Dania Cup part 1

At the beginning of July we left for Denmark, to compete in the week long competition out there, Dania Cup. Dania Cup is a well-known international agility show, with competitors from the USA, Japan, Norway, Estonia, Germany, Finland, and more.

Travelling over there we took the Eurotunnel and drove through the night. Although most people thought we were crazy, this actually worked really well as we missed ALL the traffic and it was a really good journey (well, as much as sitting still for 12 hours can be good). Fire travelled like a little angel and we didn’t hear a peep out of her. Except on the way back, she seemed to be wide awake about an hour in to the journey. I thought she was chewing her kong, so just smiled and carried on re-watching Scandal’s runs on the video. Turned round to admire my two lovely dogs and the puppy was busy pulling down the insulation in the van NOOOOOO. Naughty puppy. A couple of firm ‘No’s’ and she soon settled down… and then 5 minutes started chewing a hole in the vet bed (to go with the squirrel size hole she put in Scandal’s special Union Jack vet bed).

Pic by Dennis Bay

One of the things that FCI people take very seriously is the 'day tenting'. The competitors are allowed onsite to camp from the Saturday. They are not allowed to put up a day tent before 3pm. The day tents are where many of the competitors spend most of the day, with their dogs in puppy pens or cages. At 3pm there is a big race to get the perfect spot. The pitches are all marked out and pretty much all the tents are the same type. It is definitely good if there is a rain shower, or if you want some shade, as you can still watch the rings. You can probably just about make out the large white gazebos towards the main buildings. These are used as shade for the dogs before they run - a really good idea.

The weather was great. Sometimes it was too hot for me, about 30-31 degrees Celsius and I was melting. It was definitely great preparation for Hungary which can get up to those temperatures too. Luckily there was a river running alongside the sports centre so after each run Scandal got to play in the river (and I managed to fall in on one of the days trying to reach her ball as she didn’t want to get out the water to give it to me). The walks were lovely too - nice and flat and woody/sheltered which was good for the dogs.

We also went to the beach, which was wonderful, apart from the dead jellyfish which I was pretty scared of. There were lots of other people in the water so I assumed the dead jellyfish were harmless, but I was still scared incase one was actually alive and tried to sting me, or the dogs.

When we got there we realised we didn’t have a UK-Euro adapter for the caravan electric hookup. Lars directed us to Bauhaus which is the Danish equivalent of B&Q. They had tons of different adapters so eventually we got the right one and hookup commenced.

We had lovely food from the town, Naestved, including a Thai which I think was one of the best I have had. Fresh strawberries every day. Ice cream – I thought I got Garth a magnum type thing after we had been to the beach (it was pretty dark in the shop) however it was actually aniseed – awful awful – don’t know how they love that stuff so much, it still turns my stomach 7 years after I last went to Denmark and got really ill on it!! We had several BBQs (thanks Bernadette and Dennis) and had also taken enough food in the caravan to last us until the Monday. I love home cooked food in the caravan, so cosy :-) Bernadette and Dennis had recommended the pastries from a shop up the road... then Bernadette offered us one from a box they had... that was it...hooked. I still crave them now :-)  

The rings start at about 7.50am for course walking, and don’t finish until about 5.30pm, with prize giving at 6. Pretty much everyone attends prize giving, and it usually takes about 1-1.5 hours. They have a mini-bar too, and most people are drinking. It’s a very social show, perhaps it’s easier as there are only 3 rings. It was definitely great socialisation for Fire-work, who thought it was great FUN :-)