Finnish Championship Trials for working dogs were held on August 16th -18th 1996 in Kotka, Finland. 118 dogs with their trainers took part in this major event. There were six different trials. See more on these different trials at http://koti.kolumbus.fi/~jorlan/trials.htm. Most of the dogs participating were German Shepherds, but some Giant Schnauzers, Rottweilers, Belgian Shepherds and Dobermans attended.
The only Briard attending was FIN Working CH Zodiac Wizard Locuste, "Locu," who is owned and trained by Tiina and Keijo Tarvainen and bred by Riitta Suuronen. Locu attended in relay, in which he won the Finnish championships last year (1995). Unfortunately, Locu had been ill during the last spring and not many believed in his success this year. After all, he did have a championship to defend!
The trials started well, on the first day Locu attended in obedience, where he scored 87/100. But on the following day searching the items in the forest did not go as well, Locu showed all typical briard jokes, which did not actually please his trainers Keijo and Tiina. The weather was really hot and he only scored 12/30. At this point it seemed that winning again is simply not possible any more, but they all decided to try their best the following day. Relay started at 7 am on Sunday morning and after 8 km (5 miles) of running in a very warm forest (26 degrees Celsius) we had to believe what had happened: Locu had been the fastest in all parts of the relay and scored 159/170. When the total scores were shown we realized that he had won again by a total score of 258/300. He had made the impossible possible and Locu now has two Finnish working dog championships in relay on years 1995 and 1996.
This kind of success is a major event in all breeds, but especially in Briards. We still have only a few Briards competing in working dog trials and Locu is our only working champion and the only Briard in Finland who has a right to attend these championship trials.
Congratulations "Locu," FIN WORKING CH Zodiac Wizard Locuste and Tiina and Keijo.
Below: Locu at the 1996 Finnish Championship Trial.