Helsinki INT show

Hello everyone!

Had a really nice weekend.. Sunny and the other day awfully rainy! It was Helsinki INT show (:

I started the weekend on sunny and HOT Saturday by helping out Pauliina Artiola with her irish setters. They were judged by Mrs. Erja Nummi from Finland. My job was to show an open bitch, Original Nothin Compares To U "Ines". I'd shown setters only once before so I was kinda nervous actually. They're not the easiest breed to show! Anyway, I survived, "Ines" was a nice showing lady and I had great contact with her. Sometimes it's just so nice to show "easy" dogs. "Ines" got EXC and in the class competition she placed as 3rd and didn't get CQ. The judge told it was something about her blades. The other Original-dogs got great results, BOB and so on. I helped in the breeders class too, showing Ines. There were two setter breeder groups, we got BOB-BREEDER.

Happy dogs moving

I was meant to show a west highland terrier, but the timetables didn't match.. So, it was time for "Dani" the english pointer. We've trained a lot since he was young, now he's almost 2 years old and has developed a lot, in the body and in showing too. We trained a little before the ring and I was so surprised he went so great! Really, he just stood there like a statue and ran really beautifully! I was very, very happy!

Dani and his wonderful movement

We went into the ring, the same as the setters', the judge was still Mrs. Erja Nummi. Dani was in good mood as he was tired thanks to the hot weather :D Some dogs just tend to have a little too much energy normally..
He showed like an angel and I couldn't have been happier. The judge liked him too - Dani got everything, CAC CACIB and BOB! Couldn't have gone better, I was a happy handler :)

After this I decided to have a look at the junior handling-ring where my friends competed. I wasn't allowed to compete due to my qualification competition-win in Tampere earlier this year. This plan failed as my friend Tiia came and told me to help her at the border terrier-ring. I showed a beautiful young male in the BM-competition. "USA" had got EXC/2 and CQ, now he placed "5th" (we place only 4 in Finland) and got RES-CAC out of many males!

Dani going BOB and shortlisted in the group!

Now it was time for the finals. I ran into the ring with "Dani" and he put a real show-mode on! I was so amazed.. He ran so fast with his head up like he was saying "I'm the best, look at me!". And surely the judge looked at him as she pointed "Dani" to her shortlist!! Weehoo! I was really happy. Now the judge wanted to see her shortlisted ones' up-and-down movement and the she told the placements. Dani didn't get a placement but I was so happy he showed himself so well and got shortlisted!

I ran to the breeders pre-judging, where the setters waited. The BIS-BREEDER was judged by Mrs. Leni Finne from Finland. In the main ring we got shortlisted, did an up-and-down together and at the end got 4th place! Awesome! Thanks for letting me be a part of your beautiful setter-group! :)

kennel Original BIS-4 BREEDER

The sunny day ended there, but still there was the next day.. a not-so-sunny day :D Rain pouring down the whole day and +14!


♥ Hilde ♥

Showtime!

Hey guys!

Tomorrow we'll have an international show here in Helsinki. I'm very excited! I will help out with irish setters, which is very exciting as I love the breed but haven't really gotten in touch with them more than once. So we'll see how it goes :) After the setters it's time for Dani the english pointer to be shown and then a west highland terrier too!  It will be a really nice day for sure and the weather is supposed to be great too - sunny and +20!

helping out kennel Original, BIS-BREEDER in Riihimäki last year

On Sunday I will have junior handling. A "normal" competition and our district championship. Sadly, I don't have a dog to compete with yet, but hopefully I will fix that problem tomorrow.. If I have time I will help out with bearded collies, tibetan spaniels and a smooth collie :)

Last year in Helsinki INT show, BIS-JH and district champion!

Those who are coming to the show - See you tomorrow! To the others, good luck in your shows and if you're not having a dog-weekend, have a relaxing weekend! See you!

♥ Hilde ♥

Sickness and summer plans

Summer.. It's summer?? Too bad the weather doesn't show that - +15 and cloudy? Nice.

I want to have my normal dogshow summer.. with almost every weekend in one. But no, things change.

A part of this little break is Ninja. She was in a surgery on Thursday. I told earlier in this blog that she'd had some problems and we didn't know what. Well, she went on many visits and got many antibiotics cures. Still, they didn't know what it was. She got these odd states when she got fever for one day or so and was apathetic. After a lot of research they found out that she had a ovarian cyst..

