NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS
A few weeks ago I had a lovely e-mail from Maureen Lake who has Fern (Knytshall Cora Sun Drop of Maubrea). She wrote:-‘I went for a lovely long walk across the fields the other day and coming back met a couple with two bouncy young Springer Spaniels with a ball. Now Fern loves a ball so I could see she would be after it. The chap threw it into the long grass, the two Spaniels ran after it but of course Fern was quicker and reached it first so brought it back to the chap, she stopped just out of arms reach sat down and looked at him, he looked to me so I said ‘she does out for nowt, she found it for you so will expect a titbit,’ he laughed and handed over a biscuit whereupon she gave him the ball. Fine, he then threw it for his two again they searched round for it, but of course she found it and again sat waiting for payment. He could not believe how quickly she found it and retrieved it, he said ‘my two have been trained to find and retrieve but she is so quick’. This time he threw it in the direction of his two who rushed after it searching like mad, when she ran past them and found it straight away, he had now paid out three biscuits so he said rather upset ‘but my two have been properly trained’, so I laughed and said ‘yes, so has she and she is very good at it’ which he acknowledged that she knocked spots off his two. She does this at home too if one of us drops something i.e. hankie, pen, if she finds it she will bring it to you and sit there just out of reach, she won’t let you have it without doing a swap for it, she sits there with the item between her paws tail wiggling about and excitement all over her face, so you have to join in with the game and go to the cupboard for a little titbit to swap for whatever it is she has found, where this mercenary streak has come from I don’t know! This has been my one disappointment that having passed and being awarded her certificate for her first search test, I had to stop due to my hip operation, as she was so quick and good at it. We still do ‘searches’ for her at home so keep her up to scratch but that was so funny she really showed off her skill’.
Thanks Maureen lucky the chap biscuits for the trade otherwise you might have come home with an extra ball!
I also heard from Lisa Strong who wrote :- ‘A few weeks ago, I was contacted by some people who were thinking of adding a Buhund to their family at some point, one of them had met some Buhunds in the Discover Dogs section at Crufts this year, but wanted to meet more and the other person had never met a Buhund but wanted to meet some before deciding. I said I would be happy to meet up with them so they could meet my 2 and offered to see if other Buhunds could come along, whilst at the same time ensuring we kept to the rule of 6 humans and we could maintain social distancing. Lillian Rumsey offered to bring her Anja (Ch Arnscroft Di Na May) and Darcy(Kata Syndattir Av Fjeldvidda Imp NLD) along with Sarah who said she would bring Loxy (Trelowen Andrea AWS) and Jack (Ch Arnscroft In Di Ana Jack RL1 ex) along so that made 6 Buhunds. The people who had contacted me were delighted and asked if they could bring their young Lundehund and of course I readily agreed. We met up at Hinchingbrooke Park in Huntingdon as its paths cope quite well with all the recent wet weather, so there were 5 humans, 6 Buhunds and 1 Lundehund. On meeting up, my Eris (Leggatts Dancing Queen At Draccus) promptly ran up to the potential Buhund owners to say Hi with encouragement from them put paws on them and gave them kisses. The other Buhunds then all came up to say Hi too and the Lundehund was introduced. He quickly overcame his shyness and become part of the ‘pack’ (all the Buhunds know each other quite well) so we set off on our walk. We let the dogs off lead, we ended up at the ‘swimming’ spot where most of the Buhunds went for a paddle or swim, my Loki (Loki Snowflake) being the exception. Anja and Loxy demonstrated their skill for swimming out to retrieve sticks that were thrown, and the Lundehund then tried to steal the sticks and run round with them. Once the dogs seemed tired, we all headed back to the carpark to rub the dogs down and load them up for our journey home, I think a good time was had by all.’ Thanks Lisa sounds as if it was a lovely walk and great that the two people could met a number of Buhunds, including a Black.
Remember Bonfire night is fast approaching so make sure you are prepared if your dog reacts badly to fireworks.
Also, I heard of a dog that reacted very badly to a new diffuser the owner was using, apparently the vets are seeing more cases of dogs reacting as the popularity of essential oils is growing, so just check that if you have a new one it is safe.
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.