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 ♥