NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS
Pastoral Day at South Wales KA Ch show was the Saturday. When I first started showing, the Association which was founded in 1936 held the show in July at Crick near Chepstow on the Wales and West Show ground and had a good entry. When the showground was redeveloped the show was moved to some fields in USK, which had very good access from the M4. Sadly, the ground was low lying and near a river, I judged there one year and part of the ring was flooded. Then in 2009 a few days before the show, it rained and rained so the showground was under water. The committee managed to move the show at the last minute to the Berkshire County show ground at Newbury, where Southern Counties is held. The committee was not going to risk that happening again, so they asked permission of the KC to move the show to the Royal Welsh Showground at Builth Wells. Unfortunately, the only free date for Builth was in the middle of October, which with no CCs on offer and exhibitors spread all over the country, it has meant a drastic fall in entries. Sadly, this year there were only 2 entered for judge Sue Bird. She found her BOB& BD in Anne Smith’s Ch Arnscroft Never Say Di by Ch/Am Ch Visions Dino of Trolleimen(Imp USA) x Arnscroft Di Sing On Ice, he has 7CCs & 4RCCS.BB Millie Lambert & Mae Owens Ch Reve Enka Av Sturtmoor(Foxy)(Imp Nor)by Nor/Can Ch Vaulartun’s Tomba Kimura x Nor /Swe/Bel Ch Kimura’s Frida she also has 7CCs &4RCCs,so a very small but very quality entry. Whether the show keeps the breed on remains to be seen, clashing with Discover Dogs did not help. The show itself has done its best to encourage entries. The cost for NFC dogs is only £5 with a bench, and entry for a second class is free. There is also a Companion Dog show each day in aid of Charity.
Anne has kindly sent me her thoughts on the day-“A great day at SWKC show on Pastoral Day-Millie and I with Millie’s family supporters flew the Buhund flag, and I have to say it was all very enjoyable and relaxed both in and out of the ring. Everyone as ever in my experience at Builth is helpful and chatty. It’s also a treat to be able to park so close to the Halls and Show Rings, without having to trundle trolleys and dogs across muddy fields. It could have been slightly embarrassing in the ring with only two entries, but as it turned out the Judge Sue Bird did a fabulous job for us, humans and canines alike. With only 2 dogs she took time to enjoy them and our thanks and appreciation goes to her. The day was fine and bright, a change from the soggy conditions of previous days. We enjoyed the company of Pat Williams who lives locally to the showground, and as many of you know the club gave her a presentation at the club show as our No1 supporter. Always good company and she does so love the Buhunds, it was a pleasure to see her again and share the day.”
As I said above Discover Dogs at the Excel in London was same weekend as SWKA. Discover Dogs started in a very small way many years ago at Crufts. It had been realized that many people went to a show to see a certain breed, only to find that the breed was not scheduled that day. The idea proved to be an instant success, and is now a very important part of Crufts, and has for some years had a standalone event in London in the Autumn. Nowadays with so many puppies being bought from the Internet, it is an even more important way of getting prospective owners to understand, the breed they are thinking of having. Unfortunately, there still seems to be too many owners that do not know about DD, there are though people who come with a list of breeds that they want to see and ask very relevant questions. For a numerically small breed such as ours it is great way of getting the breed better known. I would be very rich if over the years I had a pound, for every time people have said ‘never heard of them before,’ in spite of them being in the country since the mid forties, much longer than many of the breeds that are so popular today.They of course are not a flashy breed and do not have big litters, so often people are not prepared to wait for a puppy, on the other hand it does mean that on the whole the puppies go to the right home. The breed booth this year was very near the main ring so very difficult to miss, and I have already had someone ask to join the breed forum who visited on the Saturday. Lisa Strong who came to us from DD some years ago is now in charge of organizing the Breed Booth, and together with husband Alex does a fantastic job of putting up all the photos, which show Buhunds doing various activities and also some lovely puppy pictures. Then with the help of Loki Snowflake and Leggatts Dancing Queen at Draccus(Eris to her friends)they manned the booth on both days advertising the breed and answering the many questions. Also helping on the booth and coming to us from DD, Penny Glibbery and her mum Jan Murcott who were assisted by Rickarlo Grant (Indy to his friends),DD is such an important date in the Buhund calendar. I should have been helping on both days, but my husband was in hospital and Jacqui Cobb like me should have been helping, but stayed at home to look after Angel, who had been badly injured in a car accident, while Jacqui and Michael were abroad on holiday. There is good news that she will make a full recovery but she needs a lot of nursing . Lisa sent me some details of the weekend – ‘after an interesting journey down thanks to a slow puncture, we arrived and quickly located the stand. Set up went smoothly and as soon as the crowds arrived Loki promptly assumed the ‘Bu’ pose. There was a steady stream of people which didn’t slow up until after4pm.Several came back multiple times and chatted for a while. All the dogs were awesome and we rested them periodically.’ Thank you all and your canine friends so much, for representing the breed so well.
Also out and about the same weekend was Sarah Stonton with Trelowen Andrea(Loxy), who went to the Dog Vegas Agility show which is fairly near to where Sarah lives, it was rather wet and muddy but Loxy still managed a clear round and one with 5 faults. Loxy, I think is the only Buhund competing in Grade 6/7 classes so very well done.
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.