The dog that Undressed the World Dog Show hostess in the Main Arena

Photo: Oleg Bochkov

On the Sunday afternoon, when the entertainment in the Main Arena was almost over and the more serious part of the show was about to begin, World Dog Show hostess Lise Lotte Christensen entered the ring, ready to guide the audience through the Group and Best In Show Finals. Suddenly, a small, black and white Border Collie burst into the Arena, jumped up at Lise Lotte from behind and pulled off her beautiful red skirt. She was left standing in nothing but her underwear in front of 1.500 spectators!!! Luckily one of the gentlemen working in the Arena came to her rescue and offered his jacket to cover her up. Lise Lotte chased the dog out of the ring, retrieved the skirt and returned to the Arena fully dressed as the perfect hostess we know her to be.

It all started 6 weeks prior to the World Dog Show with a phone call from Lise Lotte Christensen to the Border Collie’s owner Emmy M. Simonsen, who is known for training her dogs to do amazing tricks and moves in their Dog Dancing routines: ”Hallo – it’s Lise Lotte… I am on my way to a meeting, so I’m a bit busy, but can you teach one of your dogs to pull a skirt off me in the Arena at the WDS?”.”Of course I can” Emmy replied. ”Great, thanks… Talk later…”.

And two weeks later: ”Hi, it’s Lise Lotte again... Sorry I never rang back, but the skirt thing… Do you still have time to teach a dog to do it?”. ”No problem, we are already busy practicing… It’s going well…”

The dog that was trained to undress Lise Lotte Christensen was Border Collie Sheringem Rhythm of Dance – Beat to his friends (Our Dug x Glenalpine Meg) at almost 2 years old. He was bred by Paul Adams of Birmingham, England and comes from a long line of working trial winners. Beat himself competes successfully in Heelwork To Music and Freestyle and was Novice HTM Dog of the Year 2009.

To get a young and inexperienced dog to run independently into an Arena in front of a huge audience and with spotlights and music takes a lot of training. Emmy and Beat allied themselves with their close friend Helle Larssen, who suffered many bruises on her thighs and bottom when Beat accidentally grabbed her flesh instead of the skirt. When Beat was confident pulling the skirt off Helle in known surroundings, they then moved the training to many different environments – indoors, outdoors, busy areas etc.

Then it was time for Lise Lotte to get involved so Beat could get used to the person he was actually going to work with at the WDS. He saw the specially made skirt for the first time on the Wednesday evening - the night before the WDS Opening. Emmy was allowed to keep it during the first 3 days of the show, so Beat and Emmy could go out and practice whenever her busy HTM World Championship schedule would allow.

The training was to be kept secret, so Emmy and Beat met with Lise Lotte every morning in the Arena before the entertainment started. They trained Beat in the environment, where he was going to perform and gradually added light, mikes, noise and all the other things that could disturb him, so he would be prepared for the busy Arena on the Sunday afternoon.

It took six weeks of training and careful preparation all for just a 30 second “surprise” happening at the World Dog Show! But it certainly did not feel like a waste of time. It was a fun challenge for every one involved and there was a lot of laughing during the training sessions. And more importantly, do not underestimate the value of owning a dog that can undress the ladies on command! Emmy has had many enquiries from young men, who want to rent Beat for a day to take him for a walk by the beach… They are hoping the girls will handle it better if Beat pulls the skirts off them rather than if they try to do it themselves… After all, who can get cross when looking down at a happy Border Collie’s lovely brown eyes?

At first Helle just held the skirt up in front of her and let Beat pull it out of her hands.