WDS @ Salzburg, day 2

The second day then..

The day kept us busy at least..! We took a taxi near the mess centre, but because the huge traffic jam we jumped out of the car about 400 meters before the hall. It was a nice, sunny day with many plus-degrees celcius, nothing like here in Finland at the moment - at the highest point maybe 15 degrees. Now it's warmer here at home thank god :p

I started my day by helping out with bearded collies. Nina Brusin had came with 8 dogs so she needed help indeed. I helped to groom some of the dogs for the ring. Nina's dogs got some success, EXC/1 in the Veteran class for example (: I would help out later in the final rings with couples and breeder's group.

Ninja ♥

Ninja's turn was next. Ninja was entered to the Open Class, but she finished her Finnish Champion-title some weeks ago. Unfortunately they didn't allow us to change the class to Champion. So she competed in open class with 8 other bitches. The judge for kleinspitz other colors was Mr. Erwin Deutchser from Germany. In my opinion (this again I should just keep my big mouth shut but..) he was a bit lost when judging. He checked the dogs' expression a thousand times and didn't seem to know what he was after. When it was the champion bitches turn, it seemed like Mr. Peter Machetanz came to help him..

Ninja EXC/2 in Open class!

Anyway, can't blame on our results! Ninja got EXC and finally placed as 2nd in open class! A nice result in my opinion :) She did show herself very well this day also, so I was happy. I was just in such hurry, I had 5 minutes time to go and do my individual judging at the other end of the hall in junior handling when I was still in the ring with Ninja..

It's not always about standing..

As you can guess, I ran really fast (seems to be my habit to run everywhere..) to the pharaoh ring at the other end. I wasn't even sure if I would get a jh-dog from there, because Maria had said to me, that I can get "Teah" (the one I competed last year in WDS with) if she's not BOB. When I came there, "Teah" hadn't even been in the ring! I asked if they had some other dog, and thankfully, they had. Elena Popova had a nice male, Antefa's Tutankhamun aka. "Trean". I ran with the poor dog to the other side, I could say it was almost 1 kilometer or something :D I was sweating like a pig when I arrived to the jh-ring.

"Trean" free-stacked

I saw that they'd already started the group judging and I thought, shit, that was it. Thankfully, they were nice and let me do my individual judging even if I was late. So I did it together with "Trean" and he did work very nicely! The judge asked for a triangle and up-and-down. I free-stacked "Trean" after the triangle and he stood okay, the hindleg wasn't perfectly situated, but I thought "hey, it's free-stacking, it's not supposed to be perfect". At that moment the judge pointed with her finger at the hindleg and wanted me to fix it to the right position. I was a bit surprised and thought my chances went out of the window there.

Stacking "Trean" in front of the judge

After the individual judging it was time for group judging. It went great, I thought! The judge didn't ask for anything special, just running like crazy around the dog, of course, as she was an Austrian judge :p After this we were told to be back a 1 o'clock.

© Kristina Korpar

I went out with "Trean" and when I came back at 12.45 Natascha (the ring secretariat) shouted "Hilde, you're qualified!". I was like what?? I didn't understand and probably looked really lost.. :D After some seconds I understood that I was in the top-6 and a smile appeared on my face! Yeey!! I made it! Thank you so much Elena Popova for lending lovely "Trean" for me!

In the main ring
© Adriatic Blue kennel

The finals were in the afternoon and we waited.. In the finals I didn't make it to the top-3, probably because I didn't care about the "golden rule" at all times, because I wanted to do it my way! I learned, that it's not a good idea :p BUT even if I didn't make it, my friend Sanni did!! WOHOO awesome! She competed with a lovely silky terrier! My other friend, Nea who was with us, competed today with an australian shepherd.

Later it was time for couples competition, I showed beardie Memorylane Show Me The Party "Diesel". Diesel had one of those days - he was full of energy and almost drag me into the ring! Fortunately he calmed down and showed himself nicely at the end.. We didn't unfortunately succeed in the couples competition.

