NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS
Not unexpectedly the KC has announced that Discover Dogs that should have been held at the Excel in October, has been cancelled. The Excel was the first Nightingale Hospital to be built and has been used, although never to full capacity thank goodness, and is now moth balled. The Government have also now announced that all the Nightingale hospitals will be mothballed, until at least the end of March.
The cancellation is of course sad at it is a great way of getting the breed better known, and over the years a number of Buhund owners first found the breed at DD. We are always very grateful for those members that give up their time to talk to visitors about the breed, and we have already had offers of help for DD at Crufts next year, which hopefully will go ahead. It is however far too early to speculate about this, when you think all that has happened over the past four months, it is almost one day at a time. The most important thing at the moment is to control of the virus and keep the infection rate down.
Over these past months I have been able to keep these notes going with the contributions that so many of you have very kindly sent me, without which there would be no notes. This week my grateful thanks go Addrienne Frost-Treadwell, how she found time to write the article below I do not know, as she also writes the breed notes for the White Swiss Shepherd Dog, and has been organising on line shows. The last one has just finished results next week.
Addrienne writes:- “It all started in 1978, my mother would take me down to Twyford farm, mum would exercise the horses and I would wander over every inch of the farm, trying to find things to touch. There were cows, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, horses, cats and dogs, I even found dead things that I could poke with a stick, I was well up for it! Mrs Kingston had lots of dogs, ‘Toffee’ and ‘Amber’ her prize winning Bearded Collies, ‘Buttons’ the Shih Tzu, ‘Sparkie’ the Australian Silky Terrier, ‘Sebastian’ the giant sized German Shepherd and ‘Sheeba’ (Hamview Judy) the Buhund. Toffee, Amber and Sheeba worked the cattle and Sebastian guarded the farm, they all had their jobs to do.
I was 4 years old the first time I entered the show ring, I had spent ages, grooming and picking the fleas off Buttons and Sparkie before taking them into an exemption dog show. I believe mum showed the Beardies as they were my height. I won AV Open with Sparkie and the Child handling class with Buttons, after successfully managing to drag him the entire length of the ring, on a lead too tight and in the hot sun, my how things have changed !
Anyway I digress, back to Buhunds, Mrs Kingston had Sheeba mated in 1980 and we had one of her puppies, by which time I had almost perfected the art of dragging all of Mrs Kingston’s dogs across a ring and back, had gained many plastic trophies and far too many packets of teeth rotting sweets!
In July 1980 ‘Snoopy’(Frau Layton Lodger) arrived with us in St James and Mum took about training her for obedience. We competed in the show ring at small shows and some obedience competitions, whilst I continued to drag around the ring anyone’s dog, if they would let me. I won my first ever JHA diploma at Chippenham and District Dog Show, handling Paddy Spurrels ‘Snogaard Venn’, I think this is when the addiction happened. Mrs Kingston,Mum,Dad,my sister Lucy and I with Sheeba and Snoopy made our way to Sheffield, where I first met the maddest bunch of people, many of which are still very much in my mind today, Hester Jesson! I was always wondering why her trousers were so short! Mum said it was because she spent an so much time riding a bicycle and that they were designed for bicycles, well these things matter to a child, and you have to ask the questions or you will never learn, like why does that man need so much hairspray? Michael Quinney and Terry McHaffie where only too pleased to advise me, Bob Bennet became one of my best friends in the world when I was little, I just adored that man, he bought me a present to every show. Some scared me as a young one, Shirley and Alf Dobson, having been told by my parents if I didn’t behave Shirley would put me in detention and being amused that Jacqui Deacon(Cobb) was a Vicar even though she was a lady. I was more scared of Mike Cobb as I truly believed he was Jesus and I had to be good around him, as I wanted to go to heaven because that’s where all the dogs went. I managed to get in the way and annoy the majority of the Bu folk for many a year, I try to keep that up from time to time!
