Holiday in Belgium - Echt International, the Netherlands

I'm on a holiday in Belgium at the moment, visiting Margrét and Nick - and all the dogs! I came her on July 1st, and will stay until Friday the 10th. Before I came here, I had to move out of my house in Lærdal, as someone else is moving in today. It's amazing how much junk you can collect in less than a year! I filled my car twice with stuff, and also once with junk for the scrapheap... It was so much to do that I just marginally managed to drive down to Evy (starting from Lærdal at 01.00 in the morning on July 1st), deliver Chivas and pick up the flightcrate, then drive up to Gardermoen - check in myself, Esso and Vita - get them to special cargo, deliver my carkeys to Rox, then go through security and run for the plane! But I made it!!!

Margrét picked me up at the airport, the flight went quickly (probably because I was halfsleeping, no sleep at all in the night...), the dogs survived the flight beautifully, greeting me with happy, wagging tails at special luggage delivery. I was a bit worried about that, but I guess I'm just a worried mummy ;) Sending them together in a crate was a relief though, knowing they had eachother.

Thursday July 2nd, we went to Tienen to visit Katrien - owner of Dervisch Fiorina des Ombreuses (littersister of Easy) and also Biscotti Maya of Ashra (littersister of my sisters Biscotti Mademoiselle). We had a great time, Katrien and Peter were so nice! Lots of dogtalking in the heat - not much photographing done, it was so hot that the dogs were mostly flat out in the shade (except for Esso, who was in love with all Katriens bitches - especially the sloughi Uva).

On Friday, we went to this local shoppingmall - got to buy some summer tops and a skirt - why do I have to come to Belgium to find clothes, when it's in the same stores as I'm looking in in Norway?!? I also went looking for a new lense for my camera - found one, but decided to check vs Norwegian prices before buying anything. In the evening, we went to dinner at a friend of Nick, and had some nice steak :)

Saturday is marketday in Hamme, so we went to look and do some groceryshopping. A long street was closed off for all the stalls and shops, selling everything from clothes to flowers, fruits and food. We brought some dogs for socialicing, and they did great! Their rewards were raw chickennecks from the butcher :)

Yesterday, we went to an International show in Echt, the Netherlands. Down here, you have to be at the show 30 minutes before the judging starts in the rings, and you'll have to stay for the judging to finish at around 3. Both Margrét and I had dogs entered - I'd brought Esso since he only lacks his last CACIB for his International Championship (1 year and 1 day since his first was around June 10th) and Vita was entered "just for fun" as she only turned 9 months 3 days earlier. There were 11 IGs entered for Paul Stanton, Sweden. I've never shown for him before, so it was quite exciting to see if he liked my dogs.

Males:
Best Male, CAC, CACIB and BOS - Nord Ch NW-08 Biscotti Esclusivo - now International Champion!!!!

R-CAC and R-CACIB - Bidule (Diavolo des Achka Rapidoss x Poesie D'Amour du Domaine de Chanteloup)

Junior CAC - Caeles Let's Get Ready To Rumble

Females:
Best Bitch, CAC, Junior-CAC, BOB - Aviendha!!!

R-CAC - Carmen il Piccolo Azzuro (Ch Angeli il PA x Ch Evita il PA)
CACIB - N Ch Topaasin Bling Bling
R-CACIB - Geluksoek du Chien d'Ebene (Ch Fiefoerinek's Forza del Destino x Ch Clementine du Chien d'Ebene)

Esso now needs 3 more CAC to finish his NL Ch - and it has to be at least 1 year and 1 day between the first and the last CAC. The same goes for Vita, but she also needs to be 27 months to become a NL Ch. If she wins Junior Class with Excellent 2 more times, she'll become a NL JCh! I guess I'll be coming back here, bringing the dogs with me ;)

Critic for Esso: "A little big; elegant; beautiful outline. Excellent expression, excellent ears, could have a little more underjaw, good eyes. Very good neck and topline, excellent underline. Fine bone, good feet, good angulations. Good skin and muscles. Very sound and typical mover. Excellent style."

