NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS
Many in the breed will either know Roger Thomas personally or know his name, he is a past President of the club and together with his wife Madeleine, they successfully bred and showed Buhunds along with Norwich and Norfolk Terriers and both sizes of German Spitz with the Squirreldene affix. They moved to the Isle of Man in the late 80’s, and after judging German Spitz Mittel and Klein at Cruts 2020,Roger announced his retirement from the ring after 40 yrs. Very sadly Madeleine died in September 2022, and now Roger has decided to return to England. He has kept in touch and over the years has sent me articles of interest. Recently he emailed me to say he had been going through loads of Buhund stuff collected over the years prior to moving back to England and had found an article on the Buhund taken out of Hundesport. It was taken from a book, published in Norway, which Roger said had been translated by a friend into English and was sent to him in April 1999.I have reproduced the article as it was translated and sent to Roger.
“The Buhund has had good results in agility and obedience. The Lapps in Scandinavia use the Buhund to guard and herd Reindeer. Buhunds are also used to hunt Elk and blood tracking In England they have stated to use Buhunds as a drug -dog in custom. The Buhund is a bit under a middle-sized big dog, quadratic dog with watchful and frank expression, with pointed ears. The tail is carried tight rolled over the back. The dog is supposed to have a bold, fearless, energetic, and kind temper. It is wise, willing to learn and friendly, a bit curious, but very sympathetic. Jon Saeland, the pioneer of in the Norwegian Buhund, worked early in the 1920’s with the developing of a Norwegian Shepherd dog. The Norwegian Kennel Club advised him to seek for a good Buhund for a good starting point for his aim. In 1929 The NKC approved the first standard for the Norwegian Buhund after being proposed from Jon Saeland and NKC’s own expert Carl Omstad. When the breed was introduced to the public for the first time through dog shows in the 1920’s, they were met with great interest and enthusiasm. City-people were impressed by the many valuable qualities this breed had, and it was rather quickly taken into use as a family dog also in the cities. As a result of the good Buhund-work the Norwegian Buhund Club was founded in 1939. The Buhund Club’s work expanded quickly in the start despite of the 2nd World War. On the club-show in 1945 in Trondheim there were 135 entries. In the years to come the activity level has been various, from very active to almost nothing. In the last few years one can with great satisfaction see that the work again is in progress. Breeders have been clever to aim for better breeding and dog keeping. This year the Buhund club celebrates its 60 years Anniversary and will be seen properly. We will make the Buhund visible to the whole Norwegian dog people in most possible situations. When the Norwegian Kennel Club had their 100 yr Anniversary Show in Hamar their last dog show that year in November. The 60 year Anniversary got off to a flying start at the same show. On both days the NKC arranged a breed parade in the big ring. Gunn Berit Ween wore a National costume and handled two black and one wheaten Buhund .Throughout the whole show the Buhund Club had their own stand where people could come and have dog talk , with information about the Buhund.On Sunday the last day, secretly they gathered 10 Buhunds to use in the Junior Handler competition It was a wonderful sight, while the competition went on the speaker held a presentation of the breed that every Buhund owner could only dream about.”
As I was writing about the show, I realised I was there! I went with the late Elisabeth Coleopy (Fullani) the late Margaret Harper (Ravenstone Elkhounds) and Elisabeth’s daughter Treena Maun who now has the very successful kennel of Bowerhinton Elkhounds. We landed at Oslo airport found the car we had hired and drove up to Hamar, with Treena and I sharing the driving. It was very cold minus 17F and when we arrived, we had to plug our car in to keep it warm, rather like you do now with an electric car! We stayed in a lovely hotel near the show venue where the judges were staying, which was nice as there were a couple of judges from the UK that we could talk to. The Christmas decorations were up making it very special with the snowy conditions outside, although it was so cold you had to make sure your face was covered when venturing out. The show was in the Viking Ship sports arena which has the lines of an upturned Viking Ship and was used as the skating venue during the 1994 Winter Olympics. Outside the venue is a large metal structure depicting crossed skis and it had very long icicles hanging from it. We knew it was the 100 Anniversary show of the NKC and a special show for the Buhund club which is why we went. I have photos of the fantastic parade of Buhunds with owners in National Costume, one of them as you will have read from the above article was Gunn Berit Ween who has been a member of the Buhund Forum for some years. I remember being very impressed with the Black Buhunds as there was no frosting on them at all whatever their age, whether they only choose ones with no frosting, we will never know. I was also very impressed with the obedience competition, a very high standard from all the breeds taking part, some of the exercises were quite different from those in our obedience competition, as the competitor entered the ring, they were handed a piece of paper telling them what they would have to do, so the dogs had to be well prepared for any eventuality. We had two very enjoyable days at the show, with some great memories, sadly for Margaret and Treena there were not than many Elkhounds as they are often only shown to get their breed qualification to become a full Champion, as really, they are more interested in hunting, but for Elizabeth and me it was wonderful to see so many Buhunds in their homeland. This year it is the 125 Anniversary of the NKC, and they had their show outside in July. I love to watch skating and when the skating was coming from Hamar in 1994, we had a puppy Elkhound and I was looking for a pet name for him, so Ch /Ir Ch Fullani Silent Thought was aka Hamar!
Back to the present day in the UK the Working & Pastoral Breeds Association of Scotland was held on Saturday the 4th of November, it was an unbenched show held in the Lowland Hall on the Royal Highland Showground, Ingliston, Edinburgh. The Buhunds were first in the ring at 9am with judge Murray Armstrong, he found his BD & BOB in Jenny Shorer-Wheeler’s Ch Koromandel Tusen Takk JW (Muchly) By Multi Ch Trollheimens JR Made For Cascillius x Strutmoor Ffascination With Koromandel .BB & BOS Jenny’s Ch Maidofcopper For Koromandel JW (Imp Fin) (Piika) by Swe/Nor Ch Gnipagrottens Qu x Multi Ch Cipacan Mila Magia. Later Muchly won the Printing Scotland Pastoral Champion Stakes under Kevin Young winning folding money. Not to be left out Piika was third in the Pastoral Veteran stakes also under Kevin Young, winning some treat money.
I finish with the sad news that the club’s Patron Shirley Dobson who is 90 is very poorly in hospital, I know we all wish her well.
Stay safe everyone.
Margaret Deuchar margaretdeuchar@gmail.com
Any 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