NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS
The day after NW&PBS show, the 19th February the show scene moved up north to St Helens & District Canine Society show held in the Sutton Leisure Centre, St Helens Merseyside, no Buhund classes but AVNSC. Kirsty Irvine wrote, ‘A lovely day today for our Bodi aka Blackcombe Bodil at Tapui, who was 1st in Junior and 3rd in Open with Nancy Kent and Jacque and Michael Cobb’s Leggatts Dakota at Knytshall aka Toby (grandson to our Betty) coming 2nd in puppy, Buhunds rule!’ The judge was Caroline Friend-Rees. The same day but in the Midlands Sarah Stonton wites about another canine activity-: ‘Last week Margaret wrote a bit about scent trials for pet dogs and emphasised the huge importance true ‘working’ dogs provide in search and rescue, not forgetting all the sniffer dogs in airports, with police and our armed forces where they fill many different roles. In the pet world, scent training and competing gives us fun with our dogs alongside the social aspect with fellow competitors. Of equal, and perhaps greater importance it gives dogs a wonderful fun mental workout doing something which comes naturally to them, sniffing. It is useful to build confidence to those less self-assured by allowing the dog to focus on what its sniffing and less so on its concerns. Ironically it can also calm over exuberant dogs by thoroughly tiring them mentally after a full-on focus session. On Sunday the 19th Jack (Ch Arnscroft InDi Ana Jack RL1Ex, L4 Ex) and I happily headed off to Solihull Lodge Community Centre for another Scentwork UK Level 5 trial. There were 10 dogs entered; Jack worked beautifully throughout, obtained a clean sweep finding all 12 of the scents hidden indoors and out and was awarded 2nd place with 2extra bonus points for finding all the hides. I was thrilled to say the least happy dog and handler.
As Sarah said in previous notes I wrote about the Search and Rescue dogs, who went to Turkey from Mexico after the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria. I was therefore very sad to read the following a few days ago. ‘The Secretariat of the National Défense of Mexico (SEDENA) has paid tribute to Proteo, a search and rescue dog who lost his life while carrying out rescue operations in Turkey. Working among the ruins, Proteo was able to locate two survivors before his death.
A search and rescue dog form Lincolnshire also sustained an injury but happily not a serious one, he had accompanied a team of 77 firefighters from across the UK who had flown to Turkey. It just shows how dangerous it is for these amazing dogs that work in these awful conditions.
Back in 2018 Brenda Bethell and husband Tony moved from the UK to Eire, while living here they successful showed their Buhunds Ir Ch Zodiac’s Featuring Fredrik at Taevas of Minforst(IMP US)(Freddie), Ir Ch/Lux Ch Arnscroft Glad Di Ola at Minforst (Freya )and their homebred daughter Minforst Galdriel (Ella) both here and abroad, and they continued to be successful on the Irish show scene when they had moved. Then Covid hit and the like in the UK the shows stopped. Since shows have started again they have continued their winning ways and Brenda was thrilled to receive ‘The Irish Kennel Club Centenary Champion Diploma’ saying that Ella now has these initials added to her name Ch, CIB, AN Ch19 ,CW19,JT Cent Ch which means she is an Irish Ch an Int Ch, Annual Ch 2019 ,Celtic Winner & 2019 Joint Centenary Champ. Brenda was also received ‘The Irish Kennel Club Centenary Veteran Winner’ for Freya .The FCI are very good at adding initials after dogs names !
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