Friday, 24 June 2022
Please find here the results from the 2022 Performance Elections for the Dogs Victoria Agility Subcommittee, Herding Subcommittee, Obedience, Tracking and Endurance Subcommittee, and the Retrieving and Field Trial Subcommittee.
Monday, 20 June 2022
Dogs Victoria is pleased to announce a new initiative aimed at helping Breeders avoid breaching Regulation 20.1.13 -
A member shall not breed a bitch causing it to whelp more than twice in eighteen months without the prior approval of Dogs Victoria.
Dogs Victoria CE, Jason Eggleton, said, “Dogs Victoria is passionate about promoting best practice in breeding purebred dogs and wants to foster and encourage excellence in animal welfare across all aspects of the organisation.
As an Applicable Organisation, we are committed to ensuring our members are fully aware of their responsibilities as breeders.
Statistics show us that the vast majority of Dogs Victoria breeders only whelp a litter every couple of years; however, we understand that there may be valid reasons for a breeder to choose to breed a bitch at consecutive seasons. Our Breeder Notification Initiative aims to proactively provide the breeder with the information they need to stay compliant.”
Developed in conjunction with Dogs Victoria's Breeder Committee and Compliance and Member Services teams, the new initiative will be incorporated into Dogs Victoria’s Litter Registration process.
When a litter is registered, a Breeder Notification letter will be returned with the pedigree papers providing a list of all of the dam's litters recorded to date (regardless of who the breeder of each litter was). It will also provide some simple guidance about her eligibility to be bred at her next season.
Where there is a chance of the next litter potentially breaching the regulation, the Breeder Notification letter will provide a ‘do not breed again before’ date for the breeder, making it easier for the breeder if they are considering a future litter.
Chair of the Dogs Victoria Breeder Committee, Greg Browne, has long considered this an area where Dogs Victoria needed to become more proactive and has welcomed the changes. “Rather than simply fining breeders and referring them to Compliance after the event, we wanted to be able to provide some guidance and clarity for breeders who are faced with a bitch in season, unsure if they can breed her safely’ he said.
Manager – Community Liaison and Compliance, Sean Orr, explained that breaches of this regulation are one of the most common 'Breeder Breaches’ handled by the Dogs Victoria compliance team.
“All compliance cases, including breeder breaches, have to be reported to Animal Welfare Victoria as part of Dogs Victoria's ongoing Applicable Organisation reporting requirements, so any initiative aimed at reducing the number of occurrences can only help strengthen Dogs Victoria's position as a peak body.”
Of course, the recommendation in the majority of cases is for any breeding female who has whelped back-to-back litters to be given at least one season off before being bred again. This gives her body time to fully recover from the physiological demands of pregnancy, nursing two litters, and for depleted nutrients to be replaced. It also gives the breeder time to evaluate the outcomes of the litters before deciding whether or not she should be bred again.
The rollout of this new initiative will begin in the coming weeks.
Wednesday, 15 June 2022
There have been some changes to the Domestic Animals Act 1994 that came into force on 1 June 2022.
Most of these changes are aimed at making it easier to reunite lost pets with their owners. However, there have been a few other changes made to address loopholes that have been identified in the previous version of the Act.
Probably the most significant change for Dogs Victoria members and breeders is the change to the definition of a ‘Recreational Breeder’.
This is aimed at providing better clarity as to who is entitled to the benefits accorded to breeders who are registered with an Applicable Organisation, and to give Animal Welfare Victoria the powers to revoke Source Numbers that have been incorrectly approved.
A ‘Recreational Breeder’ (in relation to breeding dogs) is now defined as:
A person who carries out the breeding of dogs to sell –
(i) who is registered with an applicable organisation as a breeding member; and
(ii) Who has no more than 10 fertile female dogs all of which are registered with the applicable organisation;
This means that only Dogs Victoria members who hold a Current/Financial Breeder Prefix are entitled to the benefits accorded to a Recreational Breeder.
Simply being a Dogs Victoria member does not qualify a member to breed or to obtain a Recreational Breeder Source Number from the Pet Exchange Register.
The changes also require that the dogs being bred must also be registered with Dogs Victoria.
These changes were made to address issues with people becoming general members of an Applicable Organisation simply to be able to keep more entire animals without having to register as a Domestic Breeding Business with their Local Council, or to be able to breed and sell animals that were not actually registered with the organisation.
Dogs Victoria welcomes these changes and is working with Animal Welfare Victoria to address the problem of unscrupulous breeders who have tried to use Dogs Victoria membership to ‘hide’ from Local Councils, or to mislead puppy purchasers.
Friday, 3 June 2022
Please click here for further information from the Dogs Victoria Obedience, Tracking and Endurance Committee (OTEC).
Wednesday, 12 January 2022
Member forums gives Dogs Victoria members the opportunity to raise with management committee and the chief executive any issues, concerns or questions they may have.
Please forward any questions or topics you would like raised to Janet Davidson at jdavidson@dogsvictoria.org.au 14 days prior to the scheduled forum. Please place ‘MEMBER FORUM’ in the subject line.
Wednesday 16 March 2022 - Geelong – Geelong & District Kennel Club, clubrooms – 6.30pm
Wednesday 4 May 2022 - Bendigo – Bendigo Obedience Dog Club, clubroom – 6.30pm
Wednesday 15 June 2022 - Bulla Exhibition Centre – 6.30pm
Wednesday 17 August 2022 - Shepparton – Shepparton Agricultural Society Club rooms – 6.30pm
Wednesday 19 October 2022 - Ballarat – Ballarat Dog Club rooms – 6.30pm
Traralgon – Venue TBA – Wednesday 16 November 2022 – 6.30pm
KCC Park – Wednesday 7 December 2022 – 6.30pm
In 2013, Dogs Victoria engaged a contractor (Lancore) to develop the rear 25 acres of KCC Park which had been the site of illegal dumping and was effectively wasteland.
You can find the timeline that summarises the activity from when PFAS impacted the project here.
