Norwegian Buhund

Breed Notes 6th April 2018 Margaret Deuchar

NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS

EASTER was early this year and depending where you live, it either rained or snowed. This of course did not

put Buhund owners off flying the flag. On Saturday Jacqui Walmsley took her Blakk Extacy Van Koekie’s Ranch (Imp Ned) Moley to his friends,to Bristol and District Dog Club show held at Hutton Moo Leisure Centre Weston Super  Mare. Judge Val Dyer awarded him BOB and Celia Vines PG4. Jacqui said he enjoyed his day out away from Jacqui’s Bu puppy Bunny, who will be out and about at shows fairly soon.

Further north also on Saturday Bev Hall took her Ailort Just the Ticket(Jay)to WATS Rally show, where he gained his 3rd excellent qualifier in Level 2 giving him his RL2 Ex title. Bev said she also worked him in level 3 which is off lead and he amazed her by coming 2nd, Bev said she is really enjoying doing Rally.

On Bank Holiday Monday Sue Crocker with Knytsha Noor Ul Ain and Alysha Branchflower with Knytshall  Moon of Josephine (Noor’s litter sister) went to Half Moon Agility show held at the Half Moon Stud Motcombe, Shaftesbury. It was the first time Alysha had taken Josephine to an agility show and she was really thrilled with her and is looking forward to the next one. It is lovely that we now have a number of Buhunds out there doing Agility & Rally, flying the flag and getting the breed better known.

On the previous Tuesday, Debbie & partner Richard headed off with their six dogs and Fizz for a holiday and to attend a 3 day agility show, on the Royal Cornwall show ground, having first checked that the show was likely to go ahead. In the end they probably had the best of the weather, although they had rain overnight the ground stood up very well, helped probably by the fact that it is a permanent show ground with hard roadways. Fizz only did ‘All Sorts’ classes, one a day in which he had a clear round each time. He has not done agility all winter so we wanted to start slowly and these classes are for young dogs and older dogs, any grade dog can enter them but they can’t enter graded classes at the same show. Classes start with Grade 1 and work up to Grade 7 when you can also do Championship classes. You have to win out of each grade to go up the grades and the courses also get harder as you progress. To be an Agility Champion must be one of the hardest to gain. First of all as I have said you have to be Grade 7, then there are Ch classes, one jumping class then an agility class (with contacts such as the see saw), the scores for these classes are added together and the top dogs allowed to go forward to the final class which is always agility. You cannot have either time faults or jumping faults to win a CC and not all shows have championship classes, and as in breed you need 3CCs under 3 different judges.

Across the pond at Albany Show Mr Harold Pybus awarded G4 to Amie McLaughlin Joy Arney Fowler & Di Stirling’s GCH Arnscroft Be A Sailor’s Son Di. Amie of course is best known for her ‘Binna’ who was the first Ch Buhund in the US and who is now semi retired having had a spectacular show career.

Recently I was watching a programme on Leeds Castle; they have a collection of over 100 dog collars. The ones from the 16th century, were very heavy and covered in spikes, not to hurt the dogs but to protect them. In those days they were mostly large hunting dogs often owned by the Lord of the Manor, so the collars were to protect them from wild boar and other aggressive animals they might hunt. In the 17th century the collars although still made for the larger dogs were often made of precious metal and more decorative. Then those of the 18th century were even more decorative as the dogs became more part of the family. These often had the owners name on them and were locked with a padlock so the ownership of the dog could be proved, rather like our micro chipping!!

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