Today I started a new discipline together with Malou:
We went to our first schweiss training - tracking with blood aiming to learn the dog how find wounded animals.
Malou did a splendid job, and she REALLY enjoyed herself!!
A very very nice day :)

This weekend I went to my first ever Lure Coursing competition with Coverdale´s Karima and Ailica´s Graceful Galina.
I had NO idea what so ever of my girls level compared to other Borzois, so it was very thrilling.
Galina had her first run together with the borzoi, that turned out to be the winner of the competition - she
got unhappy when she lost contact with the hare because of the other dog´s speed, and she ran back home  - disqualified :(
Karima had a splendid first run - running with a swedish Lure Coursing champion male, that she easily followed through the whole run :)After first heat she was placed third with 75 points - nr 2 had 76,5 points and nr three had 78 points.
Quite a nice debut!!!!

BUT nothing is given in live animals, and in her second run she and her mate lost contact with the hare and chose to
go sightseeing instead...... disqualification.....

This event allthough showed me, that I have quite good dogs - they both normally run as well as Karima did in her first run.
 

Today I have graduated as Proffessional Doginstructor - 1½ years education by Lone Greva under PAFF regie
- primarily learning how to be a good dog-person :)
 

Lure Coursing with Coverdale´s Karima and Ailica´s Graceful Galina.
Both dogs did well.
We have signed up for the first national competition in August in DK , so I aim for as many training runs
as possible this summer.

©Tina Dahlgaard
 
India da Casa das Thuyas also came along, and I was very pleased to see her behave very well....

I have had a few incidences, where she gets VERY angry towards my huskies :(
In Portugal these dogs primary responsability is to keep threats away from their flock of sheep - and among these wolves....
I think, that Indi´s genetic "wolfprint" tells her, that wolves ( and with that huskies ) are very dangerous and must be destroyed!
This was a thing I did NOT see coming, when I bought her, despite the obviousness in the matter.
I strongly believed, that with a huge amount of socializing Indi would become a friendly dog towards all dogs.

And I succeded mostly - but I could not change her opinion towards dogs that resembles wolves !!
Not a nice situation when one has quite a lot of those....
But I take my precautions - Indi is never allowed to come close to my huskies, and until now I have managed
to cope with the situation.

Lure Coursing with Coverdale´s Karima - Ailica´s Graceful Galina managed to steal Indi´s breakfast 5 minutes
before we had to leave, so she stayed at home to avoid a ventrikeltorsion :(
Karima had two very good runs.

Yesterday i recieved a mail from Jordbruksverket stating wich guidelines we as sleddogpeople have
to fullfill in the future travelling in the EU.

We shall still fullfill the same guidelines concerning vaccination, bloodtest and de-worming.

Besides that we need a health certificate for all dogs max 24 hours old.

The cages for the dogs shall be as follows:

1. Length: The dogs length from tip of the nose to the back of the hindquarters on the
normally standing dog x at least 1,1
2. Width: The width of the dogs chest x at least 2,5; it shall be possible for the dog to
lie down and turn around effortless. 
3. Hight: The dogs hight on the top of the head in the standing position when it´s tallest.
The length of the cage´s ceiling is not allowed to be less than 95% of the bottom of the cage.
If more than one dog is in the cage, the width of the cage shall be increased for each additional dog,
 with the width of the biggest dog´s chest

These measures shall be fullfilled in private and commercial transportation of dogs.

So it seems that we all need to buy MUCH bigger cars and get extended driving licenses to fullfill this!!!!
Loosely measurement of a male in my kennel gives this size of the box:
Lenght 1,2m x width 0,80m x hight 0,90m
- the hight seeming very very idiotic, as the dog then for sure will be more tempted to stand up during transportation,
wich is very stressfull and gives the dog no rest....

See the rules in Swedish here.

Justin´s brother Team Koyuk Patrick Sjöberg moved in today - the two boys took turns in bragging for 5 minutes
and now they share dogyard without any problems - NICE temperaments!!

Today we have neutered Snowfall´s Million Dollar Muffin and Snowfall´s Mayday Mayday.

Lure Coursing with Ailica´s Graceful Galina and Coverdale´s Karima - both did a splendid job!
 

	©Tina Dahlgaard took these splendid pictures of my sweet girls :)
I managed to take a few acceptable pictures - dogs moving with up to 60 kms an hour still gives me great trouble despite my advanced equipment ....
A small selection of breeds different from my own - but not less beautifull!!

Back after 4 days North with Pia Lykke.
The primary reason for the trip was to fetch her 3 new dogs :)
Besides that we went to MR equipment and bought 4 hand measured harness for my 4 NONSTANDARD dogs:
Braveheart, Coverdales Karima, Ailica´s Graceful Galina and India da Casa das Thuyas.
And we visited a norwegian kennel of very high standard - I hope to buy a puppie there this summer.....stay tuned ;)

	These images I took at a near by river - the huge amount of melting snow causes a true inferno!
Pia with her new dogs: Isslottet´s Bambi and her two puppies Isslottet´s Smilla and Isslottet´s Kaja. Pia is in between selling and buying houses at the moment, so her three new dogs will stay in my kennel for a while - wich I really really don´t mind :) We cleaned up my doghouses and dogyards, so now I´m ready for the next season.... A very nice trip allthough too short!

