o'cockaigne

On March 9th, WRV ’t Haasje held its General Meeting followed by a coursing training. Here, Cephyr and Chenea took their first steps on an ‘official’ coursing field. Of course, we had already practiced a bit at home with them using the old hand-operated machine, and they were very interested in this new game. But here it was somewhat different, a different, unfamiliar environment with more distractions. However, the second time went much better.

On March 22, we had the first coursing of the year at Ronostrand. Once again, only Crumbaugh and Charlaigne were entered. Cranston was able to have a good time on Friday.

On Thursday, April 3, we departed for Alphen where the coursing of WRV ’t Haasje was held. On Friday, first the training where Cephyr and Chenea also got a chance to sniff the hare again. They both did fantastically!

This time, Augusto Frade had also entered his Deerhound female Teresa of Muma, so there would be 3 Deerhounds at the start. But unfortunately, Crumbaugh did not pass the veterinary check, so only the two girls, Teresa and Charlaigne, ran. In the second round, Charlaigne caused a mess again by cutting corners significantly. However, she ran out of position so badly that she could never catch up with the deficit.

Two weekends later, on April 19, we had the coursing in Lelystad. Here again, only Charlaigne and Teresa were at the start. They did not hold back from each other, and even though both know the terrain well, they ran almost the entire course without cutting too much. They ended with the same points, but because Charlaigne in the morning and Teresa in the afternoon, having 3 points more, Teressa became first again.

On June 4th, we set off for Tüttleben for one day of show and two days of coursing. The coursing was again organised by CC2000. For the show, only Cephyr, Chenea, and Charlaigne were entered, and for the coursing, unfortunately only Crumbaugh, Charlaigne, and Islay’s Scara Brae. The latter went home with the honor.

Chenea found the Red Kites, which constantly flew over the middle area of the racetrack and the coursing field, very interesting.

From Tüttleben we went to a campsite near Berlin, where we stayed for a few days before continuing on to Poland.

The campsite was by a lake, in an extensive forest of almost nothing but very tall pine trees so that you only looked up at the trunks.

The pitches were minimally marked and the ground was not exactly flat.

The road to get there was almost impassable, so with the caravan it took half an hour to cover one kilometer!

But still, it wasn’t a bad campsite.

In the evening, when the little beaches were empty, the hounds could really let loose, and you could go for good walks in the surrounding forests.

After the weekend, we headed to a campsite before Poznan. Here too, there was a small lake and a nice forest where the hounds could run and play.

When we arrived, we were the only ones there and thought we could enjoy the peace, but during the afternoon, a huge group of campers started to arrive, and shortly after, we were surrounded by a large group of caravans and campers who were going to celebrate a golden wedding in the evening!

Well, that was the end of the peace!!

On Friday, June 20, we packed up again and went to Gniezno, on the other side of Poznan, because Simon had to judge a two-day coursing event there. When we arrived there in the early afternoon, they were still busy harvesting the grass. Several huge machines were moving across the two enormous fields at record speed to make the grounds suitable for coursing.

Very impressive to see.

We were placed on top of a hill with our caravan, with no trees in the wide surroundings and, unfortunately, no other option but to walk the same sandy path up and down with the hounds all the time. It was scorching hot and therefore incredibly tough.

On Saturday, we still let the hounds run, as guide dogs for license runs, but Sunday it was really too hot, and we left as soon as possible after the awards ceremony. Back to the campsite just before Poznan.

The next morning we were just able to leave in time before a huge thunderstorm broke out; we were incredibly happy that we were no longer on the hill in Gniezno with the awning and everything!!

Since I got a new hip on July 3, we had a few weeks of rest and could enjoy our own little paradise.

On August 11, the caravan was packed again, and we set off for Hermannsburg to visit Sonja and Karl Heinz. It was too hot to do anything, so we just lazed around. The hounds had fun, though, because for the puppies it was a new environment which they really enjoyed.

Wednesday morning, we hit the road again because we had to go to Poland once more. This time Simon, with the help of Benny de Winter, had a field to prepare for the Polish Coursing Championship. Together with Benny and Ghilaine, we also stayed at a campsite where it was forbidden to put up a fence. So we set up the awning again to keep the hounds in check, but that didn’t go very well. They still wanted a bit more space and occasionally escaped.

I hadn’t entered any hounds for the Championship. In hindsight, it’s a pity since there were actually four dogs from the Czech Republic competing, but fortunately Charlaigne, Crumbaugh, Cranston, Cephyr, and Chenea were still able to stretch their legs on Saturday afternoon.

