Reportings
Life with dogs always offers surprises, sometimes funny or only informativ.
From time to time I want to report about extraordinary and very special events, we shared together with our dogs.
I would be very happy, if we awake your interest by traveling together with your dogs, but as traveling with dogs often generates questions and problems, feel free to contact us.
With all our experiences maybe we can offer you solutions for your “unsolvable” problem.
Norway Travel – or "Thousands of things to do for an excellent mating" (2006)
This is a story about my trip to Norway to mate ABSOLJUT TRIUMPH GRANDIVA.
Meanwhile Diva is 2 years old, so it was really time for her first litter (although Diva sometimes still acts as a puppy herself).
Since I presented Diva on dog shows, I always looked for sires I probably could use for Divas first mating. Also I discussed these possible candidates thousands of times with Julia, Divas breeder – because for her own kennel back in Moscow she should get one puppy out of Divas first litter .
From the beginning on we thought about something spectacular for this mating as a following line to all that efforts we had, to find the right bitch to start (see stories before).
But most of the sires we liked were not to be used depending to German breeding regulations (x-rayed hips), because in their home countries this x-raying is not necessary. “Perrisblue Take That” from Mr. Tasselli in Italy and “Edbrios Blue Ivanhoe” from Mrs. Rundtova in the Czech Republic and many others – all those are wonderful dogs but useless – a sacrifice for the German breeding.
But after a long search and thinking about so many dogs we found the right one – at the kennel Shyloch from Norway. There a really wonderful sire has his home, “Shyloch Excalibur” (Caspar). Although the sire is nearly 10 years old, after some detailed discussions with Mr. Helge Kvivesen, we were sure that Caspar was the right choice – some weeks before our first contact, Caspar mated another bitch in Norway successfully.
We arranged everything and than it was only little time to wait for Divas next season. In the past Diva was always exactly in time with her season, so I planned the trip for the beginning of April.
But nature planned different. Diva didn’t show any signs for a season for weeks and weeks. Meanwhile I got into time problems because many business dates have been planned for the change from April to May. Also I heard from other breeders, that most of the bitches have been late this year depending to the uncommon long winter period.
The same happened with Diva. 3 weeks after her regular menstruation she started with her springtime season and it looked like Diva has noticed my filofax, she exactly used the only possible time corridor for our trip to Norway, I was able to realize.
On Saturday, May 6th 2006 we started an excellent SAS flight from Frankfurt to Oslo – no problem for Diva: meanwhile she became an experienced air passenger. We reached Oslo and Helge was on the airport to welcome us.
All was well organized and my bitch first should cool down on the evening before meeting her “husband” the next morning for the first time. So we spent this evening on the terrace of one of these typical Norwegian wooden houses with a delicious dinner sharing a lot of information about Kerrys and particularly the Scandinavian Kerry scene. (For me it is always very interesting to hear and learn more about Kerrys in other countries.) So Helge is a very special narrator because besides his breeding he also judges Kerrys.
This wonderful, clean country attracted my attention immediately. When we walked with the dogs, we saw all owners cleaning up their dogs’ excrements – I wish it would be the same in Germany .
So Caspar arrived Sunday morning. Immediately he had this smell in his nose, which drives males crazy (smile). Thank god he is a very experienced male dog, who was able to put Divas greenness to the right way. Diva showed herself as a very passionate bitch. In the first she tried to dominate Caspar, which ended up in more or less tenderly bites to Caspar’s neck. But in the end we had a nearly perfect mating, so we clearly found the right date and time for this “project” during her season.
Very satisfied we closed this day with a nice sightseeing tour through Oslo by car.
Monday came up as a free day without mating ties, so Helge spent this day together with me to show Oslo and its neighbourhoods. The special attraction in Norway is not the same like in other countries and cities. If you visit capitals like London, Rome or Paris, you specially visit the cities and their architectures, museums etc. For Oslo it is more the nature, the sea and fjords. All is more relaxed and it is a really great pleasure sitting in one of the restaurants along the waterfront watching people and nature around you. We had a wonderful sunny day by 25° C, so all Norwegians tried to spend as much time as possible outside to enjoy the sun – at least the winter period is much longer as in Germany.
 
Next day, next chance – we mated the young couple again, not as perfect as on Sunday, but also successfully.
Than I had the chance to watch Helge grooming his Russ ian sire Misha (Link to Shyloch Iz Goluboi Legendy). It was a real inspiration – the way of grooming in Scandinavia is still different to ours. I made similar experiences when I was in Russia last year – also very interesting.
The night before our departure another Shyloch dog Farah (Shyloch Noblige) whelped, so my short excursion to the life of another Kerry breeder was successfully concluded and Lufthansa returned us back to Frankfurt.
