Trip to Belguim

robbo

Well-Known Member
At the weekend myself and barongcw went over to Belguim to work my Hanovarian 'Origo' in a test with the Vlaamse Zweethonden Group (vlaamse zweethondengroep).

The test is for young dogs and owners new to the group and on saturday 4 other dogs were taking part.
The trail the dogs had to follow was 800 - 1000m and the trails were over 16 hours old. These were made with hooves and about 200ml of blood. I was fortunate and drew the first trail, but rather nervous as my dog has been resting for 5 weeks due to two cut pads so no practice!!! Each dog and handler was followed by 3 judges and the chairman of the group scoring both dog and handler. If a dog went off on a different line then the judges could call back the handler up to 3 time, after that you were out! The handler was also expected to point out any blood along the trail and two mock wound beds to the judges.

Thankfully i was not shown up by Origo and she completed the trail in just over 20 mins, so really pleased with the way she followed the trail. Three of the other dogs were successful, one of them finishing in 11mins!

Met some Great people and dogs with a real passion for tracking and it is good to see the growing interest in tracking in this country.

Now the dog has more qualifications than me!!

ATB

Robbo
 

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Well done Robbo and Origo:D

some day soon we will be running trails in this country.

Tony

The BMHS have already run very basic schweisshund tests and hope to run the level 1 test this Sept/Oct. The LBGA also ran a tracking test under the Danish system back in June which again was very well recieved by those who attended

Suzanne
 
Congratulations Robbo and Origo. Doing the first test is always a bit nerve racking. 20 mins is a good steady time.
The Second open class i did with the kopov was layed with a boar hoof. The kopov did that in 12 mins and we nearly got a 2nd for doing it too fast. but as the dog tracked without fault we got a 1st.
Keep up the testing its makes for a good CV for the dog.
 
Congratulations. If I had known you where there, I would have been there to meet you. Always nice to meet a forum member.
 
belgium, july 2011 020.jpgbelgium, july 2011 025.jpg

Two pictures of the terrain Robbo and Origo worked in. Pretty difficult.
On top of that there were 8 people walking quite closely behind the hounds. When I suggested we should stay further back in case the hound had to be recast, the answer was "certainly not, good practice for the dog". Some hounds therefore had to work around our feet.
 
Just as information : http://abucs.be/

This is the tracking dog association from the southern part of Belgium. Older and larger based ass. Most of the red deer and boar are in the southern part of Belgium (the Ardennes).
Thsi ass. has a few members who also breed Bav. and Hannov. tracking dogs.
 
Cracking thread,
Well done Robbo,
I presume that all dogs would have a different trail to work?

Interesting to hear the judges comment about being up close to the dog and handler, to me it makes sense, the few times I have seen working dog trials people always seem to try to make it easy for the dog.
IMHO the dogs are only really learning when they have to work that bit harder or work things out for themselves, obviously as long as it is not completely out of their depth.
ATB

Nick
 
Just as information : http://abucs.be/

This is the tracking dog association from the southern part of Belgium. Older and larger based ass. Most of the red deer and boar are in the southern part of Belgium (the Ardennes).
Thsi ass. has a few members who also breed Bav. and Hannov. tracking dogs.

Interesting website, thank you.
I could not find anything about the breeding angle. Do you have a contact there?
 
Not for the moment. A friend, who died far to young, was one of their trackers. I know the president reasonably well, so it would not be difficult to find out who of this ass. has breeding plans. Most french speaking Belgians don't speak English. I could find out if somebody in this ass. does, otherwise I can translate if you like. Most of these men will live in about max 3 hours from the tunnel in Calais, so not to bad. I am your side of Brussels and it only takes 1h50min to calais.
 
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