29 March 2007

Crufts, probably the best known dog show in the world, was taking place at the beginning of March at the NEC.

This year saw a Spanish judge, Mr. Sanchez, judging our breed. This is quite unusual as I think hovawarts are even rarer in Spain as they are in the UK. His best of breed went to Houwaert's Jiska, owned by the original importer of the breed in this country, Min Inches. Reserve best bitch went to another hovawart from Scotland, Craig and Sarah Hosie's young blonde bitch Annvad Daimys Princess. Best dog went to a visitor from the continent, Dutch Ch Berry von der Teichlandschaft and reserve best dog went to Minches Jet. Best Puppy was Pines Copper Beach. We had 2 other exhibitors from abroad, both black dogs who have sired litters in the UK: Ned/Ger Ch Biko v d Bremmerstee, who we have seen previously on the UK rings, won the Good Citizen male class and Ger/Lux Ch Enzo vom Amorhof who got the second place in the male veteran class. This class was won by the well known Vindael Devlin. I have heard it was its last appearance in the ring as he is now being retired, after a very successful career, both as a show dog and as a stud dog. He will be missed at shows.

Many thanks to Clare Scully, owner of The Hovawart blog, for allowing us to share with you the picture she took of the Hovawarts Crufts winners.

From left to right: best dog Dutch Ch Berry v d Teichlandschaft with owner M. Bakker,
judge Mr. Sanchez and best bitch/BOB Houwaert's Jiska with owner M. Inches

It was nice to see Pines Saxophone back in the ring after his little "accident" at the end of last year, when he ended up with a stick wound just next to his private parts… Luckily, stitches and a good rest, together with the good care of his owners Maggie and Lloyds Spencer had him bouncing back in the ring again.

It was very nice to read Stuart Brand report about Crufts working group judging talking about the hovawart. He wrote: "Hovawart exhibitor Min Iches is no stranger to the big ring at most Ch. Shows and has appeared many times in the Main Ring at Crufts over the years. BOB on this occasion was Houwaert's Jiska which brings her total to five BOBs. 'Jiska' was a rescue dog who spent two and a half years in kennels before Min took her on. Together they have trained as part of a Search & Rescue team but Min cheerily admits that they have now 'retired' as the training regime criteria is a little too stringent."

I asked Min about how it felt to go to the big ring, especially as it was set up in the NEC arena for the first time this year. Min being a very practical person, her comment was:
"The new Arena was nice but getting to it was a nightmare, three quarter of an hour to get through crowd, and not being able to leave the other dogs in hall 4 was a real problem, Thank goodness Mark Tyerman stayed to give me a hand or I just might have given up getting there. To me the big ring is like any other, I'm too busy concentrating on the dog to bother about it. I have been lucky over the years so it is not new to me being there."
I know I would have the nerves if I was to go to the "big ring". If I am ever lucky enough for this to happen, I would try to remember Min's wise words and to just concentrate on my dog.

Stuart Brand would probably be happy to know that there are other hovawarts being trained as part of Search & Rescue teams across the country and that if Min has retired Jiska, she is still very much involved with the Emergency Search dogs group in Scotland. See below a picture from the Emergency Search Dogs team, where you can see Min and Jiska in the middle:

We will update you in the next breed notes on those "hovawarts at work". Any news and pictures from their owners/handlers would be much appreciated.

Read the previous breed notes