11 Breed Notes – Crufts 2018

The following paragraph somehow managed to get omitted from my notes last week.
Both the Club and I are indebted to Jenny Shorer-Wheeler for coming to the rescue; as due to the imminent arrival of puppies I had to miss both the AGM & show (for the first time in over 30 years) Not only did Jen (& her 2 young boys) get up at the crack of dawn to collect my van & drive it to the show (I had all the mats, cloths, rosettes, sacks of Happy Dog etc etc;) but she also returned to Thorpe Willoughby in the afternoon to collect everything and bring it back for me. What a star!!

Keeshonds were being judged first in the ring at Crufts this year, but with a later start time of 10.00am; which enabled exhibitors and spectators alike to get settled and do a bit of shopping before it became too crowded. Our judge was well known all-rounder Rodney Oldham (he last judged keesies at Blackpool on 2016) who had drawn an entry of 88 keesies with just 9 absentees.

There were some well filled dog classes for a change too, with Post Graduate, Limit and Open Dog all having 12 dogs entered; the same as the Limit Bitch class. Only Puppy Dog had just one entry and The Kennel Club Good Citizen Dog Scheme Dog class had no entries. There were just four dogs entered from abroad, 2 from Russia, 1 from Denmark and 1 from Finland who was absent.

The DCC with BOB was Melanie Harris’ Ch Neradmik All About The Boy For Watchkees JW ShCM (Ch Am Ch Kemonts Skylines Game Boy (imp USA) x Ch Lady Godiva’s Guilty Pleasures with Neradmik (imp Fin)). The RDCC went to the Limit winner, Victor Gatt’s Neradmik Cupid Loves (Ch Samkees With Love To Neradmik x Ch Neradmik Miss Hollyberry)

Winning her 2nd CC was Jean Sharp Bale’s Neradmik Grace Kelly (Imp Can)(Am Ch Designer’s Fedx x Can Ch Neradmik Academy Award) from limit with the RBCC going to second in Limit, Vicky Marshall’s Torrikees Made In Heaven at Devonia (Ch Winklestar Hadar x Ch Torrikees Victoria’s Secret)

Best Puppy was Sally Newman’s Wolfswinkel Maria Ogren At Leazehond (AI) (Leazehond Lightning Bolt x Vanstrand For Your Eyes only)

The North of England Keeshond Club organises the Discover Dogs stand and a big thanks to the 2 legged workers who helped out this year – Sue Lindsay, Jenny Williams and their friend Pauline (who has Papillons) Sue & Steve Jardine, Christina Wilkin, Sue Pattison along with most of her family – Michael, Nicky, Michelle and grandkids.

Although as usual, the real stars of the long four days though were of the 4 legged variety: siblings Pandora, Disney & Yanto with mum Mali; Sasha, Sindie-Sue & Sam, Keisha and Ennis; Ben and Maddie and and ‘being discovered’ for the first time young Darcy aged 6 months, accompanied by Pupkin & Joe.

I don’t know if the attendance figures equalled (or exceeded even) last year’s record number of 162,000 visitors; but it was really busy on all 4 days with the weekend especially being more crowded than it has been for a long time.

Lots of people came up to the stand for a keesie cuddle and at some points the crowds were 4 & 5 people deep waiting their turn. The dogs just took it all in their stride, meeting and greeting virtually non-stop all day long.
There was the usual mix of people interested in the breed; both current & ex owners who dropped by to say hallo and a few non-dog owners who had researched a few selected breeds & were trying to decide if a keesie was the right breed for them.

We also had quite a few seemingly genuine enquiries about keesie puppies. Let’s just hope that there are going to be some puppies around for them – they were all aware that they would have to wait for one, hopefully not for too long. But time will tell though if they are prepared to wait or not!

The breed enthusiasts who help man the stand are all unpaid volunteers who willingly give their time to extol the virtues of being owned by a keesie; so it’s nice to hear that both secretaries have already received positive feedback from visitors re all four days. Geraldine had a very nice email from someone called Mai saying how helpful the people were on the DD stand on Thursday. Ian too has been contacted by a couple looking for a puppy who also visited the DD stand on Thursday. The deciding factor for them choosing a keesie was that the people were so helpful & knowledgeable and that the dogs were well behaved & friendly!!!

So it’s a shame that a few negative comments posted on social media about the breed stand can effectively negate all the hard work and effort made by everyone else. I personally think that especially where social media’s concerned, that if you don’t have anything nice to say, then silence is invariably the best option.

Anji Marfleet