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Denmark and Belgium
October was a month of adventures and many motoring miles for those intrepid travellers Kath Hardman and Karen Sykes, who were very honoured, this year, to have been invited by Emmy Simonsen to return to Denmark to judge, compete and hold 2 training days. This would mark their fourth visit to Denmark; and the trip was made even more special by an invitation from Marleen Van Hees to hold a training seminar in Belgium, thus extending their time away from home. Since this was the second time that Kath, Karen and their dogs: Kes, Fly, Spice and Amber, had ventured abroad using the Pet Passports Scheme they knew both what to do and what could be changed to improve their journey, especially as this year they would be driving across five countries. The first change was their choice of travelling time. Rather than the fun packed cruise of last year followed by a drive through the night, this year the trainers and canine troupe left their homes in the early evening to catch the over-night ferry from Harwich to Hook of Holland. This way the majority of the driving would be done once they had landed in Holland in the daylight while they were as fresh as possible. So the dogs were fed, watered and settled for the night, and Kath and Karen retired to their cabin not long afterwards for a few hours sleep. No midnight meals! No trip to the cinema! Just a gentle rocking from the throb of the engines and the sway of the waves. They awoke just before the announcement that breakfast was being served and after a hearty repast they returned to the car to be greeted by the 4 wagging tails of recently woken dogs.
First stop after Passport Control was the beach. The Hook of Holland is blessed with miles of sand dunes and the dogs enjoyed the best part of an hour cavorting with each other and chasing the local rabbits. These cute little rodents are so prolific in that area, that the dogs eventually only chased the cheekiest who tried to push their luck! The four legged pilgrims followed their exercise with a good breakfast and then settled back into their car to snooze away the first part of the journey The drive was much the same as last year however it was daylight and although the run through Holland , Germany and into Denmark was pretty good there were a couple of hold-ups due to the volume of traffic. The journey was punctuated by a stop every 2 hours to give the dogs a run and to change driver; this was much nicer in the daylight as many of the service stations backed onto woods and open areas where it was safe to let the dogs have some freedom. The entourage finally drew up outside the apartment in Denmark 25 hours after leaving their homes. Emmy greeted the weary ones with a welcome meal and a box of goodies to keep them going during their stay. After this there was some rapid unpacking and a final walk for the dogs before sinking in to an inviting bed. Breakfast and an early morning walk could be taken at a leisurely pace since the first morning in Denmark was fairly free. The apartment was the same one as last year, located close to an area as of woodland just 5 minutes walk from the apartment. Within the woods were the same strange 'appliances' they had seen before, a full professional flying trapeze with tracking hoists. Sadly they remained unused and still - maybe another time? Emmy's house was the venue for lunch, followed by another walk before helping to set up the show. The competition was held in a different hall to previous years, so discussion was needed as to the best place for everything before the carpet was laid, chairs and tables heaved into position and final checks made. Saturday dawned, a very busy day for our dynamic duo. Never a moment to take a breath as they competed in the advanced classes, judged all of the other classes and trained and assessed shadow judges after each routine. Kath had a terrific day, Amber won the Heelwork to Music Class and Spice won the Freestyle - a double win and a Danish CC achieved for both dogs! Karen came in 4 th with Kes and decided to work a training round with Fly as an injury prior to the trip had affected their training schedule. Both Kath and Karen were delighted that all their dogs performed so well after a very tiring journey and an extremely long and busy day; the dogs were superb. A good night's sleep followed with everyone grateful for the extra hour as the clocks were put back from Summer Time. But they say there is no rest for the wicked and so our two heroines were no sooner up than back to the hall for the first of two training Seminars to teach handlers new moves, improve their existing skills and help with motivation. Kath and Karen have been involved with the Danish dogs and handlers for some years now and it was good for them to see so many familiar faces and to meet those who return year after year to work on their handling skills. Day one, was planned as training for those who already worked in competition and day two at a more basic level.
In fact both groups were working to a good standard already, so the second day was adjusted to cover individual needs. It was good to be able to help the teams improve their skills and repertoires. The enthusiasm of handlers and dogs, on both days, was tremendous. Both Kath and Karen really enjoyed working with everyone and it was so good to have their own dogs to hand to demonstrate what they wanted the handlers to achieve. There was a lot of laughter and a great deal of fun for all on both days not least as each session conclude with the handler and dog teams paired up to put together a pairs routine.
