Norwegian Buhund

Breed Notes 1st June 2018 Margaret Deuchar

NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS

The second spring bank holiday weekend and as you would expect Buhunds and their owners were out and about. Sunday was Pastoral Day at Bath Ch show, no CCs until next year, our judge was Graham Hill who gives CC in 39 breeds across the Hound, Pastoral, Utility and Working groups. There was a massive thunderstorm in the morning with monsoon like rain, but happily by time the breed went in after lunch the sun was out. The society who own the ground have done much over the years to cope with heavy rainfall. Many years ago I showed a Papillion on the Friday in ideal dog showing weather, I did not realise they had had torrential rain on the Saturday, so when I returned on the Sunday, the mud was so bad I carried the dogs to the ring, I had no boots ,so ever since I have always had a small pair of boots in the car just in case ! Now they having tracking round the outside of the ground and in /out rings as near to the benching as possible and I understand they have also worked on the drainage

It proved a day to remember for Neil Hood and Julian Collins with  their  Ch Arnscroft Di Nah Sawr US Rex ShCM  by Ch/Ir Ch Arnscroft Kimura x Ch/Ir Ch Arnscroft Di Nahs Mite ,he was BD BV BOB and PG3 under Jill Peak and shortlisted in a mixed Pastoral & Working Veteran Group under Mrs Lawless. It had been Neil’s Birthday on the Friday before, so a little late birthday present, it was also Millie Lambert’s the weekend before, so I gather there were some joint celebrations at the benches. RBD Jacqui & Michael Cobb & Nancy Kent’s Koromandel Best Served Cold At Knytshall by Am/Can Gr Ch Kynon’s Bold Norseman x Ch MaidofCopper  for Kormandel JW. The bitches were a family affair  with BB going to Millie Lambert’s Sturtmoor Eezee Luvva by Ch Arnscroft Di Na Mo Farrah of Koromandel x Sturtmoor Dream Maker at Gazenorth.RBB was Millie and Mairwen Bailey’s Ch Bernegarden’s Reve Enka Av Sturtmoor (Foxy)(Imp Nor),she is by Can/Nor Ch Vaulartun’s Tomba Kimura x Nor/Swe/Bel Lux Ch Kimura’s Frida  who is Eezee’s grandmother.

Also on the Sunday Maureen Lake took Knytshall Cora Sun Drop of Maubrea(Fern)to her first scent competition .Maureen wrote “Unfortunately the weather was really hot, sticky and muggy  not a good day for rushing around and after starting with high hopes we didn’t do quite as well as we had all hoped.

Our group were the first one to go and we were really chuffed to start, as one of the GSDs took 110 points (130 was the highest you could get).Fern and I ran next and took 109, another GSD 105 a spaniel 103,a retriever 107 and another spaniel 109 the same as Fern, so we were all taking similar points .At lunch time  the GSD was in first position with Fern and the spaniel tied for second. Then it was the turn of other people, who it turned out trained several times a week as they were dog trainers. The first dog had 122 points others with 117,114 nearly all over the 110points.Fern lost 21 points purely down to the fact that she will not return the articles she has to find to hand (she does it perfectly in the garden), in this case she had 3 minutes to find 6 soft toys, she only found 5 the scent is of cat mint. She then had to search 3 seats finishing before her time, then the ground, bags and 3 life size straw men. The scent she was looking for here is gun oil which is hidden in pipettes, each time she located the scent well before her time limit. We think the GSD was 7th with Fern 8th but our trainer will tell us the final scores as it started to rain so we came away. We are all determined to do more competitions and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, we are a young group and now we’ve seen what is required we will have another go. I have already entered her for the second session of UK scenting competition classes which start again on June 8th.” I think they did really well, Maureen has sent me some photos and you can see how Fern loves working.

Monday saw the Obreedience team of Jacqui Cobb with Knytshall Angel Delight R1 Ex, Debbie  Deuchar  with Ch/Bel Ch Tonylynn’s  Charles Lafitte R1 Ex AW(G)(Fizz),Sarah Stonton with Trelowen Andrea AW(S)(Loxy) & Lisa Strong with Loki Snowflake head to the KC building at Stoneleigh, several were also doing Rally. I think it is fair to say it was our worst ever performance, it was the first time that we had not scored any points. In the  practice ring the heel work looked good ,however when the team went into compete they only scored 2 out of 10, although I didn’t think it looked quite that bad. We hoped to pick up marks with the individual exercises, sadly that did not work out either. First to go was Loki with ‘Go To Bed’ as Lisa commanded him a big lorry came round the corner carry sheep that had been auctioned off in the pens below the KC paddocks .Loki decided it needed to be seen off and in spite of the judge giving them a second chance he was having none of it, so nil points. Next was Jacqui and Angel, the exercise was ‘Stop on Command within a Box’. Angel stooped perfectly but part of the exercise is to play with your dog after the stop ,and Angel sees no point in this, so was only awarded 2points, which I thought was very hard. Next it was Loxy who was doing retrieve, something she usually does really but not this time a smell in the corner of the paddock caught her attention, so another nil points. Last was Fizz doing scent, again something he has in the past had full marks for, he had switched off  completely by this time, Debbie had to tell him twice to go and find the article so he wandered down the paddock picked up his cloth and slowly brought it back to Debbie in a good present, but the judge thought that was only worth two point as well. Having said all that we enjoyed the day it was a very friendly show with great atmosphere and it was nice to catch up with everyone, we had two supporters as Lisa’s sister and daughter came along and to lend a hand if needed. We never have a chance to practice between  competitions as I know many teams do, we all live far apart and only two of the dogs are shown, so we can’t even do it then .We are entered at several more competitions so hopefully we will be able to do better .On the Rally front, star of the day was Alysha Branchflower with Knytshall Moon of Josephine R1EX  who did a lovely round and was third  in Rally Level 1 with the EX score 102 out of 110.She has actually won out of level 1 but the entries for this show had already closed.(They are reserves for the Obreedience Team). Fizz with Debbie also did well  in Level 3, the first level off the lead  and the first time he had competed at this Level gaining 194 out of 210, although this did not give him a class place it gave him an Excellent  Certificate, he will  need two more excellent  scores to win into Level 4.

Margaet Deuchar margaretdeuchar@gmail.com

The views expressed in Margaret’s Breed Notes are hers and hers alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Norwegian Buhund Club of the UK