Critic for Vita: "Very elegant junior. Excellent long legs. Lovely expression, good eyes and ears, needs more underjaw. Very good body for age; excellent bone and feet, quite good angulations, good coat and muscles. Light and elegant sidemovement, excellent behind, good in front for age. Excellent style."

We took a ton of pictures at the show, amongst others of the salukis. Only 10 salukis were entered, and I think we got them all on photo - they were the breed directly in front of the IGs, so the female championclass/best bitch didn't get really good photos. I'll post a separate salukipost later ;)

I/we have taken almost 800 photos so far (ok, also quite a few of them have been deleted by now), and today is another photoday - this time Margréts dogs are up. It's not as hot today, so it'll be a better day for photographing than the other days so far.

I don't remember if we have any plans tomorrow, but wednesday we'll hopefully go to racingpractice at Beringen (?), and Thursday is Lucy's visit to the Vet hospital in Gent to check up and x-ray her injured foot. Afterwards, we'll go to Rotterdam (NL) to visit Nina, sister of Vita, and her family! Friday is my last day this time, but don't be surprised if I suddenly disappear for Belgium again this autumn! We do have some showplans ;)

Topaasin Dahlia BOB!

Esso's daughter Topaasin Dahlia was entered to a show in Finland today, and went BOB with her first CAC! There were 11 IG's entered, and judge was Tuula Plathan. Congratulations to Sirpa and Leena - and of course to Dahlia herself :) *Photos by Elina Lind*

"Elegant bitch of right size, noble head, good ears, eyes could be a bit darker. Beautiful neck-line. Typical angulations for the breed, front and behind. Good tail. Moves typically. Beautiful coat."

Oh so busy!

I have 2 days left at work here in Lærdal, and I'm moving in a week. I'm acutally sad to leave, I've made great friends here, and I've enjoyed living and working here. So, I'll have to come back to visit a few times - I can't just walk away and never come back! Where did the last 11 months go? It's a year since I came up here for an interview, I moved here for August 1st, and now I leave!

There's so much to do - packing (both for moving and for holidays in Belgium), cleaning, paperwork from work that needs to be finished, bills for June to send out (not ready for that yet...), finishing the updates on http://italienerutvalget.no (won't be able to do much after I leave until middle of July), washing clothes/bedstuff/doggieblankets etc. I'm tired, so I've started drinking coffee to keep awake - this doesn't sound like a good week to come ;) If I'd only NOT had to work, only packing, I'd not be stressed right now - but I have 2 days on call, starting tomorrow morning at 08.00, ending Friday morning at 08.00.

On Friday, I'll be crazy and drive to Voss for my first ever PARACHUTE JUMP! Thanks to my colleage Eivind (who's a passionate "jumper"), I've decided to give it a try. I know it'll be amazing, I can't wait!

Open Show

The Norwegian IG Comitee held our Speciality (unofficial show) on June 6th at Disen Gård, Vormsund. Judge was Tone B. Fischer of Eugenios IGs, Poodles and Chinese Cresteds. There were 31 IGs entered, of which 27 were there. 2 puppies + 12 males and 13 females.

We had a great time, the weather was nice and people seemed to enjoy themselves. Half the entries had never been close to a showring before, but everyone did a great job! Hopefully this will be an opening for them to start showing their IGs at official shows.

