November 24th 2009: A Weekend Away in Denmark
Last Thursday at the godforbidden time of 3.30AM (!), I jumped in the truck in the pitch black and drove through the flooding to fly out to Denmark for a long weekend. It took a LONG time to get to the airport with the worst flooding being a mile from our house at our local church. The road was awash with water and I hit it blind! If I wasn't awake before then, I was after. Thankfully the trip was uneventful after that but the roads were badly flooded in places.

Denmark - wow, what a modern country. Lovely, lovely, lovely. Bicycle and running paths everywhere and a huge forest and lake. Kelvin would have loved that, but he was at home sick and looking after dogs. Poor fella. Yes, I did get out for a run, but should have gone for more than one! The architecture is really interesting with nice clean lines, but tons of variety both in form and materials used. I liked the thatched roofs, the modern brickwork and lots of glass to create light in the houses. I LOVE Danish furniture, kitchens and fireplaces - and slate! Oh, I have not seen lovely slate floors since our little house in Canmore (Alberta, Canada). And the gardens...wow! Came home with lots of ideas for our own garden. The road system in Denmark is first class. They have their fair share of castles, which were wonderful. I found it odd that the Queen's summer residence was devoid of security. We drove right up to the front gate, and it looked like we could have driven in and parked right outside the door. Imagine doing that at Buckingham Palace!

I stayed with my friends Rene and Christina. After being picked up at the airport, the first thing we did was hit the training field with Christina's young bitch, Casey. We had about an hour of light left so we made the most of it. We first saw Casey in September when Rene and Christina came to Wales. In a short time, Casey has really moved along in her training. It was terrific seeing her progress.

Saturday was spent in a field with sheep and dogs all day long! Now that's my idea of a perfect day. Saw some nice dogs too! I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the dogs and the determination of their handlers. Could have spent the whole weekend in the field with dogs (oh, hang on, that's what I did!). Rene and his dog, Tag, worked all day on Saturday - which was not ideal preparation for the trial the next day but Tag had a good night's sleep!

I got to see Kinloch Kevin and his owner, Bente. Kevin went to Denmark as a 12 week old pup and this was the first time I have seen him since. He is SO handsome, and enthusiastic and he has tons of personality. Aw, wish he was mine but you can tell he loves Bente.

Bente and Kevin

Sunday saw me judging a trial. But before the trial, we stopped off at Christina's work to give the security guards a present of freshly made chocolates that Christina and I had made on Saturday night. Christina is teaching me how to make chocolates so we had a little practice. We are still trying to figure out how to put Baileys Irish Cream in the middle of a chocolate, but as Rene says just drink the Baileys and eat the chocolates and forget about trying to get one into the other. I think he misses the point! If anyone knows the secret of how to do this, please tell us!

Danish trials are quite different to our trials here. They have three classes. Class 3 is for the experienced dogs. Similar to our Open class. These dogs run a full course with a shed and a pen, and a good sized drive.

Class 1 is for inexperienced dogs. The dogs do a short outrun - perhaps 100 yards - and fetch the sheep to the handler at the post. Then the handler is allowed to walk the drive in front of the sheep with the dog following the sheep. If the handler does this, they lose half of their drive points right from the start. The drive was the same length as that used for Class 3. After completing the drive, the dog and handler pen the sheep to complete the course. Points are given for each component of the course, and there is also a points category called "Impression." That's a subjective judgment by the judge as to the handler-dog partnership. Class 2 is the same as class 1 only the outrun is longer, and the dogs attempt a shed. No 'impression' points though.

We have nothing like Class 1 and 2 here in the UK, so judging this was a new experience. I found it odd that they ran Class 1 at the beginning of the day when the sheep were fresh - very fresh as it turned out because the first couple of packets of sheep were too frisky for the inexperienced dogs. They ran Class 3 - the experienced dogs on the rerun sheep, which were, for the most part, very quiet. Perhaps it would have been kinder to the Class 1 handlers to have run last when the sheep were being rerun. I also would have liked to have seen a shorter drive for Class 1.

I like the Class system but I'm not sure about this walking in front of the sheep on the drive section of the course. One observation I had in looking at the dogs over the weekend is that many don't drive well and have a propensity to want to head the sheep and fetch them back to the handler. This happens with my own dogs so I am not immune to my own criticism. I wondered if this walking in front of the sheep actually works against the dog learning to drive because the dog is always in balance. I don't know. I can understand an 'assisted' drive with the handler walking with the dog (in 'the triangle') while the dog attempts to drive the sheep but always in a 'fetch' motion? I'm not so sure about that. Anyway, it was fun to watch the dogs and handlers navigate the course. Even though handlers walked with their dogs, they did not walk in straight lines between the various obstacles!!

