Lesley in Scotland

The weekend following Kath and Karen’s return from France saw the trio involved in different activities.  Roger and Lesley were at Fylde K9 Dancers Show held at Barnard Castle 

 where Lesley and Angus won the DFS Crufts Advanced Freestyle Qualifying class.

They then moved further north to have a few days holiday with friends Jackie and Chris de Jong and their dogs.

Holiday over it was back to Lanarkshire for the Bearded Collie (Scottish Branch) HTM Show.

 Angus again won the DFS Crufts Advanced Freestyle Qualifying class. Wow he was on good form!

 The beautiful sunset.

 A celebration meal was called for as friends Jackie and Chris had also done well at the show.

However on the Sunday a problem with one of Lesley and Angus’ props put them into second place in the Advanced Class, but they celebrated again that evening as second place is still good, and also friend Jackie had two first places in Intermediate HTM and Freestyle, so a jolly good time was had by all!

Back home now and the trio are reunited for their next demo.

Watch this space!

Top Lodge at Abergavenny

Abergavenny Steam Fair - 29th and 30th May 2011

This was a massive event in a local park in Abergavenny.

 Not only Steam Engines, but a large display of Classic Bikes ...........

Classic Tractors ......................

 Classic Cars .............................

Classic Commercial Vehicles .......................

  Fun Rides for the kids ..........................

 And a lovely Band Stand.

Having arrived the evening before the two day show, there was plenty of time to socialise with Denby (13 weeks old) making friends with the visitors to the show .........

 Making friends with the big dogs too!!!

 And an introduction to groups in Hi-Viz jackets and uniforms.

And of course Top Lodge provided entertainment.  Karen with Fly - Hernando's Hideaway.

The end pose to a great routine and what a great audience - with an arena of 65m x 35m they were gathered all around.

And still more audience gathered as Karen with Erin explained how Top Lodge train their dogs with a high level reward based system

Kath & Spice take to the arena with their ever popular "Magnificent Flying Machine" routine.

And then it was time for the first public performance of a Pairs Heelwork To Music routine to "I Was Born To Love You" -  Kath with Amber and Karen with Fly.

Kath with Amber dancing to "Thoroughly Modern Millie"

 A huge jump from Amber demonstrating Freestyle moves.

And of course a huge reward!!   (As usual - these high quality pictures are taken by Top Lodge member Allan Brown - thanks Allan)

A beautiful day for the children to join Karen and Fly with some Dog Dancing lessons!

All working in unison!

 Up and Over - Spice dancing with Kath to "If I Only Had A Brain" - another audience "favourite"

 Karen and Erin demonstrating more Freestyle .................

and Erin - looking significantly like a Kangaroo! ............   getting a great reward - running for the ball.

Another "Wizard of Oz" performance in a little sunshine on Day two which was mostly wet and cloudy.

Fly joins Erin at the end of the Top Lodge displays - after two days and still not looking tired.   The Top Lodge Dogs have a thoroughly enjoyable life.

Thank you to Abergavenny Steam Rally for inviting Top Lodge to entertain at this wonderfully organised show.

And thanks to David Hardman for ensuring the music was played correctly for each routine.

The Seminars in France

The training sessions began on Saturday morning with Kath and Karen having Mireille Poupard

their translator for the weekend.   She was superb and took great interest in all the work covered.

 Not having their own dogs with them - meant some of the training needed a "stooge dog" so Kath took to the floor whilst Karen showed the attendees what to do.

 This was then followed by individual attention and tuition to each handler.

 Sometimes its was easier to demonstrate with the handlers' dogs.

 This gave those learning time to watch in detail.

Karen demonstrates handler movement - an important part of Heelwork To Music and better practiced without your dog.
 
Lunch time at the venue - under the shade of the trees.

And eating yet again after one of the training days.  It was good for Karen and Kath to have quality time with these handlers who had travelled from France, Germany, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland

 Another eating opportunity - this time at a local Pizzeria.

 All recovering from two days hard work!

 Time to relax - Karen takes a shady seat with Mireille and her poodles.

 A visit to Corinne's training area.

 And yes!!!  Time to eat yet again!

Beautiful food before setting off to the airport.

 The French Border.

 The Rhine - looking very low.  It has been very dry weather and the river is far too low for this time of year.
The Rhine - like a beautiful holiday location with sandy beach.

Thank you to Corinne for inviting Kath and Karen to help you with your HTM and Freestyle.   And thank you to Vincianne Hubert for her photographs from the training days.

Training In France

Karen and Kath were invited to to present a Seminar in France whilst at the World Dog Show in Denmark in June 2010.

 

  

They flew to Stuttgart Airport in Germany - the closest airport to the venue in Seltz, France where they were collected by Corinne and her husband Steve who had waited patiently at the airport as the flight had been delayed by almost 1 hour.

 The seminar was held in Seltz, a small picturesque town the Alsace region in north-eastern France.

 

Hotel Des Bois where they stayed during the visit.

 The fabulous fresh salad available in the local supermarket.

The produce was so well presented and everything was so much bigger than in the UK  - no wonder the French are food critiques when they can get this wonderful quality at the supermarkets!

   

 A visit to the Seminar venue.  A lovely sized well ventilated building which would keep cool through out the weekend

 Plenty of space - with a large stage and kitchen area for the preparation of lunch.

 Mireille Poupard our translator for the weekend, was camping nearby the venue, she was to be the translator for the event.   On the camp site, storks have been reared for a few years - and now they have too many!

 Some storks are still using the purpose built nest holders.  Other birds were to be seen entering the heavily laden nests as they too had decided to make use of the storks nests.

 And it was the season for chicks.

 There were 4 chicks inside just one nest.

The parents could be seen flying off and gathering moss containing insects which they brought back to the nests.

 Other storks had made nests up in the trees.

 Synchronised sun bathing!

 The storks were a beautiful sight once in flight.

 The visit to around Seltz was followed by Kath and Karen being met by Corinne, Steve and Mireille and taken on a trip to see Strasbourg.   This building is the European Parliament. 

The European Palace of Human Rights

Then a tram ride into the city centre - the grass certainly beautified the tram tracks.

On board the tram

 Again the tram tracks are lawned.

Kath and Karen were invited for lunch provided by one of the seminar attendees, Etienne in his beautiful garden with beautiful roses.

 His garden was immaculate.

 And the lunch?   Wow!!   5 courses of home prepared food!
  

More sight seeing in the afternoon - this building is the cathedral.

 On a very hot day - it was good to see the fountains.

 The local dogs were happy to stand in the water for a quick cool down.

 Inside the Cathedral - a huge organ.

The square in front of the Cathedral with some very old architecture.

Look at the following Blog for more of HTM in France.