NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the memorabilia that we had from Shirley Dobson, this included several critiques, below is the one from the club’s first open show held on 6th October 1974, the judge was Ken Bounden who was well known and who was still judging the breed when I first started showing in 1992. ‘The Norwegian Buhund Club first open show held in Wootton Basset in a perfect venue with space and a light relaxed atmosphere, and a parade of fifty Buhunds made for an enjoyable day. This being the first club show all wanted it to be success and at the end there was no doubt about this. The club was well and truly launched in the show promoting field. Two things I noticed, lack of showmanship and in many cases the great variation in type. The former problem will always be with us as newcomers come into the breed, but every help must be given by others and application by themselves to progress out of the novice state. Type variation calls for study, appreciation and willingness to agree on what good points are to be recognised in each type, each has plenty to offer.’ The puppy bitch winner was Pam Baxter’s The Madam From Tordown her crit was ‘Beauty that makes one envious, the construction is there to give a free moving action as expected in a working breed, the proportions are such as to give a balanced picture, outline and expression, character and body all satisfy, given a fair crack at the title she should end up in the upper house’. After that crit you will not be surprised to learn that she was BP BB and then BIS. Sadly of course some years later Hereditary Cataract was found in the breed, so very quickly a parade of 50 Buhunds became a thing of the past and very nearly wiped the breed out altogether .Although as has been said many times HC does not cause blindness compared with more serious eye conditions that other breeds have, but combined with the fact that the breed tends to have small litters, it had been a very slow recovery and it is only due to some dedicated breeders that have kept the breed going that hopefully it is now going from strength to strength.
On the subject of breeding many you will know that we have had several litters born by AI (Artificial Insemination) not the artificial intelligence that we hear so much about every day! For many years this method has been used in horses (not racehorses) cattle, and pigs in particular, but for a long time it was more difficult with dogs. I recently read an article about the use of AI and dogs in the Netherlands and Belgium, but I think most of it will apply to the UK. The article said that there had been growing popularity in this method of breeding over the last 9yers by breeders, to give a wider genetic diversity by bringing in distant bloodlines, and to cut down on travelling to other countries to find a suitable sire. The breeds using it mostly were BSDs and GDS’s particularly the dogs used by the police and military. I know that some years ago nearly all the BSDs that were being used as working dogs were brough in from abroad, as they were considered to have the most drive, which down the line has caused some problems as when they were bred from in the UK, some offspring ended up in pet homes the owners found their drive difficult to deal with, so many ended up in rescue. Now AI is being used more widely in pet breeds such as Labradors and Retrievers. We have had 4 litters by AI to help with genetic diversity, it can also be used where it has been difficult for whatever reason to have a natural mating. With the pandemic and the demand for puppies and restrictions on close contact there was a definite spike in its use, this has dropped a little since the end of the pandemic. The survey showed the dogs used were between 1-9yrs with the most being 2-4yrs, probably because the quality of the semen can decline with age, on the other hand the older dogs can have been successfully shown or proved to be good working dogs, and any hereditary disease will have materialized, so if a younger dog is used it should be tested before the semen is used. Some say that with AI there is more likelihood of a singleton being born compared with a natural mating, and we have had two singleton litters, but equally we have had several singleton litters with natural matings over the years. The success rate of AI in dogs varies depending on several factors including semen quality as I said earlier, but also in the female’s health and the timing of the insemination. Success rates can range from 59% to 80%. Proper technique and timings are critical for achieving the higher range.
One of the worries about the increased use of frozen semen going into the future is the lack of semen banks, this is becoming a problem as a considerable number of frozen straws remain unused so need to be stored, along with the new ones. I know of one toy breed where they use AI for virtually every mating not necessarily for genetic diversity but because it is easier, which I think is very sad, I am sure that will never happen with Buhunds.
Margaet 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