Last year I visited Tallinn for the first time. We attended to This same show with Sarah, George and Tibetan Terrier Pamo. Pamo is the grandmother of our little Josephine Forsman. We had a little winter Holiday with Tommy and kids at the same time.
This year I wanted to go because our lhasa queen Kamala had just turned 8 years and was able to attend the veteran classes. Petras Beautiful bedlington lady Jade had turned 15 months and could compete for her first Cacib. And of course when we were on our way we entered George and Sarah too.
Our trio started the night between Friday and Saturday. We have 6 hours drive to Helsinki and our ferry took off 10.30. The cars always have to check in one hour before the boat is leaving. I drove good solid speed and wondered why the navigator told us All the time we wouldn’t have as much time I had counted on. Finally one hour before Helsinki I realized the navi had wrong time! It was in Summer time.
So we were in good time at the harbour. The ferry takes only two hours to Tallinn. It wasn’t really a flashy ferry but ok to travel to a dog show. After the ferry we had to navigate to our hotel. It was located quite near to harbour but of course we had troubles to find there. My old Nokia mobile phone had nice sat nav but it lost the satellite signal all the time. So we had to read a map.
We found the hotel and it was very nicely located, clean and dog friendly. And they also had a nice free car park. There was a park across the road where we could take our dogs out for a walk. Such a shame it was snowing and temperature was round 0 to +1 all the time so the dogs got all wet every time we went outside.
I had a rainsuit and shoes for George Washington but the others got all wet.
After taking our stuff yo our room, walking the dogs etc we went to have something to eat, shopping and more. In Baltics you have to be sure you don’t leave anything in your car, otherwise you notice that you miss a car window when you come back. We experienced that last year and I can tell you it wasn’t really pleasant to drive six hours home in the middle of coldest Nordic winter with kids and dogs.
On Sunday morning we woke up early, took the dogs out for a walk and made them ready for the show. Or I can’t say I did so much for lhasas Petra bathed and blowdried her bedlington. That took about 20 minutes. Lhasas were bathed on Friday and they had to do. Kamala and Sarah have so great coat quality they don’t need to be done in last minute. And George hadn’t got wet so his coat was quite ok too.
After breakfast we headed to the dog show. The Nokia navigator was better this time but we still managed to turn wrong a couple of times. But we made it in good time to the showground Saku Suurhall.
First out was Jade the bedlington lady (Slioorin Bring Me Joy). She was the only bedlington in the show. That doesn’t make it an easy win for a young dog. The judges don’t have to put the only dog to win and they are often more critical with the only dog not being really ready champion. But the judge George Kostopoulos noticed Jades qualities and she won best of breed with CACIB and CAC! We are so happy, this was her first chance to get a CACIB! Now she started her international champion and can finish a year after the first CACIB.
Lhasas were judged by Michael Leonard from Ireland. First out was George Washington aka Fi & No Ch Yarmilan Ring of Fire. He became second in the champion class and finally placed 3rd best dog with CAC! That finished his EE Ch!
Our Sarah aka CIB Nordic (FI & Se & No Ch) RU & Rkf Ch Yarmilan Yo-Ba Kamala, has never done well with brittish judges so I hadn’t really hopes up with her. But I was happily surprised when she ended up 2nd best bitch with resCACIB and CAC, also adding EE Champion to her credits.
And finally the queen herself, CIB Fi & No & Ee & Lt Ch Ti La Shu O’Kamala. She made her debut in the veteran classes by winning BOB veteran with vet-CAC witch made her EE VCh. She was also shortlisted in the BIS veteran finals 🙂
All the dogs got great results, we are very happy! After getting back to our hotel, this time we didn’t even get lost 😀 we walked the dogs and made sure they were happy. Of course we had to celebrate our great day. We went to eat some sushi and to a nice local cafe to have dessert. Yummy!
After all the travelling and showing we celebrated only with coffee and cake and were off to bed quite early.
When I analyzed our day I had to think about the fact that both Georges parents had gained their champion titles like Their son. Both Kamala and Fred (BISS CIB FI & NO & EE & CZ Ch Kai-La-Sha Fire Power) finished their Finnish champion first, then Norweigian and Estonian titles! All of them was shown in other countries between the titles but everyone knows how heavy competition there is in lhasas so it’s not just to go and pick up the titles. And it doesn’t matter how good dogs you have!
Next morning we started our trip back home. It was a good idea to take the 11 am ferry to Helsinki. That left us quite many hours to drive while we still had daylight. We were back home eight o’clock in the evening. Hmmm, where will we head our Ford next?
