Many of you might have tuned into the television in March, Channel 4 in particular, and seen some of the highlights of Crufts Dog Show. What you see is only the tip of the iceberg, there is so much more!
I own three pedigree Border Collies - I’m not a breeder, my dogs are first and foremost my pets. I never dreamt I would be running on Cruft’s green carpet when I bought my first puppy way back in 2007. His name is Blaze and his breeder mentioned that he was of excellent conformation and was a potential show dog. And so the journey began! I learned to handle dogs by travelling to shows with the breeder, attending ring craft classes and finally taking over the lead and handling at Championship shows myself.
Crufts Dog Show is every exhibitors dream as it is known the world over and is to dog showing what Wimbledon is to tennis. Every dog entered at Crufts has to qualify, usually by winning first to third in a Championship class. Each year Crufts hosts approximately 25000 plus dogs over 4 days. Dogs participate in many activities, not just breed showing, activities like agility, obedience, heel work to music and demonstrations like police dog work, medic alert dogs and much more.
Every year my challenge is to qualify my dogs for Crufts. Blaze and Chase both have their stud book numbers which means they are qualified for life. But Skyla, my little girl has yet to gain her stud book number and so we enter Championship Shows throughout the year in the hopes of qualifying.
Blaze, who’s kennel club registered name is Foxbarton Taittinger JW ShCM AW(B), gained his stud book number at the tender age of 8 months by winning enough classes at Championship and Open shows to earn a Junior Warrant, the JW part of his name. This automatically gives him a stud book number, so Blaze could enter Crufts every year. He has managed to win three VHC awards (Very Highly Commended) over the years. The highlights of Blaze’s career was winning a Reserve Challenge Certificate when he was 1 year old and another as a veteran. A Challenge Certificate is awarded to the best dog of the day, and three Challenge Certificates by three different judges are needed to make your dog a Show Champion. The ShCM is awarded for points gained in Open Breed Shows and the AW(B) is points gained from doing agility.
Chase is registered as Laceway Phoenix With Taytinja AW(S), and he got his pet name from the road we live in! Chase’s pedigree is crammed with Show Champions, two of his litter mates are both Show Champions, one of them having more than 20 Challenge Certificates to his name and is regularly Top Border Collie of the year at the Border Collie Club Of Great Britain. Although Chase is also a show dog, he has done much more in agility working his way up from Grade 3 all the way to the top grade, grade 7. He loves agility but has learned how to compose himself for the show ring, moving correctly and standing still for the judge to examine him. This year I was delighted that Chase was awarded 4th in Limit Dog class. This meant that all my dogs have now been placed at Crufts at some point.
Which brings me to Skyla (Jupavia Midnight Secret By Taytinja), who unfortunately had to miss Crufts this year, despite being qualified, due to an injury. She was awarded 4th place in Undergraduate last year, which again, was so exciting as she too has been doing a lot of agility work. I’m please to say she’s on the mend, and she will be happy to be back at “work” as its frustrating for her to be left at home! The world-wide pandemic played havoc with all areas of life including the show world, with qualifying championships having to be cancelled, so I was delighted when the Kennel Club announced that 2020 qualifications (excluding 3rd places) would carry forward to Crufts 2021, to be held in July rather than March.
I’m proud that my dogs are versatile dogs confident in the show ring and successful at agility. They love working for me because above all, I like it to be fun for them. There are many days when we come home empty handed, but we’ve still had a great day out, with like-minded people and many other dogs. An award, a trophy or a rosette is very exciting but my dogs don’t care a jot about that! At the end of the day, they come home to sleep in front of the fire or play ball and go for walks just like any other dog would do.
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