Norwegian Buhund

Breed Notes 27th April 2018 Margaret Deuchar

NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS

Last weekend was a very busy one for Buhunds and their owners, Saturday was Working & Pastoral Breeds of Wales Ch show at Builth Wells, with no CCs there was a small but quality entry. The judge was Mrs E P Hollings who gives CCs in 17gundog breeds 10 Terrier 5 Utility 2 Hound 1Toy & 3 Pastoral. She found her BB & BOB in Millie Lambert’s Sturtmoor Eezee Luvva she was Top puppy in breed last year and has 2 RCCs.RBB & BP at her first show Kerry & Fritz Frost, Addrienne Frost Treadwell & Jacqui Walmsley’s Trelowen Amelia At Frostisen. BD Anne Smith’s Ch Arnscroft Never Say Di RBD Brenda and Tony Bethell’s Zodiac’s Featuring At Taevas Of  Minforst (Imp USA).The rings at Builth  are inside and on concrete which is always hard on dogs and handlers alike. Chairman Anne Smith said it was a really happy day with plenty of time to chat as judging did not start till 2pm. Pat Williams who lives locally and is a great supporter of the breed came to watch and catch up with everyone.

Sunday 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. Lisa was very brave as she has a broken foot and torn ligaments, she did it a few weeks ago but it was missed when she went to A&E and was only picked up on a recent visit to the GP, she is now wearing the boot used when there are breaks in the foot, but these are not easy to walk in. The competition was outside and with the recent wet weather practice outside had not been possible, there had also obviously been a number of rabbits on the field so concentration of the dogs was somewhat lacking, but we picked up 1 point.

There was also a Rally competition and all the dogs apart from Loxy were entered in one level or another. I think we have persuaded Sarah that both of hers could easily do it. If the dog will sit, lie and walk to heel and do a short recall it can do rally, certainly the first two levels which are on the lead. In a Morecombe and Wise show  Eric Morecombe once said when he was playing the piano, he was playing with the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order. With Rally, there are signs telling you what the dog should do but the dogs are not always co-operative in doing things in the way the signs say, Fizz has an aversion of going from down to a stand. You start with a score of 200 and lose marks for mistakes, but you can do a bonus which is worth 10 so you can make marks up this way. Although there are 6 placings, on the whole you compete against yourself.190 or above give you an excellent score and you need 3 of these to progress to the next level, between 175-190 gives you a score but you then need 6 scores to progress. If you have too tight a lead or miss too many positions you do not have a score at all. It is timed so in if there is tie for the top places then the fastest will have the higher place. As well as the team Alysha Blanchfower was there with Knytshall Moon of Josephine who is black, they are reserve for the team and were doing level 1 and gained an excellent as did Fizz in level 2, Angel had a score in level 2. It was also lovely to see Bev Hall with Ailort Just the Ticket RL2 Ex (Jay), he had already gained his level 2 Ex title but after the entries for this competition closed, so was still in level 2 and gained another score as did Bevs Groenendael Ch A Inspyre AW(P) RL1Ex, he had an excellent so is now goes into Level 3 with Jay. Debbie decided to have a go in level 1 with her Cavronscourt Magic Jade and Merrywood Essien AW(G)(Asti)  both Pyrenenean Sheepdogs with whom she normally does agility. Asti pulled out all the stops, not only having an excellent score but was also 4th in the class. Magic on the other hand really enjoyed himself but did not get things in quite the right order!  It was a lovely day and great to have 7 Buhunds competing and we are certainly making people notice the breed. One lady from another team came up and said she did not know about Buhunds till we started competing in Obreedience, she was fascinated as she did not know they came in black until she met Josephine. Obviously we want to do well but getting the breed better known has also been the aim.

Margaret 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