NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS
The report from a championship show this week comes from across the Irish Sea in Northern Ireland. Belfast two day Champ show is held in The Eikon Exhibiton Centre Lisburn. The Belfast Dog Show Society was founded in 1880 and is one of the oldest in the UK and Ireland, the show itself is the largest championship show to be held in Ireland. Pastoral day was Sunday no Buhund classes but AVNSC Pastoral, with judge Simon Luxmoore holding centre stage, apart from OD & OB all the classes were mixed. There were 6 Buhunds present, 2 from across the border in Eire, 2 from England and 2 who live in Northern Ireland so a really good turn out. BD, so making the sea trip worthwhile, was Nancy Kent and Jacqui & Michael Cobb’s Ch Koromandel Best Served Cold At Knytshall (Jamie), he is by Uk/Can Ch Kyon’s Bold Norseman Koromandel x Ch Maidofcopper for Koromandel(Imp Fin). RBD and living more locally was Sue Sercombe’s Trelowen Kristopher he is by Ir & Int Ch Zodiac’s Featuring Fredrik at Taevas of Minforst (Ir Jun Ch)(IMP US)(CW19)(Freddy )x Trelowen Glentorran ,he was handled by Sue’s daughter Jacqui, he is still a puppy but was beaten in the mixed puppy class by Shulune Imperial Seduce a smooth collie who was later PPG4 under Miss Spavin.
Nancy very kindly sent me the following report on the show. ‘The bitch line up was three Smooth Collies, one of each colour, merle, sable and tri. The merle was BB. The dog line up was three Buhunds two blacks and my wheaten, Jamie, who took BD with Kris in Reserve. Mr Luxmoore took a long time choosing BOB, smiling and looking back and forth between the bitch and Jamie, finally awarding it to the bitch, she was lovely and this was her third year of winning BOB AVNSC. The venue was nice, in a park where the Maze prison had been, this has now been flattened except for a few watch towers peering over the trees. No benches but plenty of space around the ring and the buildings were nice and airy.’ Thanks Nancy hope you have a calm sailing home.
On Saturday 21st September the Quatre Bu Obreedience team of Jacqui Cobb with Knytshall Angel Delight, Sarah Stonton with Trelowen Andrea (Loxy), Lisa Strong with Loki Snowflake and myself with Tonylynn’s Charles Laffitte (Fizz), headed to Green Acres in Daventry for an Obreedience heat, run by the Lagotto Romagnolo Club of Great Britain. We won the heat there last year but this year for various reasons we have not been very successful. I think most of you know about Obreedience, it was first started to encourage more breeds to have a go at tests more usually associated with Competitive Obedience, and is suitable for dogs and handlers of all ages. There is a team of four handles & dogs which must be of the same breed and reg with the KC but can be on the working register. In 2014 & 15 the KC had Displays of Obreedience at Crufts, then later in 2015 there were heats with the top 10 teams from the heats going to Crufts in 2016.There was a restriction that still stands today that only three from any one group can go to Crufts. We first started doing it to get the breed better known, which we certainly have with the teams that compete, but is still a work still in progress with the general public, and even with the dog show community who often are heard to say, ‘I didn’t know they came in black’! The competition has proved to be very popular with many breeds, but it does involve a lot of commitment. This year there have been 15 heats so far all over England, with the final one being at LKA. There have been 23 teams taking part but not all attend every heat and we certainly do not, one numerically large breed has three teams, whereas we struggle sometimes to have a team and a reserve. It is a lovely competition and everyone is so friendly. This year for the first time there has been a team of Hungarian Pumis called ‘All Ears’ and Skye Terriers a couple of which come from Scotland and they are called ‘The Draught Excluders’.
There are three heel work patterns and you are only told on the day which pattern will be used, the whole team does the heel work with marks being awarded up to 10.Some of the teams live near each other and practice regularly, we all live far apart and only practice before the competition. In the past we have often been able to pick up on the individual exercises, but not this time. We were drawn first and as usual we were middle of the leader board after the heel work. When all 14 teams had done this part, there was a short break then it was time for the individual exercises. First was Loki with ‘Go To Bed’ 9 points out of 10 .Then Angel with ‘Stop on Command’ in a box marked on the ground 9.5 out of 10 .Then Loxy with retrieve who in the past has had full marks for this exercise, but on this occasion she thought the farm buildings at the top of the field needed investigating! Last was Fizz with scent, who again over years has gained full marks for picking up his cloth, from other items put down by the judge, but here he thought the doggy maltesers better known as Rabbit droppings, needed to be eaten, in fact I think he left only left a few for any of the other dogs, although a couple in other teams were seen hoover up those he had left! Needless to say we ended the wrong end of the leader board, however on the plus side it was a beautiful day not a cloud in the sky. We all sat around chatting, eating the cake Sarah had made and watching the other teams. Loxy, Angel and Fizz have all been in the team from the beginning, with Loki coming in when Kiki went blind (nothing breed related), Alysha Branchflower with Knytshall Moon of Josephine has also been in the team on occasions. We hope to be able to do the last heat at LKA, a heat we won back in 2016. Then next year we are hoping that some of the younger Buhunds will be in the team. Fizz all along has been the only one who could do scent, but now we have a couple of others that are honing the skill. Not sure we will ever get to Crufts, the top teams at the moment have 100 points.The team gets 10 points for winning down to 1 point for tenth place. However, I think we should be proud that we represent the breed and compete, I know of several numerically large breeds that have members who would love to do it but can’t get a team together.
A reminder for all aspiring judges we have a breed appreciation day on 16th November, please contact our secretary Jenny Shorer-Wheeler if you wish to attend.
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.