NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS
I know I am not the only who did some sorting out during the first lockdown, when I went back to work I stopped sorting, but recently I have been looking through some of the articles on Buhunds that I had found during those first lockdown weeks. One of them was an article written by Chris Chapman in ‘Our Dogs’ when the club was celebrating its 40th Anniversary. Many of you will know Chris, as she has given tickets in the breed 15 times, the first was at Welks in 1984 and the last time at E of E in 2016. Chris bred and showed Buhunds with the Bukris affix. Her foundation dog was Ch Adoram Wouer (Storm)who gained his title at Crufts in 1980, and her foundation bitch Adoram Snow Bird. Sadly, Chris lost her last Buhund Trelowen Benyga in June this year. His pet name was Wolf as he was a very smart Wolf Sable. Chris has kindly agreed for me to reproduce the article which she wrote 2007: –
“I first became aware of Buhunds in the early 70’s when I was looking for a smaller breed than my GSD’s. I still wanted a ‘proper’ dog but not of the same size. I went to a Buhund Club show and was taken by the breed, a few months later I went down to see Michael Quinney’s dogs in Cambridge and was immediately impressed with this lively friendly and loveable breed. Michael had two litters at that time, and ‘I’ was chosen by a black masked wheaten puppy in one of these. Three weeks later I went back to West Lodge to collect ‘Storm’ or Adoram Wouer as he was officially known and brought him home. I had no intention of showing at that time as my main interest had always been the working side of dogs, but an enquiry for a local training club sent to a show training club instead of a working one, and there I met some nice people some of whom I am still friends with to this day. I had to put up with many people asking what my dog was, usually a GSD crossed with what? was the question, so I got used to explaining what a Buhund was. Eventually one of the girls brought along a show schedule and persuaded me to enter as she was going. The inevitable happened, I won first and a second under a well-known allrounder, had two rosettes and I was hooked. I was lucky in that as my first dog Storm was a good specimen, he became a Champion. We seemed to have many good dogs from many different lines in those days and they did well in Groups. Some I remember were Paddy Spurrells Snogard Venn being placed in the group at Crufts, as were Olpenden D’Zimba and his father Ch Reinark Duffy, all of whom were Champions. Win Stanbury bred Liemonchek Abu who had at least two placings, one of which was a Reserve (in those days only 1st and Reserve in groups), by an American judge at SKC. Entries were also good then I had an entry at LKA of 69 dogs making 90+ entries. We also had great times at shows, at Paignton we always had a big picnic after judging and it was very much a regular thing at several shows. Underlying all of the above was the absolute joy of owning such a wonderful breed, as with most Spitz breeds, they have quite an independent character but are good family dogs, my children had best friends living with them, and the dogs all got on well together (I had seven at one time), they all lived in and were part of the family. They are also easy to train with lots of love and patience and several people have achieved awards in Obedience as well as in the show ring. Buhunds being a Spitz breed, are good in that they can walk for miles with you or just race around the garden if you do not want to go out in the rain. They are self-cleaning, they can come in covered with mud and within half an hour be dry and clean again, and they have the added bonus of never having a ‘doggy smell’. They are not fussy eaters and quite a sturdy breed in that they do not have many health problems and are usually long lived, my beloved Strom lived until he was over 17yrs old. It is easy to monitor the problems within the breed having people being open, and having the dogs tested for hips and eyes. Although I currently do not have a Bu here, I cannot envisage a future which has not got a Buhund in it somewhere.”
I was interested to read about the picnics, as we introduced them again a few years ago and again they are always very popular, and a good way to socialise with everyone rather than rushing off after showing. That was before Covid of course.
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.