On Wednesday, 5th May 2002, in a small town Laski located near to Warsaw on the border of beautiful Kampinowski Primeval Forest took place IV Obedience Competition of Mazowsze according to PT regulations (PT - Polish obedience exam).The event was orgranized by AKI club and local division of ZKwPL in Plock and area on which everything took place was offered by commune of Izabelin. The dogs and their handlers were assesed by known Slovakian judge Josef Olearcin.

Altogether there were 39 dogs. The most popular were German Shepherd Dogs (15 dogs) but our representation was also there - two Czechoslovakian Wolfdogs: Irma z Litavske kotliny (owner: Marta Budny from Wroclaw) and Dragon Eden severu (owner Adam Sobolewski from Bialystok).

Already at the beggining the CzWs didn't have luck - after drowing the starting numbers it came out that they will be the last couple. It would be not so bad but the sun was shining all the time, very hot and no clouds in the sky. Small grove was a insufficient protection against heat. Waiting for a few hours was also visible by handlers.

The quality of training was very different: there were dogs prepared good technically but because of negative reinforcement training they worked without enthusiasm. Some other dogs worked eagerly but their motivation by food was causing lot of faults - eyesight of dogs was all the time on the handler's hand.There were also a few dogs whose work and cooperation with handlers were really pleasing to the eye (however in most cases the dogs were not placed on the podium)..

The first Czechoslovakian Wolfdog that showed her abillities was Irma. Girls (Marta and Irma) are old stagers on such events already and this time they again did not dissapoint us. If we skip few small faults like a askew "sit", little enthusiasm of the dog and a little bit slow executing of some commands which caused loosing of quite many points, their performance could be assessed high. This couple showed to all of us a good show. They got 186 points (max. 200), note "very good" and 7th place in overall ranking. The judge payed attention to excellent preparation... Marta's .

Dragon's performance was much worser - but that's not a big surprise: Garo (Dragon) was ill (cold) at the time of the event. So his shape left a lot to be desired. We're happy that the couple decided to take a part in the event. Technically their performance was ok and it would be much better if Dragon would execute all commands two, three times faster.

Even if the main places in the competition were not filled by our CzWs we can say that the competition was a success and we hope that group of people which this year cheered on our breed will have reason to be happy next year.

Margo