Meticulous Lodge

ABOUT METICULOUS LODGE

Meticulous Lodge was established in 2005, ran by trainer and breeder Paul Westerveld with the help of his wife Michelle. With over 20 years experience in the industry, Paul’s success has been a true credit to himself, producing some of the best race dogs, brood bitches and now stud dogs the industry has to offer.

Paul grew up having dogs as family pets from the day he was born. His passion for greyhounds started at age 12, when a successful trainer that lived in the area, offered Paul a part time job after school assisting him.

Paul being a sporty person himself could think of nothing better than the idea of an athletic sporting animal and from here his passion grew.

By 14 years of age, Paul had his first greyhound called 'Super Mets' who won 9 races from 34 starts. He then was given a couple of giveaways which he won a race or two with and sold that enabled him to purchase his matriarch bitch 'Witching Time'. Tammy as she was affectionately known by Paul was his first feature race winner, landing the 1995 Wangaratta Cup and as a brood bitch she was fantastic. To read more, see 'Past Greats.'

The coming years had Paul training 4 dogs from home, breeding a couple of litters and in 2003, he bought a property in Devon Meadows to rear his own dogs. It wasn’t until 2005 that Paul and Michelle moved onto the property where they decided to set up the business and both work full time with the dogs.

"I don’t think anything could have prepared us for what lay ahead" said both Paul and Michelle. "Living on a property having approximately 80 dogs at any given time, from pups to race dogs, whilst building the facilities on the property, was truly one of the most demanding transitions we have both gone through, however now it’s a lifestyle that we enjoy every day and can't imagine ever going back to a normal Monday to Friday 9-5 job ever again."

Above: "Witching Time" as a pup.

A TEAM EFFORT

Running a business that is 7 days a week is a huge commitment and not possible without the help of our team. Paul may be the brains of this operation, however he shares this commitment with wife Michelle, who is very hands on day to day working right along side Paul every step of the way and also runs the financials of the business.

They also have the loving support of Paul’s parents, Henk and Wendy, who have not only supported his passion whilst a child, but continued to offer a helping hand, week to week whenever it is needed. Wendy with over 25 years experience as veterinary nurse has whelped many litters over the years and Henk has driven many kilometres to the tracks all over the country, not to mention his handy man skills that are always here helping improve the property.

Above: "Meticulous" 2007 Group 1 Topgun winner.

FACILITIES

This immaculate property is set on 10.5 acres in Devon Meadows, Melbourne, boasting some of the best facilities the industry has to offer, with no expense spared. It has been a long and tiresome task building the facilities, which has taken the best part of 4 years, but the reward has been very satisfying.

Complex features include:

• Three separate brick kennel blocks, each with kitchen, evaporative cooling, insulation, sky lights, windows, and music, housing 41 dogs in total.

• Two whelping kennels, which are insulated heating/cooling brick buildings with small yards attached for mum and pups.

• Ten outside lockups with undercover brick kennels and empty yards attached, all backing onto a large paddock.

• 6 dog rotary walker and treadmills.

• Dog & bitch sand work runs 100 metre long each.

• 250 metre sand straight track.

• 6 rearing paddocks, different sizes to accommodate the various
ages of pups. All with undercover insulated brick kennels, opening
onto a larger paddock with dam for free galloping an hour each day.

• Large paddock for race dogs

• Large paddock for race bitches

• 32 undercover empty yards

• Steel colorbond fence and security gates that surrounds the
property to ensure the safety of the dogs at all times and privacy.

KEY TO SUCCESS

Paul and Michelle pride themselves on the love and care they give their animals.

They are believers that all dogs respond to different living and training environments and therefore not any one way works with all dogs.

Pups are whelped in the house where a close eye can be kept on them at all times and at approximately 4wks of age they are moved to the whelping kennel with small paddock attached where the pups can start venturing outside with mum.

Our pups are taught to walk on lead by the time they are 6 weeks old. They have regular visits from kids who are encouraged to go in and play with the pups. All of this is great socialising and gives the dogs confidence. They are given toys to play with and we often take a toy on a rope in with the pups where it gets dragged around for them to bite and play tug of war with.

At 3 months of age they are then moved to a slightly larger paddock before moving to the bigger paddocks at about 6 months of age.

Then at 13 months of age, they are bought up to the outside lockups where they are still outdoors and make the adjustment from paddocks to enclosures before moving into the racing kennels. For some dogs that haven’t settled into the kennel environment, they are continued to be trained from outside until they have matured and they have found this to be a great success with dogs returning to the kennel block very settled and relaxed.

Paul and Michelle never lose sight of where their money comes from and in return, their dogs come first. “You get out of your dogs what you put in and you can’t expect your dogs to give you 100% unless they are happy and healthy” says Michelle. They are always treated with love and respect and in return they give us their all.

Our pups and dogs are fed the best quality food, beef, cooked chicken, premium dry foods, milk and supplements. They are wormed and flea monthly. As greyhounds are a finely tuned animal that run at high speed, it’s important their physical well being is monitored. Certain injuries respond to different treatments and to cater for that, we use Laser, Ultra-Sound Therapy, Magnetic Field, Hydro-Therapy and massage. Their bedding is warm, comfortable and dry and they are rugged according to what each Melbourne day brings.

Our facilities give us many options of training, providing variety, which means we can cater for every dogs needs.

SPONSORS

We believe that what you put in is what you get out and a high quality diet is paramount for success! We choose to feed a combination of dry food and beef. The dry food we use and find to be fantastic for our dogs through all stages of development is a leading premium dry food "Royal Canin".

The beef we use is of human consumption quality we receive in cryovac bags which we mince ourselves fresh twice a week.

www.royalcanin.com.au