In 1982 we had our first litter from Snoopy, we took her down to Wyn Stanbury and Mags Witticass and she was mated to Leimonchek Abu, you have got to love newbies like us! We used him because he was a very handsome dog and he had won lots of rosettes, health testing wasn’t a thing, you paid your £25 and took your chances! Snoopy had 4 beautiful puppies, Tuska, Fluffy, Boozer and Tally, mum kept the bitches, Tuska and Fluffy, Fluffy was a long coat, we did not put that on the registration form but it was a great to have one, Tuska Bunn went on to be my Child Handling dog, Fluffy became mum’s latest Obedience challenge. I showed Tuska in my first ever Junior Handling Semi Final at Richmond, where we were shortlisted for many years. At our first ever Crufts, Snoopy won Post Graduate bitch and even Tuska and Fluffy were placed, Fluffy went on to win some big awards in obedience, but I usually beat mum with Snoopy in the ring. It was about this time that Mum and Dad decided that it was about time they got an Affix, and they decided on ‘Frostisen’ it is a Fjord region of Norway and seemed fitting with our name and the breed. In 1984 we had a litter with Tuska Bunn, from this litter I had my own Buhund, Frostisen Gern Gissa Job, my Gissa my be all and end all! I was nine years old when I had her, we did everything together, I didn’t need school friends just my dog! we did Agility, Obedience, Showing, Digging, and Hiking, everything, I look at pictures of her today and she really was a stunning Buhund, but her sister ‘Nana’ Frostisen Belvimay Jenks and Tuska Bunn were a more desirable colour, Gissa did win a Reserve CC, and many Best of Breeds and group short lists at Open shows, but Nana was top draw, I won my first CC and Best of Breed with her under Violet Yates at Manchester Championship Show, I also took the RCC with Tuska Bunn. Nana was shortlisted in the group under Geir Pedersen, someone with whom I eventually became great friends. I will never forget running across that huge ring whilst they called out ” This is the best of breed BLUE hound! ” anyway back to ‘84’ we decided that I needed a real Norwegian Buhund so off to Norway we went, and another character Rudi Hagland, let me move his dog, and gave me lessons on how to show a Buhund to get the best out of it, so if you see me stacking a Buhund in the ring that’s where I got that from, we met up with Malfred Byrjka and Ellias Mormetroe, (never could spell that)! to see about buying a puppy, we imported Bikka AV Gilde Og Frostisen, and Ch Leitegards Kong Olav Av Frostisen, Bikka was our first black. These were our foundation for Frostisen, we had, Hamview,Zuvendi, Lemoncheck, Leitegards, Av Gilde and now finally a Frostisen line, by the end of 1984 we were officially a Show Kennel our first Champions came in quick succession with Ch Frostisen Punktum, then Ch Frostisen Thora and Ch Leitegards Kong Olav Av Frostisen. Olav was an incredibly successful dog, he had the best movement,even to this day I have never seen better, mind you I had the wind taken out of me at Crufts this year watching a black bitch from the Netherlands and it takes an awful lot to wow me!
Some 40 odd years later, I can still look at a dog and see those past Buhunds in them, the sons and the grandsons of those foundation dogs went on to help the breed in so many ways, over the years we have imported 7 Buhunds from all over the world, a few distantly related to Olav. We exported only one, Frostisen’s Billy Bu, he was the first ever Central European champion, our First International Champion and held many many Champion titles in many different countries. Frostisen dogs have won over 100 CC’S, nearly 1000 Green stars, well over 100 CACIBS, and have 27 Champions, they have won many group placings and even a group at an International Championship show, they have done us proud in the rings all over the world and continue to do so, as do their progeny. Frostisen has had some of its most important progeny in the working field, either working on farmstead or working as hearing dogs for the deaf and also as support dogs.
Every step of the way we have been lucky enough to have had some great influences and supporters, the likes of Joe Braddon, Liz Cartledge, Ann Arch, Jean Lanning, Andrew Thompson, and many more who supported and educated me as a young handler. Madeline & Roger Thomas who were such great show companions, and of course Di Stirling who taught me all about Cava! I have had the privilege of showing for other people, Margery and Bob Crossley’s Bamse Boy, Paddy Spurrel’s Venn, Di’s Darling Lil and not forgetting Brenda and Tony’s Freddie and many others, it’s never been about winning with me it’s always been about as much fun as you can fit in a day with dogs.
Frostisen today has a much bigger family, the team now includes, Kerry and Fritz,(mum & dad)myself, Dermot Buckley, Caro Flannigan, and last by not least Jacqui Walmsley who has been involved in Frostisen for many many years and is the Frostisen Team of the future, we are always looking forward, our motto has always been pets first and foremost, anything else is just cream.
Thanks so much Addrienne, that was so interesting and you learn something every day, I always thought the ‘Frostisen’ affix was because of your name.
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.