Judging

I woke before the alarm rang this morning, which was nice. I got up and ready for breakfast, which was eaten in the school’s dining hall along with my hosts and their friends.

At 9 am the Dog Dancing Competition that I am here to judge, was meant to start, but it was delayed a bit.

I met my translator – a lovely lady called Cindy. It was so good to speak with someone, who understands English properly. Later on the morning, I also met one of the competitors Anne Mette, who originally came from Denmark. She still speak Danish, even though she has lived in France for 33 years. Wooohooooo! Two people that I have been able to communicate with! My hostess Patricia does speak some English, but it has to be simple sentences and not very complicated subjects, so it does limit things a bit.

I had to judge 30 routines in the morning, then there was a lunch break before I judged the same 30 routines again. The best result (morning or afternoon) for each dog and handler team, would count towards the final results.

I was surprised to see, that some of the dogs actually performed better in the afternoon. I would have thought they would be tired after having already done it once. Some were a lot better in the morning, but others seemed to have settled and feel more confident in the ring the afternoon.

The prize giving was at about 5 pm. I took a long time with lots of speaches (in French, which I don’t understand) and celebration. It was good.

People seemed happy with my judging and their scores even though it was obvious that I see things a bit different from most French dog dancers. I have never marked so many teams down for physically manipulating/handling the dog. It is in their rules that it is not allowed to hold on to the dogs or physically move it in to a position, but about half of the handlers did it anyway. They were surprised after the first round, when they noticed that I had taken points off for it, but no one did it in the second round.

I had about 1½ hour of rest in my dormitory/room (it’s only me sleeping in here, but I have 5 beds to choose between) before dinner was served in the dining hall.

This Agricultural Collage is a good venue for a dog event like this. It is very easy as we have lots of bedrooms/dormitories, a huge kitchen, lots of toilets etc. in one place. Everything you need, when many people need to stay close to each other with dogs.

At 9 pm I went back to my dormitory and now I am getting things ready for Blip and my Blog for when I get internet access again.

I have been in contact with both Helle and my dad during the day and all dogs are well and happy.

This is my hostess Patricia performing at the competition with her Beautiful Border Collie.

Night night from France!
Emmy (missing the Hazyland Boys)