NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS
The show season is now in full swing with Pastoral and Toy Day at the Scottish Kennel Club double Championship shows only 6 days after Birmingham National. The show is held on the Royal Highland Showground and is one of the few shows that also has an Agility show and until 2023 an Obedience show, but that is now held a few weeks earlier. For many years we used to take the caravan and go for several days do the Agility, and Obedience with as well as showing with our Elkhound, Pap and of course the Buhunds, we also managed visits to friends and have some lovely walks around the lochs.
Most of you will know that SKC now run two shows together, their May Show is an all-breed Ch show which they run alongside their August General Ch show, which I think must be a logistical nightmare but obviously saves money and of course give some breeds a chance to win two CCs on the same day. We never had classes at the August show but last year they gave us classes without CCs. They have two schedules for the paper ones a Blue one for the May show and Yellow for their August show, and obviously two online shows to enter. Like Birmingham it used to be a fully outside show, but just over 10yrs ago heavy rain the night before the show flooded rings and meant at the last minute the show had to move into the Highland Hall and Lowland Halls, where it has stayed, they now also use the Central Hall for trade stands. This year like Birmingham the weather was dry and sunny and quite hot. The shows are unbenched, but the Buhund exhibitors managed to set up camp together, some had stayed locally others had left home at silly o’clock, 3am in Jeny’s case ! The breed was in Ring 12 in the Highland Hall, they started with the May show classes and we were after 16 Min Pins and 17 Hungarian Pulis. The judge was Tim Ball giving CCs in the Breed for the second time. he gives CCs in 74 breeds across all the groups. He found his BOB & BCC her 9th she also has 10thRCCs in Michael Patrick & Leigh Ashman’s Tapui Starla (Freya) she is by Ch Koromandel Best Served Cold At Knytshall x Ch Kimura’s Vera With Tapui(Imp Nor). RBCC her 2nd Ollie Wheeler’s Knytshall Thistle Ink It Up Koromandel (Inky) she is also by Ch Koromandel Best Served Cold At Knytshall x Knytshall Eloise, and as her name implies is black. DCC his 21st he also has 16RCCS Jacque & Michael Cobb and Nancy Kent’s Ch Koromandel Best Served Cold At Knytshall (Jamie),he was also BV and is by Ch/Can Ch Kyon’s Bold Norseman x Ch Maidofcopper For Koromandel JW VW (Imp Fin).At the other end of the scale winning his first RDCC having celebrated his first birthday just 2days previous , Cheryl Denham-Horton & Lorraine Bolton’s Tapui Haraldsson at Jjavacobe (Hogan), he is by Kimura’s Harald Harfagre x Ch Blackombe Bodil At Tapui(Imp Aus). The classes for the May All Breed Show over the classes for the August began with the same breeds in the same ring and in the same order, but it appears that for whatever reason not all exhibitors entered the second show. Our judge was Ms K McDevitt from County Armagh Northern Ireland she gives CCs in Australian Shepherds, Border, Rough and Smooth Collies and Shetland Sheepdogs. She found her BOB & BD in Millie Pentland’s homebred Sturtmoor’s Gon’n Dun JW (Gunna). RBD Jenny and Dave Langford’s Frostisen Zeffer (Loki) he was handled by Anne-Marie Taylor and was also 4th in the SKC Open Stakes (May Show)winning treat money, the judge was Richard Bottt, the August show only had 3 stakes classes 2 YKC & Breeders .BB Inky, this win meant she can now add JW after her name I think this makes her the second youngest Buhund to gain a JW, with Millie’s Gunna being the youngest which he gained at the recent club show when only a few days out of puppy. RBB Michael Patrick and Leigh Ashman’s Tapui Herborg (Beanz).The classes for the two shows seemed to work well, but the groups not so much, I spoke to some exhibitors who were there (not Pastoral Day),who said the groups were rather chaotic, all were pre judged with the dogs going to the group judge when they could in a designated ring and going out again, only being together for the final judging when a short list was quickly made. One of the problems seemed to be that the prejudging ring was often moved. I wasn’t there and all the Groups were judged, and they ended up with a BIS and RBIS for both shows the same for the Puppies and Veterans, so as I said earlier not easy to run two shows together, so well done, even if it was a little chaotic at times . I gather Driffield is doing two shows this year to make up for the one they had to cancel last year, so we will see how that goes, although they no longer schedule Buhunds after we lost CCs there.
On the Sunday of SKC but the other end of the UK, Poole Canine Club held its Open Show at Sparsholt College Equine Centre, in Sparshot Hampshire. The Buhund judge was Sandie Tadd and she awarded Jacqui Walmsley’s Trelowen Amelia At Frostisen (Bunny) BOB and then 2nd in AV Pastoral Veteran, Richard Forsythe then awarded her 5th in the Good Citizen Stakes. Jacqui said she ended the day sunburnt, and one of the stewards was Neil Hood.
The same weekend but on the Saturday, Sarah Stonton took her Wheatshade Snow Dreamer (Pixie) to Stanley Village Hall, Ilkeston Derbyshire, for a L2 SWUK trial where she was 3rd, with Pixie finding all the hides and gaining her Excellence at that level with 20plus points.
Also, on the Saturday but much further south, Lucy Beatrice Gilbert took her Leggatts Fly Like An Eagle (Zuki) to Pawsability Agility Show, Catcombe Farm Somerton Somerset, this was their first KC show. Lucy and Zuki have been training with Crazypup Dog Traing club and have competed successfully in some of their competitions and those of Watercombe Dogs training club. It was a great start with her coming 2nd in her first jumping class although she did have some time faults. In the next class was a steeplechase unfortunately Zuki did not start well and jumped onto a pole otherwise she was clear. Lucy said sadly their last jumping class was rather messy though no fault of their own, Zuki was focused and ready to go when the timer needed attention, so they had to leave the ring until the timer was sorted. This upset Zuki so when they started again Zuki had lost her focus and seemed initially to have forgotten how to weave, she also went to say hello to some of the ring party she had made friends with while queuing, before finishing her round in style! Having watched the video of her competing she was really enjoying it, and I look forward to writing about her as she continues her agility career, which I am sure will be very successful.
I finish with many congratulations to Mary and Coralie Dosson whose Leggatts Part Time Lover(Barnaby), recently passed his Gold Good Citizen test at the Little Orchard Training Academy in Somerset .This is great achievement as dogs are not allowed to take the test till the are a year old and Barnaby is only just over 18months , Mary said his sweet nature helped Coralie with his training .
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