The Kennel Club Good Citizen Dog Scheme
Congratulations to Roz Davies and Antar – Skaringen’s Isinglass VIII Con Redanimo (Imp Nor) on passing the Kennel Club Good Citizen Bronze Award, at City of Birmingham.
Well done Antar!

#CWS2026 – Looking Back 🇩🇰🐾
Dr Anne Spielhofen, has kindly provided the following report from the Curly World Seminar 2026, Denmark.

And just like that, something we had been looking forward to for years is already over – leaving us with a huge collection of wonderful memories.
This was our very first Curly World Seminar – or, as I affectionately call it, the Curly Olympics, since it only happens every four years – but it most certainly won’t be our last. Especially now that we know CWS 2030 will be held in the UK… 🇬🇧 I may already be slightly excited. Just slightly.

Where do I even begin?
From start to finish, CWS 2026 was organised to perfection, with so much thought, love and dedication. It was a truly international get-together of Curly enthusiasts: the parade with the flags of all participating countries, Curlies everywhere you looked, smiling faces, a magnificent CWS 2026 cake, the wonderfully warm and welcoming organising team… I could go on and on. Even the weather gods were on our side – well, until Friday – and the grounds were perfect for everything that had been planned.
I had entered Bibi and Cerby for almost everything I could, very much following the Olympic spirit of “It’s the taking part that counts.”

Monday – Qualifying Obedience Test
Monday lunchtime was our first challenge: the Qualifying Obedience Test, which Cerby needs in order to compete in Working Tests in Denmark.
My cunning plan had been to watch a few other dogs first and see exactly how it all worked.
Excellent plan….. Except Cerby had starting number 1.

I had entered Bibi hors concours, mainly because I wanted to see how she would react to the gunshot. She would originally have been number 5, but the two judges spontaneously changed the running order – entirely for Bibi’s benefit – and asked us to go first so she wouldn’t become worried by hearing the shots while waiting.
Wow….. And this, by the way, was one of the things that impressed me most throughout the entire CWS: whenever a decision had to be made, it was made for the dog and its welfare – not for the handler. Exactly as it should be.
So I suddenly swapped Cerby for Bibi, which Cerby found mildly surprising, and off we went.

It was the first test I had ever done with Bibi and, well… it could have been considerably worse.
Her results:
Leash walking: 10/10
Sending back: 0/10
Heelwork off lead: 5/10
Stay & recall: 9/10
Marking & retrieving: 0/10
Total: 24/50

Which, translated from numbers into Bibiana, roughly means:
Leash walking: 10/10. “Obviously I know how to behave.”
Stay & recall: 9/10. “I do hear what you’re saying.”
Sending back: 0/10. “No.”
Marking & retrieving: 0/10. “Also no.” 😂

The final part involved the gunshot and should normally have been done with the dog off lead at heel. I had agreed with the judges beforehand that I would keep Bibi on the lead – which meant zero points for that part, but frankly I couldn’t have cared less. I only wanted to know how she would react.
And what did she do? She sat there completely relaxed, briefly looked to the right as if to say, “Excuse me, who is making that noise?” – and did absolutely nothing.
The shots fired later for all the other dogs? Zero interest. Nada. Nothing. Mission accomplished. ❤️

And Cerby? Well… Cerby did Cerby.
Leash walking: 8/10
Sending back: 10/10
Heelwork off lead: 7/10
Stay & recall: 10/10
Marking & retrieving: 10/10
Total: 45/50 – passed.

In other words, the young working gentleman dropped a few points on the boring civilised stuff – but when it came to the actual retriever business, he went: “Right. Finally. Something worth doing.”  Full marks for sending back, stay & recall, and marking & retrieving.

So between the two of them, the division of labour was beautifully clear:
Bibi: “I can behave. I simply choose not to retrieve.”
Cerby: “Just tell me what you want me to fetch.”

Tuesday – our first Working Test
Tuesday brought the event I had probably been looking forward to most: our very first Working Test in the Beginner class.
There were six tasks, grouped into three parts – and Cerby’s scores tell the story rather nicely:
Part 1: 8 + 5
Part 2: 16 + 10
Part 3: 16 + 0

He improved enormously from the first to the second part, and after the longer waiting period – Cerby’s personal nemesis – he came back into Part 3 with another very nice 16 points. And then… zero. A completely unnecessary, deeply annoying, “Cerby, seriously?!” kind of zero. 😂
And because a zero means you cannot pass the Working Test, that was that.

