Karen Receives the Open European Winner's Jacket

Karen and Fly
Winners of the Open European Individual Heelwork To Music Championship

This week, Karen received her fabulous "Three In One" jacket from one of the major sponsors of the OEC held in Denmark on October.  For more photos check HERE

A Welcome Home Party

The Committees of both Top Lodge Dancing Dogs and Canine Freestyle GB were due a meeting soon after Kath and Karen returned from the World Show in Denmark and Lesley contacted the members to ask for the meeting to be held at her home.
What a surprise - a fabulous Welcome Home Party with Barbecue.Lesley and Roger had asked local friends around to celebrate Amber's World Title and Barbecue expert Chris de Jong was busy cooking a fabulous feast! Karen had endured a tough but enjoyable three days of judging with her fellow judges Marleen (Belgium) and Carina (Denmark).

The rosettes - the silver and blue was for being part of the HTM Team GB who were placed second on the first day of the Championships. The massive Red and Gold rosette, along with the Trophy was for Kath and Amber winning the Individual HTM World Championship.

A true welcome home with iced cake. Roger had been busy putting red white and blue bunting around the garden to decorate.

Cutting the very special cake! Yummy.

And then Karen and Kath were presented by their friends with a bouquet of flowers each - again the Red White and Blue theme ran throughout. Proud to be British - you bet!!!

Time to relax - party nearing an end and everyone very full!

Thanks to Roger, Lesley, Chris, Jackie and Margret.

The Derby Telegraph

Kath has been interviewed for the Derby Telegraph about the World Championship in Denmark in June, where she and Amber will be representing Team GB . You can read the article here!

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!

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.

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.

The First of 2 Advanced Training Days

The first of Kath and Karen's two Advanced Training days in Denmark went really well.
Each handler had around 20 minutes of individual training. Kath and Karen offered lots of ideas to improve which ever problem or issue that the handler had chosen to work on, which was also of great interest to the others attending the seminar.

Ready for day 2 very soon!

Kath and Karen in Denmark

Kath and Karen arrived to Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen, Denmark on the 2nd - the same day as the American President flew to Copenhagen to try to convince the Olympic Committee that Chicago should be hosting the Olympic Games 2016! (Oh dear - Chicago was out of the vote straight away and he didn't stay to welcome Kath or Karen to Denmark!)

Our travelling friends are in Denmark to judge an HTM show and teach 2 training days for the Danish Border Collie Club and to teach another traning day for the Danish Kennel Club.

The show was yesterday and the judging went well. Today is the first of 2 training days for advanced handlers.

The 3 judges from yesterday's show
Heidi Frederiksen (DK), Kath and Karen