NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS
With Pastoral Day at Crufts being the Thursday by the time you read these notes we will have been judged, you will have all taken the best dog home and whoever was BOB, will I know have been a credit to the Breed in the Group ring.
As I write these notes the sun is shining and it is so much warmer than in recent weeks, will it last – hopefully! I am sure you will have seen the pictures of snow on the east coast of the USA particular New York, with the snowfall beating the previous record with nearly 2 feet of snow falling in very short time, although very disruptive there were several photos of Buhunds who were in their element. You might think it would not happen here, but some might remember the winter of 1963 in the UK also known as the winter of the ‘Big Freeze’ with heavy snow and it was so cold rivers, and part of the sea froze over, it was the coldest winter since 1740, with Wales and the West Country particularly being affected. Then there was the Beast from the East in 2018 which arrived late February and into March with low temperatures and heavy snowfall, since then we have not had much snow, just more rainy winters like this year when it has rained most days untilt now. There is still time of course for more snow this winter but hopefully not for Crufts, as happened in 2023 when snow fell before Crufts and on the Thursday evening, and although not very heavy it caused problems to those travelling up on the Friday , and of course we had to be first in the ring! but all Buhunds made it in but that was not true in all the breeds.
I was recently reading an article recently which has nothing to do particularly with Buhunds but dogs in general, it was about the bond between dogs and their owners, with owners in most western countries seeing their dogs as companions and family members. Of course, with all research it is often how the questions are asked, in this case the research showed that owners often gained greater satisfaction from being with their dog rather than their human partner except for their child. They felt they received more support from dogs than from their partner and experienced fewer negative interactions with their dogs and their human best friends. It was pointed out that this could be because the owners have control over the dog’s life, a good life with a dog might also reflect the owner’s positive relationships with humans, with the key to happiness as often being stated is to having positive thoughts. Characterizing dog owner relationships offers a valid way to evaluate relationships with dogs, giving a framework for comparing dog-human and human-human relationships. It was an interesting article, whether you agree and was it worth the money spent on the research, you can decide that.
Sarah Stonton recently travelled with Ch Arnscroft In Di Ana Jack (Jack)L8Ex R2 Ex to The Fox in Keysoe Bedfordshire for a Scentwork Level L10 trial, there are only 12 levels at the moment. The Fox used to have horses so has stables, a stable yard, a barn, a manage and paddocks. Sarah was very pleased as Jack qualified in 3rd place (only 3 qualified) from the 7 pairs competing. She said he was such a happy boy, and excited to go into each search, worked hard and came out super smiley and happy. She said ‘we missed 3 of 10 hides on the exterior as he cut off the corner where they were in, I let him and did not take him back, in one stable he really did not pick up on the odour in a cupboard, in another stable he was in odour but did not locate it .Then having found 2 in a stable I took him back into another where he had not found anything but there was nothing there. It was very windy for an exterior search. The first interior search was in an open sided barn, he worked amazingly happy off lead, and we correctly called it clear then for the stable search he was off the lead and took himself out of one stable and into the next finding hides, ending up with 94 points’. Congratulations both.
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