31 March 2008 - Another Crufts has come and gone

Our judge this year was breed specialist and hovawart club chairman Gill Stockton. She found her best of breed in Craig and Sarah Hosie's blonde bitch Annvad Daimys Princess, winner of the post graduate bitch class, and who will be 3 in May. She was bred by Ann Travis out of Dutch Champion Pines Tipperary for Annvad.
Thanks to BBC extended coverage of the group judging by pressing the "red button", we got to see a bit more of her on TV on Saturday evening. I was disappointed though by the comment of the BBC breed expert. I don't mind too much that she was not sure of the exact pronunciation of the breed name as we are quite a rare breed. But the comment "what a nightmare" was really unnecessary. She also talked about how this year winner got the CC, after having won the reserve bitch CC the year before, while our breed does not qualify for CCs. And finally, the only comment made about the breed was that they can be a bit of a handful with other dogs. Even if I agree that the hovawart, like all large guarding breed, if not all dogs, should be well socialized with other dogs, I found very sad that if they have only one thing to say about our breed, this is what they choose.

But let's not linger about it. It was overall a great Crufts for the hovawarts. Our benches were just by the side of the ring. We had 38 entries, including 14 from abroad. It looks to me that we had many more spectators around the ring, including foreign visitors. There were some familiar faces, such as Anita Lehtonen from Finland, but also some first time visitors, including a very friendly group of Irish hovawart enthusiasts. I had a chance to chat with one of them and she was telling me that if the number of hovawarts are still extremely limited in Ireland, they are trying to move things along and are getting properly organized with their breed club. I noticed that one of the Irish entry was Fynia Palacowe Pieknosci. I remember her from Crufts 2006 where she made a stop on her way from Poland where she was born, to her new home in Ireland where she was being imported. We were able to compare notes with her owner as we were importing our Scamp from Poland around the same time. Interesting to see Polish, German, Dutch and Scandinavian bloods in the middle of our British hovies.

In between showing my own dogs and looking after my 7 months old son who came along, I did not get a chance to watch all the dogs being shown, but from what I saw, despite still relatively small classes compared to other breeds, the line up was very strong in most classes with foreign champions in several of them. Best dog was Barbara Thiel's German and Luxembourgian Champion Enzo von Amorhof 'Bartok', a black dog from Germany who was being shown at Crufts for the second consecutive year. Reserve best dog was another black dog, Nikki Douglas' Dutch and German Champion Biko van de Bremmerstee, father of the best of breed. It was not the first time that Bartok and Biko were running again each other for the best dog crown. Reserve best bitch was Ms. Felixson's Damirazin yon Aurinko, from Finland. As I am writing these breed notes, the Kennel Club website announce Glenbower Delightful Poppy JW as best puppy. But this is a mistake as she is over a year old now. But she was the worthy winner of the junior bitch class. The woman handling her in the ring, who I believe was her owner Miss Hallahan, was really excited at her win as she was showing her at a big show for the first time and was really worried to let her down. Another "rookie" who did very well for her first time in the ring was Flora Bromby. We had shown Spicemill Saffron Stigma 'The Stig' at his first 3 shows, but convinced Flora to have a go this time. I know she was very nervous, but she was not ridiculous at all, especially as I know that young Stig may look big, but he is still a young excitable dog, at only 13 months old.

Read the previous breed notes