Kennel Dirlian's family reunion 9.-10.6.2007
Sunday
Sunday morning was warm and sunny. It was a good day for our decennial celebration. After good night’s sleep and morning coffee Catering-Niina and I did the final preparations and started to wait for our guests. First one to arrive was Peter with Maija and Riina. Little by little our red and white guests started to show up. Somebody told that they weren’t sure if they are in a right place but once the flock of red and whites ran dow the slope to greet new arrivers there were no doubt about it. All in all we had 20 Dirlians and two veterans from nearby. The father of N-litter and O-litter, Ralli and Junnu came to say hello to their offspring. As an extension to all the welshes we also had English springer spaniel Sisko, Flat-coated retriever Indy and West highland white terrier Vertti. In addition to 25 dogs we had over all 42 people on the spot also. During the whole weekend we had all in all 24 Dirlian dogs visiting the cottage which seems to be about 50% of all my fosters alive.
When almost everybody had arrived and we had enough time to say hello to everyone it was time to eat. After eating we had a few kennel championships. First event was immobility (quite easy to do while everybody else is running around with exitement…) The winner was Nasu and her owner Outi, the second ones were Misty and Jaana and the third place went to lastborn Taku and Päivi. Next we had kennel’s official agility championship “Most agile furry-ear cup” which we set up from obstacles found from the cellar. Although Simo was very exact in timing other rules were nonexistent and unjust, everybody just had to deal with every distraction. Sometimes there were three or four dogs performing the same track with the actual contestants. Also doping (delicacies) was accepted and even recommendable (might this be the reason for four-dog line behind the actual contestant?) and if dog didn’t get through an obstacle in set period of time acceptable solution was that the owner performed the obstacle in question. Also the height of the obstacles was optional. This was fun and successful event which excited the audience as well. We also saw very unusual ways to perform the track, for example how many agility courses are performed with a child carried and baby on board… The most impressive pairs were Lulu and Annika, second place went to Misty (10yrs) and Jaana and third place went to Lulu and Jessica. The other veteran contestants didn’t do as well as Misty and they were at the other end of the podium. Kenneth was rewarded with the extra price “Promising young hurdler”. Kenneth performed the track by himself while Tiku ran away before the first object.
After agility championships was time for coffee. Everybody got their drinks from inside and went back out to watch the dogs playing outside. The dogs had their own buffet of dog biscuits and other treats on the porch but I doubt anybody had time to eat any because of the furry friends. During the coffee we distributed the prices of the previous competitions. Actually we didn’t have time to perform one competition but this only means we will have some activities planned for the next time already. We tried to take some pictures of the attendees on Sunday too, but it was as hard as it was on Saturday. Luckily we had time to take picture of everybody before they started to head back home.
Thanks to everybody who had time to visit us this weekend, it was wonderful to see so many Dirlians at the same time! And some of them I haven’t seen in 8 years! This weekend gave me many wonderful memories and I hope I’m not the only one. At least the dogs enjoyed a lot! I hope I will see you next time, this was so fun occasion that it won’t be the last one. If there’s only one decennial party we can have a family reunion just for fun next time. I wish you all a wonderful summer and let’s keep in touch!
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The venue |
Kirsti |
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Portrait |
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Teuvo went |
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Taku and Vertti |
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Tuuli |
Tuuli the |
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Immobility contest |
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And Nasu wins! |
Teuvo wears |
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Time for a treat |
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Grandpa Junnu |
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This is the real |
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Finish line, yay... |
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Tired hostess |
Kuvat © Petra Linnamaa & Dirlian
Present Dirlian dogs -->