The River Valley Obedience & Field Trial Club was formed during the spring of 1958 with 25 founding members. The first Executive was made up of:
Bob Little (President)
Ernie Smith (Vice-President)
Daryl MacPherson (2nd Vice-President)
Gertrude Storey (Secretary-Treasurer)
Bob Little was the principal founder having traveled widely throughout New Brunswick and Nova Scotia helping to form new clubs and judging basic classes, often, at his own expense. He was the first Obedience Representative for the Canadian Kennel Club (CKC) and, several years later, (until his sudden death at a dog show) was the Maritime Director for the CKC. To this day, we continue to offer a dog obedience trophy in his memory as it began in 1965.
RVO & FTC was established to be first and foremost a dog obedience club. The original members provided obedience classes, tracking and field activities and matches. For many years, the club was among the most active retrieving sports club in the Maritimes. By 1963 handling classes had been added to the Club’s activities and its membership had grown. In the early 1970's, the Club had shrunk, and its membership was despairing about the status of dog obedience in the Fredericton area. However, by 1975, after the Club became incorporated, membership and the number of participants in our obedience classes increased while our obedience trials attracted increasing numbers of exhibitors.
Revised by-laws were enacted in the fall of 1983 and the mid 1980's saw the orchestration of obedience seminars by people such as Jack and Wendy Volhard and Gail Fisher. A Hospital Visitation program was created in late 1986 and a musical drill team featuring Club members and their dogs was underway during public holidays and demonstrations.
Today, RVO & FTC has more than 70 single and family memberships. We still offer well regarded obedience classes to members and the public. Our Hospital Visitation program has expanded to include monthly visits by volunteers and their temperament tested dogs to seven area health care facilities. RVO & FTC continues to provide exceptional CKC Obedience Trials, fun matches, certificate program for Canine Good Neighbor and Tracking still being an integral part of the club activities.