RESULTS:

BM-1, BOS - Nord Ch NV-08 Biscotti Esclusivo
BM-2 - Dervisch Very Valentino
BM-3 - N Ch Dunrobin's Verdi
BM-4 - Alwin

BB-1, BIS - N Ch Dervisch Fiorella des Ombreuses
BB-2 - Biscotti Mademoiselle
BB-3 - Talata Uma Rose Noora
BB-4 - N Ch Sasha

Best Head & Expression: Talata Uma Rose Noora

Best Movement: Dervisch Fiorella des Ombreuses

Best Brace: Dervisch Fiorella d O og Aviendha

BIS Puppy: Aviendha

BIS Junior: Biscotti Mademoiselle
BOS Junior: Alwin

BIS Intermediate: Dervisch Very Valentino
BOS Intermediate: Biscotti Jill Illy

BIS Pet: Dexter
BOS Pet: Biscotti Kahlia

BIS Veteran: Dunrobin's Verdi
BOS Veteran: Sasha

BIS Breeder: kennel Biscotti
- B Mademoiselle, B Esclusivo, B Jill Illy

BIS - N Ch Dervisch Fiorella des Ombreuses
BOS - Nord Ch NV-08 Biscotti Esclusivo







The next day, we went to the International show in Drammen. There were 12 IGs entered (4+8) for judge Stefan Stefik, Slovakia.

BM-1, cert, cacib, BOB - Dervisch Very Valentino
BM-2, r-cacib - Ch Skogsville's Fool For Your Lovin
BM-3 - Ch Biscotti Esclusivo
BM-4 - Ch Dervisch Open Sesame

BB-1, cacib, BOS - Ch Dogcastle's Leslie Blue Angel
BB-2, r-cacib - Ch Dervisch Fiorella des Ombreuses
BB-3, cac - Biscotti Mademoiselle

Of course, I wanted the CACIB for Easy - the judge took forever to choose between her and Star (D. Leslie Blue Angel) for Best Bitch, but Easy just wasn't in the mood for showing at all... Esso wasn't in his usual showmood either, I think the open show the day before "killed" their enthusiasm a bit - but we had fun at the open show, and that's the most important thing - there's always another Int Show!

Critics for Esso:
3 years old, good looking. Very good character, head quite good, eyebrow bald. Topline correct, scissor bite. Movement could be more free.

Critics for Easy:
2,5 years old, nice looking and moving. Head ok, scissor bite. In moving a little free in elbow. Good character.

I'd also entered Chivas in open class (13+9 salukis) for judge Marja Talvitie, Finland.
Chivas won open class with CK - there were only 6 males with CK. He didn't get placed in best male, but I was so happy! Last year, he was my "blue boy" (2.prize), but this year he's gained 2 CAC, won BOB and BOS + getting CK in such a large entry is just great!

Critics for Chivas:
Very good type. Good head and expression. Very good neck, topline and withers. Very well angulated behind. Moves very well from the side, a bit loose in front.

I'm very happy with Chivas, and if he continues to move like he did at Drammen, I can actually start hoping that we'll get that last, "big" CAC for his Norwegian Championship!

Italian Greyhound Open Show

This Saturday, the Norwegian IG Comitee are arranging an unofficial show - Open Show - at Disen Gård, Vormsund. There are 27 IGs entered - 2 puppies, 12 males and 13 females! Judge is Tone B. Fischer, kennel Eugenios, who is on her way to becoming a judge. She's a breeder of poodles, chinese crested and IGs.

There's so much to do and so many things to remember! I'm working on the cataloge and prizes, and it's a lot of work. And I'm also on call at work - and I have a cake to bake :)

Holiday in Belguim in July :)

This year will be the first year since I moved from home (-99) that I'm having a proper holiday with money to spend! I'll visit Margrét in Belgium in July, and I've just entered 2 IGs for the Int show in Echt, the Netherlands on July 5th :) I'm so looking forward to this - showing in a new country and seeing new IGs!

Topaasin Dahlia BB-2

Topaasin Dahila, Esso daughter in Finland, went to her 2nd show this weekend. From junior class, she went BB-2 with res-CAC! There were 10 IGs entered. At her first show (March 15th), she went BB-3! There were 25 IGs entered.

Congratulations to breeder Sirpa and owner Leena!