MINOCQUA – Dog owners won’t be left in the cold now that the Minocqua town board agrees dog obedience classes can resume in the Minocqua Center gymnasium this winter.
On Tuesday, Patt Wegmann, of Lakeland Dog Training Center, pleaded with supervisors to allow her the use of the facility after she was told it would no longer be available. She holds fall, winter and spring classes in the gymnasium. Each session is for eight weeks and she was using the gym once a week. The summer class is at her family farm.
Wegmann said since her non-profit group was formed in 1976, some 15,000 dogs and their owners have enrolled in the obedience classes. They charge $75 per dog, which includes as many sessions needed to complete an individual course.
“I don’t make any money on this,” Wegmann said. “We just do it because it’s our way of giving back to the community.”
By way of explanation, director of public works Mark Pertile says the town crew isn’t always available the next morning to clean the gymnasium of dog hair and to sanitize the floor when dogs urinate, even though it’s wiped up immediately. That’s a problem when the library staff wants to have a children’s program in the gym the next day, he explains.
“I think this is a good thing for the community to have,” said supervisor John Thompson, who noted he’s had dogs go through the program.
As a condition of a new usage agreement, the board says a professional cleaning service will tidy up afterwards. An estimate of $50 for each cleaning will be passed onto the Wegmann’s group.
In other actions, the board gave a first reading of a proposed amended ordinance that would allow ATV/UTV owners living along Thoroughfare Road to travel to the town of Woodruff’s portion of Thoroughfare. The permitted use would not show up on the local ATV/UTV club’s route map.
