Caroline's
breed notes are also available from www.pedigreedogs.co.uk. 13
January 2007First
of all, we would like to wish all the regular and not so regular readers of these
breed notes a happy new year. And if you take only one resolution for 2007, then
it is an easy one: Everyday should be a hovawart day! If you live with one, you
already know it cannot really be any other way, and that it is just as well. Highlights
of 2006 I
believe we had 4 hovawart litters born in 2006 in the UK, producing a total of
23 puppies, 10 dogs and 13 bitches, most of them black and gold, but there was
also one blonde and 7 black puppies.
Pines were hoping that they would have
the 5th litter of the year when taking Pines Penny Whistle to Austria. But Whistle
decided that 2006 was not the right vintage for her. Let’s hope that 2007
will be more to her taste. 2006
was also the year were our British dogs shone abroad.
Pines Tipperary for Annvad
“Becks” gave the UK dog scene its first homebred resident Dutch champion.
A well deserved title for this lovely girl and for her owners Ann Travis and Dave
Southwell who took the time to go and show Becks in the Netherlands.
A group
of Pines dogs also made the trip to Austria for the International Hovawart Federation
Show and they came back having won the breeder class!
IHF breed specialist
Jan de Gids from the Netherlands was judging our club show this year and he commented
that a number of the hovawarts he judged that day could easily compete with well
qualified hovawarts on the continent.Finally, Pines Piccolo avec Spicemill proved
that our British hovawarts are not only beautiful but also have the correct temperament
by going to the French Hovawart Club Show and passing first time the sociability
and the natural aptitude test. To
be continued…? With
all these wonderful results, it is going to be difficult not to have high expectations
for the breed in 2007. Are we going to see hovawarts reaching these elusive placings
in group judging at championship show? Hofwarth Dewytch “Polly” owned
by Julie Condron, achieved it at the Fylde KA Open Show by finishing 2nd of the
working group. And I believe Kynyaf Tiy of Pines Cdex “Orchid” was pulled
out in the last group of 8 at Richmond Championship Show for the group judging.
Crufts
should be interesting this year again with foreign hovawarts entered. I have heard
of a nice black dog from The Netherlands and a beautiful blonde bitch from Switzerland
who may be coming and I expect there will be others I have not heard about. 2007
also starts with puppies on the way as we now know for sure that our Pines Piccolo
avec Spicemill “Venka” is in whelp. The puppies are planned for the
end of the month or the beginning of February. We are expecting black & gold,
black and maybe even blonde puppies. This litter will hopefully be followed by
another one at Pines as they took Pines Mercedes to France to a German bred black
& gold dog called Bosse vom Hause Degro. This mating should produce an all
black & gold litter.
Edit:
We have found out since that Elaine and John actually took Mercedes to Ubaye
des Leus Altiers. Sorry for the confusion! Coming
shows I
believe the next show with hovawart classes is the National Working and Pastoral
Breeds Society Open Show which will take place at Coventry on Saturday 17th
February. Schedules can be requested by email to puligemeau@aol.com.
Please make sure you include your complete postal address in the email. Entries
close on Thursday 25th January.
There are 3 Hovawarts classes which will be
judged by Mrs. F. Somerfield. Hovawarts can also be entered in A.V. Rare Breeds,
judged by Mr. D. G. Kitchener. If
you have not entered your hovies for Crufts yet, there is just a few days
left to do it online. I believe the postal entries have closed already. So hurry!
Our
judge is Mr. Sanchez and the classes are: Veteran, Special Junior, Post Graduate,
Open and Good Citizen Dog Scheme. Each of these classes is separately available
for dogs and for bitches.
For more information, please visit www.thekennelclub.org.uk/activities/crufts.html Read
the previous breed notes | 
