Page 40 - Chiron 2024

Corporals Club
by LCpl Rebecca Murphy
For the first time in the RAVC Regiment we have put together a Corporals Club, we hold tea
and toast every Wednesday and the last Thursday of every month we host a Cpl Club event in the dragons den, so far we have had quiz night and games night, with a list of
themed evenings planned for the new year. We have finally been able to host our very first Corporals Club function! We held a Oktober festival themed evening with German food and entertainment with beer steins and games. The Rub BBQ we’re a fantastic food vender who parked up and delivered top notch German bratwurst with pretzel chips, while we were greatly entertained by none other than the Beer Keller Boys! Fantastic Oompah trio with brass
instruments, great set up and a host of loads of hilarious games. The Corporals Club who is hosted by myself (LCpl Murphy) with a small group of committee members, who have contributed their time and efforts to get this on the ground running. We hope to continue to host many more functions in the future. We also wanted to thank the RAVC association for your generous contribution and without your help wouldn’t have made this work.
PDHDI
free shape most of the behaviours. Being shown the various ways
you can train a dog has helped me have a better understanding of how dogs learn and has given me an insight into how much they are capable of. Seeing the progress
of a young dog who didn’t know how to channel his energy, turn into a smart, obedient, confident dog is the most rewarding thing I have done, and it has shown me a career path that I hadn’t known was possible when I joined the Army.
PTE BOLTON
Upon beginning these past 10 weeks, having only handled Military Working Dog’s (MWDs) for less than two
months during our initial trade training course, I can confidently say that most of us felt a mix of apprehension, excitement, and gratitude, when we were told we’d be going down to CTS to train our very own protection dog. I was assigned Mika, a young German
Shepard who like me, was eager to learn and develop new skills. After a week or two of building a bond with Mika and putting Mika on a mark, she began to excel in her training, quickly picking up commands and skills. I primarily chose to use free shaping for obedience commands, as I could tell Mika was a thinking dog and was highly driven for rewards. Although Mika was a fast learner, there were aspects of her training that did not come naturally to her. However, thanks to the experience and vast knowledge of my instructors, and other
dog trainers at CTS, I received valuable advice and different techniques to overcome any hurdles we encountered. In these last 10 weeks, I have learnt so many new skills, and absorbed a wealth of knowledge that I believe will greatly benefit me along my journey as a dog handler. I am
very fortunate and grateful for
this opportunity to develop my skills, and I am excited to use these skills in the future to better my handling, and the effectiveness of a MWD.
PTE MIDSON
We were told near the end of our initial trade training about this exciting opportunity
we were being given at CTS to further develop
our knowledge and skills and help us become better handlers. My initial feelings were of excitement because this was the first time in a long time that anyone was getting a chance to experience training a dog so early on in their career. We were assigned our dogs at random, and I was given Pedro, a German Shepard, who was and still is a bundle of excitement and energy. I never really thought about how the dogs we handled on our ITT course learnt to do everything we asked
of them, and I quickly realised that there was a lot more to it than I ever could have imagined. With a lot of trial and error I started
to see progress with Pedro when
I understood how incredibly intelligent, he is; this led me to
38 / Chiron Calling