NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS
I do hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas, wherever you were and whatever you were doing. There was talk in the run up to Christmas of the possibility of a White one, while the song ‘Dreaming of a White Christmas’ is very popular and it would be very pretty, in practical terms here in the UK we are not really organised for much snow fall. In the end of course it was one of the warmest ones for years but also windy, Boxing Day was quieter weather wise and a little colder, but the next storm arrived the following day.
Now it is time to wish you all a Very Happy New Year.
The day after Pastoral Day at LKA, Wealdstone & Northolt Canine Society Premier Open show was held on the South of England Showground Ardingly in Sussex, a long way from Wealdstone & Northolt you might think. There is a reason for this, for many years it was held at Brunel University Uxbridge, but in the year we went 2019 as it was my local show and we were chasing JW points for Time, the show had a terrible time for some reason at the last minute they were not allowed to use their normal hall, and to say it was chaos it an understatement, the show manger came round and apologised to everyone, and after the pandemic they never went back there and have now settled at Ardingly, it is a Premier show with 606 Breed and 5 Handling classes. This year the Buhund judge was Lisa Strong, which meant she two very busy days, travelling home to Cambridgeshire after LKA, then setting off early the next morning to travel to Sussex. She told me she had travelled about 600miles over the two days. She found her BOB in Marie and Adam Camm’s Kligenthal Almuric aka Bergen, Marie had also hotfooted it from LKA the previous day back to London then onto Ardingly. RBOB & BOS was Sue Croker’s Leggatts Voulez Vous aka Tissy. The travelling was all worth it though for Marie as Bergen won the Pastoral Group under Ian Blackshaw, winning not only a lovely rosette but also glassware with the show and judges name engraved on it. Ian who gives CCs in 11 breeds across 3 groups judged both the adult groups but also the puppies, making it a very long day, but Marie said the year had surpassed her wildest dreams as this was Bergen’s 4th Group win this year, he was of course also BOB at Crufts. It was also nice for Lisa as it is always good as a judge if your BOB is placed in the group.
Boston Ch show will now be held in July, having taken over the E of E dates, but they held their 76th Anniversary Premier Open show on the Newark and Notts showground on 17th December where Bethany Guillod-Rees was 3rd in the YKC Members’ Handling class 6-11, with her and her parents Johanna and Nicolas’s Draccus Obsidian At Bucamereru (Ruby)under judge Amèlie Smith -Moon (Alncroft).
Buhunds take part on many canine activities and Jasmine Freeborn tells us below of her success in Rally. ‘Noodle aka Leggatts Jive Talkin and I have been attending agility lessons alongside life skills classes for the past year, and I felt it was time to add another skill set to the repertoire. At the NBCUK AGM earlier in the year, the wonderful Jacqui Cobb ran an introduction to rally session, where we managed 1st place! Jacqui was taking part at a rally competition run by the Sherborne Vale Dog Training Club, which was taking place just down the road from me – so I decided to put some big girl pants on see what it was all about! We have been attending rally class for about 6 weeks now and have been introduced to the Rally Online format, where competitors film their rally round, upload it to YouTube, and receive scrime sheets and scores after a short period of time. Noodle and I filmed the Special Puppy / Newcomers course, where I was allowed (and encouraged) to give treats to Noodle in a designated part of the ring to maintain her focus. I was delighted to find out we scored 182 for our Special Puppy / Newcomers round and hope to attempt for our Level 1 early in the new year. Many thanks to Jane Ward at SVDTC for all her support, and to Sally Sandford for her judging and kind comments.’ Congratulations Jasmine I look forward to reporting on her success in Level 1.
A couple of years ago we introduced the Michael Quinney Versatile Buhund Awards, where owner/dog teams can earn points across any number of activities. The highest achievement in each activity is counted for that activity and points added up and rosettes awarded accordingly. The latest Buhunds to gain awards are Lucy Beatrice Gilbert with Zuki aka Leggatts Fly Like An Eagle points from Good Citizen, Trick Dogs Titles and Bumbles,Pewter Award,and Millie Lambert-Dovey’s King AKA Ch Svartkonge Av Sturtmoor (Imp Nor)JW SHCM with points from Showing ,Bumbles Good Citizen and Discover Dogs, Bronze Award.
Finally, we have a hip score for Nancy Kent and Jacqui and Michael Cobbs’s Leggatts Dakota (Toby) of 6/7,
He is by Ch Rikarlo GableJW x Knytshall Noor Ain.
Stay safe everyone.
Margaret 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 Club of the UK