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!

Water is fun, or is it?

It's hot, it's really hot here in Belgium. Almost 30 degrees Celsius, and the next days it's going to get even hotter, that's with our humid climate pretty hot. On the news we get warnings to drink a lot of water and not to do heavy work, especially old people and young children must be careful in this weather. Even the dogs like to be inside rather than outside, because it's a bit less hot in the house than in the garden. That suits me well, I'm not a fan of these excessive temperatures, be it very cold or very hot, and I like to stay inside too and do some work there.

But when the sun is getting lower, I get the hose out and then the fun starts. The opinions are divided though... Floyd, Jai and Yoshi chase the waterjet, snapping and biting at it and trying to catch it. They don't mind getting wet, they even seem to love it. Jessie and Suki on the other hand, keep far away from the water. I don't know about Suki yet, but I'm sure Jessie doesn't mind water when she's working sheep. She doesn't mind rain at all, and she lies down in a puddle or in mud ever so happily if she can keep on working. But when we're going on a walk, Jessie walks around the rain puddles and doesn't like to get her feet wet. I wonder if Suki is going to be the same...

So Jai is the most fierce one, you can hear his teeth clapping at the water. Yoshi is almost as fierce as Jai, she even races away to turn back and take a run at the water to attack it! Floyd wants to join in, he plays along and snaps at the water too, but when I aim the hose at him he's trying to avoid it though. But he's happy to be in the game. And so you can see, it's really easy to have fun with your dogs, all you need is a hose and water!

Mad Ball Game

My dogs have this peculiar ritual they go through, every time we play this ball game. It's always the same scenario: Jessie and Floyd each have their own ball, and they love me to throw the ball and then they run or jump to catch it. In the meanwhile, the 3 Musketeers (Jai, Yoshi and Suki) herd Floyd and try to nip him in the butt (in Jai's case) or in his collar (in Yoshi's case) or either one (in Suki's case). Jai and Suki run around him and are practising their flanks in the meantime, or they're sitting or standing eying Floyd. Yoshi lunges at him from under the porch stairs or eyes him from close by, or makes flanks too, whatever suits her best. I try to stop them from doing this, but somehow they listen better when they're working sheep than when they're annoying Floyd. I guess the latter one is more fun...

Jessie can catch her ball without being harassed, I guess that's the privilege of being the alpha female :)