o'cockaigne

Earlier this month I again spent a short week with Sonja in Germany. We went for lovely walks in the environment and enjoyed our hounds. Chidish and Cytaugh saw their first deer and were quite enthusiastic. Bernice was slightly unwell, as they had made a wrong move and left her with a bad pain in her back. After physical therapy she was a lot better, but not running and playing during the first few days of rest.

Sonja gave me a printed copy of “Deutsches Windhundzuchtbuch” [Book of German Sighthounds], which was written specifically for exhibitors and judges, and I agree with what it says. I have translated it and placed the translation below this blog entry. The article also is listed in “The Deerhound” under “Interesting Articles Generally.”

On Friday, Simon arrived at Hermannsburg after working in Denmark and visiting a trade fair in Berlin. Saturday afternoon he explained a great course held on a bare cornfield so the hounds could all run freely. It started with making the lures, and of course with real rabbit-skin in it! The hounds definitely had to watch that.

Next Simon took the lure machine and pulleys into the field, with Sonja following with a wheelbarrow. Very handy, that, because otherwise you walk back and forth with the stuff. After fifteen minutes I drove the car and all the hounds to the field. Because to tie them up to a tree while others were on the coursing field, didn’t look very clever to us.

First we slipped Bernice and Silva to run a half course. Bernice ran like the wind but afterwards was a little stiff again. Silva enjoyed it thoroughly but could not keep up with Bernice and so cut a lot. Good enough!

Chidish and Cytaugh are terrifically fanatical and ran really well. For the second course add Brandir to them. He started very well but halfway saw something in the woods. He suddenly stood still with his ears straight up. Then he cut off a portion of the course and made the kill as first.

That was enjoyable!!

Sonja, thanks again for the wonderful days, but especially thanks for the splendid birdhouse!! I will install it this weekend and make a couple of photos to show how it looks. It is really beautiful.