NKK International Lillestrøm - Norwegian Winner

I'd entered Esso and Vita for this years Norwegian Winner Show at Lillestrøm. It moved from Hamar to Lillestrøm this year, to a much larger location - although the parking area was not designed for all the dogpeople cars that arrived!

There were 32 IGs entered for whippetbreeder Arne Foss, Norway. Not all showed, but 24-25 IGs were there. Esso won championclass, then went best male and NV-09!! He also won breed over N Ch NV-09 Dogcastle's Leslie Blue Angel!

We got picked in group for top 6, but were not among the 4 placed.
BIG + BIS-4 - whippet - INT NORD UCH NV-07 Siprex Siri
BIG-2 - greyhound - N S UCH JWW-08 NV-08 KBHV-09 Showline Sporting Step
BIG-3 - scottish deerhound - Manticorns Isabella
BIG-4 - afghan hound - USA NORD UCH NV-08 Elan Sebring The Matrix

Vita was placed as 3rd in juniorclass with HP.

Critic Esso:
Overall very pleasing. Good size, good proportions. Pretty, "expressionfull" eyes. Good shape of head, nice ears. Typical neck, good topline. Appropriate body, well angulated hindquarters. Good movements, excellent coat. Shown well, excellent temperament.

Critic Vita:
Pleasing junior, very feminine. Expressionfull eyes, correct bite. Head a tad rounded. Promising front, good topline. Well angulated hindquarters. Short body, good proportions. Moves quite well, but can do better. Very well shown. Nice temperament.

Since Esso went BOB, we went to get his photo taken for "Hundesport", where they present all BOB-winning dogs from the Norwegian Winner Show in their first issue in 2010! Just waiting for the photo to be uploaded to the photographers webpage, I want to see how it turned out! Until then, I'm posting a ringside photo taken by Ludmilla (hope it's ok!).

Esso will now be known as Int* Nord Ch NV-08-09 Biscotti Esclusivo

*pending FCI confirmation

Success in the Netherlands!

photo by Minga

As I blogged earlier, I went to visit Margrét over the weekend. I had a really nice time - we went to visit this nearby town called Dendermonde, where we did some shopping - and on Saturday we went to Waasland shoppingmall in St. Niklaas. I'm very pleased to say I got some Christmas shopping done! On Friday, we had a "red wine and Buzz" night, and someone claimed they just let us girls win out of pure charity!!!

Of course I came down a weekend where we could go to a show - Bleiswijk International in the Netherlands! 8 IGs entered for Danish judge Gunnar Nymann. Vita first won juniorclass, then took Best of Breed over Giaguaro of Devils Pigeons, who won his last CAC for his Dutch Championship - congratulations to Leona! He's a pretty boy, so it was well deserved.
Vita now has 2 jcac towards her NL JCh title - she only needs one more before turning 18 months (which she'll do on April 2nd), so I guess we'll be going back ;) She also has 2 CAC out of the 4 required for her adult title NL Ch, but she has to be 27 months before she can become a champion, so we have plenty of time. PS - sorry about lack of photos, but most of them were blury due to poor light.

Vitas critic:
"Up to size, very nice outline, good parallellity in head, correct bite, good eyes and ears, could have better underjaw. Correct shaped neck, good topline and croup, ok bend of stifle. Good front, nice feet, ok coat. Good lenght of step and drive, could be more stable in front"

We were the last breed in the ring, so we didn't have to wait that long for Group. What's different in Belgium/the Netherlands vs the Nordic countries, is that no matte what you have to be there before judgings start and have to stay until the Finals start. I'm used to more or less come and go as I please, but at least if you have to stay until 3 o'clock anyway, then if you win BOB you might as well stay for group. There were 10 sighthoundbreeds present in the group with plenty of famous dogs and faces. Vita did great, and floated in the ring, so that I had to run to keep up with her! She showed herself to a splendid Group 3 placement!!!

Tomorrow'll be busy - then Belgium on Thursday!

Time is going so fast, suddenly it's time for packing my suitcase an getting ready for my long-planned trip to visit Margrét in Belgium. I went there for 10 days in July, and we immediately started planning for the next visit ;)

Tomorrow, I'll have to take a trip to Oslo to deliver Esso to Ludmilla and her boys - he'll have a blast - and my sister will look after Chivas and the very-pregnant-Easy (she'd sit on your lap 24/7 to cuddle and to get her ears scratched - only disrupted by the neccessary eatingbreaks) + my car. Vita will come with me on the plane, we do have a show to go to on Sunday!

I'm glad I'm able to travel Thursday and Monday, as the tickets were more than 1000NOK cheaper each way when I don't travel on a weekend-day! Vita will come with me into the cabin - she went with Esso into cargo when I went to Margrét in July, but when travelling with only one dog, I'm glad she could come into the cabin with me.

I hope it won't rain, as Margrét and I have planned to go to some large Beigian city on Friday to do some Christmas shopping - and in the evening, we'll have a Buzz-night with good food and red wine - Yummy! Saturday is open for more shopping, if I have the need - and if the weather is OK, we'll go to a racing/coursing practice. Sunday is the day of the Dog show, don't know how far we'll have to drive, but it's in the Netherlands. And on Monday evening, I go back home.