4 weeks went by and meanwhile a sonographic examination confirmed a successful mating. Diva was pregnant and we expect this litter during second weekend of July.
If you want to see more about the wonderful Shyloch dogs, visit the homepage of Helge’s kennel by using the link list.
Dear Helge, let me thank you very much for your perfect hospitality and your friendship. There is nothing better to broaden one’s horizon, than seeing more and more different Kerry worlds – to watch and to learn.
„Princess on a pea“ - or how I got my Russian Kerry (2005)
This is the story of my beloved baby ABSOLJUT TRIUMPH GRANDIVA, named Diva.
 I had dogs my whole life and in very young years I always dreamt about wired fox terriers. So the first dog of my own when I left my parents home, was a foxi – from today’s sight a very untypical one, too big and powerful, but I loved him very much.
When he died, I was unable in the first, to buy another one – but after one year without it was an inner need to live again with a dog.
To get a distance, my bitch Jana, my today’s old lady, entered home and heart. Her beauty and excellent character brought me to dog shows and breeding were I saw Kerries for the first time in my life. How wonderful and majestic, they burnt inside my mind.
After many years with foxies I did the choice to buy my first Kerry, which was very hard due to the fact, that nearly no information about this bread is available in Germany for non-experienced people in this breed.
After long searches I got my first one, a very nice dog, but not that perfect one, I dreamt about.
So a friend of mine guided my view to the Russian Kerry scene and I spent many nights in the Internet to get more information. By this way my today’s friendship to Julia Chernova takes its start. She was very helpful and answered all my questions.
So I planned to go to Moscow in springtime 2005 to choice a Kerry by myself.
But changing legal rights for importing dogs to the European Union stopped my plans immediately.
This was at the end of August 2004 and I had only one month left to import a dog to the European Union by the old rules. Additional, I needed to go to a business trip nearly the whole September. What to do now? Julia helped, she offered me a 7-month-old bitch and I agreed very quickly to buy her.
But now the odyssey of transportation began, I only had 7 days left to arrange before my departure to this business trip and it was nearly impossible to arrange a transport from Moscow to Frankfurt without a guiding person. I called Lufthansa and Aeroflot, tried to reach friends working in the flight business all over Europe – without result.
I was totally devastated and it was Thursday, only 3 days to departure.
Than the miracle happened – one of my friends made me a contact to his travel agent in Moscow, my today’s dear friend Liudmilla (Luda, I love you for all you’ve done to me). I got a message, were she asked me to bring the dog to Frankfurt the next day. This was surely impossible in case of thousands of regulations in Moscow to do before Diva could go to Germany. But we met on Saturday and she took my transport kennel to Moscow and promised, that the dog will come to Germany before 1st. October 2005.
 From now on all worked by itself, Julia and Luda arranged all together, while I was on travel. In mid September I got a message, that Diva will arrive in Berlin on September 25th so I went to Berlin to welcome Diva, who was guided by Luda.
Everything than worked very easy and wonderful, and in this moment a little bit stressed Kerry Blue Terrier entered my life.
But what to do now – Diva didn’t understood German, everything was foreign and unknown and she’d lost her family a few hours before. I need to smile, if I remember our first days at home. She didn’t left me out of her eyes and followed me to all the places I went to – the toilet – the shower (when the shower door fogged, she started to cry, because she couldn’t see me any more).
When we returned from Berlin, it was in the middle of the night and after she inspected her new home we went to sleep, Diva in her doggy bed beside mine. She felt asleep immediately but didn’t realize, that someone else also slept in this room, my partner Oliver.
 So the next morning came and Oliver stood up – so far so good – Diva let him out of the sleeping room, but she didn’t let him in again. Brave dog, she started to watch over me only a few hours after we met for the first time in our life, isn’t she wonderful? Thank god, this changed after I introduced him to her, but still today she’s fixed on me – whenever she sees me, nothing else is interesting than to play or snuggle with me.
The first weeks have been hard – also to her than to me – whenever she heard something Russian, maybe music in the radio or sounds on the TV, she spread her ears, and she was full of sorrow to loose her new home and family again, whenever we left her alone at home.
All this is gone today, 4 months later and she became real part of our family. She loves her old aunt Jana (the foxy lady) and her new parents Oliver and Klaus. Meanwhile she is perfect in German and her greatest pleasure is to hunt for rabbits and birds, when we are on walks (naturally she never catches them). She is v ery sensitive and knows how to get all she wants. Every third week she gets bathed and groomed (brave endured), and a reward follows. Now we hope to a great show career, which will start in Luxemburg on Easter.
If you want to see Diva, look more intensive on Julia’s homepage and you will find her all together with her new friends and family.
