26 Breed Notes – Border Union 2024

It’s no secret that Border Union is still one of my favourite shows, even though I haven’t managed to attend for quite a few years. With a lovely (& fairly quick draining) showground in a beautiful part of the country and when blessed with glorious weather, I think it’s unbeatable. What more could you want when either camping/caravanning or even for a dog show?

So far this year the weather has been almost autumnal, very wet, cold and windy and with the solstice on the horizon there’s not much time left for a heat wave! Towards the end of the week Kelso certainly managed to dodge most of the weather afflicting the rest of the UK. After Thursday night’s rain, apart from the odd 5-minute downpour, it was blue skies, sunshine and with no wind pleasantly warm – feeling almost summer like at times! Saturday was almost perfect showing weather, which I’m sure came as a relief to the many trade-stand holders and catering vans.

There were good sized rings near to the benching, with plenty of spectators (both visitors to the show and campers) as well as exhibitors whose breeds followed on watching ring-side. With chairs and the odd wooden picnic table provided, many people stayed on making the most of the lovely weather. Border Union had also provided extra outdoor rings at the back of 2 marquees for the breed clubs who were holding partnership shows. With these large rings apart from the main show, I noticed that some committees had taken the opportunity to make them more of a club event – which I gather was appreciated by all.

Our judge was Jane Ring, awarding CC’s for the third time, (her last appointment being way back in 2011 at SKC) and she had drawn an entry of 25 Keesies (9 dogs and 16 bitches) with only 2 absentees. We were first in the ring with a 9.00am start; with no entries in Puppy, Junior, Graduate or Post Graduate Dog and Limit Bitch, judging was over by 10.30am.

The DCC with Best of Breed came from the Veteran class, Natasha Hickson’s Ch Only The Lonley (Bert von Ricara (imp Den) x Kichigai Special Edition) and the RDCC went to winner of Open, Gill Brunt’s Ch Divnyi Drug Dar (Imp Rus) (Cinerus Arctic Prince of Star x Rus Ch Divnyi Drug Gusja Lebed)

BCC was Wendy McKean’s Ch Kichigai It Takes Two at Yawren (Ch Neradmik All About The Boy for Watchkees x Kichigai Lilac Wine) After the winner of second in open declined to return to the ring to challenge for the RBCC, it went down the line to a delighted Gill Brunt with her young Zandvoort Moonlight (Ch Divnyi Drug Dar (Imp Rus) x Almaznyi Istochnik Vologodskie Kruzheva) who was also Best Puppy in Breed.

Dog showing is a competition and sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. However, if you win, well done but if you lose smile, congratulate the winners and leave the ring and save your comments for the journey home. It is a sad reflection of the time that more and more bad sportsmanship is creeping into the world of dog showing and not just in our breed but others as well. This is being done in a variety of ways, verbally at shows, keyboard warriors on Facebook and other means of social media. It is not acceptable. As owners and exhibitors of any breed, we are ambassadors and guardians, and as such you must present the breed in the best possible light. No wonder entries are dropping and no new exhibitors are coming through. If people have witnessed such behaviour emanating from a breed, I know if that was me, I’d move on and look somewhere else if I was looking to buy a puppy.
So, please bear in mind that this is a hobby to be enjoyed by all, it is not a matter of life or death and there is always another show, another judge and another day.

Anji Marfleet