NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS
Saturday February 17th saw a number of Buhund owners and their dogs head for Ryton on Dunsmore and National Working And Pastoral Breeds Society Open show. Numbers were probably slightly increased as we also had a room booked for a committee meeting, to start after judging had finished. This worked very well as we were third in the ring but one breed only had 2 dogs present, so with the show starting at 9am we were finished in time to start the meeting at 11am.The room we had was the one used for the 50th Anniversary Dinner, so plenty of room and in true Buhund fashion we had a picnic with Nancy bringing most of the goodies, Jenny the cake with others adding more goodies. Those not on the committee stayed down stairs to keep an eye on the dogs and give us a call for the Pastoral and Pastoral Puppy Groups. These were at the same time which were quite early as sadly a number of breeds had very low entries.
Our judge was Barry Blunden who gives CCs in 3 Working and 1 Pastoral breed, he found his BOB in Anne Smith’s Arnscroft Never Say Di. RBOB Jacqui Walmsley’s Blakk Extacy Van Koekie’s Ranch(Imp Ned)BP Nancy Kent,Jacqui & Michael Cobb’s Koromandel Best Served Cold At Knytshall. Next year this show will be one of our supported shows so we hope to keep up the entries, which was one of the highest in the show.
Most of you know that with Neil Hood and I are admin for the Buhund forum, anyone applying to join has to answer a couple questions asking about their interest in the breed but apart from that nothing is known about them .I always welcome them and ask for a little information about their interest in the breed. I think I can say we were all amazed when I joined Julie Curl with her reply, she said “I study animal remains from archaeological sites here in the UK with a particular interest in dogs .In the Roman period there were many smaller dogs brought to the UK and moved around the world, including the Spitz breeds .In Norfolk we have had many smaller dogs, including an unusual little dog of around 16” at the shoulder, a female dog that I suspect is a Buhund or a dog of similar type from a Roman Villa. They would have been perfect companions and working dogs for people travelling at the time.” She went on to say she had fallen in love with Buhunds while doing her research and hoped to have one herself one day. Julie then further amazed us all by posting a picture of her Buhund, which she might have drawn from our Breed Standard, but this was not the case as she went on to say, it was a painted cut out on a board which she believed was of a dog brought to Norfolk in the Roman period. This was based on her analysis and measurements of the dog’s bones discovered and research into ancient dogs, it had a tightly curled tail which Julie said would have been great for hunting, no need to cut it short. She had produced the cut out as she gives talks and displays for the Aylsham Roman Project in Norfolk. The dog would have also needed loyalty and stamina as a travelling dog. The colour was of a wolf sable which was based on the research into a selection of Roman dogs; pale coats were preferred for working and guard dogs. Julie felt the dog must have been much loved as she was found with a worked beaver tooth near her head, which may have been an amulet to protect her teeth as she had lost two lower teeth missing which had healed, an owner would have had to cared very much to acquire something so rare at that time .The name of the dog in the picture is Gronmoad and anagram of Roman Dog. What is so fascinating is we have always thought of them as dogs of the Vikings not of the Romans as well. There are Forts in Norway that look Roman but no one can really knows anything about them. I think Julie has just re written Buhund history.
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