On being Belgian

I've been noticing many battles between pretty people and functional people in many breeds the last years, and one of the battlefields was also the international Belgian forum (www.belgiansworld.com). This is a somewhat adjusted post I wrote on the forum to present my point of view:

I'm thinking of getting another Groenendael and I don't know which way to turn especially because of this kind of thinking - choosing between a working dog and a show dog. If I go to a breeder that has strictly show dogs, then I can probably choose between Fluffy, Puffy, Muffy and Tuffy, dogs with tons of coat and zero character. If I go to a breeder that has working dogs, I will most likely spend the first 15 minutes figuring which ones are dogs and to narrow my choices, which could be shepherds. If I go to a breeder that is neither, then the dogs probably kind of look like nice Groens and kind of work like them. That sucks! A BSD isn't Barbie and a BSD isn't Rambo. A Belgian is a dog that looks great and works great; of course every person has their priorities - ones emphasize more the looks, others emphasize more the working capabilities. But one thing shouldn't exclude the other! If you want a super fluffy dog, buy yourself a Bichon. If you want to do IPO with a thing that has the best bite power ever, get yourself a hyena. For the BSD is a combination of both, as the standard says - it is a combination of elegance and power, nobility and strength.

Belgians are neither just the looks nor the working skills. They are a combination of both; a nice dog that looks like a Terv, for example, but stands still when you throw a ball in front of him and stays there with a sort of 'Petit mal' absent look isn't a true Terv in my opinion; and a dog with excellent performance at IPO that is almost black, has the ear setting of a Welsh Corgi and the head of a GSD simply isn't a Malinois. I believe we should all strive to keep the breed we love as it is supposed to be - with both the looks and the ability to work. To maintain the essence of the breed as it should be, the whole package.

And to comment also on the standard (which, some argue, serves only to judge dogs on a show and is irrelevant for a 'working' breed) - if you have ever read the standard of the Belgians, you probably saw that there is a lot of descriptions about their temperament, way of behaving and moving; the standard is far from being just a list of things one should look for to evaluate a dog from a showing point of view; in it it is stated how angulated a BSD should be, how the body is constructed etc etc. This all applies to the functionality of such a dog - what this means for the working capabilities. And isn't this what matters most? Having a good looking dog with the correct physical features that enable him to excell at work? To be precise - having a true Belgian Shepherd Dog?

I hope we all overcome the dispute between looks and work and can start working together to keep this wonderful breed as it should be – 'a combination of elegance and strength.'

It's been a while since my last report... The reason for that is simple – I've been on a trip. Destination – the stone age. This is a place where you don't have internet and you can find hot water at most in the aquarium with the heater on, but not in the shower. To cut it short, our house has conspired against me, so it was only on rare occasions that I got to enjoy the luxury of an internet connection or a hot shower. Right now the situation is better and as I have taken a few days off from my faculty obligations, I have the time and chance to make up for the lost time. So, what have we been doing…
The winter was so brutally harsh that the birds almost threw back the food we put for them in the garden. Snow fell twice, the first time it fell 4cm of it, the second time not even 10. On January, 5th we went on a walk wearing T-shirts, and at the beginning of March we were walking Sambo in T-shirts in Bovec (a mountain region), sweating heavily. Despite the mild weather we didn't do much training in 'winter'. We regularly did a bit of obedience training during our walks, but didn't do any serious IPO training. We don't have any agility trainings in winter either; nevertheless, after 4 months of agility deprivation we still had two very nice runs on the first trial and ended up fifth and even won on our second trial. We were disqualified on the last trial, but had an excellent first run and made the second qualification to enter the third, highest level.
Meanwhile we also went to a show, the international show in Graz, Austria. There were 13 groens besides Sambo. I entered him in open class, where he beat two males half his age without much problem and later on won even the BOB. I will have a particularly nice memory of this show because there is no competition whatsoever in our shows and the only time I had more than one male in the ring was either on a specialty show or the european or wolrd show. But here there were 13 more and what is even more important, we were the only foreigners, so this success means even more to me.
The only shadow over us the last few months is Sambo's periodical limping. At first I though it was another outburst of borelia, but the blood results were normal. Furthermore, the vet said that the borelia would jump from one joint to the other, while Sambo always limps on the same leg. He limps irrespective of the activity and, being a true Belgian, didn't even twitch with a whisker when the vet examined the leg and had it almost behind Sambo's neck in yoga position. Today we'll go to X-ray the leg and see if we can determine anything…

