NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS
There are results of several open shows this week. On Saturday February 10th At the Plymouth & District Canine Society show at the Matford Centre Exeter, Yvonne King’s Trelowen Heligan (Sami) was BOB under Tim Ball and shortlisted in the P Group under Hazel Fitzgibbon, with the RBOB going to Jacqui Walmsley’s Blakk Extacy Van Koekie’s Ranch (Imp Ned).Sami was BOB at Crufts in 2012 now a veteran he shows no sign of letting the younger dogs beat him. The Society’s training club had been nominated for “Training class of the Year” at the Pawscars this year.
Also on Saturday10th Swansea & District Canine Club show was held at Neath Sports Centre, where Judge Raye Parry awarded BOB & BVIS to Celia Vines evergreen Ch Ailort Highlander at Parvodene JW Sh CM. Celia told me she received a most beautiful large oval red black and white rosette, with white hearts over it in preparation for Valentine’s Day.
The following day at the Portsmouth and Southsea Kennel Association show held at the Havant Leisure Centre, Neil Hood Sophie Wildig & Paul Glaholm’s Sturtmoor Eeeza Geeza at Buhcafrey was Best Pastoral AVNSC and PG 1 under Marion Hodgson.
Much further afield across the pond the 142nd Westminster dog show was held over 12th & 13th February in New York. Those living in the US consider it to be the World’s most prestigious show, to try to compare it to Crufts I think is very difficult. Invitations are given to the top five Champions in each breed, these Champions are based on the number of dogs defeated by them in breed competitions at AKC shows, from 1st January 2017 -31st October 2017 , The National Breed speciality BOB winners are also invited. Westminster is held in Madison Square Garden a special event venue in Manhattan, although the daytime breed judging between 8am-4pm is held at the Piers92/94 a multipurpose indoor arena also in Manhattan, with the action being moved to the Garden for the evening from 6-11pm with the groups starting at 8pm.There is also an agility section but this is on the day before the show starts and held at the Piers alongside ‘Meet the Breeds’ the equivalent of our Discover Dogs, this is only the ninth year this has been held . A junior handling class has been held since 1934 for 9-18yr olds, the 8 finalists taking part have qualified from competitions held across the US during the previous year .The Westminster KC offers a Junior Showmanship Finalist Scholarship to the Eight Finalists. One thing that would be nice if Crufts could have the positive publicity that Westminster continues to have in the US. Buhunds are in the Herding Group in the US which was on the Tuesday, for the past two years I have watched the competition live ,unfortunately this year the live feed went down and the next day Fox Sports who film it all, said they had put up the video of the breed being judged but sadly it was of Mini Aussie’s ! BOB was GCHG Ch Port Gamble Fjord’s Anders by Ch Trollheimen Jaksi Koli x Chili owned by Ben Daniels & Vali Eberhardt.BOS GCHP Ch Jotunn Bella Binna CA CGC TKI by Ch Gnipagrottans Jezze James x Jotunn Anja Kola owned by Amelia Mc Laughlin & Vali Eberhardt & John Bradstreet.The judge was Mrs Dorothy Collie.Flynn a 5yrs old Bichon Frisé was crowned BIS on the Tuesday night.
I do not know if you have been watching the series ‘Animals with Cameras’ BBC1 on a Thursday evening, if you haven’t it is well worth catching up with on the Iplayer , especially the last episode when they put cameras on dogs guarding a flock of sheep at night, from wolves living in Southern France. The dogs had not been taught to guard the sheep they do it naturally, they do not herd them they live with them all the time and guard them at night. Some of them looked like Anatolian Sheperd & Pyrenean Mountain dogs which of course were originally bred for this purpose.
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