NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS
These notes are your notes and without your imput they would often be much shorter or even no notes at all, so I was very pleased to hear from Lisa about a show she attended on April 10th.
‘On a frosty but sunny morning I loaded up the car with dog crates, my show kit and dog and set off for Crystal Palace show which is held in Ardingly. The traffic was light, so I arrived in good time and shortly after pulling into the car park I saw fellow Buhund owners Marie and Adam arrive with their dog Bergen. We collected our catalogues from the entrance to the showground and picked up the information leaflet telling us what would be in each ring and what the not before times were (so helpful!!). Peeking inside the building it was quite busy, and the floor was sandy so as it was a gorgeous sunny day and the grass was dry, we decided to set up Buhund Camp outside. We were joined by another set of Buhund owners, so we ended up with Kligenthal Almuric (Bergen), Leggatts Dancing Queen at Draccus (Eris) and one of Eris’s sons Draccus Azurite (Odin) with 2 being wheaten and one being black. Draccus Azurite was to go in AV puppy stakes and AVNSC Pastoral puppy and the two older Buhunds in AV Open stakes and AVNSC Pastoral Open. Once set up and hot drinks acquired the progress of the rings was checked out. At this show stakes were running alongside the breed classes, and it soon became apparent that the puppy stakes would be first. I agreed to take Odin in the ring so the owners could see what you must do when you show but we had no luck in the class. As we watched the progress of the ring that the AVNSC classes were to go in, we realised that the Open stakes class and the AVNSC Pastoral classes were going to clash! oh well off to AVNSC ring we went. This time owner Jamie Cunningham took Odin into the ring, and they got second place, a fantastic result for them both as they are new to the show ring. Shortly afterwards it was time for the open class with Bergen gaining first place and Eris coming second (go Buhunds!). In the Challenge Bergen got Reserve Best of Breed and Marie was informed there was a Reserve Best of Breed stakes. We headed back to camp for some food and to let the Buhunds have a snooze whilst we chatted and waited for the stakes class….and it was worth us waiting for it as Marie and Bergen only went and got Third place!! A good day out for all’. Thanks Lisa you all certainly kept the Buhund flag flying.
Those of you who read these notes regularly will know that I train and compete with Time doing Scentwork UK trials, based on the detection work carried out by custom and excise, bomb disposal, search and rescue and medical detection dogs. It is becoming very popular as you do not need a large area for training nor do you need a lot of equipment, and it can be done with any type of dog, large or small young or old. I actually started it with Kiki when he went blind (not breed related), as it was something he really enjoyed doing. With Scentwork UK the first 4 levels of trials include Boxes and Luggage, Outside of Cars, Outside Items and Tables and Chairs. There are two other organisations that do scent training, Ace Tails, and the National Nosework Assocaition. These two organisations use the same small hides impregnated with the same scent, and although they do have indoor lessons, they tend to use more challenging environments right for the start. A few weeks ago, Time and I went to one of these environmental searches on a heritage Railway, just a few days before it opened to public after the winter shut down. On the first search we had three hides on a very long platform, he found all three. We then had two more hides on another platform and waiting room, one was in the awaiting room and one on the platform, again he was successful. We then had a railway carriage to search one hide being under a seat and another in the driver’s compartment. The one search where he struggled a bit with was the steam engine, he found one hide easily, but we had to help him find the second one as it was higher up on the engine. For the last two searches one hide was in the office where it was in the corner of the door, and another on a different platform where it was under a flowerpot, which Time rather unceremoniously turned over to find the hide (luckily it had not been planted up). The dogs amaze me being able to find a 3cm x 3cm piece of material hidden in these large areas, it was a lovely sunny day but even so there was wind moving the scent around all the time. The dogs had a rest between each search as they do find it tiring, but they all seemed to really enjoy it, I think Time is beginning to think it was invented for him, as he gets rather excited when he knows he is going to do searches!
Stay safe everyone,
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