continue ... EFC diary

I wonder if I ever going to finish my efc diary?

Day 3, 4 and 5

Friday 29th, Saturday 30th and Sunday 31st May 2009

Racing Days

some of our team memebers at the open ceremony

Friday was the first day of racing. The open ceremony started around 8:30, all 73 teams from Europe joined in the ceremony. It was a short ceremony as there were a lot of racing to do in two rings.

There is nothing much to say in these three days as we were racing (both our teams were in Division 3), watching other teams racing, chat about the racings ...

the Teams

GB Racing "Standing By"

Note: It was very different racing in the Euro, back home, Blue Lane is on the Left and Red Lane in on the Right; in the Europe, other than they drive in the wrong side to us, they also race in the wrong side of the lane to us, their Blue Lane is on the Right and Red Lane is on the Left! For the annoucement, when two teams are racing, they will always annouce the next two teams to "standing by" in the UK but in the Euro, they said "prepare you". I was wondering what does than mean for a little while but you just get used to it after a while. In the UK, we have Round Robin, if there are 7 teams in the division, you get to race 6 times in the Round Robin but in the Euro, we only get to race ONE in the morning and ONE in the afternoon.

and you still get the 2 minutes warm up time

this is our Becky racing Zak. She is only 10 but she is probably the best handler out there. Her start time is perfect every single time. I have never seen her releases her dog early and never get a light. She ran the start dog for the Wimbledon Woofers Team and in this efc 2009, she ran for GB Running. She was awarded for the BEST Young Handler. Well done, Beck! We are very proud of you!!

and this another young handler at Euro, she is running a blue merle sheltie called Rocky

this is Rocky again, doing a run back at the warm up

Rocky taking off


here are some photos I've taken while watching the racings:

some teams like to put a board in front of the box for a quick practise/reminder during the warm up time. A lot of fast dogs have a beautiful swimmer's turn.

and some teams like to paint their dogs! This little JRT got his tail painted an Austrian Flag colour red-white-red! Actually they have painted all the dogs in the Team but you can't quite see in the collies

I think us English are kinder to our dogs, we just wear a wet coat with "come on England" painted on the coat, not the dog!

or ... wear a bandana, here display by our Team Captain Ray and his dog Bramble

and not forgotten some supporters! He obviously is a Dutch supporter!

and this German young lady platted her hair in style, with the German flag colours!

Almost every single dog that races in efc wore a harness ... Power Harness is one of them!

here is my proud Sing with his special label SING harness

this gorgeous Aussie, she has a power harness too and she is a POWER DOG

sorry, no idea what breed he/she is but he/she also wear the power harness

and this Beardie, she wore a power harness too

and this little fast and furious dog wore a slightly different type of power harness

what do you think about this shepherd dog?

I like this pirate harness from Czech

GB Running getting ready to race

this is Ring 1

Four Paw's Darren judging

Ray & Karen ring party, I don't know what they look like that?

this little Papillion x JRT from Hungary is sooooooooo fast!!!

this collie is after the dog in the next lane not the ball!!

one of the English Teams, Kiddy Monsters!

poor tired Sing after the Final, he can hardly stand up!

I like this series of photos of Saturn ... he is watching and cheering

and finally some videos from our racing, I randomly picked three racings as they are not like Agility where you have different courses, some of you might be bored after watching the dogs running up and down fetching the ball again and again:

Not to forget to mention, they have some great entertainment on Friday and Saturday night. I was so tired after the racing, so we retired to bed fairly early (around 10pm ish). I know some of our team memebers went over to the entertainment tent to enjoy themselves and got drunk till 3am and still be able to race the next morning! On Friday night, they have one of their own band singing all night long. Eventhough I tried to sleep but the music was so loud and I actually singing along with them in my tent. Sing and Saturn seem to get annoy everytime I sing, they either lick me to shut me up or sit on top of me so I cannot sing!!! I must admit by 12, I was very tired and wish the music would stop but they still going on and on ... until I hear this song:

I woke up next morning singing ... I am not English, I am not French, I am not Dutch, I am not Spanish, Portugese or German, I am in Belgium so thank you very much ...