Once every year in the spring, the danish forests invite people to come and hear about all the activities,
that takes place the year around in the forests.
I sometimes find time to participate with my dogs, and today I went bringing 12 huskies:
 Yaz´Yarkova´s Slithering Slowfox, Flickering Firefox, Zavarinya, Zaffaraya, Zcirocco II
IGAIS Tassar Callisto, Ziggy Stardust, Deimos
Frost 'n' Fun Juice, Jubilee Jewel
Snowfall´s Million Dollar Muffin and Koyuk´s Justin Gatlin.

It´s a huge experience for the dogs - lots and lots of people of every size, sex and age have patted, cuddled and
hugged my dogs during the 5 hours the event lasts.
I chose to take my dogs out in 2 teams 2½ hour each - trying to aviod any dog getting too exhausted....

All intentions of taking pictures after the public had arrived was impossible - I had more than full hands !!!

Well if one needs a new idea of how to spend money.............
I went to the photo course at FOF, and the teacher told me, that I did NOT have the rigth equipment
to fullfill my expectations................
Today I bought my new ( used ) plaything:

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM

So now I just need a kamera that suits it :))))

Yaz´Yarkova´s Flickering Firefox acting as fotomodel
 

Team Koyuk Justin Gatlin, Frost 'n' Fun Juice and Frost 'n' Fun Jubilee Jewel playing roughly

Springtime is always time for operations in my kennel.
( Being married to a veterinarian makes life much easier .... :) )

This spring several of my dogs will go under the knife, and today we neutered two:
IGAIS tassar Ziggy Stardust and Sassicaia´s Moonlight Magic.

In my world only "creme de la creme" of sleddogs should breed, and these two dogs both lack lead abilities
- so NO MERCY is excecuted ;)

Today we operated IGAIS Tassar Zorba Sundance :(
She had an infection in her uterus and it was really really nasty, so operation was the only reasonable option....
- now she is sleeping soundly in our kitchen.

Tomorrow a new dog will move in...
Jørgen Grüner and Natasha Epstein have decided to gradually stop with the sleddog sport, and they are
seeking for new good homes for their younger dogs.
Already as a small pup Team Koyuk Justin Gatlin appealed to me, and finally he moves in -
THANK YOU Natasha and Jørgen for letting him move to my kennel!

Team Koyuk Justin Gatlin
 

Breeding activity in our pond creating thousands and thousands of frog babies :)

Lure Coursing again with Ailica´s Graceful Galina and Coverdale´s Karima - unfortunately the machine is giving a
great deal of problems, so we only got a 150 m run :(
 

Springtime is most certainly here now - the Huskies enjoying life on their huge playground
after a rather demanding season - here it´s Yaz´Yarkova´s Tekno Tronic.

I really enjoy my new camera - taking a HUGE amount of pictures every day,
and throwing 99 % of them away afterwards....

Lure Coursing with Ailica´s Graceful Galina and Coverdale´s Karima - both did a splendid job!

©Tina Dahlgaard

I have bought a new (used) camera: Canon EOS 500 D, so hopefully my future pictures will increase in quality and amount :)
Knowing very well that a better camera needs a better user to take better pictures, I have signed up for a
weekend course at FOF....

Updates on most of the dogs.

Back in DK again after 3 months loaded with OVERWHELMING, EXCITING, CHALLENGING and
BREATH-TAKING experiences!

- just one out of thousands and thousands of stunning impressions....

For 26 years I´ve been a devoted sprint racer, and early last year I decided to try for longer distances.

But it´s one thing to make such a decision - a very, very different thing it most certainly is to be in the middle of the process!!!!
So many new things to deal with - so many new ways of thinking and feeling - so many unknown issues to handle....

It has undoubtly been the most exciting season ever for my dogs and myself.

First of all: my dogs have coped SO WELL with this transition.
They willingly went on and on and on - in full confidence that I knew, what we were doing....
(wich sometimes I honestly didn´t ....)
Only Yaz´Yarkova´s Tasty Titbit had enough after 8 weeks and went into a strike - the rest of the dogs went stunningly well!

My hope was to compeed in the Polar Distans 160 km race with 8 dogs - and I had set a goal for my training at
minimum 1000 kms...
This I did not achieve, and as my dogs wellbeing is my one and only consern, I took the hard desicion
NOT to compeed in the race.

Instead - one week before the race - Pia Lykke and I went for a trip including a stayower at night.
We went 85 km on the PD track, and we had a fantastic trip!
I went with 8 dogs, and carried my kennel assistant Henriette in my sled - Pia also went with 8 dogs - her own 4
and 4 of mine, and she carried most of the luggage.

I wish to thank all my kennel assistans and most off all my bestest friend Pia Lykke :)
 - the stay up there was so much easier because of Your help!