Articles

Well, after all that anticipation, it is now time to look back on Crufts 2014 It felt bigger than ever to me, and I know the actual number of dogs entered was up, but the walkways and aisles seemed crowded with crates and canvas dog kennels and people in wheel chairs had a job to move around freely. The shops and stalls were amazing as ever, and even if you walked around every day you wouldn’t see the same items twice with business brisk. Lots of super dogs from foreign parts, and I heard many different languages spoken, it’s now a truly International Dog Show. The atmosphere was friendly and exciting, and for once the car park, we were in E1 and E2, plus shuttle bus worked extremely well, with a jolly shuttle bus driver thrown in for good measure.
The actual judging commenced at 2.30, by which time we were all tired and about ready to go home, but Hovawarts being Hovawarts, they all woke up and gave of their best. Our Judge was Albert Wight, and he was kind to the dogs, and worked efficiently through the good entry. It was lovely to see so many foreign dogs, of good quality, not forgetting the always very successful band from Ireland. The full results will be on the club web site, and also in DW in due course, so suffice to say that Best of Breed was the Swedish dog , Lintrollets Alltid Redo, owned by Mr.A.Ahmansson, and Best Bitch our own Pines Acorn. That is the second year the BoB has made a very long journey worthwhile. One thing that does concern me a bit, though, is the fact that only one of the ten entries in open dog came from the UK.
Discover Dogs was organized by Julie Condron, and was manned every day, which was quite an achievement with such a small band of volunteers. Thanks go to Julie, Gill, Ann and Dave , and Linda …I’m sorry if I’ve left anyone else who helped, but I’ve not had a chance to catch up with Julie, so I don’t even know how busy the stall was overall, I know it was heaving when I popped my head in on a couple of occasions.
The Obreedience was another success, with the team coming second. Maggie Spencer had worked very hard on the team, in spite of a painful knee (which is hopefully going to be replaced this Wednesday) Coming second to a very professional team of corgis was more than we could have hoped for, and all the team members enjoyed themselves enormously and made the very most of it all. Certainly memories we will all cherish.
Looking to the future, there are only a few days left to enter Working and Pastoral Breeds of Wales on line. The show is on Easter Saturday and our judge is Mr.A.Rees, who is also doing three other breeds, AV rare breeds, and the reserve CC stakes. If the weather is decent, Builth Wells is a lovely venue, and it would be really good news if the trend towards lower entries could be reversed.
Elaine Betts
01544 318705
elaine@pineshovawarts.co.uk