NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS
I do hope that you did not suffer from storm Darragh, here in London it was very wild and noisy but I know it was much worse in other areas.
Those of you who read these notes regularly will know how I love to write about the activities Buhunds take part in as well as showing ,they may be in the Pastoral Group with their history of herding, but with only one to my knowledge being used for herding in the UK and Eire, a number are enjoying taking part in other activities including Agility, Mantrailing, Rally and Scentwork. So, it was great to hear from Sarah Stonton how successful her Jack (Ch Anrnscroft In Di Ana Jack RL2) has been recently doing scentwork. Before being retired from showing to concentrate on scentwork he gained 13CCs and 10RCCs .Sarah wrote “last month Jack staged up to National Nosework Association Excellent Level (their 5th Level of difficulty).Then on the 29th November at Eyeworth in Bedforshire he won a Scentwork UK Level 8 trial with full marks, finding all the 12 hides with no deductions, so gained his Level 8 Excellence. The judge Sue Abbott-Dixon wrote in her write up about trial wrote, ‘Special mention to the lovely Jack and Sarah Stonton, who didn’t put a paw wrong, and in awesome style found all the scents, and called areas clear —Stunning !!’ Sarah also said not only am I very proud, but also forever grateful to Di Stirling allowing Jack to grace my home, but also to our trainer Wendy Rose Clay who has helped me train not only myself, but my Buhunds Tad, Loxy, Jack and now Pixie in various disciplines. Pixie aka as Wheatshade Snow Dreamer bred by Anja Rumsey, will debut in scent competitions imminently, unlike her calm thoughtful sire Jack, I suspect a wild enthusiastic excitable trial! Watch this space.
Buhunds were bred to guard the farm /homestead and to herd, but there are breeds though that were bred to guard flocks in a particular way, and I was fascinated recently to read about a farmer living in Somerset who has two Maremma sheep dogs to guard his flock of 750 turkeys. The older of the two dogs’ is three years old and lives with the Turkeys all the time, but the younger one is just 11 months so still learning and does not spend the night with the birds. Like the Buhund it is an old established breed, originally coming from the Maremma region of Tuscany and the northern areas of Southern Italy, with it being written about in the first century AD with writings about a white flock guarding breed being found in ancient Roman literature , there are also sculptures and paintings recommending it as guard for flocks against wolves and being white, shepherds could distinguish them from predators although their use is mostly for defence, combat is relatively rare. Dogs used for flock protection are placed among sheep as young puppies so that they bond with them and human contact is kept to a minimum, although they are usually used to protect sheep as the famer shows they can guard anything, and in Australia they have been used to protect a small population of penguins.
I finish with some very sad news that Carolyn Soloman who lives in Cornwall has sent me . Carolyn said she was so devastated that she can only talk about it now, she has had to say goodbye to her two Buhunds within 6weeks of each other, bad enough to lose one but two so close together is heart breaking. She lost Freya(Tokyn Bonyalva) on August 5th with an aggressive tumour, she would have been 16 in September as she was born on 23rd of September 2008 , she was by Trelowen Cantyr Among Ekusen x Ch Trelowen Keltek . Then very sadly Caroly had to say goodbye to Torran(Ch Tokyn Sequoia) ,she had had a nosebleed last Christmas which the vet diagnosed as a tumour but happily she did not have another one and continued to be fit till mid-September when she had two bleeds in quick succession , so Carolyn knew it was the right time to say goodbye. She was nearly 13 having been born on 15th November 2011,she was by Ch Trelowen Conar Tun x Tokyn Maple. Carolyn says it is the first time since she was 8 that she has not had a dog. Recently Carloyn has had an operation on her right hand which she said delayed as she could not have had it with the dogs to look after, especially as she is right-handed. I am sure we will all want to wish her a speedy recovery.
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