She went to surgery on Thursday. There they found that she had pyometria too, which is really dangerous if it's not taken care of. So we decided to clean it all out. Unfortunately, she's now castrated and cannot have puppies. Well, it looks like it's always this way - the best dogs don't get out easy?

Ninja's pretty fed up with her life right now as you can see from her face..

The main point is now that she's going to be okay and healthy. So now she'll be out of shows for a while as the anti-doping rule in Finland says so - and for that matter she isn't in the condition to participate either.

The other thing then.. As I won the qualification competition for the Finnish Championship final in Tampere in May I'm not allowed to compete in any qualification competitions during the remaining year. I really shouldn't complain and don't understand me wrong BUT I wan't to compete as it's my last year as a junior handler :D Now I have to travel hundreds of kilometers for one junior handling competition as Ninja isn't participating either.. So PLEASE offer me to show your dogs so I have a good reason to travel so far! :D

My dogshow calendar looks like this for the remaining year:

16.-17.6. HELSINKI INT
30.6.-1.7. LAUKAA NAT
7.-8.7. KARJAA INT No junior handling so If I get some dogs to handle..
7.-8.7. KOKKOLA INT If I get some dogs to handle..
14.-15.7. FORSSA NAT
14.-15.7. OULU INT If I get some dogs to handle..
21.-22.7. MÄNTSÄLÄ NAT ?
28.-29.7. MIKKELI INT
3.8. KUOPIO INT
4.8. KUOPIO INT
5.8. KUOPIO INT
11.-12.8. HELSINKI NAT
18.8. KOUVOLA NAT
19.8. HEINOLA NAT
25.-26.8. TERVAKOSKI INT ?
1.-2.9. HELSINKI NAT
8.-9.9. PORVOO NAT
5.-7.10 BUCHAREST, ROMANIA, EW-12 ?
20.-21.10. TURKU INT
27.-28.10. SEINÄJOKI INT
4.11. HERNING, DENMARK, NORDW-12  
10.-11.11. JYVÄSKYLÄ INT
8.12. HELSINKI INT, HeW-12
9.12. HELSINKI INT, FIW-1215-16.12. STOCKHOLM INT, SWEDEN, SWEW-12 ?


Okay, it's not that empty when I look now but blaah, I don't have a dog to show in the breedrings at least for now :( Maybe we could enter Nelli somewhere.. she'd like to show herself, she loves it! Next weekend Nelli's going to have a blast - Ellen is competing with her in the junior handling! Whoopee I hope it goes well, Nelli hasn't been competing with anyone else ever..

♥ Hilde ♥

You're going for one day to the other side of Finland? For what? A dog show of course!

Hello guys!

Aaah I'm so not on schedule in this blog.. Sorry for that, guess I'm just too lazy!

Ninja was entered to this Joensuu show 26-27.5 both days, which was on Saturday a national show and on Sunday international. Unfortunately there came some changes, the judge who was judging on Saturday was Petru Muntean, the one who had been in Croatia and told me that Ninja is too much pomeranian. So, why would I have wanted to get a bad judgement? You're probably thinking why we entered Ninja to this judge, but the last day to enter was before the trip to Croatia, so we didn't know. On Saturday I would have been going to participate in junior handling BUT there had been a change of judge.. To Ninja's and Nelli's BREEDER! Of course I couldn't compete.. Bad luck! So obviously, I wasn't going on Saturday. On Sunday I would've had jh also, but as I won the qualification competition in Tampere, I wasn't allowed to compete here. Ninja was also entered but here also it had been a change of judge, so we got our money back.

showing a smooth collie

So I decided to go to a group show in Helsinki on Saturday to show a smooth collie. It was a lovely, warm sunny day. Haven't had many of those lately.. It should be summer for Christ's sake! Lubin's In the air tonight "Iines" was judged by Mrs. Marja Talvitie from Finland. She didn't have a good day as the other showdays, she got VG and was placed 4th in junior class. She did perform beautifully though and I'm happy as we've trained a lot with her :) I also got the chance to help in my friend Riina's breeders class in the finals. She's breeding cairn terriers and we ended up as RES. BIS BREEDER! Huge congrats ♥

showing a cairn terrier

I didn't have anything else on that weekend then, so I decided to go only on Sunday to Joensuu. Yes, 440 km away.. On Saturday evening I jumped on the train straight from the show together with Nea and Ellen to their grandparents' place and stayed there the night. On Sunday we drove to Joensuu 1,5 hour. I had a pretty busy day. First off was a wire-haired dachshound, Humisevan Harjun Honey Honey. "Honey" was judged by Mr. Tino Pehar from Croatia and was given EXC/1 CQ and BB/2 with CACIB from open class!

