NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS
Most of you will know that the KC staff are working from home and have been since just before we went into lockdown, which of course was just after Crufts. The only problem is that the staff cannot print from home, so people were waiting for awards won at Crufts and just before. A few weeks ago to rectify this, two members of staff drove into Clarges Street and printed all the awards. This meant there were a number of happy Buhunds owners with awards won at Crufts. Neil Hood & Sophie Wildig’s received Sturtmoor Eeza Geeza at Buhcafrey’s Stud Book number having won the RDCC. Millie Lambert received the stud book number for her homebred Sturtmoor’s Free’n Eezee who won the RBCC.A CC his 7th went to Nancy Kent and Jacqui and Michael Cobb for Koromandel Best Served Cold At Knytshall and a special 3rd CC and Champion certificate winged its way across the Irish Sea, to Sue Sercombe for her Trelowen Dizzy Rascal. Debbie and I also received Rikarlo Gable’s (Time) Junior Warrant having gained the final 3points he needed at Cruft.
One owner that was especially thrilled and proud to receive an award that had nothing to do with Crufts, was Celia Vines who received the Veteran Warrant Certificate for the Evergreen Ch Ailort Highlander at Parvodene JW ShCM(Perry). He is by Ch Olpenden Malachy at Parvodene JW ShCM x Ch Fullai Farek At Ailort born on 2nd May 2007, he is now over 12yrs old and has had a fantastic show career and shows no sign of slowing down. He is only the second dog in the breed to win a VW, which was introduced back in January 2019 by the KC as a separate award for veteran dogs, to encourage entries at general open shows and group open shows.25points are needed with points being awarded from 1st to 4th.place. Perry had actually gained 28 points so a few points spare, from Lichfield under Mrs Irene Buchanan Green, Worcester & Malvern CS under Tony Allcock, Llynfi Valley with judge Sally Duffin,then Colin Richardson judged Cheltenham, Sutton Coldfield it was Lee Cox, Bristol DCC Russell Jones, at Tredegar Leana Lewis officiated, Worcester it was Russell Mosedale and Cardiff E Webster, where Tim Hutchings also awarded him BOB & PG 1 he then went onto be RBIS. Finally it was Swansea with Lee Cox. What a fantastic record, well done Perry.
Saturday 22nd August was a day I had been looking forward to for some weeks, a day when I could actually take Time out for some scent training. Sarah Stonton mentioned to me a few weeks ago that her scent trainer was going to run a couple of two hour Covid safe workshops, with just 5 dogs on each session. Sarah was taking Loxy so I booked on same session and counted the weeks down, before lockdown I used to go once a week to a hall in Hayes. That hall has been shut since lockdown and shows no sign of opening at the moment .Our trainer has been doing weekly Zoom lessons, which have been great and we have been given things to work on with the dogs. Time loves searching and has become very good, but of course we have only been doing it in the house and garden with no outside distractions, so to be able to take him out to a place he did not know was great. The workshop was held on a farm with buildings that were no longer in use, which was sad but ideal for the workshop. We met in the farm’s large Dutch barn which was open one side except for a low wall. The trainer had set up articles with scent on a couple, hanging from the barn wall virtually at nose height for the dogs. The dogs each had a turn on these, the trainer then took the dogs one at a time across the path to a really dilapidated barn where there was an old trailer and a boat, so plenty of places to hide a scented piece of cloth the size of thumb nail for the dogs to find. In the main barn we also had chairs and boxes to search, so the dogs did numerous searches. Time was very excited when he arrived but calmed down fairly quickly, he found the scent in all the searches, sometimes with a little help as obviously there were many lovely smells in the buildings. Loxy did really well and like Time obviously really enjoys searching.
I was especially happy to take Time out to something he would enjoy, as he has really missed his training outings, and on the previous Monday he was very happy when I put him in the car, but we ended up at the vets for his first eye test. The vets are still not letting you in with the dogs which was not ideal, but he was very good when the nurse came out in full PPE to take him in for the eye drops, she then brought him back and we waited till the eyes drops worked, he was then taken in again for the test again with the nurse in PPE. Happily, his eye test was clear, always a relief and the nurse said how good he had been, which was great as apparently there was one dog who would not allow them to put in the eye drops.
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.