AMCB weekend at Hofstade

Hofstade, May 7 and 8, 2005 - We took part in the annual Clubmatch Show and 4-Kamp (mini-decathlon) in Hofstade (Belgium). It will have been the last time this activity took place at this location, as the domain is being fully renovated at the moment and will get a new recreative destination when the works are finished. Within the new concept activities such as these (with many dogs present) will not be allowed anymore...

The weather was awful, especially on the Saturday. Heavy rains were only exchanged for a few moments of sun in between. Thunder, lightning, hail, we saw it all that day. On Sunday, the weather improved a little, but we still suffered some heavy showers and of course the grass by that time had become soken wet, turning some parts into a mud field. Not very pleasant alltogether.

The Clubmatch Show on Saturday only counted 18 participants overall, including puppies. Gijs and Anja's Yogi (female) became Best in Show. Sharon did a great job showing Dynamite; she became second beating Mascha with frightened Duchess, who hid her tail far away between her legs and obviously did not want to be in that ring at all. Both puppies received a very good judgement however with regard to their build and coloring, but they should have showed themselves a little more. We are afraid this is never going to happen, as we don't like partipating in dog shows at all..... :-)

It was clear the puppies enjoyed the second day much better, as we did ourselves. It was time for the 4-Kamp (mini-decathlon), including agility, running, weight-pulling and mushing. (with mini-versions of the first three parts for puppies). Sharon participated with Duchess and Sven with Dynamite and they loved it! For the first time in their short lives Duch and Dyna wore a harness (still way too large, haha) and performed very well in the puppy weightpull, where they had to pull a car tyre over a distance of about 15 meters. Although they needed a little help from Gijs' foot (as the tyre lay very heavy on the wet grass), they were not at all confused by the harness or the weight behind them and pulled over the full distance. Bravo, this gives us good hope for their mushing future.... During the running and agility parts of the contest the youngest participants (both human and canine) did a very good job as well, resulting in a nice award prize for Sven and Sharon at the end of the day.

To our very big (and nice!) surprise Kies and Mirjam came all the way to Hofstade with Chilaili and Derk and Annelies with their children and Danger as well. It was great seeing all of them again! We took a short walk through the park together and had coffee at the nearby restaurant. Chilaili looks fantastic and has become such a free-spirited, self-confident dog we could hardly recognize her. It was nice to see how enthusiastic she was to see us again too... :-) And Danger... we always said he'd be beautiful and he is and will be even more so in the future!

However, the day had a very sad side as well: Eugène's 'Run for Fun' died very suddenly. Of course this champion Malamute male (father of the last litter at Guy's, where the puppies have reached the age of 8 weeks today) already was 13 years of age, but he still seemed in good health. That is why Jelle participated in the 4-Kamp with him at a relaxed level. Fun did well, but after a while his belly swelled up fast, indicating a possible stomach torsion, which is a very serious condition for a dog. Stomach torsions in most cases are deadly when a vet cannot be reached in time (within 20 minutes that is). They got to the nearest vet in time however, but he not only diagnosed this stomach torsion, but a tumor and heart failure as well. It would have been only a matter of weeks or months anyway. But, although we can say Run for Fun honoured his name on his last day and almost literally died in his harness, it is of course a very sad thing having to part from an animal that has been your friend for so many years.