Couples competition

It wasn't the end! There was the breeder's competition! Must say, by the way, that the pre-judging organizations were horrible! The aisle where it was meant to walk into the pre-judging ring was so crowded and it was horrible to even stand there. Very badly organized..

Anyway, we got our lovely beardies across the crowded aisle. We had with Nina and Jeena three dogs, "Diesel", "Rekku" and "Liinu". The Danish judge picked us to his shortlist! We were very happy! We didn't get more than that, but from a huge group of breeders, it was great! Thank you Nina for letting me help out with your beardies!

Our beautiful breeder's group, kennel Memorylane

This was a great day and it ended with a lovely junior handling-dinner which the junior handlers of Austria had organized! It was really fun and it's always lovely to spend time with friends from all over the world! Thank you ♥

The last day was the best.. Writing more soon! Tomorrow off to a group show here in Helsinki and after that  to Joensuu INT show! See ya!

♥ Hilde ♥

WDS 2012 @ Salzburg

Hello my dear friends!

I decided to skip the Croatia-story for now, and tell you about our trip to the World Dog Show in Austria!
So we headed down on Thursday morning at 6 o'clock very tired but excited. We met my lovely friends Nea and Sanni at the airport with my mum and Ninja, of course.

Our trip had begun! We had waited for this many, many months.. We flew to Munich and took the train from there. We had nice company in the train - drunk German people singing, dancing and cheering for some football game.

When we arrived at the hotel I got one mini-heartattack. Or not that little actually.. My system camera fell from my bag  which was on the bench on the stone floor and all I heard was a huge crash! Oh my, that was not a nice feeling! I slowly lift my camera and it was just jingling and yes, you may guess what my feelings were at that point.. When I took the lens cover away the objective was just in thousand chips.. Thank god later it went up for me that maybe if I was so lucky, it may have only been the UV-lens which was attached to the real objective that had broke.. And it was. I was really lucky!

with "Elektra" in JH

So the next day came and therefore our first day at the show! Whoopee! Today it was all about the junior handling :) I was competing with a lovely 21-month old borzoi, Scheztaya Radio Ga Ga "Elektra". She was first time out in junior handling and did a great job! Too bad the ring was so small for such a big breed. Our judge was Uschi Eisner from Austria. We had had a long discussion about these famous Austrian rules and now it was time to see how it really did go. I don't mean to be rude or anything, but the judge (who may be reading this now too..) gave apples and candy for the junior handlers outside the ring! Why on the earth? She's a judge, she should be judging. Yes, we may be "kids" in your eyes, but do they do things like these in the breed rings too? no.

in JH with a borzoi

Anyway, I was pretty shocked when I saw the Austrian rules in real action. What can I say.. Horrible! The juniors switched hands like millions of times and in places where it really wasn't necessary. Just because "Austrian JH-rules say so". Hmph. Some thoughts below:

- "Do not kneel down". Why? I will put two pics below. Make your own decision of which looks better and more professional. You already know my opinion..

© Tereza Zubertova

© Birgit Primig

- "The golden rule". Why? The judge just kept jumping from side to side just to check if the kids knew the golden rule. In breed rings when the judge goes to the outskirt of the ring, they want to see every dog at the same time in movement. But hey, when we're in the junior handling-ring, everyone starts to jump from side to side breaking the dogs' movements just because "the Golden Rule". This applies also when stacking, you need to run around the dog a million times just to "not be between the judge and the dog". Which kind of dog that has any challenge will stay there like a statue? Quoting the judge who said to my friend: You're a very good handler but your dog is too bad. What?? Do we have to compete with robots? Oh sorry, I thought dogs were living creatures..

Switching hands in really stupid places
Tereza Subertova on the picture, 2nd in World Championship this year, congrats! 

- Do not put the leash behind your neck when stacking. This one too.. just why? Why not? You have a much better control over the dog like this. But no, it's forbidden and you have to have the leash 10 cm above the dog's neck.
Yeah well, those were the main disturbing things.. The thing is. You can't succeed there if you don't follow the rules. So guess what - I handled like this myself. Just kept it a little not-so-overblown. And the fact that the speakers said in the main ring the whole time "Junior handling is nothing like in breed rings. They have they're totally different rules and things they should do there". WHAT? Holy crap I say..

