NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS
Crufts is over for another year, this was the 134th year, but how did it all begin. The show as I am sure most of you know was started in 1891 by Charles Cruft a travelling salesman who sold dog biscuits. Despite its age Crufts is regarded as a very prestigious dog show with people from all over the world coming to compete and watch. Charles Crufts did have some experience in dog shows as he helped to promote the Dog sections at the Paris exhibition in 1989.The first show was held in the Albert Hall in Islington and was deemed to be a great success. The show was called the Crufts Greatest Dog Show and had over 2,500 entries, even Queen Victoria entered her dogs and won three categories, including first prize for her Pomeranian Gena. I can hear you thinking that would not happen today ,but in fact the late Queen often entered horses in the Royal Windsor horse show, and her dogs frequently in Field Trials and visited Crufts in 1969. In 1928 Crufts added BIS and the very first winner was a a fawn Greyhound named Primeley Sceptre who was owned by the founder of Paignton Zoo !Since then of course BIS has become one of the most prestigious awards. In 1936 there were over 10,000 entries with 80 different breeds. The second world war interrupted Crufts and it did not start again until 1948 ,sadly though Charles Crufts did not see this happen as he died in 1938.His wife sold the show to the KC in 1942, and they have run it ever since. When the show started again it was held at Olympia and continued to flourish and especially as in 1950 the show was Televised by the BBC, two years later in 1952 the death of King George VI on February 6thmeant the show was postponed for 2days.In 1955 crossbreds were allowed to attend in various categories ,and this increased the entries to over 13,200 .Due to increased entries it moved to Earls Cout and was held there from 1979 till 1990,during this time the show was increased to 3days to accommodate the rise in entries and to 4 days in 1987 for the same reason. The first show held in the NEC was in 1991.There is a certain amount of rivalry between the Terrier Group and the Gundog Group. In the 1960s, three separate Terriers won BIS for three consecutive years, this missed beating the Gundogs however who won BIS for four consecutive yeas in the 1930s. Now 24 from the Gundog Group have won BIS and 21 Terriers. In 1991 Crufts was officially named in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest Dog Show with over 22,973 being entered. It also sees a huge number of visitors from home and abroad usually over 160,000, in the last couple of years all the tickets were sold out for the weekends.
The show has continued to flourish with many other activities being held which have proved to be very popular including Agility, Obedience Flyball Rally and Heelwork to Music, International Young Handlers to name a few ,and of course it has numerous trade stands ,and the all-important Discover Dogs especially important for numerically small breeds such has ours .It stared in a very small way in 1994 which I remembered going to, it proved very popular and now has over 200 breeds on view every day. The idea came about as it was found people wanting a dog invariably turned up on the wrong day at a Champ to see that breed that they were interested in.
Crufts of course has like so many things had negative publicity over the years, the worst was 2008 when the BBC aired a programme called ‘Pedigree Dogs Exposed’ which showed dogs with breathing and general heath problems, the programme caused a back lash against all pedigree dogs, which sadly to a certain extent still is around today, and which caused the rise in cross breeds with fancy names. The BBC immediately stopped showing Crufts and in 2009 it could only be seen online, but then in 2010, Channel 4 & More4 took it over and it now attracts over 5 million viewers, with YouTube still showing all the main ring events including the groups in full. Of course, over the years Crufts has expanded far beyond those early day, would Charles Crufts approve? Well, he was a showman so I expect he would!
On March 30th Sarah Stonton headed off with Pixie aka Wheatshade Snow Dreamer to Fosdyke Village Hall in Spalding Lincolnshire for a Level 2 Scentwork Trial, although it was the day when we lost an hour’s sleep, Sarah did not have to worry about that as it was afternoon trial. Pixie was fourth with full marks, the trials are timed and Sarah said in each search she made sure Pixie indicated properly as she tends to get rather excited which probably cost her some time, but indication is so important that it is certainly worth losing a higher place to make sure the indication is correct, to get it established. Sarah said her vehicle search though was stunning doing it in 55 seconds. Congratulations.
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