SCHOOL is not only back for the youngsters of Broken Hill, but for the pups as well – with the Broken Hill All Breeds Obedience Dog Club having its first meet for 2025 on Sunday.
BHABODC is a more than 50 years old staple in Broken Hill.
Alongside weekly training classes every Sunday at AJ Keast Park, the club also holds four trial weekends a year and fun dog nights for socialising.
Club publicity officer Janet Siddall said the obedience school had a great turn out for their first meet of the year.
“It went well, we had quite a few new dogs on Sunday so that was great,” she said.
“We’ve found this year that a lot of people must have got new dogs in the last few months, because a lot of the new members were puppies, not older dogs.”
Ms Siddall said the holiday period is a popular time for families to adopt puppies, potentially boosting the number of new students.
“I think people over the Christmas period do use that time to get a puppy,” she said.
“They’re only three or four months old, so we did have some quite young ones this time.”
As for the skills of the new recruits, Ms Siddall said everyone did well.
“It’s hard when dogs come the first time because they mostly haven’t been socialised,” she said.
“But we had no problems; our trainer for first timers has been doing beginners for quite a while.”