Norwegian Buhund

Breed Notes 10th September 2021 Margaret Deuchar

NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS

Driffield Ch show held on Wetherby Racecourse no longer schedules classes for the breed. The show itself was held at Doncaster racecourse for 30 yrs. moving in 2006 to Wetherby due to building works being carried out at Doncaster. The committee chose Wetherby as they felt there was easy access to venue, and had facilities for cars to be parked behind the benching marquees, the rings were originally in the centre but latterly there were the in/ out rings by the benches, this year of course there were no benches but Gazebos were allowed. Luckily the weather was dry if rather windy and cold, there were small gazebos over the judging table but there were no wet weather rings if the weather had turned, it was lucky it was dry as in the past the show has suffered from wet and windy weather and being in the middle of the racecourse the area is very much open to the elements. When the show was at Doncaster some of the racecourse buildings were used for rings so it was not nearly so vulnerable to the weather, but it is only 1mile from the town centre so access was perhaps not quite so easy as Wetherby.

The breed had CCs at Driffield from 2007 but Pastoral day was always Thursday and we always seemed to be first in so the entry was never very good, although funnily enough we often had the best of the weather, with it going downhill the following days. Then from 2019 the KC added six All Breed Ch shows to the four that that already had CCs for every breed, some breeds had extra sets of CCs but because we never have a very high entry, they just moved the Driffield set to Darlington which was one of the new all-breed shows, so not surprisingly Driffield did not schedule us anymore.

However, the breed did have a representative this year Anne Smith took her Ch Arnscroft Never Say by Ch/AKC Ch Visions Dino of Trollheimen (ImpUS) x Arnscroft Di Sing on Ice, he certainly kept the Buhund flag flying by being BD AVNSC under Darren Clarke.

Those of you who read my notes regularly know that I like to write about things Buhund owners do as well as commenting on shows.

I am very grateful to Lisa Strong for writing her about her first-time stewarding.

‘As my Eris had puppies a couple of months ago, I currently don’t have a dog at home to show so I thought that now would be a good time to learn how to do Stewarding and volunteer to help out at some shows, with a view to being able to help out at shows in future if they were short of stewards and potentially starting judging training.

Neil Hood was Chief Steward for the Horley Dog show this year at Ardingly and he offered to put me with an experienced Steward, if I went along to the Show and I happily accepted his offer. As the weather had been very variable, I put waterproofs, wellies, towels, change of shoes, water and sunscreen in the car plus various layers of clothes and set off. On arrival it was chilly so I put a fleece on and went off to find the Chief Steward’s Tent. I was welcomed, given a steward’s rosette and sent off for a hot brew to start the day. I was then introduced to the steward I was helping for the day, a lovely lady called Jane. We were assigned to ring 2 and there were to be Hound classes in the ring with three changes of judge so off we went with our box of class packs in tow. Jane first of all had us walk around the ring in order to ensure that there was nothing like plastic, string, paper, glass etc in the grass that could hurt or distract the dogs when they were in the ring, plus check there were no deep holes in the ground that people and dogs could hurt legs in. Once we were happy that all was well, we set up the judge/steward table and the table for the dogs, learning that you needed to position things so people and dogs didn’t get blinded by the sun. We then checked the running order for our ring and made sure our breed folders were in the correct order and prepared the rosettes and cards for the first breed, Jane then explained about checking the ages on the entries to see if any puppies had been entered in classes other than puppy, as this would need to be noted for the Best Puppy rosette. Our first judge arrived and Jane checked the set-up of the ring with the judge and found out how the judge liked the results to be recorded. Jane and I were to alternate between recording the presence/absence of entries and the results and the calling of the classes, the lining up of the exhibitors, giving of the cards/rosettes and calling out the winners. The show was announced open and off out into the ring I went to call the first class!!

As the classes progressed it warmed up and the sun came out so off came the fleece and a breeze came up at times so the cards and rosettes started to get blown about, thankfully Jane had some items in her stewards’ bag to weigh things down. I learnt about putting dogs that had been seen by the judge in a previous class to the end of a line up and letting the judge know which ones had been seen and how to line up dogs in a challenge as well as when to gather the results strips from the judge and take them to the Chief steward. As we set up for each breed, we double checked the cards and rosettes which proved useful as in one pack we were a rosette short and in another we didn’t have a Best of Breed but instead 2 reserves. As we had 3 changes of judge, I saw how different judges like to run things. Before I knew it, it was 2pm and the judging in the ring was complete, so I was sent off for lunch and realised I was starving. On a trip to the ladies, I looked in the mirror and

realised I was a little pink. oops!! so it was off to find some more sunscreen’.

Thanks Lisa shows are always asking for stewards so I am sure it will not be long before you will be the experienced steward.

There were no Buhund classes at Horley but with Neil as Chief Steward, Lisa stewarding and Di Butler (Telstar)judging the Reserve BOB competition members were certainly well represented.

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