November in a nutshell

NORDIC CHAMPIONSHIPS

The first weekend in November were the Nordic FS & HTM championships in Herning, Denmark. Spooky was a reserve on the Heelwork Team and Soda was competing on the Freestyle Team. Not only were we competing but also, as part of the HTM committee at the Danish Kennel Club, I was also co-organising the competition. See the NM blog...

I competed in an official HTM3 with Soda on the Saturday ( day before the NM ) and she was acting strangely. She had just finished her season ( a plit one at that ) - and was definitely affected by it. Saturday evening we did a performance in the main ring and Soda acted like she had never done freestyle before. I got through the 3,5 minutes by doing her favourite tricks in different ways and sequences. And took an executive decision to use her old routine which actually had been retired. I didnt want to ask her to do new, more difficult moves, when her hormones were raging. 

For the Team Round on Sunday, Soda did her repeat performance from Saturday evening - our opening sequence just didnt work - Soda was behaving exactly the same way as the night before. This time I was prepared - and had to do what I had to do - BEG ;o)  I have never EVER had to beg her to work before, but I guess there is always a first ( and hopefully a last ) time for everything. I nagged, begged, repeated commands, repeated her name - all the things I personally really hate seeing in Freestyle. I left the ring sweating ( well I did have to work hard ). Soda got into the final in a 4th place - along with my 2 amazing teammates Emmy/Biscuit & Jette/Addi. Annette/ Neo had bad luck on the day and due to a rule were eliminated after doing their careers performance. These results got the Danish Team a 2nd place at the Championships.

For the Individual Round we competed one more time, and then both scores were added together. Soda finished 4th individually which I was really proud of. Last year she got a 6th Individually after being petrified of the floor at the venue...I guess we will have our personal challenges at the Nordic Championships!

DALA HUNDSERVICE / HOUSE OF LEARNING

It was a great honour to be invited up to Borlænge to teach. This is where I went to Chicken Camp. Friday evening I did a lecture on Freestyle and Heelwork to Music. Saturday was a full day of FS & HTM for the 1 year students - and I had met them all at one of the Chicken Camps. One of the students, Johanna, had been my training partner on the 2nd week - and so I was really looking forward to the weekend.

There were 2 interesting aspects to this training day:

1) The students were extremely clicker savvy.

2) None of them would probably ever do freestyle again.

Apart from the DHS students, there were a couple of freestyle enthusiasts aswell. We had an outstanding day and everyone, including the dogs, worked really hard.

 

WEEKEND IN THE UK

I was in the UK in November aswell. It was the first time I travelled Esbjerg-Harwich with dogs. The crossing over wild'n'woolly so if I was asked after that if I would ever travel that route again my answer would be NO NO NO. The trip home was much better - so now I can recommend the trip if you travel alone to the UK - but my preferred route is definitely Hoek Of Holland- Harwich if I drive with someone. So that was the sales pitch for travelling through Europe with a dog or two.

On the Sunday we had a training day for the Tazz x Zen puppies, and a couple of extra's including a REAL prinsess. I am not going to write a lot about this ( have a look at the Obay blog - November for a full report ) - but I had a fantastic time meeting the pups & their owners.

 

And a little story to the final picture: we were sitting having evening tea and all the girls were sitting "Pretty" for cookies. So to get a better picture we moved them and put them on a line - to get a Synchronised Pretty. Well after a few attempts, this was th 5th picture which really mad me laugh - this is what one command "Pretty" will get you :o)

OPHIAN AND RICHARD CURTIS

The last weekend in November Ophian had their FS/HTM competition. I judged the official classes and had fun just spending the day enjoying the sport! Day 2 & 3 were training days with Richard Curtis. Both days were amazing - we had a lot of laughs & creativity in my groups, especially on the first day. The second day was for Heelwork & our routines, and there were a lot of interesting inputs from Richard to the handlers. I only heard about half as the venue was not heated - and I really REALLY hate the cold, almost as much as I hate WET ( maybe I am family with Nancy H ). But a really really good weekend - and I hope Richard will come again to Denmark.