On Monday morning we set off for Göhlsdorf where Simon was once again in charge of the coursing. We stayed together with Benny and Ghilaine on the large camping meadow and could freely use the fenced coursing field. On Thursday, the first participants began to trickle in, and by the end of Friday, the camping field was completely full. As usual, a fair number of Deerhounds were entered, a total of 9, including Crumbaugh and Charlaigne. Cephyr, Chenea, and Cranston got to try out the course on Friday.

On Sunday, there was the Landessieger Show for which only three Deerhounds were entered. Charlaigne was awarded BOB.

On Monday morning, we packed everything up again and headed towards Rijsbergen.

Crumbaugh under white.

Charlaigne under white.

On Saturday, August 30, CC2000 hosted the Barsoi Funcoursing in Baarle-Nassau. As usual, our hounds also ran the course. Cephyr was incredibly enthusiastic and stole the show with a spectacular kill.

Charlaigne walked with Crumbaugh, but she made such a mess of it that, as it unfortunately became clear much later, she had so badly gotten both her hind legs tangled up and injured herself so severely that I had to go straight to a veterinarian. Luckily, I was able to see the on-duty doctor in Hoogstraten, who, after examining it thoroughly, determined that it was only superficial. But serious enough that it had to be stitched under anesthesia.

So if your hound ever has an injury that is slow to heal, think about blue light therapy!

Charlaigne with daughter Cephyr in the infirmary.

WRV ‘t Haasje held its Dommel Coursing on September 27 & 28 in Borkel & Schaft. A new and very nice location. You can go for a great walk with the hounds, and the campsite is spacious with good sanitation. Also very nice was that you could enjoy a BBQ with the whole group in the restaurant! The owner prepared the meat on a large BBQ, and along the wall there was a full buffet with various salads, sauces, and baguettes. Super tasty and well organized.

A pity that part of ‘the coursing field’ had just been sown and couldn’t be used, but Simon still managed to set up a nice course of sufficient length and with some challenges.

Since Chenea has developed the strange habit of sneaking up on the hare, we decided to let her run with another hound. This went well with sloughi Azra from Els Siebel. She had to start immediately, otherwise she wouldn’t get the chance to run. Hopefully she will continue to do well now.

Unfortunately, once again only Charlaigne and Crumbaugh had signed up. I found it nerve-wracking because Charlaigne, of course, kept cutting in, but luckily everything went fine and she came off the field safely.

On Thursday, October 2, we set off again with the caravan towards Welzheim, in the south of Germany, to participate in the Deerhound Annual Show. With one overnight stop on the way, we arrived there on Friday afternoon. At that time, it was still dry! Unfortunately, the weather gods were not on our side, and soon it turned into a big mud puddle.

So Saturday was the show. There were 34 Deerhounds entered, with 5 absentees, judged by Ali Morton from the Cotherstone kennel in Scotland. A judge after my own heart! She gave 3 Very Promising, 6 Excellent, 18 Very Good (still too many), and 2 a Good (there could have been more).

Chenea came second in the junior class and Cephyr fifth. Cytaugh was third out of the three veterans, and Charlaigne first out of the two working dogs. Then Charlaigne beat the open class and champion class bitches and became second best bitch behind the junior bitch Lady Ness of Scottish Arrows from Lidia Pitek from Poland.

Working Class.

The coursing was held on Sunday, but unfortunately, of the 5 entered hounds, only 3 were present. Very disappointing. Alyesha Under Sharp Hill by Gabriele Klenk came first, Crumbaugh second, and Charlaigne third, but she still received the title “Schönheit und Leistung Jahresseigerin” because she had received an Excellent at the show, while Alyesha received a Very Good.

Charlaigne with her won challenge trophies for Best Working Dog, the Wanderpreis “Of the Scottish Highlands” from Ruth Oess (left) and the “Quodlibet Drambui Trophy” for Beauty and Performance Annual Winner from Gerd Zekkert.

Of the 21 names attached to the “Of the Scottish Highlands” challenge trophy, 7 are O’Cockaigne hounds and my Terichline Thistle appears 3 times. Pretty nice!

Since everything was soaking wet, clammy, and muddy, we just drove straight home the next day.

A few more fun little videos of what’s happening at CC2000.

Of course, this wasn’t entirely the intention!

Our last event of the year was the coursing in Ravels, Belgium on November 8. We still decided to go with the caravan because it’s the easiest way with all the hounds and it’s also a bit more enjoyable. After all, that’s what we do it for! All the hounds were able to stretch their legs and made it to the end of the coursing season without any additional injuries.

Just took the Christmas photo on December 8 and then everyone went into hibernation!

It was an eventful and busy year with many fun things but also intense sadness and a lot of worries. Hopefully this year will be a bit more even. In any case, there are plenty of fun things on the agenda again!