NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS
Some of the Championship dog shows started in conjunction with Agricultural shows but over the years went their own way. Two I remember when I came into showing were Three Counties and East of England, you could walk through from the dog show to the main show, and they would let you in for free so long as you did not take your dogs, so to help those who wanted to go into the show we would take it in turns to look after the dogs. This stopped with Three Counties after torrential rain one year caused traffic chaos as the general car park was flooded, and although the show carried on the next year the dog show was separate. With East of England, it was more disastrous as the year they had torrential rain the whole agricultural show was cancelled, only the dog show survived by moving indoors. The Agricultural show never recovered from the financial losses it suffered which was very sad for a show started in 1797, when of course things were very different. That disastrous year means that the East of England Ch Dog show will cease after this year, as it was tied financially to the Agricultural Society which is selling the show ground. On a happier note, some Agricultural shows do still have dogs shows, Cheshire County has a two-day dog show, and another is Devon County agricultural show which started in 1872 and hosts a Premier Open show, and this was their 19th year. The show has 370 classes for 22 different breeds including classes for Buhunds, this year it ran from 18th -20th May and is held at the Westpoint Arena and showground in Clyst St Mary near Exeter, the venue of course for Paignton Ch show. Mary Dosson told me that her and husband David’s Teddy aka Kligenthal Bran Mak Morn won BOB under Tate Forsey and was later shortlisted in the Pastoral Group under Sandie Tadd, Mary said she was very chuffed as there were several Champions in the Group that did not get through. After the group Mary said, ‘they went round the rest of the show, which is a traditional agricultural show which celebrates rural life in Devon, it was great weather and they met up with various friends, and in general had a great day out.’
Another open show with Buhund classes was Poole Canine Open Show held on 21st May at Pikes Farm, Organford Nr Poole which is the Bournemouth Championship Showground. Jasmine Freeborn has kindly sent me her report of the show. ‘In the seemingly endless quest for Noodle’s Junior Warrant, Sue and I headed off to Pikes Farm for the Poole Canine Club Open Show, where we were fortunate enough to have breed classes, five Buhunds were listed on the summary of entries, but only three were present on the day. Noodle (Leggatts Jive Talkin) took first in the Postgraduate class over her dam Tissy (Leggatts Voulez Vous) and took another first in the Open class over Jacqui Walmsley’s Bunny (Trelowen Amelia), thus ending our four open show point drought and giving Noodle her second Best of Breed rosette. Thank you to judge Steve Bennett for thinking so highly of Noodle on the day. We did not have any success in what a strong Pastoral Group was, but I was extremely pleased with how Noodle showed, as anyone who saw us at WELKS can testify, she has been incredibly interested in the floor of late! I have my fingers very tightly crossed for the Bath Canine Championship show at the weekend; Noodle currently has 17 Junior Warrant points, but the 13th of July is rapidly approaching!’ Thanks Jasmine I know only too well the quest for JW points, Time won his last three points needed just two days before he was 18months, it is very hard to gain a JW in a numerically small breed such as ours.1 point for a class win at an open show and 3 at a Ch show.
Earlier in the year there was a surprise announcement on April 5th that the King had confirmed that in future the KC would be called the Royal Kennel Club to honour its 150 years, it is the oldest recognised Kennel Club in the world. There was then another announcement that there would be a Buckingham Palace Garden Party for KC members and staff. The worry of course was would there be a train strike and what about the weather after a cold wet spring. In the end there was no train strike on May 24th and the weather in London was perfect, warm dry and sunny but not too hot. So, everyone was able to enjoy tea and cakes on the lawn of Buckingham Palace, in the presence of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Prince Michael of Kent who is President of the Kennel Club. Debbie and Jenny were two Buhund club members who enjoyed the memorable event, Debbie said ‘it was a lovely, relaxed afternoon but wished she had been able to see more of her friends but was hard to spot everyone under the hats’!
Stay safe everyone.
Margaret Deuchar margaretdeuhar@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