Caroline's breed notes are not available anymore from Pedigreedogs as this website is unfortunately no longer running. But we will keep posting them here. Please send us your news!

27/06/2009

Life Begins Again

I start these breed notes just after spending nearly an hour online watching a Channel 4 programme all about Elaine Betts and John Sharpe from Pines Hovawarts. They had kept this to themselves and if it was not for an email from Flora Brumby, a hovawart owner herself, to tell us about it, we would not have known any better.

The programme, presented by Gaby Roslin, is called "Life Begins Again". You can currently watch it online on "4OD" at the following address: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/life-begins-again/4od#2924889.

It was a trip down memory lane for me as the programme starts at Great Eversden in Cambridgeshire, where Elaine and John used to live, just the very place where we met for the first time the hovawart puppy who was going to become our wonderful Venka. Amongst the footage of their dogs is the now gone Mercedes, one of the hovawarts who has made the biggest impression on me. It was so nice to see her again running in the field and being such a wonderful mum to her pups. I watched it with a smile on my face, but now feel a tingle in my eyes when writing this. Even though she was not my own, I miss her very much.

Hovawart Puppies

It is a small consolation to know that we are continuing Mercedes line as our Venka (Pines Piccolo avec Spicemill) is in whelp and due in about a week. Busy times ahead! She has had a litter before, just over 2 years ago, but in January. This time, the poor girl is really feeling the heat. So we are doing our best to keep her cool. Just like last time, she may now be slower, but is still keen to go out there and do her search & rescue job. She has obviously now been taken out of the operational list, but we still let her indulge in the odd short search at training. She loves it so much and amazes everybody with her dedication. That's hovawarts for you, real working dogs through and through.

It was nice to see our search and rescue work recognised by our local community recently. James was awarded a certificate for his actions and Venka made it on the front page of our local paper. It can currently be seen at this address: http://www.westerham-today.co.uk/tn/content/frontpages/web/090618_Front_Westerham.pdf. Our thanks goes to all our supporters who makes all of this possible.

Tomorrow is going to be busy with 3 prospective families visiting to enquire about the breed and puppy ownership. For anybody who thinks that breeding is a doodle, you can see it takes your time even before the puppies are born. But we enjoy it and having people actually coming round to listen to us talking about hovawarts is great. It means we won't have to bore our friends with our stories for a while ;) And it convinces Venka that she has been right all along, every visitors to this house is obviously here to see her. She is such a show off. There is a fourth visit on the schedule tomorrow and we are looking forward to this one even more than the others. Remember all these new hovawart homes in our previous breed notes? Well, we will get to meet one of the new pups in the flesh tomorrow. He is called Pines Merlot and was bred by Elaine and John, out of Whistle, another daughter of Mercedes, full sister of our Venka. His owner Paula owned Bernese Mountain Dogs in the past and has now fallen in love with the Hovies. She sent us a picture of the little darling, which we are more than happy to share with you:

Pines Merlot

News from the club

Members of the hovawart club will have received quite a bit of reading from the club. The long awaited Year Book has finally been published. We shall not complain about the delay though as we know it was not on purpose. Julie Condron has worked very hard to get it ready but has unfortunately had a run of bad luck with her health. We are lucky that she did not step down as editor and kept going anyway as it makes for very interesting reading about the events and results of the past year.

A newssheet was also included, which tells you a bit more about what has been happening recently. Feedback is also asked of the members regarding what they would like the club to organise for the members. Please make sure you take the time to complete the survey and return it. The club is run by volunteers. I can only assume they do their best to represent the membership, but if the membership does not voice their wish, it makes it much harder for them. So go on, fill it now, put it in an envelop. It gives you an excuse to go and put the kettle on and you can then come back to read the rest of these breed notes with your brew, content in the knowledge that it is one less piece of paperwork to sort out.

There was confusing information in the documents from the club regarding whether having passed the Kennel Club Good Citizen Scheme at silver level was going to become either a recommendation or requirement from the club for breeding. I wrote to the secretary regarding that matter and got the following answer:

"Re the character testing:
I think you are correct that the Silver Good Citizen's test was not discussed at the AGM, this is an unfortunate error in the year book. It was discussed at the committee meeting following the AGM, and the minutes I have regarding this are:
'9. Temperament testing - Caroline Dunn will be submitting some suggestions for a possible test.
10. It was agreed that we should insert in the code of ethics next time it can be voted on - ie at the next AGM that the club recommends that breeding stock should pass the Kennel Club Good Citizen's Silver Test. This is to show the club's commitment to maintaining good temperament within the breed, and this is a test which is readily available around the country.'
So - nothing is finalised as it has to be voted on, and there is further discussion to be had, and I think if you have suggestions then they would be welcome."

I hope this clarifies the matter for everybody. Don't hesitate to ask the club when something is not clear. Liz has not been our secretary for long, but she seems very good at communicating with the members when they have questions. She has at least been brilliant with us so far.

If you are not a club member yet and whish to join, you can download the membership form at the following address: http://www.hovawart.org.uk/pdf/e_membership.pdf.

News from abroad

Together with the information from the club was an invitation to the IHF Show, which is this year taking place in the Netherlands, on the week-end of the 5th and 6th of September. It had been our plan to go, but we had to make a choice and having deciding to go ahead with mating Venka, I expect we will still be at home with pups.

You may remember I talked about the French Hovawart Club going through a rough patch and cancelling their club show. Well, I am delighted to announce that, although the French still seem to be putting their house in order and are organising another general meeting soon, their club show is now going ahead, at a different date and much closer for us. It will be taking place on the week-end of the 10th and 11th of October in Bucy le Long, near Soissons. From the information we have been given so far, we are welcome to camp on the site and can even stay until the Monday.

I am not aware of everything that has been going on with the club and to be honest, have no wish to get involved with the internal politics of a foreign club. But France has quite a few hovawarts, some who have fathered a litter in this country. Their club nearly collapsed at their recent AGM and loosing a hovawart breed club in a country close to us cannot be good. So I would encourage anybody who is free on these days to attend. It would be good to show support to the club, whoever might be their committee by that time. It is much closer than the previous 2 club shows, which were taking place near Lyon.

If anybody would like to enter, please do not hesitate to get in touch. I'll send you an entry form and all the information as soon as I can get them and can help you fill it. We are planning to go and camp on site with our caravan, so will also be on hand to help during the week-end if you don't speak French, whether you come to show your dog or just watch.

Kennel Club Gazette

If you subscribe to the Kennel Club Gazette, the monthly glossy published by the canine organisation, keep an eye on this postbox as you don't want to miss the next edition. No, the featured breed won't be the hovawart. But you may still see one pictured in there. Shush for now… I can't tell you more just yet.

Pedigree Dogs

I was sad to see the disappearance of the pedigreedogs.co.uk website. I have not been able to work out exactly what happened but I can only assume that the current economic climate has taken its toll.

We have decided to keep writing these breed notes though as it seems that we have some faithful readers. So they will still be published on our website. But remember that we can only report on what we know about, so please keep sending us your news and pictures.

Read the previous breed notes