November 29th - Today we have returned from Amsterdam with Elkie and Steffi, our friend Grahame went with me and shared the driving, (Jill stayed home to look after the dogs). The journey to Amsterdam was not good, it rained all the way from Calais to our hotel in Amsterdam, coming home was worse still, it rained all the way from Amsterdam to home. That was 530 miles of driving in severe rain and winds.

 

November 28th - We arrived at the Rai Exhibition Centre in Amsterdam for the Amsterdam International Winners Dog Show, this is the oldest and biggest dog show in the Netherlands, the show attracted a total entry of 5000+. We were delighted with how  Elkie and Steffi did, Elkie was in the Open female class and Steffi in the Junior female class, both classes had 8 exhibits. They were not in the first four in their respective classes but were both awarded Very Good (Sehr Gut) grades and Red Ribbons, we were very pleased with this as this was only Steffi's second show. Our friends husband from Germany was there with two of Steffi's sister's and one brother, he translated the judges critiques for us and we are very pleased with them.

 

November 27th - We leave today for our trip to Amsterdam for the International Winners Show, this will be our first time showing in the Netherlands, we are looking forward to the show. This is also Steffi's second show, she has never been to a show as large as this one, it will be a long journey for her and Elkie but we are sure they will cope very well.

  

November 22nd - Today we have started our preparation for our trip to the International Show in Amsterdam  this coming Saturday, we have entered Elkie and our new girl Steffi, this will be Steffi's second show and her first show on the Continent. We are looking forward to the show because some of Steffi's brother's and sister's will be at the show, she will be in the same class with at least one sister who has been shown several times with much success. It will be a long trip but one we are looking forward to.

 

November 10th - We have double celebrations today with the birthdays of our wonderful girl Pia who is seven years old today, also today our two new puppies Steffi and Joker are one year old. They were ten months old when we brought them to live with us from Germany so we missed out on their early few months as puppies.

 

November 8th - We had a very nice trip to Edinburgh in Scotland where we had entered the Working and Pastoral Breeds Association of Scotlands Championship Show. This was our first UK show for many months, we had entered our female Elkie and our two new puppies Steffi and Joker, this was their first show and also their first big adventure since arriving in England from Germany five weeks ago. We had entered Steffi and Joker in the puppy classes, now over eleven months this was their first long trip, they even stayed in the hotel room with us and Elkie the night before the show. Once at the show they soon became accustomed to all the different sounds and smells, they have been going to ring craft classes, we had not been expecting a lot from Joker as he is still an excitable puppy. He proved us wrong and settled in the ring so the judge could go over him and assess him, to our delight he was awarded 2nd place, this was a qualifiying place for Crufts 2010. Next was Steffi who was perfect, she stood well in the ring and we thought she moved very well, she was awarded 3rd place, another qualifiying place for Crufts, they both were better than we could have hoped.

 

Finally Elkie was in a large Post Gradsuate class and she was placed 2nd, another Crufts qualification. We have between now and March to work with Steffi and Joker to train them for shows, we will take them to some Open Shows for show experience, Steffi's next show is in a few weeks in Amsterdam along with Elkie.

 

Visiting the show were Elkie's breeders Pauline and Graham, they had not entered, we later saw Elkie's brother Tigg and her sister Hunny, we hope to see Hunny at shows next year. We also met Carrie and Shaun who have one of Geilo's female puppies Kyleburn Night Souvenir, she was also in the Post Graduate class. She is a nice female who has done well in the show ring this year and is qualified for Crufts next year. 

 

November 4th - During our visit to school today as Madi was in class working with the children the class had a visit from the Mayor and Mayoress of Darlington, after meeting the children Madi and Ian were introduced to the guests. Both civic visitors asked if they too could say hello to Madi and stroke her, as always Madi was not put off by the special visitors who were wearing their official mayoral chains of office. The last half hour of the afternoon Elkie visited the children before they went home, Elkie will be making short visits over the coming weeks so she will become well accustomed to the environment in the school classroom. She comes into contact with many items of equipment that she would never see in everyday life, she is setteling in well and we are sure she will prove to be a successful therapy dog like our wonderful Madi.