For the 2009 World Championships this year, the GSDL had entered 2 competitors, Henriette Bohnstedt and Richard James and the reserve Eric Wight.

Henriette and I left the UK on Thursday morning to travel to a little village just outside Nijmegen, in Holland where we were going to base ourselves for the run up to the competition. This was mainly due to the kind offer from Ad van Yperen who had invited us to use his club for a training base in the run up to the competition.

We arrived late on Thursday evening; so got ourselves settled in to the hotel. We found a super little pizza restaurant locally and discussed the training plan for the next couple of days. Both Henriette and I had brought our young dogs with us for the experience and we were keen to find tracking land etc to acclimatise the competition dogs and also try out the young dogs on the various conditions. Richard and Jamie were due to join us on the Friday evening.

The next few days were spent looking for and tracking on different types of plough because although we knew the surface was plough, it is amazing how many different conditions you can find!

I must say a huge thank you to Ad and his club members who made us all so welcome and laid on tracking land, a Dutch grade A helper and 3 other helpers to help us with our preparation. Although Jamie Bows had accompanied us as the official helper, it is so beneficial to be able to work the dogs on a variety of helpers in the run up to this kind of competition. Ad even laid on a stadium for the dogs to train in to try to replicate what they were about to experience.

On arrival at the competition on Monday, we were informed that one of the BAGSD dogs had withdrawn and that Eric would therefore be required to run. He had just arrived from competing for the GSDL at the FCI competition in Austria.

At the Team Captains meeting, we were given introductions from the individual judges, declared the team and were given details of the transport arrangements to the tracking. We had our allocated training time in the stadium on Tuesday and then looked forward to the all important draw on the Wednesday. This is a great event when all the teams' parade by country and the draw numbers are picked. It provides a huge organisational challenge and as usual, we all had to hang about for ages. However, it is a great opportunity to catch up with friends and acquaintances made in previous years.

Finally with much excitement and anticipation, the competition started on Thursday. There were 162 dogs competing from 42 countries. The judges this year were Igor Lengavarsky from Slovakia (tracking), Guenther Muellegger from Austria (obedience) and Lance Collins from Canada (protection).

The first British dogs to run were Stuart Nye with Carlsbro Ozzie and Eric Roberts with Callanway Zara who both tracked on Thursday morning. Unfortunately, they both were unsuccessful with 3points and 15 points respectively.

Next was Eric Wight and Glen vom Hexenkeller, running his obedience round at 15.20p.m on Thursday. The dog was full of enthusiasm on the heelwork and jumped well in the dumbbell exercises. The sit, down and stand on the move exercises were very good. The team scored 86 points.

Next was Henriette with Beckenberry Jaeger who was drawn for obedience at 16.20pm on Thursday. They were drawn with the other competitor from Israel and Jaeger had to do the down first. Unfortunately, the dog from Israel put in a very flashy and fast performance that the crowd got behind it. This did not help to keep Jaeger calm and unfortunately when his turn came, he had wound himself up and was 'over the top'. Extra commands on the dumbbells were expensive and he only achieved 65 points. However much you try in training you cannot replicate the atmosphere and crowd noise you experience at these International events. It is a huge disappointment to fail your first element and you know then you cannot qualify. With the other 2 competitors failing their tracks, this meant we would not have a team score this year.

During Thursday afternoon, Richard James and Tyguard Banjo of Richline did his track. Richard said that the dog was distracted by shiny pebbles and was not as intense as usual. However he scored a respectable 81 points.

Friday saw Henriette drawn for tracking at 7.30am - not so bad except you have to be at the tracking land 1 hour before and the journey takes ¾ hour - so we were waiting at the car park at 5.15am! As it was just getting light Henriette and Jagear put in a very methodical track to achieve 91 points. All the points were lost on the articles - one anticipated start due to the judge saying 'OK' rather excitedly.

Eric and Glen were the next to run at 8.20am and they put in a very accurate tracking performance with good pace and intensity. They scored 90 points.

Back at the stadium the other 2 British dogs had their obedience rounds. Stuart Nye with Ozzie had a respectable round with 76 points but unfortunately, Eric's dog Zara only managed 60 points.

Saturday saw another early start with Richard doing his obedience at 6.00am. It was pouring with rain, dark and very cold. Despite the terrible conditions, they put in a very creditable round with 75 points. Unfortunately, the dog shook in the sit position due to the downpour.

Both BAGSD dogs did their protection rounds on Saturday. First were Eric Roberts and Zara who only managed a satisfactory 70 points. Stuart Nye with Ozzie unfortunately only managed 51 points.

Henriette and Jaeger were the next to run in their protection round - although we had done everything we could to try to keep the dog calm, as soon as he saw the crowd, he played to it. Unfortunately, this resulted in 'sticky outs' with several extra commands and they only obtained 65points.

Next was Eric and Glen, the dog was fast into and took good grips. The escape was powerful and the round clean, a very respectable score of 91 points. This gave Eric an overall score of 267 and 44th place overall.

Sunday saw the last GB dog to work which was Richard and Banjo's protection round. After all the anticipation and training, the dog unfortunately missed the grip on the escape so was disqualified. This meant that as a country we had only one competitor who managed to qualify.

I have to mention a couple of the other dogs in the competition. I hope this will give you a flavour of the diversity of the competitors and their dogs.

Firstly, I must mention the winner, Sharon Ronen with Sam Beit Haboxer Mehagiva from Israel. I believe she is the first woman to win the World Championships. We were lucky to see her protection round, and although it was not a 'crowd stopper' it was tidy and very controlled (97 Points). Her obedience was one of the last to work on the Sunday, and the pressure must have been immense. We were watching from near the collecting ring and as she was waiting to go on, the dog was calmly in the down and she was listening to her Ipod! I couldn't help wondering what I would be doing in that situation - probably looking for a toilet! The dog in the obedience round was attentive and fast in its work. However, it was so accurate and the dumbbells were faultless. The handler was so correct and gave no body signals to the dog at all. They scored 95 points and as it was announced, the crowd acknowledged a fair winner.

The local support was behind the 2nd placed Jurgen Zank and Eric vom Sportspark from Germany. He scored 97track, 94 obedience and 98 protection - overall 289 points.

A favourite of ours is John Jabina with his bitch Jabina Dighte. Interestingly, John has a very famous breeding kennels in Denmark and bred the bitch himself. The bitch was incredibly fast and very strong in the protection round. They finished 12th with a score of 94, 92, 94 = 280.

My personal favourite is a dog from Finland called Bacteroides Sabo - lovely rich black and tan working line dog with a superb protection round. However, this year his tracking let him down - overall scores 70, 93, 96 = 259 and 75th place.

At the other end of the scale was a competitor from Trinidad and Tobago who had just purchased the dog. Unfortunately, he could not keep it with him in the obedience phase and was disqualified for lack of control. This has raised many questions with the WUSV as to how to prevent this happening in the future and they may be looking stricter qualifying criteria in future.

I cannot finish this article without a mention of the Irish competitor, Paul Flanagan with Wolfhaus Bud. Bud did a brilliant track - we could not see any faults and he really applied himself to the track. Score 95 points. The team managed a very tidy obedience round and scored 83 points. The protection round was strong with the dog really pulling the helper on the escape. However a few messy bits in the transport & pickup meant a score of 82 points. The total score was 260 and 71st place.

Overall this year in Krefeld was not one of the best organised but was well attended. Germany won the overall Team competition, with Spain second and Belgium in third place. See you all in Seville, Spain next year.

By: Alison Lawrence
GB Team Captain

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