Filo & Oro's diary

Show time in the Netherlands !

2011-09-08T13:54:00.000-07:00

First weekend of september, big show time in the Netherlands.

But, before that, it's holiday time !

One week Turkey - all in for us and the 4 girls. After that horrible summer, it was a pleasant ending of the school holiday. They had the time of their life : the whole day in their bikini, from the sea to the swimming pool slides. Eat and drink as much as they can :-)

Meanwhile the two boys went on a holiday with the grey ghosts of Niekske and Bernard. They took so good care of both, thank you both for being so kind.

After this adventure, few days home to do some laundry, getting the children prepared to school, and getting everything in order for the belgian bracco mobile.

September 1th school started... but in the afternoon, another big event was coming up.

In Bree I picked up Niekske and together we headed for Leeuwarden, where our finnish friends already were stationned from the evening before.

I didn't compete in the CAC show, but the finnish friends did. With great results : Marttin (Oro's brother) became best bracco baby, Fatima (Oro's mom) became second best bracco female, Simo became best bracco male and also best of breed, and the last competing finnish bracco Nobel became best bracco veteran and also second best male.

Nitro, the germain shorthair pointer became best of breed.

Big congrats to the finnish team : Teija, Mari, Petra, Tom and Make !!!

Friday, European Dog Show.

25 bracci entered in the show; judge : Stelios Makaritis (GR)

The two first to enter the ring, were Oro and Marttin. They both got very promising, but the judge preferred Marttin, so again a 'best baby' title for Marttin - European Best Baby !

Graceful veteran Nobel became also again best bracco veteran - European Best Veteran !

Fatima became second best female, or as called Vice European Champion (RAC-RCACIB) !

Simo got an excellent in champion class.

My Filo got an 1 excellent in open class.

And finally but not least, Nitro the german shorthair pointer became second best male - Vice European Champion (RCAC-RCACIB).

Again big congrats to the finnish team !

My Martin joined us that evening at the camping. We had a wonderful evening there, with two complete orange ladies... think Mari won the contest -:)

Early up again the next morning, up to the last show, a champion clubmatch of the Italian Pointing Dogs Club of the Netherlands. (http://www.verenigingitaliaansestaandejachthonden.nl/)

A total of 38 bracci entered the show, that was judged by Giuseppe Manfroni, the president of the italian bracci club, the S.A.B.I.

It was a beautiful relaxing, but very very hot day. (30°C)

Congrats to all who helped organising this day !!!

The judging of the baby bracci started, but no Marttin. So I went to fetch our finnish friends, who were drinking some coffee in the shade, believing the spinone was being judged first.

The two babies were in the ring. As Oro is changing his teeth he wouldn't let me open his but after some wrestling with my little Oroman. And again, beautiful brother Marttin became Best in Show baby, congrats Petra ! He really is a very handsome boy.

After a few hours the judging of the rest of the bracci started.

Then it was Simo's turn to show himself. Manfroni choose him as the Best in Show Working Class dogs, congrats Mari ! As his name says : Veni, vidi, vici !

Nobel's turn to go in the ring. This is such a graceful happy veteran... I'm happy I had the pleasure to meet him. He became not only Best in Show Veteran, but also second best male, that at the age of 9 years !

Lovely Fatima got a fourth place excellent, but for me she was the most beautiful girl... I just love her so much.

And the last result : my sweet Filo got a 3 very good in open class males.

After the show, we had to say goodbye to our finnish winning friends.

We spent two superb days, with a lot of fabulous dogs surrounding us.

Thank you Teija, Mari, Tom, Petra, Make and not the least Niekske

for making those days as good as they were !

Everlasting memories...

Weekend full of exercise !

2011-08-12T15:18:00.000-07:00

Here we are again with some news. And no, we didn't sat down on our lazy ass !

We have been working with both dogs. Filo had a TAN (Test d'Aptitude Naturel) on his program and the clubmatch of the retrieving work I've been doing with him for the last months.

Saturday, 6th August in the morning we took off to Gerpinnes, where the Weimaranerclub of Belgium organised her annual TAN. I have completely no experience with TANs nor field trials, so it was a complete new experience for me, and for my 'oldest son'. I picked out number 1, so Filo had the first run in the field. Two partridges were set in the field out of the sight of the dog.

