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In October I believe the Welsh Corgi Club is reviving their double obedience weekend and I hope to be there and watch all the dogs and will be able to take some more pictures of the various competitors.

  

ZKC & KCH Held their Obedience shows on 11 & 12 September. I had the dates mixed up and so missed going to see the performances. But from one of my correspondence friends I have the following to report. On Saturday Sultan a lovely little German Shepherd cross dog, got his very first CC and no doubt the very first CC won even by Sectra and his handler. Well done and what an achievement for this company of so very faithful entries they put in at every show. On the Sunday varies dogs entered most of the classes and Class A had four dogs qualifying in that class, must have been so good to watch and seeing these dogs working so well. First place was Hilton Danny with Ray Folcarelli, Second place was Ch Fenris Eisen von Colnetal with Geraldine McLaughlan, Fourth place Tamar with Paul Rust.

  

KCH Show on 12 September was held on the Sunday and Pippa with Gladys Little had her first CC in Class C and I bet Gladys was thrilled. This little dog was taken over by Gladys some years ago and did not have a good start in life. She did very well beginning of August in her Working trials TD 2 with a track of 97% and is a lovely working dog. Corgi Obedience class C, Sultan on the left and Pippa in the middle.

Corgi Obedience Novice class competitors Watched the above show only on the Sunday and heard that Gladys’ Pippa managed to get her second CC on the Saturday 16 October and was in the running for her third one on Sunday 17 October, but Pippa blew stay. Well next year surely she will manage to get her last CC to make her into Gladys’ 3rd Champion.

Condolences

Mardorn Dexter of Lugerburg, I.P.O. 3 was a Rottweiler with a difference: a great temperament, good working qualities brought out in him by an outstanding handler, Kirsten. Dexter was 11 ¾ years old, and had qualified I.P.O. 3, 21 times, which has got to be a Southern African record for I.P.O.3. Dexter must certainly be one of the greatest working dogs ever produced in Zimbabwe, we offer our deepest sympathies and to Cindy & Bernie on your great loss.

WUSV 2004 in Eindhoven - Netherlands

What a show to watch and to be able to see it all. Around the stadium various enormous tents were put up, one for the catering and this was also used for the Welcome evening. The tent next to it was full of various dog stands with food, equipment and the VDH Prostand. Here results were coming in as the days progressed and one of the first ones on Sunday I collected was at 8.26 and again at 10.15. By that time it was already determined who the winner was going to be as the 22 dogs still to compete, never could beat the total of 292  of Ronny van den Berghe with his Eros. On another side of the stadium, there were more stands with various equipment for sale and also a demonstration tent where training was shown on video or discussed, by Martin Gaus or Debbie Rijnders. A mini dog jumping course was set up as well, with dogs competing.

The big football stadium with Greta Higgo, the S African team, doing her obedience

 

The tracking grounds were spread over a wide area, all looking like the picture here on the left, beautiful green grass and the track was good visible and most dogs had very high marks for this section. The first 70 dogs all had scores of 90 and well above of which 6 had a score of 100. All other dogs still had very good scores of over 90 and some less, but no one under 80 [7 dogs did not track]. The total entries were 141 of which 24 did not compete for one reason or another [the extra dog entered in case one of the team could not make it]. In total 117 were there on the day. The organisation was fantastic, the bus would depart from the stadium and announced every time. The bus would take you to where they were tracking at that time and would wait to take you back. Quite a different story in Austria 2002 where they would drop you of at one point and for the rest you had to walk and this could be miles away.

 

The catalogue was also very much better laid out, each country had its own page with pictures of their country [Table bay and mountain for SA]. Random results: Only 3 V dogs with scores 292, 287 & 286, then 30 dogs with SG scores from 285 to 270, after that the G dogs came. Wade with Vasco in 52 place with 93-85-89 Total 267 G Grant with Canto in 57th place with 98-84-83 Total 265 G Greta with Ebro in 83rd place with 85-91-80 Total 256 G Vince with Clive in 80th place with 93-80-84 Total 257 G Ian with Rickor in 97th place with 84-70-71 Total 225

Wade with Vasco, a few minutes later he had the Helper on the floor at the escape. The stadium loved this and plenty applause!

 

Helmut Raiser with Falco

I really had a good time, saw lots of friends and managed to walk a lot and see various displays, was in the stadium when the S Africa team performed and also went to the tracking. I met up with two very friendly Dutch women, who were in the sport as well and they were telling me that the clubs, where they could go to, were not friendly or helpful at all. If you did have a ‘wrong’ dog [working lines!], which was not one of the clubs breeders, then they had no interest in you. They decided to try their luck in Germany and could not stop praising that club, the help, encouragement and training was fantastic there. This of course, is a personal opinion Have also read in the VDH Magazine that clubs in Holland are not able to keep up their membership and so clubs amalgamate, less clubs are in operation. The other problem is that hardly any young people are coming into the sport, even with the big Youth weekend which gets run every year with good attendance. This sounds a lot like Zimbabwe, we are losing many members for other treasons. I was shattered though to hear about the problems in Holland as I thought that they had plenty members and helpers and look like heaven in the dog sport. Every one in Eindhoven was whispering about Helmut Raiser, the very well known trainer and helper [I have two tapes of his training]. He had won the Bundes Sieger just about a month ago with Falco and I made sure I watched most of his work. He really looks very professional and his dog worked very well, but the wheels came off [a little] in the man work, his marks were 93-96-81 Total 270 SG and in 46th place.

☺Comments from our Readers ☺

Hi Ilse

Thanks for your mail. I have been meaning to write to you to say how impressed I was with your web site and especially with the GSD Byo August newsletter. I think you have done so well with it Ilse. I loved being able to see the dogs in the different classes and also the photos at the top of the page of people etc. Interesting there are so many Zilletal dogs, is this a Byo dog originally? [Have written back to explain – Editor]

Was also good to see Bakhari in her class. Nice to know that Bakhari and Kashinga are related. I have sent you a picture of Kashinga, I was not able to get her to stand up so you will have to forgive me for that, I haven't been practicing with her. Interesting that so many people here ask me what she is, is she a German Shepherd they say, sables are still not really recognized here and many people have not heard of them at all. [Strange that even in England they are Exotic Dogs who Confuse people]