Norwegian Buhund

Breed Notes 4th June 2021 Margaret Deuchar

NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS

Last week I wrote about the ‘Our Dogs’ online show, this week it is about another online competition Obreedience, the fifth since lockdown started last year. Many thanks go to Julia Bodsworth for organising them all, this time there were 22 teams, many were mixed breed teams but as usual our Quatre Bu team was of four Buhunds. Lisa Strong was again team captain. The team was Jacqui Cobb with Knytshall Eloise, Michael Cobb with Knytshall Angel Delight R2 Ex, Lisa Strong with Leggatts ExDancing Queen At Draccus (Eris) and for the first time Jonathan Martin with Wolfen Dances With Wolves (Ulfie). All competitors do the same heel work pattern, then each competitor and dog do an individual exercise. The heel work pattern and how each individual exercise must be performed is published is advance of the competition start date, this includes the details of where the camera should be placed plus measurements for each exercise and how they should be executed. Once the competition has started there are couple of weeks for each competitor to send the film of their heel work and individual exercise to Lisa, who collates them and sends them to the organiser. With the atrocious weather recently, it was not easy to get the filming done.

Jacqui and Eloise’s exercise was ‘Leg Weave Transition’ a Heel Work to Music exercise. The dog starts in a sit on the left of the handler, the lead is removed, and the pair move forward 5 paces with the dog at heel, the dog is then asked to weave through the handler’s legs to end up on the right of the handler, then doing a further 5paces at heel before sitting and having the lead reattached.

Michael and Angel did ‘Stop on Cue Whilst Moving Away’, a Good Citizen exercise. There is a start and finish maker which are 12 paces apart. A treat pot/toy is placed at the finish marker and shown to the dog. The pair then return to the start where with the dog in a sit the lead is removed, the dog is then sent towards the toy /treat pot, halfway the handler tells the dog to stop, which it should do immediately in any position. The handler then hurries to the dog and takes it to the treat /toy as a reward.

Lisa and Eris did ‘Send Around Poles/Cones’ based on a useful agility exercise when a dog can be sent round a jump. The distance between the poles is 4 metres which are placed in a diamond shape. The dog starts in a sit while the lead is removed. The dog is sent round the pole /cone which in front of them in a clockwise direction, the dog should return to the handler going round the back of the handler who should turn to face the second pole/cone, and without stopping the dog should continue round the second pole/cone, returning to the handler in the heel position and finishing in a sit.

Jonathon and Ulfie did ‘Down Whilst Moving Recall to Heel’ which is a Rally exercise. Two markers are placed 3 metres apart. The handler with the dog off the lead approach the first marker, where the dog is cued to go down while the handler continues to the second marker, with the handler’s back to the dog the dog is then called to heel and must sit while the lead is attached.

Heel marks are out of 10 and the team earned 6.50. The exercises earn 10 for each with the team earning 38 out of 40, with Jonathan and Ulfie gaining 10 out of 10 the first time in the team, so very well done. As usual the marks were very tight the winners had 49.50 out of 50 and Quatre Bu 44.50 Another great result and a good way to fly the Buhund Flag.

There were some interesting stats from the competition. Nine dogs over 10 yrs took part the oldest being 14yrs, eighteen under 2yrs the youngest of which was just 6months.There were 14 crossbreds 14 Border collies 12 Cavaliers 7 Belgian Shepherds 6 Labs 5JRTs 4 Buhunds and 19 other breeds with 1 or 2 competitors. The team the ‘Sunset Gals’ was third the team consisted of two Border Collies a Poodle and a Shetland Sheepdog with a total age of 39yrs which included the 14yr old, showing it is never too late to teach an old dog new tricksMany of you know that Sarah Stonton, Debbie and I do scent training with our dogs for fun, but there are now scent dogs doing some very serious training, it is hoped that these dogs can contribute to efforts to prevent the spread of covid as society reopens, especially at airports and mass events. In training these dogs have been 88% successful in picking up Covid cases from socks, facemasks, T shirts and other various items, it has even been suggested that they are more accurate than the lateral low tests. The dogs are nearly all Spaniels and Retrievers which have even more scent receptors than other breeds, it is said that they can sniff out a single drop of liquid in an Olympic size swimming pool, with up to 100,000times more smelling ability than humans, dogs have long been used to sniff out drugs and explosives, and more recently there are Medical Detection dogs that are used to smell out several diseases including cancer.

Stay safe everyone.

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.