The quality of dogs was good overall, and despite many people only having access to small fields in which to train, few dogs had problems on their outrun. How do they manage to train such good outruns on small fields? Apart from the first few packets, the sheep were wonderful. Dream sheep! They walked around the course unless the dogs ran at them - which was quite common. They were not difficult to shed but the handlers did have to do a little work, and they pretty much ran into the pen. We don't often see such nice sheep here in Wales. I enjoyed judging the trial, the secretaries were incredible, and we stopped for piping hot soup and absolutely delicious bread. Wonderful. Wish I could have taken a few of the dogs home with me.

Oh, Rene was second in the trial (Class 3) with his hard working dog, Tag. It is always a bit embarrassing when your host finishes in the placings but the dog outran well, and his lines on his fetch and drive were terrific. They has a wee 'fluff up' after the first drive gate and again at the cross drive gate but Tag's lines were so straight otherwise that the errors were not fatal. They finished well although their shed was ever so close to the edge of the shedding ring! Christina did not fare quite so well. Her dog did a nice outrun and when asked to stop, she hit the ground immediately - something many dogs did not do well. Then Casey had a rush of blood to her head and came in hard on the sheep and left with a wee bit of wool in her mouth. Oops!

Monday morning at first light, Rene, Christina and I headed out to the training field. I had been itching to see Gwyn working. When Rene asked me to work him, I just about jumped with glee. Gwyn worked well. He is such a nice, natural dog with a really cool head. He is quite like his sister, Bee, in that respect. We put Gywn through his paces - driving, outrunning, flanking, holding sheep in a corner, covering breaking sheep, etc. He has really come along nicely and is ready to be moved along some more. I enjoyed working him as he is so willing to learn. Christina worked Casey again and she was going well. She has some 'lift' practice!

Then it was time for some shopping, sightseeing and back to the airport for the start of the long trip home. Before this, we stopped to visit Christina's mother and father.

Christina's mum had prepared a feast for us. Coffee (with cream - my favourite), to-die-for pancakes with strawberry jam, and biscuits that were a little like shortbread only smaller and with ground hazelnuts. YUMMY! Christina's dad gave me a grand tour of their house so I could see how Danish people live. I LOVED their house. Lots of glass to the outside garden (which was spectacular in itself) that it felt like we were sitting outside (only warmer!). I spied a large doll house in the corner of the room but was too shy to ask if I could look at it. Thankfully I didn't have to ask.

Inside the doll house

Their house wasn't just a house; it was a home. It would be nice to go back in the summer to see their garden in full bloom, and to visit with them again. What warm, welcoming, kind and interesting people.

Next up, we went shopping and had a side trip to the library. I'd have to say the library was the most modern library I have ever been in. Although I love books and reading, I don't go to libraries because of an allergy to dust. But this was good! No dust, no sneezing and terrific artwork on display at the same time. The shopping mall we went to had some of the same chains you can see in many places in the world, but the odd store has some really unique items. The kitchen store was one of my favourites (which is weird for someone who can't cook!). There are some terrific designers in Denmark with sleek, modern and really different products. I could go back to this store, but only after winning the lottery - or Kelvin will be most displeased.

On our travels we went to one of the best kept churchyards I have ever seen (and I've seen a lot as I love running around them). This was quite a small churchyard but the garden was kept to the highest standard (this is Rene's handiwork!). I took some photos of some of the ornaments that adorn the gravestones and sites. In the UK and many other parts of the world, these would be vandalised so it was nice to see that not all countries dishonour those who have passed by desecrating their gravesites. To view these photos, click here.

We also went to an old fishing village that centuries ago was an impoverished area of small, closely packed houses. Today it is a posh place to live! Sorry, didn't get any photos as it was raining.

The flight home was uneventful, and the drive home long...made that much longer by forgetting where I had packed my car at the airport and taking 45 minutes to find it! Argh!

A good weekend. My dogs were pleased to see me this morning. Jamie seems to have missed me the most...or perhaps he has missed being out on sheep every day. That's probably more like it. On that note, I shall brave the windy, wet condiitions and go in search of sheep.