arctic Bird Dog Association
- Carney Carvings
- Valley Poop Patrol - donating poop bags and watering systems for the trail
- AK Animal Advocates
- The Valley's Frontiersman - planning a dog photo contest for their newspaper
- Non-Sporting Dog Club of AK
- Pampered Paws - offering a $5 nail trim for your dog(s) all day long
- VCA Big Lake and Far Country
- Animal Care and Regulation Mat-Su - feature presentation at 1:15pm: Pet Emergency Preparedness - how to prepare for an emergency and what to include for your pet
- Kool Kat Rescue - offering microchips for only $25 for your dog(s) - also, a chance to win a photo session for your dog from The Journey Dog Photography when you microchip your dog
- Midnight Sun Boxers
- Veterinary Specialists of AK
- Beluga Buttonworks
- 3 Magpies Recycled Art
- AK Soaps and Scents
- Chowrific Grooming by Brenda - dog tote bags
- Young Living Essential Oils
- Expawmation Animal Rehab Therapy - watch a demo at their booth
- Anima Pharmica

- Willow Dog Musher Association

- The Better Companion :-)

Schedule:

Dog demos:
10:15 AM: K9 Nose Work® - The BetCo team with Deb Frost
11:30 AM: Search and Rescue - AK Solstice Search Dogs
12:30 PM: Freestyle - The BetCo team with Ella-Kate
3:00 PM: Agility - The BetCo team with Kat and Rob
Every Full Hour: Meet the Breed - Watch several breed presentations each hour

Feature Presentation:
1:15 PM: Pet Emergency Preparedness - by Darla Erskine from our Mat-Su Animal Care and Regulation: Darla experienced first hand how quick an evacuation can be necessary when her own home was destroyed by a mud slide within minutes! Are you ready to evacuate with your pets and their most urgent gear? Darla will help you by pointing out important facts and tips specifically for us Alaskans!

Fun for you and your dog:
2:30 PM: Manners Games!
Every Full Hour: Meet the Breed - your dog could be presented! Find Deb to put your dog on the schedule
Part of the Day: The Frontiersman is planning to take pictures of as many dogs as possible to enter them in an online photo contest! Your dog could be famous! A photographer from the Frontiersman will be here for part of the day, time unknown.

Things to do all day:
- Scavenger Hunt for your kids: collect sheets from the different vendors, fill some of them out, present them at our welcome tent and pick a toy!
- Nail trim at Pampered Paws indoors
- Microchip at Kool Kat rescue outside (plus get into a drawing for a free photo session when microchipping your dog!)
- Listen for door prizes every full hour before the Meet the Breed and again at 3:30pm, before we close down. Make sure to get one door prize ticket for every visitor, including the kids! Come to our welcome booth next to the hot dog grill!
- Get a hot dog and a couple cookies together with a soft drink or water - come back for more!

BetCo Rewards Program:

We're thrilled to have lots of our clients come back again and again to the same and/or different classes we offer! We appreciate and want to reward you!

- Starting with the classes that are running right now; every new student will receive one "Better Companion - The Journey of Dog Training" sticker when they graduate from their first class with us. This is a big one-time sticker per dog - display it proudly on your vehicle, notebook, door or dog kennel! Get one for each new dog you come to our classes with. All current students at classes of all levels, behavior and sport, will receive this sticker at the end of their class, no matter if the class you're taking right now is your first or your 50th with us. This sticker is only for class participation, not for attending on-going practice sessions in any sport. If you're a client of ours and don't plan on participating in a class in the near future, but still want to get this sticker, you can purchase it for only $5.

- Every graduating student in a behavior/manners class will receive an additional "class sticker" for that specific class! If you'd like to get a sticker for a class you attended earlier, you can purchase that sticker for $3. Maybe just take that class again? It's never the same as before - new dogs and new challenges!

- In our sports classes, we'll reward your continuation in the same sport! First the student will receive a sticker for that sport when they graduate from their SECOND class in that same sport with the same dog. After having taken four classes of any level in that sport with the same dog, you'll receive a little gift fitting for that specific sport. Each sport will earn you different goodies as you go along. If you already took at least 2 classes in the same sport but don't plan on attending another two in the near future, but would like to get the sticker for that sport, you can purchase it for $3. Goodies will not be available for purchase.

- To keep track of the classes you took, we've added a class flow-chart to every class booklet we're giving out. You want to bring that folder (or the flow chart) to graduation day for the instructor to stamp it. If you forgot to bring the flow chart or ended up having to miss the last week, it can be stamped later by the office. Even though you'll get a new flow chart with every class folder, you want to keep one chart to collect all the class stamps, at least for all manners classes and maybe another chart for all sports classes.

- We won't give out stamps for classes that graduated before RDO-Day this year. We also won't hand out free stickers for classes that graduated before RDO-Day this year. Students that have taken a specific class before RDO-Day and would like to get a sticker for that class can purchase it from us (class stickers for $3, BetCo sticker for $5). You can also take that class again to get a sticker :-)

Canine Good Citizen® - tests

!!! Looking for volunteers for Sunday !!! Email us if you're interested !!!

Responsible Dog Ownership can also include to show how well-behaved your dog can be in public. We offer two different tests in September:

AKC's CGC®-test:

We'll test your dog in 10 everyday situations like allowing a friendly stranger to approach you, pet the dog and examine your dog, walking on a leash, being in a crowd of people, reaction to distractions, being left with a stranger for a couple minutes while you go out of sight and meeting another person with a dog. Your dog should be under your control, not too shy, too exuberant or aggressive in any form. You and your dog need to pass all 10 test items in order to pass the test. If you don't pass there's no harm done, just try again after more training!

This test is offered Sunday, September 11th at 10 AM, the day after our Doggy Day. The building will be quieter to give easily distracted dogs a chance to succeed.

AKC's CGCA®-test:

This test is only for dogs that already have passed a CGC-test and the result has been recorded with the AKC. This is the Canine Good Citizen Advanced or also called Community Canine-test. The dog has to be tested at a venue in a distracting environment, and the test items are more complex than in the CGC-test.

This test is offered on Saturday, September 10th at 12:30 PM as part of our Doggy Day. Pre-registration is required for this test and we only test 5 dogs, so that we can continue our Doggy Day program.