Hi, My 2 dogs will be arriving in Switzerland in July, They are bearded collies and in Finland we do Agility, Obedience, Herding and Haku (Rescue Tracking) with them.

What sort of activities do they do in Switzerland? Is anyone on here involved with any of the dog clubs?

Thanks

If your dogs are FCI pedigree, you will have a wealth of opportunities - just get in contact with the beardie club:

http://www.beardedcollie.ch/

Or take a look at the SKG (Swiss Kennel Club - FCI) website:

http://www.hundeweb.org

http://www.hundeweb.org/hundewebd/index.html

http://www.hundeweb.org/hundewebd/tkgs/index.html

http://www.tkamo.ch/

for a list of the various dog sports and clubs. You'll have to register your dog with the SKG, but as I understand it is relatively simple to register an 'ausland' FCI pedigree.

If your dogs, like mine, are not FCI, the options are more limited. Most dog sports are run through the SKG, and non-FCI dogs are generally not allowed to compete. (Unless you have an already registered FCI dog - in which case you can complete with one non-FCI dog, but only one in your entire Swiss dog sport career.)

My youngster has passed the admissions trials for two local Agility clubs , but we are waiting for a slot reserved for non-FCI dogs to open at either club. We might have a chance this summer or fall, or we might be years on the waiting list - who knows. When a slot opens we will be able to train with the club, but will not be allowed to compete. (Which is fine by me - we do agility for fun, socialization, and 'brain training'.)

But, depending on where you live or how far you are willing to travel, you might find clubs with free capacity and be able to join right away.

As far as I know, there isn't a non-FCI agility league here (we belonged to a very active open league in the US). I've built an agility course in my garden for the time being... not optimal, but it gives the little hooligan a chance to have lots of fun, which is the whole point.

If I ever figure out the space, liability and bureaucracy issues, I might someday try to start an informal all-mutts-welcome Agility club...

My blind dog does tracking, but again, because he is not FCI we do not compete. We used to train with a club here, but I wasn't really happy with their training style - I mostly work with him on my own now. He's not so young anymore, so tracking is simply a fun way to keep him mentally and physically fit.

Where in Switzerland will you move to? I can look for a list of clubs in your area, if it would help... There are lots of dog clubs, some dedicated to one sport, some general training clubs, some all around clubs.


Edited to add - by rescue tracking, do you mean disaster rescue? If so, you might want to get in touch with Redog, the Swiss rescue dog association:

http://www.redog.ch/start_redog.php

I'm afraid I don't know anything about the group, other than they do a fantastic job.

Edited to add further:

You should also look into the new Hundehalterbrevet:

http://www.hundehalterbrevet.ch/de/index.htm

This test was recently introduced as a sort of 'dog driving license', in response to the general public's growing fear of dogs following the Oberglatt tragedy. The test is at present voluntary, and all owners are encourage to take it. Many people believe that this test will become mandatory at some future point - who knows if that will happen, or not.

If your dogs do competative obedience the Hundehalterbrevet will be a walk in the park for you.

My dogs are ...um... not up to that standard. Yet.

Thanks for all that information, I was surprised to hear that they have to be pedigree to compete! In Finland X-breeds are very common in Agility and do very well Both our dogs are registered so hopefully we won't have a problem in CH.

Haku is the competitive side to disaster rescue, was initially started as a training exercise for the rescue dogs to teach them to search in a grid pattern rather than relying on following a scent, it is now a competition sport in it's own right, I would have liked to have got involved in the rescue side of things, but a high level of Finnish is required.

We don’t do competitive obedience, But Hundehalterbrevet sounds like a combination of the BH and Character tests we do, BH is a test required to be passed by all competing dogs to ensure they are under at least a basic level of control, and include tasks such as being left in stay, walking past other dogs and behavior in traffic, The character test is just that, and is generally taken by dogs who will be used for breeding to ensure they are not too timid, aggressive or have other major character flaws.
We will be living in the Lausanne area, and have already tracked down 1 agility club between there and Geneva.
We had already found the bearded collie pages, and they seem to have some good activities