WireHaired Dackels: Luxembourg and back again

So in the past week, we have stayed in 3 different countries: Finland, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. Luxembourg was both a work and pleasure trip as we were kindly invited to stay at our friend Charles' place for the whole weekend so we could attend the Luxembourg dog show on Saturday.

This is one of the biggest shows in Europe and definitely the biggest show that we have been to thus far. On Saturday there were over 2500 dogs present and an equal, if not greater, number were shown on Sunday. For dackels alone (FCI group 4) there were 178 entries. That is a LOT of dackels! In Baxter's class there were 5 males (Baxter included), so the competition was tough. All the males, except 1, were older than Baxter and the oldest male in the class was 17 months and quite developed. We walked around Luxembourg city and walked in the woods when we arrived from Basel on Friday afternoon, so Bax was quite tired on Saturday. You would never know this in the ring though as he walked like a champ. No happy feet, no prancing, but real walking, with head high and looking great. He was the first male to be judged and although we did not get a written evaluation, the judge spent a lot of time looking at Bax and seemed to really like his head and presentation. He awarded him V1 CACL and in Luxembourg, as a junior or veteran, you only need 1 V1 CACL for Junior Champion.
So Baxter gained his first official title: Champion des Jeunes de Luxembourg/ Luxembourg Junior Champion!!

WooHoo!!

This certificate is nicer than a lot of my diplomas.

In Luxembourg, the males and females don't walk against each other for Junior BOB (only the adults do) and so both Baxter and the female Junior Winner (Alexandra v. Tollbach who you all might remember from Offenburg) both walked in the big ring for Junior BIS.


Although we didn't win BIS, it is always cool to make it to the big ring!

Simon was in shock and awe and excitement when he and Baxter won, that we completely ignored everyone's hands and walked out of the ring with a HUGE smile on his face (he later went back to apologize to the 2nd place dog owner for being so clueless). It was really a great day.

On the way home we bought our traditional bottle of champagne, this time, though, it was a delicious Luxembourger Rosé. :)

Aside from the dog show, we go to spend the weekend exploring the Luxembourgish countryside, meeting old friends, enjoying a LOT of wonderful food and company, and spending time with the dogs. A real thanks goes out to Charles' parents for being wonderful hosts and treating us like family. They really went above and beyond and even watched Freddie while we were at the show on Saturday. I think that we have converted Charles' mom into a dackel lover as she offered to keep the boys and for us to let her know when either Baxter or his sisters have puppies.

I really give our dogs a lot of credit on flexibility. They met a lot of dogs this weekend. Aside from Jij and Brigitte's dog Febus (a Griffon Fauve de Bretagne) a very friendly and laid back dog, they met Mika (an Australian shepard), a maltese and a Lhasa Apso, Egon (a Greater Swiss Mountain dog), and Jachen (a black Lab). The only dogs that caused problems, were the Lhasa and maltese, who just did NOT want to get along with Freddie. All of the dogs were male except the maltese and most were uncastrated. There were no battles, no biting, and no dominant behavior from anyone, just a lot of running and playing together.

Today we went on a nice long walk to tire the boys out before the 3.5 hour drive home. Here are a few pictures. Enjoy!