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 ;)