Sambo lives in complete and perfect ignorance, of course. More power to him! He doesn't know how old is he or that there's something wrong with his leg (don't even think of telling him!). I can only hope he will walk this Earth for at least as many years as now and as ignorant as now. And perhaps by the way win another agility trial or two and get another BOB in competition with dogs half his age… :)

Take off, landing, a bow to the audience and aplause

Last time I wrote about the ideal spill from a horse, a slow flight and onto a soft field and how it took me only a few seconds to get up. Now I know how mistaken I was to call that a perfect fall. Exactly a week after that I experienced another involuntary dismount. So, how does the world's most ideal spill look like? You need:
1. one crazy Lipizzaner (about to come into season, and with a foal, calling her from the stable)
2. one wacko blonde (with acrobatic abilities and good reflexes)
3. one skilful photographer (with good timing and a sense of humour)
4. one Black Death (to fill in the picture)

And the result? Here it is:



It ended with me landing in an erectile position on my right foot, adding the left in half a second, bowing to the audience and laughing the next five minutes. Monta and I will soon have our very own circus act, it seems... :)

Green, how I love you green

The Black death and I haven't been that productive these days, as I have been discovering new dimensions of the colour green through my abundant mucus secretion. To say it plainly, I'm sniffling like hell. Also my voice has become so roughly sexy, that Bryan Adams could use me as a double when he wouldn't feel like singing. The weather supports me in my poor condition, as it is raining outside, so all in all, the air is full with autumn depression and the days are not even close to being ideal for some serious training. Instead we do some clicks and tricks, we go on shorter walks, but most of all, we let ourselves the luxury to skive a bit. Sometimes it really feels good to skip some work. I'm not so sure about Sambo, though, but after all the poor fella doesn't have any choice, so he helps me to do - nothing. I hope that in the next days the weather will be better so we can go riding again - not that riding takes less effort than walking, but at least it definitively contributes more to my soul and my smile. The other day my smile disappeared for a moment, though (but the mare had a blast, on the other hand), because I had riding with a touch of aviation skills - a doe jumped out of the bushes right in front of Monta, who of course got scared (the doe almost landed on us) and jumped away; I was just moving my feet through the stirrups, so I wasn't very stable. So I flew a little bit... Luckily we were on a field, so the only cosequence of the fall was a dirty right thigh. And an even more tired dog, because they played 'Catch me if you can!' with the doe. I think the doe won, but I'm not sure. The mare and I walked to the grass and then I spent all my energy on getting back into the saddle, so I wasn't paying much attention to Sambo and his little runaway... Well, at least he makes sure the does also have a fit'n'fun programme.

A black muzzle is already checking me through the window, so I better go do some clicking in hope of a better weather for the next riding stunt. Sniff, brrrrrrrr. Oh, look, another kind of green!

Finally, my first blog. A sort of diary where I can write down my doggy adventures, an informal extension of my web page. An after party, so to say. If some of you will enjoy reading the neverending plot of a highly neurotic Belgian and his equally neurotic handler, then good for you. If not, I suppose there's enough light reading on the internet for you to go through while ruminating you breakfast, so you won't be particularly hurt if this blog won't be your favorite one. I won't. But if you do like it, be sure to come back. Sambo and I aren't very good at leading a quiet, tranquil life, so I suppose these pages will soon start to fill.

Take care, Ursa