From 17.-19. of October, three crazy dog ladies were heading to Dortmund to attend the Hund & Pferd-show in Westfalenhallen. The three of us were yours truly, and Nicky and Claire came over from the UK to join me from the Netherlands and to Dortmund.
The planning that went into this trip can only be described as expentional. :D Between us, we had 11(!) dogs that needed to be fitted into one car, and also an extreme amount of show-things, food-things, drink-things and so on. Several photos and measurements later, we actually managed to get all of the things - AND the dogs stuffed into the car, and we made a quick exit to Dortmund before my hubby would arrive home from work - and see what "we did" to his precious car. LOL
We arrived in Dortmund in the evening, and was kinda excited to see the low-budget apartment hotel we had booked. I had made the arrangements, and had kinda "forgotten" to tell the hotel just how many dogs we were bringing - I had just asked him if it was ok to "have dogs in the rooms". And he replied yes, so I found there would be no need to be specific about numbers and other insignificant details. ;)
Luckily, one black dog looks the same as another black dog for the uneducated - and so does the little spitzy-things - I think the hotell-owner just gave up! ;) But no complaints, and he wished us welcome back again next year. (but something tells me we will look for a different hotel next time, as dragging cages, food, drinks and baggage + too many dogs up and down to the top floor - WITHOUT an elevator isn´t something we´re very keen on repeating....!)
The show lasted three days, and on Friday, I was as unfortunate as I could possibly be with the halls and the times. Pernille (mittelspitz) was at the exact same time as my two groenendael-girls, and of course in the two halls that were the furthest away from each other.... But Nicky was grabbed as a Pernille-handler for the day, and I went off on my own to "the dark side" with the groenendaels. :)
And it did go better at the dark side, because Dida got R.CAC, which equals a CAC because it was at the Bundessieger-show, and Luna became Best Veteran, and was off to the main-ring in the afternoon! Poor Pernille only got an excellent, but the judge withheld the CAC because she was loosing too many teeth for her age. (tell that to the vet that pulled them out!!! :P)
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| Luna checking the view ;) |
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| The belgians had some lovely rosettes - matching my soft crates!!! ;) |
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| Luna´s new title :) |
The photos below are not in the correct order, but will give you a small impression of how the weekend went. We had a brilliant times, and I learned a lot of new, naughty english words, that I had no idea was naughty at all.... And I also learned to powder a dog in a bag (don´t even ask, the whole kitchen was white, and nothing on the dog....), and we laughed so much that I am sure our neighbors thought we were rather crazy. Which of course was completely true. :D
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| Nicky and the monsterdoggy Pernille ;) |
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| The two brittish girls checking out the competition ;) |
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| My brilliant attempt of saving time with baking two pizzas in once. Worked out very well - apart from me dropping two of the slices in the bottom of the very hot oven = burned and crashed pizza for me....! :P |
In the main ring one of the days, Eric and Nicky was in, as he became BOB both days. :) On the way out of the ring, one of the dogs in front of Eric simply had a joyous meltdown of some sort, and decided to have a decent roll and twist on the lovely grass in the ring. ;) Just check out Erics expressions, I laughed so much when I saw these photos:
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| "That was a very strange thing to do in the ring of honor!" :D |
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| Happy Claire - she won just about everything with her lovely lot of mischiefs ;) |
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| My Luna, 10 years old - came in as runner up to the BOB for breed specialist Hana at kennel z Kovàrny :) |
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| The chariot! :) Pernille LOVED Nickys dog-trailer, and Eric and Arya didn´t like it as much. This is miss OMG :) (Arya) |
Further on, a few more images from the show:
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| "What? You are saying stand nicely, aren´t you?" A mittelspitz ALWAYS takes commands literally ;) |
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| My oldie-goldie-gal, Luna - no one thinks she's 10 years! :) |
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| The kleinspitz-judge was very clear on what he liked and what he didn´t like - and he told all of the exhibitors :) (And yes, he DID like most of Claires gang :D) |
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| Got a glimpse of the horses as well. But just a glimpse -didn´t have time for anything else! LOL |
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| The miserable one in the chariot ;) Miss Oh My God av Ostretunet - pretty Arya <3 |
Nicky was called in to handle some of Claires girls, but I am not sure what she was doing, because this one just didn´t want to have all four feet on the ground at the same time... Must me something Nicky did! LOL
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| Both back feet in the air ;) |
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| All 4 leggs in the air... ;) |
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| Another one trying the "stand!"-pose! :) |
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| I think it was just the wrong color dog for Nicky. You know she only likes the white ones! LOL |
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| Lots of possibilities to shop - only too little room left in the car!!!! |
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| Someone was happy to win the BOB ;) |
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| Mr. Archie - the stylish Xanova Wolf Walker, that I was allowed to show in the main-ring on Saturday - brilliant fun!!! :D |
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| Waiting is boooooooring - mutual feeling for both me and Archie-boy! :) |
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| I wish someone would tell the owner of this dog, that it is allowed to wash and brush their dogs.... :-( Poor girl.... :( |
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| Oh My God av Ostretunet - she brushes up quite nicely ;) |
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| even more waiting, this time in the veteran-ring.... Pretty Luna-girl <3 |
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| Me and Archie on the moooooove :) |
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| Beautiful Eric. I still haven´t forgiven Nicky for not sending him over to live with me ;) |
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| I want a breeders group like this! Not the dogs, but the zebra-jackets! LOL |
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| We don´t look too bad together? ;) Me and Archie = dream team ;) |
It was also a speciality-show for all the spitz-dogs in Dortmund, and lovely Eric just went on and took Best In Show there. Well deserved, and I do think that Mrs. Garbutt was kinda happy ;)
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| BEST IN SHOW!!!! :D |
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| Me and Luna in the veteran ring - she looks nice, doesn´t she? :) |
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| Look at those moves!!!! (Yes, I am talking of Erics.... But Nicky doesn´t look to bad either ;)) |
As I said earlier, Nicky isn´t very good in getting the dogs to actually stand nicely... Some footage of Eric proves me right:
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| "Are you saying sit?" |
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| "Sit? Sing? Stand? I can´t understand you, woman!" |
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| "Tango? Jump? Make up your mind!" |
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| "Oooooh, you meant stand nicely like this! OK, I can do that. Just ask for it!" LOL |
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| Dream-team :) |
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| Maybe it´s just a spitz-thing? :D |
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| And just another one of Erics lovely moves <3 |
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BIG-winner, I quite liked this one :)
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| Subject of much laughs from the brittish side of my company - took me a while to get it ;) |
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| just a little snack in the evening ;) |
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| A few dogs - and a beaver. Which is a naughty-word - who would have guessed? :D |
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| No comment!!! ;D |
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| Mizz OMG feeling a bit tired :) |
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| And the beaver again. ROFLMAO :D |
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| Yeah . we had just a few dogs..... |
To sum it up - I had a brilliant time!!!! And I hope that we can repeat it again ;) Maybe with a bigger car then - we need to get some shopping done as well... ;)
