NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS
Over the years I have written about many dogs that have passed on, they have all been special to their owners and many have also made their presence felt in other ways. I am finding these notes extremely hard to write as they are about my and Debbie’s Fizz aka Ch/Bel Ch Tonylynn’s Charles Lafitte AW(P) R2 Ex, who passed over the Rainbow Bridge at 7pm on the evening of 22nd January 2021, after a short illness which was found to be stomach cancer.
Fizz was born on 29th May 2007 and bred by the late Lynn Isaac who had previously bred and shown Cavaliers. At the time I had 2 Buhunds and an Elkhound so was not looking to have another dog. The late Gail Hussey was hoping to have one of Lynn’s puppies and asked me to go and see them with her after NW&PBDS show, as Lynn lived in Hereford it was not that far from Malvern. Sadly, for Gail her aunt died a couple of days before the visit leaving her with dog to look after, so she felt she could not have a puppy, but still wanted to see Lynn and explain things. The were 4 puppies 3 dogs and a bitch which Lynn was keeping. The puppy that was not booked really remined me of my first Buhund ‘Okie’ (Ch/Ir Ch Wolfen Just in Time), so a week later saw Debbie and I traveling back to Hereford to pick up ‘Charlie’ as he was called then. A few days later the KC agility festival was held in Peterborough with Debbie as the secretary and with me sorting out the Trophies, so with no puppy siter at home Sue Sercombe kindly did the puppy sitting for a few days, as she lived in Peterborough at the time. After the Festival Debbie and partner Richard and his two young boys went on a caravan holiday for a couple of weeks, and as I had entered the other dogs in shows, ‘Charlie’ went on his first caravan holiday something he never forgot always loved. The boys loved playing with him and called him Fizzy Wizz as he was so fast, and as his pedigree name was a Champagne the ‘Charlie’ became ‘Fizz’.
He was not born at the best time of the year for being shown as a puppy, but at City of Birmingham in 2008 when in Junior he won his first RCC, then at Windsor the following year his first CC followed the same year by his second at LKA, this time with BOB. In 2010 he won another RCC at Driffield but that magical third CC eluded him, till Windsor 2012 when he gained his crown also with BOB. Then at WELKS in 2016 when he was 9yrs he returned to the showring to win another RRC. During the intervening years he had found two things he really loved doing, one was attending Discover Dogs he would walk in lie down and wait for adults and children alike to stroke him. He loved people and I have a great photo of him on sitting on Neil Hood’s lap at DD at the Excel, licking his beard which fascinated him. His other love which I think he thought was invented for him was agility. This started in a quiet way, I would go to agility shows to help, and Debbie would compete our Fullani Finnsmark and the Elkhound Ravenstone Bersin Krisen, as Fizz came with me Richard ran him in ‘All Sorts’ a class for beginner dogs and veterans. He proved to be rather good without much training, so Debbie took over his training and competing and their fantastic partnership began, he even did agility abroad and had so many photos taken of him, as people could not believe that they were seeing a Buhund doing agility. We had shown abroad for many years so naturally we took Fizz, and he gained his Belgian title with 4CACs, the last time we went abroad we showed at Kotrick this was in November 2016, where Fizz won BOB from veteran and went onto be 3rd in a very large Spitz group with a place on the podium, with all the razzmatazz that went with it. He did agility till the end of 2018 when he retired, and we did scent training together where he qualified at Level 1 & 2. He also returned to showing in 2019 with Debbie.
For many years I had run a pet obedience class so of course he came along to that, he just loved to work, so he soon became my Demo Dog and took and passed his Bronze, Silver and Gold Good Citizen Tests, this was great training for Rally and Obedience competitions.
In the summer of 2011, I had Trelowen Ancorya so I would show him and Fullani Finnsmark while Debbie would do agility with Fizz. Now Debbie is going to write about her time of competing with Fizz.
“I have been putting this off hoping it was not true, but I seem unable to wake up from the dream that we have lost Fizzy.
As Mum said Fizz loved everyone and everything from being upside down and cuddled at Discover Dogs to doing various activities, especially agility, which he thought was just invented for him. Fizz started training at Axstane Agility Club before being usurped by Asti my PSD when we moved away from Mum, after he gained his Champion title in the show ring in 2012, Fizz came back to agility and started competing properly and represented Axtane in Crufts large dog teams. He was a great ambassador for the breed, I laughed at the judges that stood in the middle of the ring and then had to move to be able to keep watching him, when he did not just plod round! I vividly remember Axstane show in 2014 when he was the first clear round in a Grade 3 agility class, where the course had been left the same as for the Medium Olympia qualifier!! I had just got my head round the fact that he would have to compete in Grade 4 when a massive cheer went up from the ring and he was knocked down into 2nd.Fizz achieved far more than we ever expected gaining his Bronze agility warrant at Dogs In Need in 2014,his Silver in 2015,and his Gold at Nottingham Championship Show in 2017 where he had a great show gaining 4 top 10 places at full height(65cms/25.5 ins) just 6months after major surgery, which we thought would be the end of his agility career. He was not having any of it and after several years of clear rounds and top placings he did win into Grade 4 at Colchester in 2017, qualifying him for the Colchester finals, what a year he had.
We had also competed in a few rally competitions during 2017, our first ever competition had been at LKA in December 2016 when the Quarte Bu Obedience Team won the Obreedience heat, a lot of Obreedience heats were held at Rally shows so we entered both! LKA saw Fizz competing at his first Rally competition and all the Obedience and Good Citizen Dog Scheme training paid off as he won that first class. He then went onto compete at various shows and gained his Rally level Excellent 1 title in straight shows. That Autumn we decided to try out for the South East and East Anglian Rally Team and were selected to represent the area at Crufts in 2018 in Level 2, what a great day that was competing with a Buhund in the Obedience ring at Crufts. Fizz went onto gain his Level 2 excellent title and completed at Level 3 and 4, which were undertaken off the lead and, in some cases, included a small jump, he was in his element!
Fizz gained his Platinum agility warrant at Dog Vagas show in October 2018, we had planned to do ‘All Sorts’ classes with him after that but then puppy ‘Time’ arrived and Fizz returned to the show ring as a Veteran with several judges saying ‘How Old?’ when I said how old he was!! Fizz gained many veteran group placings and won Reserve Best Veteran in Show at Coventry (Foleshill) Canine Association in November 2018 when he was 11 ½ yrs. and again at Evesham & District CS in July 2019 when he was 12! He was only 4points off his Veteran Warrant when we went into lockdown last year. Fizz achieved so much, being awarded the ‘Versatile Buhund’ award at the breed Club’s anniversary show, a special award just for Fizz. We have so many very special memories to cherish of our special boy, for us there will never be another Fizz Wizz.”
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.