NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS
Three Counties Dog show is another show that for years has scheduled the breed without CCs. Held on the Three Counties showground in Malvern, it used to be combined with the Royal Three Counties Show. Then one fateful day many years ago on a pouring wet hound day, we queued to get in from the M5, which anyone who knows the showground will realise is a long way! Why it was quite so bad I don’t know but it was chaos, I was travelling with Treena & Colin Maun with our Elkhounds, and when we were near the showground Treena and I walked the dogs into the show, leaving Colin to park the car somewhere! There were people unloading horses and ponies on the road and leading them into the show. When in the show we were in marquees which due to the heavy rain were leaking! The next year not surprisingly the two shows were separated. In a way this was a shame as we used to take in it turns to look after the dogs, while others would take short trips into the main show, if they were interested in something special. Now the main show is held the weekend after the dog show.
This year Pastoral Day was Saturday, we had a very wet journey most of the way, with it only stopping as we arrived, I gather we were lucky as the day before it had been wet most of the day. We were third in the ring after 100 Tibetan Terriers and 16 Australian Shepherds; probably just as well we were not first in, as finding our benching proved quite a challenge. We of course had been sent details of which bay of the cattle sheds we were in, but actually finding the benches in the bay was not easy. The numbers are never consecutive, and our benches were facing a wall and although the numbers were on the end of the row of benches, they were covered by a grooming table! Over the years I must have spent hours looking for numbers, if all the shows could do as Southern Counties with the name of the breed on a board above the benching, it would make life so much easier, Southern Counties even did it last week when there were only 2 Buhunds! Our judge was Mr H Ogden who gives CCs in 41 breeds across 5 groups. He found his BOB & BD in Jacqui & Michael Cobb and Nancy Kent’s Ch Koromandel Best Served Cold At Knytshall(Jamie), he is by Uk/Can Ch Kyon’s Bold Norseman x Ch Maidofcopper for Koromandel (Imp Fin).RBD & BP My & daughter Debbie’s Rikarlo Gable(Time)he is by Jamie x Kimura’s Vera with Tapui (Imp Nor),he is handled by Debbie. BB Jacqui & Michael Cobb & Nancy Kent Ch Trelowen Veryan To Knytshall RL1 EX, she by Ch Knytshall Ferdig x Int/Ch Trelowen Yn Tek To Benzara.BBP & RBB Lisa & Alex Strong’s Leggatts Dancing Queen (Eris) by Frostisen Winsome x Knytshall Noor Ul Ain. This was Eris’s first Green card always something special. Judging over, it was picnic time and it was great to have Millie Lambert, her mother Marcia and long time supporter of the breed Pat Williams join us.
At this show there were only 2 Groups so no rushing around like last week. The weather had gradually improved all day so the Groups were judged outside, which was great, it is good to have inside rings on wet days but the concrete is very hard on dogs and handlers alike. Happily, the Pastoral group was first this time. While the BOBs were being judged the puppies were prejudged in an adjacent ring by Mr R P Oldham, going into the BIS ring for final judging and we were thrilled when Time was awarded PG4, so the journey home did not seem so long and the fact that it was also dry helped.
The next day while watching the Gundog group live, the heavens opened and poor Jacqui Walmsley was trying to video it while holding an umbrella, and all the puppies were judged inside as was BIS and BPIS, so we were lucky.
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