Caroline's breed notes are also available from www.pedigreedogs.co.uk. Please send us your news!

2nd May 2008

Britain's only search & rescue hovawart makes it to the top

James and our Venka (Pines Piccolo avec Spicemill) have done it again. They took their level 3-area assessment for NSARDA (National Search & Rescue Dog Association) and passed. This qualification is valid for 3 years and means that James and Venka are now operational to search larger area, such as woodlands. Venka is still the only hovawart and the only dog in Kent to hold a NSARDA qualification. We hope her achievements will motivate more hovawart owners to join their local search & rescue team, or to do any other kind of work with their dog for that matter.

We are very grateful to the local press who covered the news of Venka's qualification, thus helping to promote the work of all the volunteers who participate in Search & Rescue operations. You can see online some of the coverage:
- Saturday Observer (page 5)
- ITV Meridian (25 March - lunch and evening news).

Well done Venka!

Kennel Club update

The Kennel Club have published on their website the Registration statistics for all recognised dog breeds - 2006 and 2007.

To find the hovawarts, you obviously need to look from the end. There is a neat increase between 2006, where we were in 170th position with 27 dog registered and 2007 where we reached the 162nd place with 41 registrations. We would need to see the figures over a longer time though to be really able to talk about a trend as we only need to have a year with slightly larger litters or a couple of additional litters to make such a difference.

I must say that even if I like to see our breed gaining in popularity, I don't envy the very popular breeds as it comes with its lots of issues. I like to see our breed recognised for what they really are, that is a true working breed. Increase in the interest shown to our breed is not always for their working abilities and I would not want to see the hovawart change to accommodate the growing demand of hovawarts as pets just because some books picture them as "good with children". Most hovawarts I know (including ours) are wonderful family dogs, but let's not forget that no dog, whatever its breed, comes pre-programmed and that it is down to the owners to choose a properly bred dog and then to socialise and train it properly.

Shows to come

The Birmingham National is coming up with the hovies being judged on Friday 9/05. It usually sees good entries for our breed, but we unfortunately have to miss it. One of us will be away on family business and the other will be at Brentwood to prepare the SARDA Cantech stand for All About Dogs, where our Venka will once again wear her search jacket proudly to represent the working hovawarts.
Julia Christopherson is this year again organising the hovawart stand at this event, so please contact her if you can help. Her number is 01787 282727. You can find more information regarding All About Dogs at the following address: http://www.allaboutdogs.org.uk/.

June will see the IHF Show, which is in France this year, near Lyon, on the 7th and 8th. Elaine Betts and John Sharpe from Pines are making the trip again, accompanied by Lloyd and Maggie Spencer. So British hovies will be represented. We are also going, but just to watch as the logistics of travelling with baby has put us off taking the dogs with us. If you are interested to attend the event, please get in touch with us and we can send you the relevant information.

We have received the schedule for the Newmarket open show, which takes place on the same week-end that the IHF show. We have unfortunately lost our breed class there. It is a shame as it is a nice show but I cannot blame the organisers as our entries have dropped drastically in the past couple of years. We did enter our dogs last year, but unfortunately had to stay at home as our Scamp came in season just at the wrong time. That's showing dogs for you!

Remember to send us your news. We obviously want to hear about show and working results, but not only. And the longer days may be the occasion for some nice pictures, so if your hovawart is happy to pause amongst the bluebells, or maybe on the beach or during a swim in the local lake, please share your pictures with us and we can publish some of them with these breed notes.

Read the previous breed notes