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25/02/2009

National Working & Pastoral Open Show

We drove to Coventry last Sunday to take Venka and Stig to the National Working Open Show. They have both qualified and been entered to Crufts, and none of them has been shown since the championship show ran by the same organisation, which took place in July last year. So we though we'd better make sure we are still able to show dogs. Well, we must have done something right as Venka (Pines Piccolo avec Spicemill) came home with the reserve best of breed. She was beaten by Ann Travis' young black bitch Berkenbos Annvads Choice 'Beronika' who was moving very nicely in the ring. Only 5 hovawarts had been entered. Our judge Mrs Eileen Matthews could have been disappointed to turn up for such a small number of dogs, but she seemed delighted to be judging our breed and was very friendly to all.

Let's hope next year will have better entries though as I am worried that with such a small numbers, we could end up loosing our classes altogether.

I spoke to John Betts from Pines in Herefordshire after the show and he explained that they did not go as Elaine was competing in a working trial with Whistle that day. Everyone knows I think hovawarts should be worked more, so despite my disappointment not to see them at the show, I certainly won't blame them.

Puppies news

We stayed a little while on the phone with John as he had a few exciting news to share with us. Their Orchid was in season and at the time I am writing this, he must have just come back with her from Ireland. She was to be mated by Fasskoleys Sallins Gold, a black and gold male bred by Ann Stewart in Scotland. And if that was not enough traveling, they are about to go to France, with Whistle this time, for another mating. Elaine and John may well be very busy in a couple of months!

Liz and Lynne, from Driftingsky hovawarts in Nottingham, report that their 9 puppies are still going strong. They wrote: "The puppies are coming on fine, we are starting to wean them, Drift is still feeding them some of the time but she finds nine of them rather a lot to cope with. Can already see some distinct personalities!". The 2 puppy girls have been allocated, but from what I understand, not all the boys are spoken for yet. You can see the puppies and find out how to get in touch on their website: http://www.driftingsky.co.uk/.

We hope to join the "puppy gang" a bit later as we are waiting for our Venka to come in season to take her to Germany.

Breed registrations

The Kennel Club has produced the breed registration statistics over the last 10 years. For a breed like ours, where one or two additional litters can make such a big difference, comparing over a long period of time gives us a much better picture.

There does not seem to be a trend one way or another. Hovawarts have had an average of 26 annual registrations with the Kennel Club between 1999 and 2008. The year where we had the most registration was 2007, with 41 dogs registered, followed by 1999 and 2005, both with 38 registrations. By opposition, 2004 saw only 12 registrations. 11 of them were the produce of the only litter born in the UK that year, the Pines Finish litter from which we got our lovely Venka.

You can see all the statistics at this address: http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/download/5672/10-yearly-Breeds-Stats-working.pdf.

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Read the previous breed notes