Post by southern-staffords on Jun 2, 2008 19:09:55 GMT
Have had my 1st taste of the European Bull Breed scene, and boy did it taste GOOD!!!! The show was held in the Czech republic. The venue was a campsite and the scenery was breathtaking, with views of the forests, lakes & mountains. We met up with people from Austria, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia & Slovakia all being very friendly as were their dogs. The standard of most of the dogs there was extremely good all being shown in perfect form and function. On the 1st day of activities there must have been around 150-200 dogs mainly Pit Bulls but there was also Staffords, English & Am Staffs. The Europeans certainly know how to bring their dogs upto scratch and this was shown through out the day. There was alot of women handlers which surprised me, as i thought it would be male dominated but I was wrong!! They all had complete control of their dogs and the dogs were very obidient, releasing on command, sit-staying etc etc. The show itself started around 10: 30am. Dogs with cropped ears are not allowed to take part in either the compititions or conformation, though they are allowed there, and there was quite a few of them. We have made some good new friends from all over Europe and look forward to meeting them at future events in & around the EU.
High-Jump. The high jump consists of a tug toy hanging from a tree branch and the dog has to take a small run up and jump hold the tug for 3 sceonds then release. Each time the completes the task the tug is raised up slightly. I think that the highest jump of the was about 2.30 meters. Not bad for dogs standing around 21"-23"s.
Weightpull sprint. Wasn't to keen on this event. The dogs were put into weight catergories, the heavier the dog the heavier the person on the trike. The dogs had to pull the trike 60 meters on a pathway. A few dogs were ran into by the trike as it had no braking system on it. The dogs would finish the race and the momentum of the trike would give some of the dogs a jerk. Our friend Michael, who was with us is a Vet, and he was wincing everytime the dog were finishing, expecting a dog to get hurt, but no-one seemed to mind that, that was the way it is done and alays has been so I am told.
Monkey track. The Monkey track is an obstacle course with various jumps etc. The start of the run has 2 jumps each around 4ft high then there is a bridge which is around 6-7" wide, See-saw, Tyre jump, A-frame, Wooden wall 4ft 6" then you had to run around a post, and do the obstacles again except the see-saw.
Shutzhund. This was jaw dropping stuff!!!! Seeing fully trained Pit Bulls taking down a large man was something else. At one point the man had 2 APBT's on him 1 on each sleeve. The dogs were so focused on what they had to do it was amazing seeing it. There was no barriers around this demonstration and there was dogs all the way around the edge of the crowd and they was making a lot of noise being very eager to get in the ring and have a piece of the action themselves. They had a car driven in to the area and the man was banging the car bonnet and the driver set the dog on the man. Then the man got into the car shut the door had the window open and the dog was sent into the car through the window to bring the aggressor out by force!!
Weightpulling. WOW!!!! Seeing these dogs pull was something else the noise from the dogs was deafening some were like banshees with the amount of noise they made. One dog that really impressed me was an English Bull Terrier called Angie (5yrs) and weighed about 40lbs give or take and she pulled 810kgs!!!! The most weight pulled was 1590kgs this was done by the largest dog at the show weighing around 90-100lbs. The weightpull started at around 5-6pm and finished at around 11:30pm!!! These dogs are a true credit to their owners for the amount of work that goes into them to get them at such a high standard. This was a show of GRIT & STEEL which will stay with me for along time..
Conformation. On Sunday it was the medal presentation where the winners from the previous day events were handed the trophys. When we asked how many entries they had it was well over 100 with more coming in!!The conformation was only for registered APBT's. Unortunatley we had to leave an wasn't able to catch all the conformation classes just the puppies we saw. Last but not least I would like to Thank you to Marek Sysel for giving me the oppourtunity to see this firsthand. I believe that this has to be one the best shows in Europe if not the World!!!!
Only a few of the pics that I have taken over the weekend
Lots more to come.
High-Jump. The high jump consists of a tug toy hanging from a tree branch and the dog has to take a small run up and jump hold the tug for 3 sceonds then release. Each time the completes the task the tug is raised up slightly. I think that the highest jump of the was about 2.30 meters. Not bad for dogs standing around 21"-23"s.
Weightpull sprint. Wasn't to keen on this event. The dogs were put into weight catergories, the heavier the dog the heavier the person on the trike. The dogs had to pull the trike 60 meters on a pathway. A few dogs were ran into by the trike as it had no braking system on it. The dogs would finish the race and the momentum of the trike would give some of the dogs a jerk. Our friend Michael, who was with us is a Vet, and he was wincing everytime the dog were finishing, expecting a dog to get hurt, but no-one seemed to mind that, that was the way it is done and alays has been so I am told.
Monkey track. The Monkey track is an obstacle course with various jumps etc. The start of the run has 2 jumps each around 4ft high then there is a bridge which is around 6-7" wide, See-saw, Tyre jump, A-frame, Wooden wall 4ft 6" then you had to run around a post, and do the obstacles again except the see-saw.
Shutzhund. This was jaw dropping stuff!!!! Seeing fully trained Pit Bulls taking down a large man was something else. At one point the man had 2 APBT's on him 1 on each sleeve. The dogs were so focused on what they had to do it was amazing seeing it. There was no barriers around this demonstration and there was dogs all the way around the edge of the crowd and they was making a lot of noise being very eager to get in the ring and have a piece of the action themselves. They had a car driven in to the area and the man was banging the car bonnet and the driver set the dog on the man. Then the man got into the car shut the door had the window open and the dog was sent into the car through the window to bring the aggressor out by force!!
Weightpulling. WOW!!!! Seeing these dogs pull was something else the noise from the dogs was deafening some were like banshees with the amount of noise they made. One dog that really impressed me was an English Bull Terrier called Angie (5yrs) and weighed about 40lbs give or take and she pulled 810kgs!!!! The most weight pulled was 1590kgs this was done by the largest dog at the show weighing around 90-100lbs. The weightpull started at around 5-6pm and finished at around 11:30pm!!! These dogs are a true credit to their owners for the amount of work that goes into them to get them at such a high standard. This was a show of GRIT & STEEL which will stay with me for along time..
Conformation. On Sunday it was the medal presentation where the winners from the previous day events were handed the trophys. When we asked how many entries they had it was well over 100 with more coming in!!The conformation was only for registered APBT's. Unortunatley we had to leave an wasn't able to catch all the conformation classes just the puppies we saw. Last but not least I would like to Thank you to Marek Sysel for giving me the oppourtunity to see this firsthand. I believe that this has to be one the best shows in Europe if not the World!!!!
Only a few of the pics that I have taken over the weekend
Lots more to come.
