Lesley's Sunny Christmas

While the rest of the team shivered in England, Lesley was out in Spain for Christmas this year, but still had canine company with her niece's three Rhodesian Ridgbacks. A much warmer and sunnier Christmas day than back home in England!


Hamish and Angus still enjoyed the snow at home with their dad, Roger.

Christmas 2009

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OUR FRIENDS and BEST WISHES FOR 2010
From All The TOP LODGE DANCING DOG Team

Pets At Home

Kath and Karen and their 6 dogs were invited to entertain at the re launch of the Pets At Home flagship Store in New Malden, London on Friday 4th December 2009. Lots of photographs to be taken and the dogs behaved impeccably!

Let's practice for the opening moment!

There she goes!!! Well Done Kes! The Store is officially relaunched!

Lots to look at in this store!

Plenty of choice for everyone.

Even the staff were given the opportunity to try their hand at Dog Dancing

Kes shows how to take control

Spice - showing off her favourite move!

And Kes re launches herself for the onlookers

And Spice is never that far behind

For more news and photographs visit http://www.dancingdogs.co.uk/previous.htm

Judging International Championships

Karen is Head Judge at the FCI World Championships in Herning, Denmark in June 2010. Read more about the event here: http://htmwc2009.blogspot.com/

Kath was Head Judge at the Nordic Championships in November 2009. The Swedish delegation made a video from the event. Kath appears after 2 mins and 10 secs!

Pets At Home

Kath, Karen and their 6 dogs are in London tomorrow for the relaunch of Pets at Home, New Malden, 80 Bushey Road, Raynes Park, SW20 0JQ.

Their first performance will be at 10:30, so take a trip to Raynes Park and see the Dancing Dogs perform.

The Nordic HTM and Freestyle Championships

Kath has just returned home after a very busy weekend in Denmark. She left Derbyshire early Friday morning on the 6th of November and arrived to Birmingham Airport a few hours before departure... Just to be told that the flight would be delayed by an hour!

After landing in Copenhagen, there was a 4 hour drive to the Nordic Venue, however, she did arrive in time in Herning for the judges' briefing on Friday night! Phew! She was introduced to the two other Nordic Championship judges Rolf Gustavsson (Sweden) and Henriette Ortmann (Denmark).

Saturday - Kath was judging an official Danish HTM competition in the venue where the Nordic Championships was to be held the next day. It was not a big show - just about 20 entries and Kath had completed all her judging by noon. She then had the rest of the afternoon to look around the big breed show, visit the trade stands, watch some obedience and a HTM and Freestyle demonstration in the main ring.

It ended up being a late night as the judges were taken out for a judges' dinner, which did not start until 8 pm!!!!

A German Shepherd performing in HTM at the official Danish show.

And a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel performing in Freestyle

Sunday was the 'big' day. The Nordic Championships!

The opening ceremony started at 9 am. The CEO of the Danish KC declared the Championships were open and the 'white dog' (the reserve for the Danish Freestyle team) entered the ring to perform the very first routine as a demonstration, it was not judged.

The first routine to be judged, was performed in an extra ring, which had exactly the same size and shape as the Nordic Championship ring as it was a bitch from the Finnish team and in season so she had to be kept away from the rest of the dogs and the main HTM ring!

The competition finished at about 2 pm the winners were announced.

The Norwegian KC had decided not to be represented at this year's Nordic Championships, but one handler Merete Huser with her BSD Khan had still decided to travel to Denmark and show the Norwegian flag. She performed a boxing routine as a demonstration round after the last official performance. The Finnish reserve did also do a demonstration.

Sweden won the Nordic Freestyle Championship for teams. Denmark won the Nordic HTM Championship. (They were the only country which was able to send a HTM team to represent this division of the sport.) Sini Eriksson with her Sheltie, Sonic from Finland won the Individual Nordic Freestyle title and Emmy Simonsen from Denmark with Border Collie, Whisper won the Individual HTM title.

The 2 individual winners were invited to perform their routines in the main ring later on the day and the prize giving was in the main ring too.

Kath returned to England early Monday morning.

Kath judging at the Nordic Championships in Herning


The Swedish judge Rolf Gustavsson and Kath



The helpers at the Nordic Championships - webmaster, DJ, Speaker and Show Manager

Some of the spectators

The 3 teams behind the curtain, getting ready to go into the main ring for prize-giving. Kath was behind the stage with them as she was asked to the main ring too, to recieve a present and present the trophies and rosettes to the winners along with fellow judge Henriette.

