NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS
I wish you all a Very Happy Christmas, I hope you and your canine companions have a wonderful time whatever you have planned.
I will not be writing about LKA until the notes that will come out on 27th December. So I thought I might not have any activities to write about, particularly as storm Darragh raged over the weekend 7th /8th .I need not have worried the first to contact me was Sarah Stonton as a follow up to last week’s notes, Sarah sent me details of Pixie’s aka Wheatshade Snow Dreamer’s first trial. Sarah wrote “Pixie made her debut to scent trials on the morning of 8th December, despite the wind and and rain making the outside searches more challenging. Our fabulous trainer Wendy Clay says this about Pixie –‘embrace the crazy’. The trial was at Nuthall, north of Nottingham, a Scentwork UK Level 1 trial. She gained a ‘clean sweep’ meaning she found and indicated on all 6 hides (all clove scent); we were deducted 0.5 points on the bags/boxes search as she was pinging around on her lead wanting to do zoomies, and as a result I pulled away from where she wanted to sniff! Reminder – handler needs more training as well!! Vehicle search – can only be on wheels at this level – so excited as her first search of the trial but found it. Bags/Boxes next – she went straight to one box but did not indicate properly as was so ‘busy’ so I didn’t call that to stop the clock until later when she settled on it properly, after having identified the correct bag. Exterior-various items laid out on the car park; she pulled me straight to the first a tyre pump, the did not take long to find the 2nd item, I think taking 27 secs in total. Finally, Tables /Chairs – 2 tables and 8 chairs, she pulled me to one of the furthest away, took a few seconds to settle on the odour and indicate to source all in 18 secs. A fun and wonderful start to her game/work. The next day her sire Ch Arnscroft In Di Ana Jack RL2 worked a level 9 Scentwork Uk trial at Haynes in Bedfordshire. One search area outside in the strong wind, and 2 indoors He works much more calmly than Pixie finding 8 of 12 hides (clove, gun oil, truffle oil) so narrowly missed qualification as 9 are required. Being honest, had I handled bits better I am sure he would have got at least 1 of the others”.
Jenny Shorer-Wheeler was in touch later in the day on the 8th, to say that she headed to Newark & Notts showground for the Burton-On -Trent Kennel Association show, taking with her Inky aka Knytshall Thistle Ink It Up Koromandel, she was 3rd in AV Puppy (with over 20 present) under Paul Conway who gives CCs in the breed. Then BAVNSC Pastoral Puppy and PG2 under Angie Fieldsend who recently did our on line BAD, so great that she could put what she learnt into practice. Jenny said thanks to both judges and it was lovely to see so many friends who had also braved the horrid weather, she said they must all be mad ! and that she had slowly turned blue with the cold! The shows are held in the Stanley Sheldon Hall, which is heated by blower heaters which on cold days can struggle to heat the whole hall, alright if you are standing by them! The committee made it a Christmas show with a Christmas Tree for all the photos, they also sold scratch cards with 100 super prizes. When I first started showing there were several shows at Newark that had Buhund classes, but over the years the shows that scheduled them are sadly no more.
On the same day but much further south and west, Millie Pentland took her homebred Sturtmoor’s Gon’n Dun It (Gunna) to the Bristol and District Dog Club Open show, held at Hutton Moor Leisure Centre Weston Super Mare. The show had a really good entry of 703 dogs. The breed judge who was judging the breed for the first time was Ellis Rees. He awarded Gunna BOB & BPIB, with RBOB going to Anne- Marie, Dave and Mary Taylor’s Frostisen Black Zitter. After a long wait, the last Group in the Ring was Pastoral Puppy which Gunna won under Carloine Friend -Rees, she then awarded him BPIS in a great line up of puppies, I think from the photos the rosette is almost as big as Gunna . This is his fourth BPIS ,out of 9 shows, which include the Club’s Ch show and the Nordic and he is only 8 months! Millie said she did not leave the BPIS ring till just before 8pm,so it was a long but very worthwhile day! Gunna now has all his required Ch show and Open show points towards his Junior Warrant, so now just needs more points from either Ch or Open shows to add up to 25 ,which I am sure he will not have a problem doing.
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