Denmark's Obedience Utility Farmdog of 2006 and 2007

Javika's Prinsesse Madeleine (Maddy)

The winning Farmdog gets it's name engraved on an ever wandering trophy, which at the first Danish/Swedish Farmdog Breed Club sanctioned show in March, 2007.  Helene and Maddy will be there to receive the trophy.

Helene: "I am SO PROUD I am shaking. Maddy has held the position since they recorded her results from this summer, and posted them on the breed club Web-site in October. We have been so close before, and just in the last week before new years, better results have been submitted by others, and we were beat right in the 11th hour. So since October, I have not even dared getting my hopes up. But I have to admit, especially in this last week, I have been sort of holding my breath."

Helene and Maddy have worked very hard and longfor this title, and both deserved thehonors. A small Farmdog from Wyoming is bringingthe trophy cross Atlantic to the United States. Andwe are all very proud.
 
Helene: "I'm just out of my mind proud. Maddy achieved herpoints in just 2 trials in June, when she was stillsick, and with no previous training or preparation.There are not many Farmdogs in Denmark competingin official obedience, at the venues which counttowards this year-end title, but I hope that us bringingthe trophy out of the country, perhaps can be incentivefor some to try to get it back."

Just another brag from "The old country"

This weekend Maddy and I competed in obedience (still class 2 level) in ˜rhus (which is in Jutland for those who knows some Danish geography).

I have been a bad, bad girl, and not even once had time (or weather other than rain, rain, rain) to practice with Maddy since her last competition, which is over a month ago. But I had paid entry fee for this weekend a month ago, and thought what the heck, just go and get some good practice in, in the "true environment".

Saturday Maddy was awesome. She bettered her first prize score from last month by completing every single exercize, showing some expected insecurity in some of them (due to the lack of recent practice), yet scoring good points in every one of them. That added up to 195 points out of a maximum of 220!!!

It was a very, very nice way of proving, that her title wasn't obtained by just being lucky, she can even without practice be better than what it took to get the title. Maddy placed 5th or 6th in the class, which consisted of several very, very experienced almost "pro" handlers, some which I know are from the level of the Danish national team etc.

Sunday we had very tough trial conditions, I almost pulled out, but decided to go anyway. What was happening was that the DKK dog show with which the obedience trials were held, was breaking up, and 1,000 dogs and all their people plus vendors, were packing up tents and rolling cages and kennels to the cars in a massive stream all day. Add that the trials were in an open soccer field in one end with absolutely no fencing, and the other end was the general "exercise area" to everybody, relieved from the shows all weekend, playing ball, freesbee and whatever all around the ring we were competing in.

We were the last class to compete in the afternoon, and Maddy was the very last dog in the class, because I had signed up a bit late. Even a national team level handler is pulling the hair out of the head under these conditions!

The class' score in general was also much lower Sunday than Saturday. But Maddy, even with loss of focus and concentration, never budged from the ring, never lost attention towards what we were doing, more than an extra command on my part, was enough of a reminder. Anybody who knows Maddy will know, that this took everything that Maddy has, and then some! I will spare you some of the details, which are truly outstanding for Maddy, but over-all just say, that her choices, of which she had many (being off leash), were beyond good, and made me so proud!

She completed the entire trial, which is more than what most dogs in the class were able to do. We lost many points because of the extra commands, but that was my choice, rather than having my dog depart from the ring, which was only marked by a plastic stip laying in the grass. Maddy scored 169 points, which gave her a second prize, yet it placed her 4th in the entire class. I'm now hunting down the pictures which were taken of the 4 winners, as far as I recall, it was 3 Border Collies, all with very experienced handlers, and then little Maddy and "green" (as compared to the others) me.

At this point in time, I can't possibly add more to the results, which I am sending to the breed club for point calculation towards the year-end title again, and I am absolutely certain, that right now, Maddy is by very far in the lead for the title again, and it will take some serious, serious work, for anybody to catch up with her between now and December 31st...like I said yesterday when I saw Lilian after the trial "come'n get us now", that's my challenge, which I stand by, and it's wide open to anybody. We've definitely put in our effort, there is no way we can do any better, than what we have already done.

It is my decision no longer to compete Class 2 with Maddy, but to begin working on teaching her class 3 exercises. Maybe in the next year or 2, we can get ready to compete on this high level, which I swore just a few years ago, that I'd never, ever be able to train a dog to compete in. But I have a feeling, that perhaps Maddy can train me to do it, so why not give it a try?

A very tired, but happy and proud "Maddy-mom",

Helene