The first day we got a handshake and thank you. My friends competed without success too. Nea competed with a lovely lakeland terrier "José", and it went very well. Sanni competed with a irish water spaniel, which went great too!

Me, Nea and Sanni

I also showed a wire-haired hungarian viszla in the breed ring, because her handler didn't have time to show her himself. "Bella" was a champion class bitch - showed herself very well, but for some reason the Finnish jugde (that may be the reason :p) gave her VG. The other champion bitch got also VG.. "Bella" won her class, but as she got VG she didn't get anything else.

Sanni with the irish water spaniel

Oh and I almost forgot to mention - Our lovely Finnish handler Sanna Martikainen got to the top-3 and qualified for the finals this day! Congrats dear  ♥

Sanna who qualified on Friday!

Although I could say I hate the Austrian rules, the arrangements were awesome, and I have to thank the one's who organized junior handling in this show! Felt like we were taken care of, thank you :)

The first day was over, but the next days got us some success too.. We went at the evening to a Greek restaurant and had a lovely evening. I will write more later! :)

♥ Hilde ♥

no time no posts..

Hey guys!

I'm so frustrated that I haven't written anything here for a long time.. I'm sorry, I really haven't had much time! And I won't have this week time either.. I have had very busy weeks and weekends with fabulous results and I will tell you those when I have time! On Thursday we're heading down to Salzburg in Austria for the World Dog Show 2012!! Whoopee!

Hopefully I'll have time to continue on the story of the Croatian trip soon..:)

♥ Hilde ♥

Croatia part II

Part two then.. or day two!

The second day in Zadar was also great! Weather stayed the same which was awesome. Kleinspitzes would be judged by Mr. Srecko Kukic from Hungary . The same dogs were entered as yesterday plus one Russian klein. And a thing I shouldn't write here - but I guess I'm dumb and I do that. But the Russian "klein" was definitely no kleinspitz but pomeranian. The dog's sister competed in pomerainians.. I hate when they in Russia and some European countries can change the breed from pomeranian to kleinspitz if it happens that the dog grows over 22 cm. A big pomeranian is no kleinspitz for sure! It's such a shame when they do like that..

Well, we see lots of these "pom-kleins" in central Europe and I bet Nelli and Ninja has some poms also far behind in their pedigree, but it shouldn't be allowed to do a criss-cross mix of these two breeds.

Ninja BB/1 CAC CACIB

Judging started and Ninja was first in turn, got EXC/1 and a CAC as there was 1 CAC for each class winner. Nelli got also EXC/1 and CAC. In the competition for the CACIB Ninja won over Nelli, so Nelli had to settle with the RES-CACIB again :) Nelli is the one who needs it, if she would get the last CACIB she would be C.I.B. But no, her daughter takes it always from right in front of her..

Nelli on the table ♥
© Fleurianne Bernard

In the BOB-competition the Russian klein took the highest award.

BOB-competition

Nelli's critique:
Excellent size. Good body. Nice head. Scissor bite. Good top- and underline. Good angulations and fine when stacked. Good movement.
Ninja's critique:
2 years. Nice size. In great condition. Good head. Scissor bite. Nice proportions of the body. Nice angulations. Nice stack. Correct movement. Excellent quality of the coat.

A little too hot for our girls..

Now, again it was time to search for a junior handling-dog. The owners of the French kleins had many australian shepherds too, so I took a chance and asked for one. It was okay, and I trained with a lovely tricolor aussie - Cau Fosca Here Ace Of Clover "Ace". It went really great and I was really happy because I just love aussies! Some day I will have one of my own too..

4th place in junior handling!

So we went to the junior handling and some woman judged, can't remember her name unfortunately.. There were about 15 junior handlers today. The judge asked for a triangle. It went really great, "Ace" did really great work! It's really hard for many dogs that aren't used to this kind of warmth.. We managed to get 4th place today! Great! Thanks Vanessa for lending "Ace" for me.