Filo had never seen a partridge from close, so I was excited what he would do....

Filo in search of the partridges in a field of lucern

He searched the field thouroughly, with his head in the air, he found a partridge... but flushed him out without pointing and than ran behind the bird :-)

Comment of the judge Jean Nargaud : dog with excellent nose, good searching pattern, passion is in the dog but needs training to get his passion under control.

No TAN for Filo, but satisfied about the work he showed.

After the test, we let Filo and Oro ran in the fields...partridges and quails were calling them :-)

Oro Heinäron wombat

Filo clearing the pathway for little Oro

Sunday noon, off to Hasselt for the clubmatch of the retrieving course I followed with Filo this spring. Filo had a mental relapse the last weeks; he still has to cope with his lack of socialisation during the first 6 months of his life, something he can't ever catch up. Filo did very well, despite some errors he made, which resulted in a score of 20 without the 2 :-)

The retrieving test exists of 8 tasks for the dog :

Filo's results, some mistakes lead to 2 zero's :-)

1.Follow on leach and loose

2.Lay down during 1 minute

3.Short retrieve on land

4.Short retrieve in deep water

5.Obedience

6.Marking retrieve on land

7.Lost retrieve on land

8.Retrieve over deep water

Here some pictures that were taken during some training sessions in july :

Oro in the arms of Katleen, proud owner of some longhaired weimaraners.

After the work, some quality time with each other.

August 15th, next item we have planned : field trial initiating day with JAC Orion, pheasants on the menu that day !

15-16th of July

2011-07-17T14:28:00.000-07:00

15th of July : some show training in the backyard.

And my reward : driving the car of my 'sous-chef' Martin :-)

16th of July : Hunting / retrieving training of Filo, and Oro comes along to view the whole happening. One thing is for sure, Oro is steady to a gunshot and he looks interested at the work of other dogs, including his raone marone 'brother'.

That's the way....

And now some advice how to / not to...

It's al soo tiresome

The next weekend : WDS Paris

2011-07-17T13:50:00.000-07:00

As Oro can't yet enter France, he's gonna spend the weekend at Niekske and Bernard, their two kids and their 4 weimaraner shorthair. Niekske is completely in love with Filo, and after one weekend Oro in the house, she's completely bracconized :-)

While Oro's fooling the weimaraners, Filo was with us in Paris to compete at the World Dog Show 2011. We met our finnish friends again, as a lot of foreign bracchi lovers. Filo got a 4 very good in open class dogs, a fine result considering his shape and the judge.

The BIG day

2011-07-17T13:28:00.000-07:00

After a trip of 25 hours in the camper, he finally arrived in Belgium

Thanks Teija, Pirjo, Kaisa and Veijo for taking care of him during the trip.

I hope you all liked the belgian stay in Diest.

Finland, here we come

2011-07-17T13:11:00.000-07:00

1th of July, we're finally visiting our new son in Finland. After a flight of a couple of hours, a nice trip through all the finnish green. For miles and miles nothing else but trees, fields of green, little and big lakes...so refreshing. Arrived at Urjalankÿla, the happy dogs announced our arrival, we even got a lick from a wet basset tongue :-)

It was such a nice stay in Urjalankylä with a superb host. We enjoyed the nice food, the lovely dogs, the silence, the nature, the nice finnish friends who visited, the therapy cabin....

Thank you Teija to let those two strangers from Belgium stay in your house, thanks to Mari and Tompa for your companionship and that of your lovely dogs. And also thanks to Tarja for giving us the chance to see Oro's beautiful brother Leone.

This won't be the last time we visit Finland !

Still 1 week...

2011-06-24T14:54:00.000-07:00

Waiting takes so long... still 1 week and than Filo goes to a hotel for the weekend while we're visiting our new son. He's almost 10 weeks old now. Filo doesn't realizes it, but in a day or 10 he has a little playmate in the house.

Het testberichtje

2011-06-10T14:33:00.000-07:00

Hallo mensen, dit is ons testberichtje om even te bekijken of alles ook effectief lukt. Een van de dagen starten we hier onze blog, zodat jullie op de hoogte blijven van onze belevenissen.