Norwegian Buhund

Breed Notes 20th May 2022 Margaret Deuchar

NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS

Hopefully in life we will all have those special days that we remember for many years, with dogs it is no different in whatever activity you and your dog takes part in, below Lisa Strong tells of her delight at winning her first BOB at a Ch show with Eris. A few days after Lisa sent me this article, she had another very special day when as I said in my notes last week, she and Eris won their first CC, so many congratulations. Lisa told me she nearly did not attend the show as her family had an emergency the night before, things so often happen when you least expect them, and happily the emergency although very worrying at the time did not work out to be as serious as first feared.

‘The weekend after Easter saw WELKS being held in Malvern. As it’s a bit of a drive for us my husband and I decided to head up on the Friday night after work, so we didn’t have to get up at silly o’ clock on the Saturday and stay in a dog friendly hotel for a couple of nights. The hotel was very welcoming to us, and the dogs and we found dog bed, bowls, treats and poo bags in the room. The hotel is on the hillside, so we had a gorgeous view down onto the showground as we had breakfast. Breakfast over we decided to drive down to the showground, so the dogs were loaded into the car and off we set. I was excited to return to WELKS as Eris (Leggatts Dancing Queen at Draccus) and I had not been there since Eris was a puppy and we had a memorable day there with the benching tents trying to blow away and us having to be evacuated and Eris making it into Special Beginners Group. As we got to hall 3 where we were being benched, they announced that Open stakes would be held in 5 minutes so we dumped our gear by our benches, I grabbed my show lead, a poo bag and some treats plus our number and Eris and I went running off to the stakes ring (thank goodness I had looked at the showground map the night before so I knew where I was going). Eris took it in her stride, and we came third winning some prize money too!!! We happily bounced back to the benches where Loki (Loki Snowflake) and Alex were in order to tell Alex the good news and finally say hi to everyone properly. In time the Norwegian Buhund classes were called to the ring. Our WELKS judge was Krystyan Greenland who had stepped in at Nordic last year to judge the breed when Jenny Shorer-Wheeler was snowed in. I must confess as I watched him selecting his choices of the male Buhunds I thought “oh it doesn’t look like we will do well as I don’t think she is his type today but never mind let’s go and have some fun.” Due to what classes had been scheduled virtually all the bitches were in Open together and it was nice to be in a big class rather than on my own in the ring. After Krystyan had examined Eris, I was asked to move her up and back, on returning I was asked to go again, and I thought oh is she not moving well, so back up and down we went. Once everyone had been seenKrystyan went along the line looking at all the bitches and made a noise to get them to look at him inturn, Eris decided that she had to bark back in response!! Then off to collect the placing cards hewent and to my amazement he called Eris and I forward as First!! Next was challenge and to my joy Eris was chosen at best bitch. Bergen then entered the ring as he had been chosen as best dog and Marie and I had a quick giggle with each other as we were delighted to be in this situation, and we were used to Bergen and Eris being up against each other in Open shows. Round the ring we went and then stood our Buhunds and waited, I was completely gobsmacked when Eris was declared Best Of Breed!! What a moment, it was all I could do not to jump up and down squealing with happiness!!! We had no luck in Groups, but I didn’t care as Eris had had a long day and we had also done the Norwegian Buhund Club Champ show and I was delighted to get as far as we did. What a day!! Afterwards we headed back to the hotel and Champagne was quickly delivered to our room for us to celebrate with’.

Activity news. Two Buhunds passed their Good Citizen Bronze Test at the National, Lillian and Michael Rumsey’s Kata Syndattir Av Fjeldvidda At Wheatshade (Imp NLD) (Darcy) and Jenny Shorer-Wheeler’s Koromandel Tusen Takk(AI)(Muchly)who also  had a clear eye test. He was not shown as Jenny is on the committee and did all the main ring announcing. The same weekend as the National Kirsty Irvine’s Tapui Let’s Blaze was third in a level 1 scent trial. The judges commented they knew another Buhund who does scent ‘Time’! They were the judges at the last trail Time did, which shows how doing activities does get the breed better know.

I have had some rather sad new from Margaret Garvie telling me why she and her husband Harry have not been at shows or in touch since the pandemic. She told me that I could tell you all, and that she is keeping up with all we do via the forum and the blog. Harry has been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia and although he is very fit because of his age he can’t have aggressive chemo, so is having a lesser type in injection form. Then a few weeks ago Margaret was diagnosed with lung cancer, she has had numerous test and scans which happily shows it has not spread, and is just a small patch on one lung but sadly is an aggressive cancer, as she is fit, she has been told can start treatment of chemotherapy and radiotherapy together which is known as chemoradiation, there will of course be side effects but Margaret is being very positive which I am sure her will get through the bad days. I know you will all want me to send them both our best wishes.

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