Training with "Ace"
© Vanessa Soler

As we went "home" then after the junior handling, we took a walk by the beautiful sea and took some pictures. It was like being on a holiday on the Canary Islands.. But better :-)

Nelli with the beautiful Adriatic Sea behind

Ninja pictured with the Adriatic Sea in the background

"Paris Hilton" :p

Ninja ♥

♥ Hilde ♥

Croatia.. warm and sunny part I

Hey guys!

I've seen you've followed this blog this week even if I haven't written anything.. So sorry for that, but I've been home for only one day during the last week..

But I think it's time to tell you about our lovely trip to a lovely country - Croatia! What a great show, really, and people too! Where should I start..

The show opening on Saturday

We started our trip on Friday noon, flew first to München. The flight was late and so we were late to the connecting flight to Zagreb. We ran out of the plane and heard "Final call for passengers on flight XXX to Zagreb!". Auch! We ran a long way through the BIG airport of Münich. Thank god, we got there in time and flew to Zagreb. Ninja didn't like the airplane at all and kept some weird noises and barked the whole time.. Poor me had to pet her the whole flight from Helsinki to Münich to keep her quiet (2h and 20 min).. I can say: My back was really hurting after that.. :p Nelli was really great, she slept the whole flight.

My mom and the dogs

Well, we got to Zagreb and from there we took a bus to Zadar. It took 4 hours, but the time went pretty fast.
We were at our destination, our apartment at almost midnight.. So we just went to sleep :)

Then our first day at the show began! We could really feel that we were in southern Europe! It was about +30 degrees! Whoo, that was fine for me coming from +4 degrees and rain ;) We went to the office to get the numbers, which we don't do here, we get them by mail. It's really not a working system and when they send information on paper by mail - why can't they send the numbers too? The kleinspitzes were scheduled to start at 10 o'clock, but when we came to the ring, there had been made some changes. Apparently Mrs. Joan Walsh didn't have the rights to judge kleinspitzes and some other breeds, so they had to change the judge.

So the first day's judge was then Mr. Damir Skok, the president of the Croatian kennel club. Our ring started at 13.00 and there were 7 entered kleinspitzes. French and Finnish ones :) Ninja competed in Open class and took the highest award - BB/1 CAC, CACIB and finally BOB! Nelli as a champion competed in Champion class and got BB/2 CAC and RES-CACIB ♥ Critiques from Saturday below:

Ninja BOB on Saturday

Nelli: 
Matured bitch. Typical head. Nice front. Little bit tinier in the back. Excellent quality of the coat. Excellent presentation. 

Nelli CAC & RES-CACIB on Saturday

Ninja:
Young bitch. Excellent type. Nice head. Neck could be longer. Strong back part of the body. Good quality of coat. Good movements. Good angulations.


When kleinspitzes were finished, I had to start looking for a junior handling-dog! JH would start at 15.00 and judged by Mrs. Joan Walsh from Ireland. There were many nice people, and friendly junior handlers who helped me get a dog, thanks Ivan and Kristina! I competed with a lovely french bulldog, which was a totally different dog from what I'm used to show. Great! I love new challenges! "Rain" aka. Adriatic Blue Rain Of Love is a 11-month old cutie, who went very well in very hot weather. We managed to get placed as 3rd!! Thank you Ingrid for lending Rain for me!

3rd place in junior handling!

Adriatic Blue Rain Of Love "Rain"

After junior handling it was time for the group finals! FCI 5 would be judged by Mrs. Joan Walsh, which was really weird according to the fact that she didn't even have rights to judge every breed in that group.. So we could anticipate that we would not succeed and so we didn't.

The atmosphere in the show was very relaxed

The first day was really great, and after the show we went to eat at a great restaurant :) The show was by the way on a big campsite next to the beautiful Adriatic Sea. The background of some of the rings was the sea - it must have looked great on photos! The show area was also beautiful, white fence surrounded all of the rings and the trees gave great shadows, so we didn't have to stand under the sun the whole day.

I will write about the next days very soon..

♥ Hilde ♥