NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS
A Happy New Year to you all, I often joke that I am still waiting for the Millenium, if you remember all the hype we had about it, now here we are in 2024. I hope that those of you who have dogs who hate fireworks did not suffer too much with the New Year celebrations, Time is not scared he just thinks they are attacking his house and he needs to protect it!
It will not be long before the show season is in full swing with Manchester All Breed show the first one with Pastoral day Friday 19th January, last year it snowed so I hope that will not be the case again this year, although it did not cause many problems. Our judge is Marion Sargent, this will be the 4th time she has judged the breed, the first was at Birmingham National in 2013 and the last time was at Manchester in 2019. Then on 10th February it is National Working and Pastoral Breeds Premier Open Show held at The Sports Connexion Ryton On Dunsmore Coventry, the judge is Sandi A Tadd who gives CCs in two Pastoral Breeds. The club gives prize money for the classes & BOB & BP, you will find the schedule on Higham Press. Then onto Crufts, here centre stage will be Kevin Young judging the breed for the 6th time, the last time was in 2017 at National Working and Pastoral Breeds Ch show. This year we are second in ring 16(Hall4) after Samoyeds. The next Ch show is Working and Pastoral Breeds of Wales on April 20th we do not have CCs there and at the time of writing the schedule is not out, the next Ch show is WELKS with Pastoral Day Sunday 28th April, again no CCs but we will be having our Club show there with judge Marion Hodgson who gives CCs in 4 Working Breeds and 12 Pastoral Breeds. The next Ch show with CCs for the breed is another All-Breed Show, Birmingham National with Pastoral day being Friday 10th, the judge is Dr Annukka Paloheimo PhD MSc MPhil who is a FCI judge from Finland and gives CCs in 55 breeds across all the groups in the UK. Just 8 days later it is up to Scotland for the Scottish Kennel Club show, where the judge is Jeff Horswell judging the breed for the 5th time, the last being in 2019 at Leeds when he took over at the last minutes from the scheduled judge who was taken ill the morning of the show. SKC this year is combing its May All-Breed show with its August show and will run them as separate shows, with separate schedules but on the same days. They did this successfully in 2021 when due to the pandemic their May show was cancelled, so they had both shows together in September that year. This year they are doing it the other way round, we only have classes at the May show and not the August one so it will not make much difference to us, but of course for some breeds it will mean they can have two sets of CCs on the same day. I have to say I admire them, they obviously have a fantastic organising team, to run two separate shows on the same venue and on the same days. The next CC show for us is another All-Breed Show, Bath with Pastoral day Friday May 24th the judge here is Toni Jackson giving CCs in the breed for the first time, she gives CCs in 20 other breeds across 3 groups. In fact, looking at it, now we have lost Richmond all shows giving us CCs are the All-Breed ones. One show without CCs whose schedule is out, is Blackpool where Pastoral day is Sunday 23rd June, our judge is Dianna Spavin who is also judging the Puppy Group. The show like last year is unbenched and exhibitors are asked to take their own chairs.
I have received the latest Breed Record Supplement from the KC (Pastoral), which sadly shows we only had 14 puppies born in the breed last year compared to 19 in 2022, a couple of bitches missed, and one only had one, but hopefully with several litters planned this year the numbers will go up again. The highest breed is the GSD followed by the Border Collie with puppies born in the thousands, but even these breeds are down from the previous year. However most importantly we know we have a healthy breed and that the puppies go from their breeders to their forever homes with very few ever coming into rescue.
Many of us compete with our dogs doing various activities and I read this on the Face Book page of someone who competes successfully abroad with their dog, she said years ago she had a special dog that taught her many things that she applies when she competes today, and I thought what great advice it was .1 Compete for fun 2 Do not over think things 3 Focus on the moment 4 Do not worry about what others think 5 The honour is competing with your best friend.
I do not often comment about dogs that compete abroad, as obviously there are many various shows and competitions, unless there is a close UK connection. Back in 2016 Amie McLaughlin imported Arnscroft Be A Sailors Son Di (Skipper)who is litter brother to Sarah Stonton’s Ch Arnscroft In Di Ana Jack. Amie mated Skipper to her very successful bitch Ch Jotunn Bella Binna CA BCAT CGC and from her second litter to Skipper she kept Buzz, who has become MBIS MRBIS MNBISS Cloudpointe Ringside Gossip. Of course, the show scene in the US is very different from ours and Amie is a professional handler, but you cannot take it away from this pair and what they have done for the breed in the US, Buzz is the Top Buhund,3rd in the Herding Group and 22nd Dog All Breeds. The AKC have just held their National Championships in Orlando and Buzz is the first Buhund to be placed in a group at the Championships winning G2 and he also won the Bred By Exhibitor Group. He has also won Westminster twice.
Take care everyone.
Margaret Deuchar margaretdeuchar@gamil.com