Klubsieger & IFR 2007 Gallery
as published in the On Guard magazine December 2007
The 100th anniversary of
the Rottweiler was too tempting to ignore, and we, along with 32 other
Australians headed off to Rottweil for the celebrations.
| After arriving in Frankfurt, the delightful town of Rottweil was a
complete contrast. I’m not sure what we expected, but it exceeded
anything we could have hoped for. Rottweil is one of the oldest towns
in Germany, has been untouched by war, and every corner you turn is a
picture postcard. The pride in the town was evident in the upkeep of
all the buildings, and the 100th Rottweiler celebrations were the talk
of the town, with tourists and dogs alike made to feel very welcome,
even to the point of having dog water bowls out the front of every shop
in town. |
 Rottweil |
 |
Even the taxi company got into the swing of things with their
people-mover painted with Rottweilers.
We arrived at the Stadium in Rottweil early, and spent Friday wandering
about, meeting people and seeing dogs we had only ever seen on the net,
there was an alleyway of stalls leading up to the sportsground, with
all sorts of dog paraphernalia which all Australians made great use of! |
With an entry of 627 dogs, 6 rings being judged at once, the challenge
was on to try to see as many dogs as possible, and many Aussies made a
deal that we would share all our photos, to try to capture as many dogs
as possible. A huge thrill for Mick Svaljek, John and me was having the honour of
helping show our friends dogs at the show, something we didn’t
expect, and to achieve a V2 and V8 in classes of over 70 was a great
result.
|
 The Aussie contingent & friends |
Sunday many of us decided first thing in the morning to setup camp in
front of the working dog class, as many top dogs would be in it, and
usually the Klubsieger comes from this class. It was a good choice as
it was a very exciting class to watch, particularly towards the end
with the top dogs doing way more laps than we usually have to do. |
From what we saw the standard of handling in Australia stands up to
Europe very well, we saw so many poor changeovers, and deadlinks on
loose collars with at least one dog backing out of his collar and
running free. Also the manners and friendliness of the Australian
contingent was far in front of some others who attended.
The Klubsieger & Klubsiegerin came from the Working Dog class.
| After the Klubsieger many Aussies took advantage of the few days break
before the IFR to tour around. We were kindly invited by John Lynne
& Rachel McDonald & Julie Howard to head off on a National
Lampoons Vacation in their Winnebago to Lake Constance, and on to
Eagles Nest, near the Austrian border, a major highlight of our trip. |
Standing on Eagles Nest - awesome! |
 |
We were back in Rottweil in time for the big party in the town centre,
to celebrate the unveiling of the Bronze Rottweiler statue, which now
guards the entrance to the Rottweil museum.
Leading up to the IFR there were demonstrations of the ZTP, the Korung,
and other countries mental tests. The Austrian Military put on an
impressive display of the types of work their dogs do, including drug
detection and apprehending criminals. The Swiss search & rescue
team did a very interesting demonstration of finding people and how
they train their dogs to go out and over difficult obstacles to find a
person, kind of like extreme agility. |
Then part two of the 100th anniversary – the IFR World
Championships. Many Aussies stayed on for this and had an unforgettable
time. The opening ceremony was like an Olympic opening, with the
competitors entering the stadium grouped in their countries, carrying
their countries sign & flag.
| Early Saturday morning we took advantage of the free buses put on by
the friendly taxi company to take us to watch the Tracking 30 kms from
the town. As ANKC tracking people it was very interesting to see this
different style of tracking, observe the differences and appreciate how
many facets of working our breed can excel in. The tracking that day
was very rocky dirt terrain, unfortunately we didn’t see any of
the perfect score tracks that were achieved that weekend, but it was
still great to see. |
 Tracking dog indicating article |
 2nd place getter doing obedience |
Then we headed off back to the stadium to see the obedience & protection components.
It was quite warm (low 30’s) for both days, with 49 dogs competing from all over Europe.
Sunday morning was abuzz with talk of the Swedish bitch who had scored
100 the previous day in tracking, apparently this was her least strong
component, so hopes were high for her. Also the German dog Pascha vom
Scheldetal who won the previous year had scored the perfect hundred
tracking that morning – these were the main contenders for the
1st place. |
| When the Swedish
bitch Masati’s Nora scored 99 for protection we knew there was no
beating her, we all had goosebumps and tears in
our eyes for her and her owner. He was overcome with joy, picking her
up and hugging her, and the whole
stadium gave him a standing ovation. We had heard that he lived a
very long distance away from anyone else to train with, and did all the
work on his own – an amazing achievement to work at that level. |
 Masati's Nora and her owner |
First 3 placegetters at the award ceremony |
The closing ceremony was again on Olympic lines, with the most stunning
trophies, incidentally ALL competitors received a trophy, no matter
what their score was. I suppose they figure that they all deserve
recognition to have achieve this working level.
All in all a fantastic trip which we will never forget, many memories and funny stories we will treasure.
Susie Baird |
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