The time had come for the yearly IHF Tracking Dog World Championship 2007. This year the Swedish Hovawart Club organized and hosted the championship. Having gathered and lodged nearby the night before, the competitors arrived Saturday morning at the meeting-place near Ystad out on the competition area at half past nine. In the line-up there were finally three competitors from Austria, one from Germany, one from the Czech Republic and five from Sweden. After drawing of lots to determine the starting order and the character test it was time for the first start on day one of this two-day event, out on the windy field just above the coastline.

During the day it soon appeared that the conditions were tough, and not many of the ten competitors got to follow out the complete track. The judges stopped one competitor after the other, despite intense work of the dogs but unfortunately not accurate enough due to the strict demands in this event. A sketch of each track gave the crowd a possibility to follow the tracking from a distance and made it quite exciting to see.

With two starts at the same time every fiftieth minute and box lunch, the first day of competition ended around three o’clock. The weather had now turned sunny just as the mood of the competitors and the responsible organizer. Though not many points had been scored, the dogs had shown good tracking abilities and there were still every hope for the following day.

After the first day of competition Roland Bereuter from Austria was in the lead with 96 points, followed by Miroslav Pospisil from the Czech Republic with 93 points, Hubert Kiefer from Germany with 37 points, and the rest of the competitors none with more then 15 points, but still there was one more day to go.

Sunday morning the surroundings at the competition area of this day was completely shrouded in fog, but after clearing it turned out to be a beautiful day. After the same routines as the morning before the competitors went out on the competition area on the fields of “Tosterups Gård”, and at ten o’clock it was time for the first start. This day the trackers were rewarded for their work. Most of the competitors got to follow through this day and only three of them got stopped early on the track.

However not much could be done to challenge the top three from the first day who scored well this day as well, but this day it was a good game and seven of the competitors got more than 70 points. Roland Bereuter ended up with a total score of 191 points, Miroslav Pospisil with 181 points, Hupert Kiefer with 133 points, four of the Swedes with 88, 87, 86 and 74 points, while the rest of the competitors unfortunately were rewarded with just a few points.

See you in Austria next year!