NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS
THE SECOND Day of the Anniversary weekend was the fun day. Debbie and I organised a fun show, Jenny a parade of Buhunds who do various activities and Jacqui and Michael ran two rally rings .There was a later start to help those who had partied the night away the evening before. Any dog whatever breed that was attending the celebrations could enter, entries were taken from 10.30am with the show starting at 11am.
I wanted a judge for the show who understood the Spitz breed but did not own a Buhund. Christina Wilkin shows & breeds Keeshonds, Debbie and I have known her for some years as she also does agility. Our weekend clashed with Leeds Ch show but Christina said she was not entering and would love to do the Show. Cobby Dog sponsored with small bags of food for all the winners and there were of course also rosettes down to fifth with the lovely green white and gold ones for the ‘Best Of’. We started with a baby puppy class with two puppies from the Am Gr /Can Gr Ch Kyon’s Bold Norseman(Idar) x Ch Maid of Copper for Kormandel (JW) (Piika) litter, Nancy Kent’s Kormandel Best Served Cold, Jamie to his friends and Dawne Deeley’s Kormandel Kaos. The winner was Jamie who was also BPIS. Next was the Junior Handling 13yrs and under, Christina putting young Isaac Shorer Wheeler and Ch Arnscroft Di Na Mo Farrah of Kormandel through their paces, up and down, a triangle and a T, to be worthy winners. Next 14yrs and over Anne Smith with Arnscroft Never Say Di, (Oskar) went through the same paces and took first place. Best Overall Handler Rosette was awarded to Isaac a very worthy winner. The dog with the Curliest Tail was next. This was a popular class but in the end it was Chris Maynard’s Knytshall Black Orloff that took 1st place. The waggiest tail followed with Millie Lambert’s Ch Svartkonge Av Sturtmoor (King)(Imp Nor)JW ShCM gaining the red rosette . Next came Best Crossbreed the winner was Sue Crocker’s Charlie who also won the Best Rescue. Best conditioned was Oskar. Best Veteran 7yrs and over on the day Sue Cale’s Ch/Ir Ch Arnscroft Kiss and Tell for Sturtmoor, Ice to her friends. The next class was the Fastest Biscuit Eater which had so many entries it was run in heats with the final being very hard fought, with veteran winner Ice showing all the other dogs how to do it. The cameras were all out for this race and the following one, the Potato and Spoon, again run in heats and won by Lillian and Michael Rumsey’s Ch Arnscroft Di Nah May. (Anja)handled by Michael. Then came the nail biting BIS with the winners from every class taking part, which after much deliberation went to Oskar with RBIS Ice. You can see from these results that all the dogs and their owners had a good time whether they were successful show dogs or not.
Having the whole of the arena at Ryton meant the ‘Have A Go’ and ‘Competition’ Rally rings could run alongside the fun show. Thanks go to Jacqui and Michael for working hard to set up the two rings rather than celebrating their 29th wedding anniversary, which was the same day. Thanks also go to Megan Johnson who judged the Rally and her scribe Alysha Branchflower. For those of you have never seen Rally, it started in the US being called Rally O and is a canine activity with elements of competitive obedience. The difference being a course is set using 15 signs describing what the dog is required to do at each sign, such as ‘sit down sit’. There are six levels and the first two are done on the lead. The scoring starts with 200 and faults are deducted, 170 is the qualifying score and this needs to be obtained on 3 occasions to move up to the next level. Jacqui’s Knytshall Angel Delight was the first Buhund to move up to the next level and did it with excellent scores of 180 plus, so now has R1EX after her name.
The closing event of the show was a parade organised by Jenny of dogs who do various activities. Jenny started by talking about the Good Citizen Tests and the puppy foundation which helps to make puppies well socialised. It was lovely that Ian Joyce joined the parade with Hettie who was his hearing dog and has been with him for 12yrs, although now retired from her hearing dog duties. Ruth Price’s Tean who tried out as a Hearing dog but did quite make the grade & Tom West’s Venn also joined, as did James Stewart who brought along Sasha proudly wearing her Flyball rosettes, she had previously been 2nd in Best Rescue. It was great to have James and Sasha there on the Sunday as James had driven all the way back to London on the Saturday and come back for the Parade, interestingly Sasha is Tean’s sister. Angel represented Rally and Obreedience, Anja wearing her life Jacket, she is a seafaring dog regularly going sailing, Mo also joined in with Isaac as Mo has started Heel work to Music. Debbie and I were thrilled when Jenny gave us a lovely collage of Fizz (Ch/Bel Ch Tonylynn’s Charles LafitteAW(G)R1EX)doing Agility, Showing and Obreedience/Rally which had been put together by Lorranie Bolton, he also has his gold good citizen, there was also a fabulous rosette saying ‘Versitile Buhund Award’. There is a club Trophy for the Top Activity Dog of the Year which Fizz won this year, it is hoped that more Buhunds will take part in the various activities, so perhaps we will be able to have a ‘Versatile Award’ as well. Maureen and Brian with Knytshall Cora Sun Drop of Maubrea(Fern ) also attended the day, Fern is very successfully training to do scent. Sue Crocker is doing agility with Knytshall Noor Ul Ain,and Millie with King. Although not there Julian Collins does Bikejor with Ch Arnscroft Di Nah Saw Us Rex & Sarah Stonton with Trelowen Andrea does Agility and Obreedience. Hindsight is a great thing but we wished we had started the day with the Parade rather than end it. Everyone who attended the weekend really seemed to enjoy it and we hope that we can organise another fun day and parade.
We had two visitors from abroad Faye Adcox who is the President of the Norwegian Buhund Club of America the same as being our Chairman. She came over the Monday before the weekend and stayed with James & Sasha, they took her round London and the home counties, posting pictures on Face Book which meant we also enjoyed the trips out.Her highlight was seeing the Queen when she drove out of Buckingham Palace. Faye went to stay with Sue Crocker for a few days after the weekend so we were then able to enjoy her visit to the West Country. Julia Aarre from Norway also came to join us for the whole weekend and I think helped the club shop make a healthy profit .The most popular sale items were the Jigsaws and Anniversary mugs, thanks go to Anne Smith for sourcing these and other items.
I have heard from Pamela and Keith Cook that their Arnscroft Di Ablo passed his Gold Good Citizen Test at his first attempt, well done he is by my Fullani Finnsmark who also has his gold x Arnscroft Queen of Diamonds who is another Buhund living in central London.
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