Continental Sheepdog Championship 2012

Yes, I went to watch some of Europe's finest handlers last weekend!

What a treat it was indeed... this was handling at top level. And the dogs!
The best sheepdogs in Europe, running with such great style and doing everything they were told.
It was also a good oppurtunity to test my 70-300mm Nikon lense, and I took more than 700 pictures :)))

T. Jaran Knive became European Champion 2012 with Maico. It was their second year in a row, and for Jaran even the 6th time he won the title! And they did it with such ease, like it was just practising for them, awesome to watch!

Here's Maico working:

But the other competitors where also worth while, it was really a joy watching them handle their dogs. And if something did not go as it should have, it was not the dogs' fault...
The sheep were pretty behaving, sometimes challenging, but these dogs knew how to handle them. All in all these Kempische and Veluwse Heideschapen ran really good.

The winners of the Continental Sheepdog Championship from left to right: Serge van der Zweep (2nd place) with Eve, T. Jaran Knive with Maico (1st place) and Jo Agnar Hansen with Sisko (3rd place):

But the best thing I saw at this Trial was Jo Agnar Hansen picking up his dog and kiss it after his run, what a guy!