And if you want to know more about Diva and her new home and adventures, feel free to contact me or Julia.
My dear Julia, the only thing I can do is always thank you for this wonderful baby, you’ve brought to my life. Also to your friendship and your experienced advise you’ve offered me, whenever I needed you.
All my best to all Kerry people all over the world
Klaus
Journey to Russia (2005)
“All my bags are packed, I’m ready to go…”, who don’t know this song?
I did this with a trip to Moscow together with my Russian Kerry Absoljut Triumph Grandiva in May 2005 to visit my dog's hometown and breeder.
In the last 8-month, since Diva arrived in Germany, a great and permanent working letter friendship was founded between Julia Chernova, breeder of Diva and me. Also my Russian girlfriend Luda wanted to welcome me in her hometown.
 After all regulations in law and all arrangements between Luda and Julia for my Moscow visit were done, I arrived on a rainy Thursday in May 2005 on Domodedovo airport after a pleasant flight with dog friendly Russian airline “Transaero”.
Diva did the flight excellent, and so we’ve all been very excited to meet personally for the first time. But I think, in the moment Julia and I said “Hello”, our friendship started.
From the first moment on, all friends, who took me up the airport (Julia, her husband Oleg with daughter Oliesa and my friend Luda) gave me a warm and pleasant feeling to be welcome in Moscow.
So we drove to my arranged accommodation. Meanwhile Julia felt a little bit sad in case, that Diva didn’t recognize her in this moment. (One day later, after Diva was comfortable again without all travel stress, she recognized her, and all sadness was gone)
 When we arrived at home of Galina and Orest, my host for the coming week, my wonderful Russian life for the ongoing week started, as Russian hospitality always starts – with a funny and relaxed welcome party.
I was part of a big friendship immediately and I want to say thank you to Galina and Orest for making my time in Moscow so wonderful and remarkable.
Friday than after a relaxed night, work and learning was the course of the day. In the morning I had bathing and styling lessons with Galina. Than on the afternoon grooming lessons with Julia. On this place thousands of thanks to Olga, who did all translations to keep on going conversation in Russian, German, English, hands and feet.
 So Saturday raised up, the day of dog show – really the same in every country. Being nervous and excited, until we get the results. Diva won her CAC, so she can get Russian Junior Champion in the moment, she will get the German one. All strain was gone now and we had a picnic in the middle of all people and dogs. Also Katerina was with us, the owner of Divas mother Tamarisk. She became also a helpful and pleasant person during the next days for translation and guiding me.
We all tried to make plans for the next days, because now my sightseeing tour started. I decided to take the Moscow subway on Sunday to meet Luda in the inner city, but that astonished my new friends. They’ve been always in worry that something worse could happen to me.
Thank you all for your wonderful protection on this trip, I always felt save and secure, cause you prepared all to protect me on all my ways.
Sunday morning I woke up and all rain was gone, Moscow appreciated me with sunshine and beautiful weather. It was a great day to start a walk to a neighbored park and a manor house of Katerina II. This park was near the place of my hosts, so Galina, Orest, all dogs and me had a great morning.
On afternoon I saw than all important, world known places in Moscow for the first time in my life. And I was really impressed about the beauteousness of the inner city.
Kreml, churches and buildings – all was  wonderful and much more fabulous, than pictures or movies can show it. With my inner eye I hold all this impressions deep in my heart – hopefully I will return to this city and people.
In the next days I got more and more impressions from Moscow – historic sites, a day at the Datscha, shopping and always Russian hospitality.
I only had one problem through the whole trip, all my friends tried to feed me all the time – so I needed to take care to my figure.
 But how I could say thank you to this wonderful people for all their friendship –I’ve seldom seen something like this in my country.
So I invited them all to a little lunch in a restaurant and I hope, we all had a funny evening together. It was only a small recording for all they gave to me. But I hope, this was only the start up of a long lasting friendship.
Now after one week with love, friendship and perfect residence, I needed to go back home. My heart became sad from the moment I woke up on departure day.
Galina and Orest guided me to the airport, and I felt very emotional. In that moment I didn’t want to leave Moscow. My life in this week was so wonderful, out of any sorrows and well protected – but real life waited for me in Germany.
Now, back in my own country, my mind always goes back to Moscow and my friends there – living in a long distance of 3000 km.
Dear all, Julia – Oleg - Olesia – Galina – Orest – Dima – Katerina – Olga – Luda, be sure, in my heart I will always be with you and I will never forget our great gathering in Moscow.
I hope, I will be back some day and I also want to welcome you in my country and home. This will be a great pleasure for me.
For the moment I have a little comfort that some of us will meet soon to Eurodog show in Austria, so I’m waiting for you.
With all my love and sympathy
Klaus |
