Crufts 2012

Well it's that time of year again and I have spent the last two days at the NEC in Birmingham attending Crufts. This year and for the first time in a long time, I went to Crufts on Gundog Day without a four legged friend - my own fault, since would you believe I missed the closing date! Our judge was the well respected breed specialist Mrs Diana Durman-Walters who is currently the President of the German Wirehaired Pointer Club and our Health Co-ordinator (with the Kennel Club). Diana had an entry of 39 wires which for such a well respected judge and at such a prestigious show was nothing short of shocking but of course as a breed we are now suffering the effects of the docking ban which means that many of our quality youngsters who by virtue of the fact that they are docked are 'Docked and Denied' and are unable to attend even if they have 'qualified' to be there. There were no entries in Special Puppy Dog, Special Puppy Bitch, Special Junior Dog or Special Junior Bitch.

Despite all of this I had a lovely day helping to man the German Wirehaired Pointer Club stand and meeting up with old friends.

Best of Breed was awarded to the very beautiful Timo - Sh Ch/Ir Sh Ch/Am Gr Ch/Int Ch Timo II v Bockenhagen at Kimmax NAVHDA UT1 Euro Winner 09 (IMP Deu). Well done to his owners Maxine and Peter McCullough and handler Courtney Bastian who had flown in from the States for the privilege of handling this lovely boy at Crufts.

Today I went back to the NEC to watch the Border Collie judging and whilst I don't own another breed you could call this my 'second breed' since my best friend and formerly my business partner has owned and bred border collies for a number of years and as much as she shows and interest in 'my breed', so I show an interest in 'hers'. I would go as far as saying I have learnt a lot from following this breed - not only about conformation and movement but about health conditions too, since in my opinion Border Collie breeders are far more open about conditions which affect their breed than I have found in wirehairs. I didn't envy the task of the two judges - one for dogs and one for bitches - given the quality and number of the dogs and bitches which had entered. In Open Bitch there were 34 bitches entered which nearly numbered the total number of wires entered in the Breed yesterday! There were some lovely dogs and bitches there and I must confess I could have been tempted to bring one or two home.

My bargain of the day at Crufts was a book on raw feeding produced by Honey's and entitled Natural Feeding Handbook for Dogs. Retailing at £7.50 this little gem was available for £1 on production of your Crufts catalogue. I haven't read it yet but looks like one to put in my next puppy pack and they have said that they are happy to produce certificates for free samples for breeders to issue to puppy buyers too. For anyone interested, Honey's are in Hall One.