I had counted that I would be busy the whole day, but with my math skills I'd count wrong, so after this I was off to watch the junior handling. Nea didn't have a dog to compete with so she competed with one of Honey's owner's dog, a veteran bitch. They did a nice performance, but it was a hot day and the dog was pretty old so at the end the dog was pretty tired. They got shortlisted to top 15 from ~40 competitors. The BIS-JH of today's competition was my lovely friend Jenny Jakkila with her welsh springer spaniel - huge congrats! Ellen placed res. BIS-JH with a lovely samoyed ♥

I almost went to the ring with a Danish-Swedish farmdog, but it's owner had time at the end to show her herself (: Next up was a silky terrier "Tuisku" which I showed in the BB-ring. She ended up as 4th. After this I ran to the bearded collie ring where I helped Nina with her lovely beardies. I had the honor to show Memorylane Hold On Tight "Rekku" in the veteran class. He got EXC/1 and CQ. In the best male-class he ended up as 3rd and BOB-VETERAN. In the finals he took 3rd place in BIS-VETERAN shown by his breeder, Nina! Congrats ♥ I showed Memorylane Show Me The Party "Diesel" in the breeders class - we got BOB-BREEDER with a lovely critique.

In the finals then I showed the dachshound Nea competed with in bis-veteran without any success. I also got a special chance to show a nice rottweiler called Irma Del Tridente Dello Stretto "Irma". She didn't get any success but showed herself beautifully free-stacking. I love to try new breeds and this was totally out of my "zone".

a pic from Varkaus

I had a lovely weekend and came home extremely burnt by the sun.. :p
The next show is Aptus Show in Helsinki, 16-17.5. See you there!


♥ Hilde ♥

WDS 2012 part III

The last day then - final day!

Today it was just about the junior handling qualification round and the World Championship Final.
I competed with the same dog as yesterday - "Trean" the pharaoh. The judge of today was Mrs. Elfriede Heidecker. I decided to do it 100% with the Austrian rules today.. And it was a great choice - I was picked again to the top 6! Sanni didn't compete at all today, as she qualified yesterday. Nea competed with a beautiful borzoi I've once competed with. They did a lovely performance and the judge said after their performance "Great performance, just run a bit faster in the group judging". This she did but did not make it unfortunately :(

The pre-judging for the representatives was in action. Unfortunately I had time only to watch the first group out of 7 or something.. I had to run to the main ring for our qualification final! We did some figures in the main ring, and everything went really great. The judge liked us so she picked us to her top-3! Awesome! I was now qualified for the World Championship Final 2012 which was actually in action at the other side of the hall. So guess what? I was on the run again together with the two other qualified.

at the final with "Trean"

We had to do our individual performance as quick as possible. The final judge was Mrs. Barbka Novak. She had decided today to be all about technique performance.. She changed her place many, many times when doing a figure. I managed to do a great performance anyhow I was a bit unsure about her judging..

At the end of the day we did a quick turn in the main ring, all ~40 representatives and 9 qualified juniors. The judge picked right away her top-6 and my friend Sanna Martikainen was there ♥ Congrats, once again!
Unfortunately she wasn't among the three placed. 3rd in the World Championship was Lena Unger from Germany with her english pointer, well deserved! 2nd was Tereza Šubertová from Slovakia with a happy performance together with her soft coated wheaten terrier. The winner 2012 was Stanislav Petrov from Bulgaria.

 I'm so glad I qualified, now I've been competing in the final 4 times and one time I almost made it, qualified one day, but didn't make it from the semi-final. This was also my last World Championship as a junior handler - next year I will be just one person more in the audience :( Fortunately, it's not only about the junior handling, there will be the World Winner show every year, I just have to get some dogs to show :)

friends at the JH-gala on Saturday
© Birgit Primig

It was such a show! Met so many great friends from all over the world - that's why I love these World Winner shows, everyone's there! Thank you all and special thanks to Helena Håkansson from Sweden and Elena Popova from Ukraine for trusting your beautiful dogs to me ♥

Nea and Sanni - you already know it was one hell of a trip ;)

Thanks for the lovely long weekend and see you all hopefully at the European Winner in Bucharest!

♥ Hilde ♥

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 ♥