Tuesday was designated as a day of rest; this was particularly crucial for Karen who had been suffering from a chest infection since arriving in Denmark and really needed to rest herself and her voice to be sure of being fit enough to teach in Belgium at the end of the week. Thankfully, the day could not have been better; the sun shone and after a relaxed morning Kath, Karen and Emmy took their 8 dogs for a walk around one of Sorø's beautiful lakes. You can see from the photographs how good it was; a great way to say farewell once more to Emmy and Denmark .
Wednesday meant they were back on the road, this time heading for Belgium. A freezing drizzle chilled the bones at the start of the journey; thankfully, after around four hours of driving south, the weather improved to give a milder but still grey day. The drive was uneventful until the border of Holland with Belgium where they hit a huge traffic jam! A little nifty map reading meant a detour was found and a tired Kath and Karen arrived at the home of Marleen and Herman Van Hees, 12 hours after leaving Denmark. Marleen, Herman, Ximba, Gino, Cedi, Danou and their 4 cats live in a beautiful wooded area. Their house is made of wood and fits beautifully into the natural landscape with a lake to the fore and acres of forest behind. Belgium was as relaxed as Denmark was hectic, just what was needed! Following 6 very demanding days, out of the last 8, they now had 2 days of complete rest and relaxation before their next training seminar.
Marleen and Herman were the perfect hosts and made their guests most welcome. Herman's cooking is par excellence and Marleen definitely knows how to choose a husband! He is handy around the house, up early each morning to fetch fresh bread from the bakery and a whiz in the kitchen! What more could anyone want ? Happily all of the dogs got on very well together and the cats were astute enough to give the 'strange' dogs a wide berth most of the time. However there was an interesting incident when Kath was at the top of the staircase with Amber, Spice was at the bottom of the stairs and one of the cats sat in the middle! Karen climbed the stairs and mustered all of her courage to pick up the hissing, growling, spitting feline and remove it to a place of safety!
An essential date in the diary was Friday and the visit to Marleen's vet to get the dogs' worm and tick treatment administered and their passports signed. The vet was very good, as well as checking the dogs she also double checked the passports with Marleen to ensure that there would be no problems re-entering the U.K. Saturday was the Belgian Training day and as usual Kath and Karen had planned the session in advance. However, having watched some DVDs with Marleen, they realised that the day that they had scheduled needed to be changed slightly to ensure that they addressed the most important areas of the sport for the Belgian Freestyle community.
In general the moves that the Belgian handlers use are numerous, inventive and well trained but the DVD's revealed weaknesses in musical interpretation in many of the routines; moves seemed to have been included in a performance just because the dog was able to do them, with little regard to whether they fitted with the music. Some routines had so much packed into them that the whole effect was quite frantic! So the thought behind the day was that "less really is more" and if you want to make the hairs stand up on the back of a spectator's neck, the music together with the dog and handler should become one beautiful entity. Happily the whole group took this philosophy on board and everyone went away from the day having had a good time and with plenty to work on. On their last evening with Marleen and Herman, Kath and Karen sat once more in the outdoor hot tub (bliss!) and looked up through the steam to the stars twinkling through the tree tops. What a way to relax before their journey home!
There was just time for a final walk in the woods backing onto the house on Sunday morning before the car was packed and it was time to leave Marleen and her family, and cross a couple more borders on the journey home. The drive into Holland went very smoothly and there was time to give the dogs another good run in the Dunes before feeding them and boarding the afternoon ferry, westward ho! This time there was the opportunity to enjoy a film, 'Ratatouille', in the cinema, followed by a long leisurely meal in the 'all you can eat' buffet restaurant. Their table was right at the bow of the ferry and it was a glorious sight to see the skies lit up with fireworks as Harwich came into sight. The final leg of the journey was very challenging with swirling patches of thick fog slowing them down and demanding even greater skill and care in driving than normal. But Kath, as ever, did a good job returning Karen and her dogs safely to Allan before returning herself to an anxiously waiting David, Ginnie and Tipp
Kath and Karen would like to thank Emmy Simonsen and The Border Collie Club of Denmark and Marleen van Hees for inviting them and for making them so welcome. |
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