Fernand Eiffes This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. AgilityNet Magazine

   www.agilitynet.com/magazine/sh - [Cached]

   Published on: 8/7/2000   Last Visited: 12/26/2002

   The Championships will be judged by Fernand Eiffes from Luxemburg and Ritva Herrala from Finland.
   
   Fernand Eiffes visited Finland briefly in June to familiarise himself with the competition grounds and seemed pleased with the arrangements. The 52- year old Eiffes, a Customs Officer, has trained dogs since 1975, protection and guard dogs for 15 years and agility dogs for ten years. His other hobbies include walking, mountain biking, winter sports and swimming.
   
   For ten years Eiffes was the Chairman of Luxemburg's Agility Association which post he left in the beginning of the year. For 25 years he has been a member of Bettemburg Kennel Club and is at present the Chairman and Head Trainer of the Club. He has also competed in the European Protection and Guard Dog Championships seven times but unfortunately did not get placed among the first. In the European Agility Championships 1993 he became second and was the World Agility Champion in 1996 with his Border Collie Quiff of Helenenhof. Eiffes has also had success as a trainer as his charges won the third and sixth places in the Mini Dog Class in 1997.
   
   Fernand Eiffes likes agility as it is such a fun sport. He regrets that the speed of the dogs has become so important as this means that you must have either a Border Collie or Shetland Sheepdog to win a Championship. Where are all the other breeds, he asks. He himself has also an Iceland Sheepdog as it is so rarely seen in Agility fields.
   
   His son Andy, 11, competes with Quiff now and was last year chosen into the World Championship team for Dortmund. Also his wife Maisy is involved in Agility, but mainly for fun which is what this sport should be in the first place, says Fernand Eiffes.
   
   Ritva Herrala has been involved in agility since 1986 when the sport first gained interest in Finland. She has been a judge since 1988 and FCI judge since 1990. She has also trained new judges for the Finnish Kennel Club in 1991,1995 and 1997.
   
   Today Ritva Herrala has three dogs, Black Russian Terrier, Border Collie and Miniature Schnauzer. She first competed in agility with her Airedale Terrier 1989-1990 and came fourth in the 1990 Finnish Agility Championships in Helsinki. She also competed in Working Dog Trials with Airedale Tani.
   
   Between 1989-95 Herrala judged over 48 competitions a year, but has now cut that down to around 24 a year. She has judged at the Finnish agility qualifying trials choosing national teams and at Finnish and Scandinavian Championships. Last September she was invited to Holland and this summer, before the Agility World Championships, she has been invited to judge in Belgium, Slovenia, Denmark, Japan, Czechs, Austria and possibly Italy.
   
   Ritva Herrala is looking forward to an exciting and fun weekend in September Agility World Championships.