On Saturday 26th November the Finnish Spitz Club held the Nordic show, a show for all of the spitz breeds recognised by the UK Kennel Club. This is also the Finnish Spitz Club’s open show and judge Jane Maxwell of the Bardrestan Dachshunds had an entry of 19 dogs with 12 present to go over. She found her best of breed in David Rolfe’s Dog Puulatva The Red Norseman among Inkivaari who currently has 1CC and several reserve CCs to his name. Best opposite sex was Thompson and Cavill’s Ch Toveri Tuula with best puppy going to Byrne and Cavill’s Kekkeruusin Emma through Toveri, the breed’s most recent Finnish import at her very first show. Unfortunately the Best of breed was unable to stay for best in show however the puppy was present and made the shortlist down to the final five for Best puppy in show under judge Viv Philips. The show had a warm and friendly atmosphere and it was lovely to see everyone in good spirits on the day. Eeva Hack made some delicious Finnish gingerbread which was appreciated by all who attended.
The following week I had a very enjoyable day at the Hound club of East Anglia which scheduled classes for Finnish Spitz. Being the only entry mine and my Partner’s Magnus (Toveri Turo of Lelaps) took best of breed under judge Judith Robin-Smith of the Willowbrae PBGV affix. To prove his worth on the day he went on to be shortlisted down to the final nine for Best in Show in a full hound group. I have to let Magnus have all of the credit on the day as I actually didn’t handle him being lucky enough to have also taken best of breed in Afghan Hounds so was handled by one of the trade stand holders John Whitman who did an exemplary job and certainly made a change from his usual Tibetan Terriers and Cavalier King Charles. It was a real shame that this Club had not given more thought into classification for the breed. With only a special yearling and an open class on offer it meant that I was only able to enter one of my dogs as Magnus has a CC and Tosca has won out of Post Graduate. In numerically small breeds where they win out of post grad and limit relatively quickly and with few youngsters bred surely it would make more sense to not schedule age restrictive classes and at least have a limit and open, or open dog and open bitch on offer. This may have attracted more entries as historically this show has had half a dozen or more Fins entered.
Angela Cavill has let me know that she is off to Finland again this week to visit her Finnish Spitz friends and will be presenting the main trophies at the Helsinki show. I am sure we will look forward to seeing pictures of this on facebook no doubt.
With our final championship show LKA upon us our year is coming to an end with just Stourbridge open show remaining with Finnish Spitz classes. As it stands I believe top dog for 2016 in Finnish Spitz is Greaves and Croxford’s Ch Kunniakas Look no Further for Whittemere with Top Breeders being held jointly by the Toveri and the Valokki kennels. It will be interesting to see if Viv Philips results make any changes to the final leader boards.