The Swedish Freestyle Team Gold Medal Winners

The Danish Teams - HTM Gold Winners and Freestyle Silver Winners

The winner of the individual Nordic HTM Championship Emmy Simonsen with Whisper performing in the main ring.

Read more about the Nordic Championships here!

Erin's passport

A blood test has proven that Erin's rabies antibody level is higher than 0,5 IU/ml, which means that she can have her pets passport and 6 mth. from now, she will be able to travel abroad and (more importantly) back home again!!!

The Nordic Championships

Kath is busy preparing for the weekend. She is honoured to have been invited to judge two days of Heelwork To Music/Freestyle in Herning in Denmark. On Friday she will be flying to Copenhagen then travelling to Herning for a judges briefing that evening.

The three judges for both days are : Kath Hardman, England (Head Judge), Rolf Gustavsson, Sweden and Henriette Ortmann, Denmark

On Saturday 7th there is a Danish HTM Competition and then on Sunday 8th there is the big competition - The Nordic Championships.

On Sunday, there will be four teams competing - Finland, Norway, Sweden and of course the host nation - Denmark. http://nordiskmesterskab2009.blogspot.com/

The judging starts at 9 am:
The 'white dog' (Sofie E. Hjorth and Quincy, the Danish freestyle reserve) opens the competition by performing a routine.
First round of the freestyle competition - 12 teams will be competing.
Heelwork to Music - 4 teams will be competing.
Demonstration round by Merete Andersen Huser and Khan from Norway.
The individual freestyle final - 6 teams will be competing.
Possible a demonstration round by the Finnish reserve.
Presentation

Kath is sad to be leaving David and her dogs at home during this trip, but is looking forward to judging a competition of the highest calibre.

Erin in Danish Magazine

Back in July, when Erin was still a baby, Karen received an e-mail, asking if she could help with photos to illustrate an article about puppy HTM training for the Danish dog training magazine 'Hund & Træning'.

Karen and Erin got Allan to help them with the camera-work. They sent the requested photos to Denmark and the article has now been published!

Read the English version of the article here!

Happy Birthday Tipp

Today is Tipp's 11th Birthday!
Happy Birthday Tipp :o)

Pet Expo in Dublin

Karen, Allan, Kath, David and all the dogs have just returned from Ireland, where they have been entertaining at the Pet Expo in Dublin.
See more photos and read more here!

Karen with Kes, Erin & Fly and Kath with Tipp, Amber & Spice

Training Day at Riddings 10th October 2009

The music was "Singing In The Rain" but the sun shone today as Lesley held a training day for a group from a local Swanwick Dog Training Club.

The group had their first taste of dancing with their dogs in January and have made great progress since then and are now working on a group routine.

They all appreciated how hard it was to learn not only how to handle their brollies - but how to skip too!!

All went well and they have already booked for their next day here.

A Beginners Training Day At The Danish Kennel Club

Today started early with an 1 hour drive through the morning traffic to the Danish Kennel Club, where Kath and Karen started teaching at 9 am. It was a beginners training day and all were very keen to learn. Some were a bit shy and quiet at first, but they soon realised how much fun Dog Dancing can be and joined in with enthusiasm!

At 3 pm Kath and Karen were on the road again - this time heading for the airport. They are now on their way back to England to unpack and pack again! They are off to Dublin (Ireland) tomorrow as they are entertaining at the Pet Expo in the weekend.

Karen and a group of handlers are working on the handlers' movements to the music

Kath and Karen did not bring their own dogs to Denmark this year, but they borrowed Biscuit the Sheltie, when they needed help demonstrating their training techniques.

Kath teaching Kirsten and her little Norwich Terrier.

Karen with Rikke and her Kooikerhondje

Donna and her Icelandic Sheepdog had an original idea for a start pose

Jennifer and another little Kooikerhondje

Alexandra and her Corgi/Bernese Mountain Dog mix came up with a nice start pose too.
He was a big dog with very short legs!!!!

Biscuit waiting for Karen to get ready to perform a short routine with him

Biscuit also danced with Kaare. He is a big fan of HTM, but can unfortunately not have a dog of his own.

Katha and Aja the Welsh Corgi Pembroke performing.

Advanced Training Day 2

Another successful training day in Denmark and lots for the handlers to work on in the future.

Tomorrow is a day off before the Beginners' Training Day at the Kennel Club on Wednesday.

Jette and Addi

Helle and Doggie

Karen with Lucia the GSD

Marianne with Blondie getting instructions from Kath

Helle and Doggie receiving feedback after their training

Katha and Aya with Kath and Karen

Karen (as the handler) and Kath (as the dog!) demonstrate better ways to reward.