Was I annoyed about that zero? Absolutely.
Was I disappointed with Cerby? Not for a second.

For his very first Working Test ever, I was more than happy with him. He had scored 16/20 twice, had improved considerably as the day went on, and had given me a very good idea of what is already there – and what we still need to work on. The potential is there. Now we just need to get rid of the occasional Cerby-shaped hole in the score sheet.

Wednesday – the Show
Around 96 Curlies were judged in the different classes today, and luckily Cerby had an early start in Open Class, judged by Curly icon Hannie Warendorf. Since showing is definitely not my forte, I feel incredibly honoured and lucky that Cerby was presented by an absolute expert: Nina Parker- Miles. Nina showed him beautifully and with such professionalism – a level I’ll probably never reach. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to watch them in the ring as I had to hide behind the tents so Cerby wouldn’t spot me. He finished with a very respectable 3rd place, graded “Very Good”, and received a lovely critique from Hannie.
The level of competition today was certainly very different from what we’ve encountered at his previous shows, and Selina also received some very positive feedback about Cerby from people watching ringside, which was lovely to hear. And again, at just two years old, he’s still considered very young for a Curly – so there’s plenty more to come.
My deepest thanks to the organisers of #CWS2026 for providing such fantastic grounds, of course to Nina for showing Cerby so beautifully, and to Hannie for her fair and thoughtful judging. And last but certainly not least, thank you to Selina for my lovely boy. I’m beyond grateful and couldn’t be happier with him.

Thursday – Danish Retriever Club Test
Thursday was the Danish Retriever Club test, and Cerby certainly didn’t disappoint me. The judge awarded him an “Excellent” and specifically pointed out that, when it was his turn, he was the first Curly who had shown absolutely no interest in the numerous cow pats scattered around the field. My response – “Well, of course not. I feed him before I bring him here.” – at least made her laugh.
But jokes aside, this test showed me once again what I like so much about working with Cerby. He is calm, thoughtful and increasingly confident in the way he approaches a task. And every now and then I get a glimpse of the dog he is going to be when all the pieces have come together.
He is simply enormous fun to work with.
Something several people mentioned to me after both Tuesday’s Working Test and Thursday’s test made me particularly happy: they felt that Cerby and I work very well together as a team, that he is very biddable, and that when he looks to me for help, he accepts my guidance immediately – even though we haven’t explicitly trained much of that yet. That probably meant more to me than any score could have done.

Friday – Harald & Bibi’s turn
Friday was supposed to be the big fun day…. Supposed to be. The weather gods, who had behaved impeccably all week, apparently decided we had become complacent. 🌧️😂
But at least Harald and Bibi managed to celebrate a very special premiere: their first ever competition together, in Rally Obedience. You need 70 points for a qualifying score, while 100 points puts you into champion territory. Anything approaching 70 for a complete beginner is something to be very pleased with. And the two of them walked out of that ring with 64 points – and received a prize at the evening awards ceremony.
I was ridiculously happy for both of them. But there was something even better than the score. Ever since then, I have noticed that something has changed between Harald and Bibi. He never quite understood what I meant when I told him that working together with your dog changes your relationship – that solving things together turns the two of you into a team. I think he understands now. ❤️ And that, for me, may have been one of the loveliest moments of the whole week.

And finally…
One of the greatest joys of CWS 2026 had nothing to do with points, placements or tests. It was finally putting real faces to people I had known through Facebook for years; meeting people whose names I had heard again and again; catching up, talking Curlies for hours – and making many wonderful new connections along the way. That is probably what the Curly World Seminar is really about. The dogs bring us there. The people make us want to come back.
So now there are four years of waiting – and four years of looking forward to the next one. And somehow, knowing that the next Curly Olympics will take place in the motherland of our wonderful breed makes that wait just a little bit more exciting. 🇬🇧❤️
To the entire Danish team behind CWS 2026 (Ole Buhl-Westermann, Anja Buhl-Westermann , Susanne Landergren Due):
THANK YOU 🙏🏼🫶🏼🙏🏼🫶🏼🙏🏼🫶🏼
For your warmth, your hard work, your hospitality, your humour, and for creating something truly special. You gave all of us a week full of Curlies, laughter, friendship, challenges and memories.
See you in the UK in 2030. 🇬🇧🐾
And yes… we’ll be back. 😁