Bushwacker Basenjis blog

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Occasional meanderings through dogs, shows, and other news

Can you see it?

.. New Brunswick. Down there amongst the trees. Or perhaps New Brunswick is a province of trees with just the odd person here and there. Driving south from Quebec, mountains on both sides, we were suddenly greeted with the sight of more trees than we had ever seen in our lives. Once over the provincial border, we were reminded (via lurid road signs every few kilometres) to be careful driving at night because of moose; the area beyond the road sporting hundreds of miles of fencing to prevent motorists from close encounters of the moose kind.

We drove down, in what seemed an interminable journey to the ends of the earth, for the Basenji Club of Canada National Specialty just outside of Fredericton, in conjunction with the Fredericton KC all breeds shows. Basenjis had the highest numerical breed entry in the hound group and featured in the group placings, both adult and puppy, on just about every day of the all breeds shows. Donald was one of them (G2 on Sunday right after the Specialty).

Fittingly, our Specialty ring in New Brunswick had a tree growing in it, which exhibitors ran around, but not until the sweeps had been deferred from late Saturday afternoon to the following morning due to a monsoon of biblical dimensions. Amazingly, the grass dried out quite well overnight, so we were not required to wallow around a swamp. We were also able to abandon the Ark we had started building the day before.

Both Donald and Cherry (handled by my son, Harry) made it through to the final 6 for BOB at the Specialty, my first experience of showing a champion at a National Specialty (and yes, you need quite a lot of breath if you make it right to the end). I have handled a number of dogs for other people at the BCOA Nationals over the years, and my own in 2009 and 2010, with some success in the classes, but the rituals and mysteries of the BOB class were always observed from the ringside.

My memory of BOB in New Brunswick is mainly a whirlwind of running, interspersed with a few minutes under the tent in the shade before running around the ring again. If it wasn’t for checking to see if Harry was still in there I would have had no idea who actually was, it was such a blur of activity. BOB went to Jennie Behles’ Ch. Ahmahr Nahr’s Hallelujah Makes a Joyful Noise, who had also won BIS at the all breeds show the day before.

The next day we packed up and headed off for a couple of days in Prince Edward Island, famous for its potatoes, Anne of Green Gables, and the world’s best ice cream …

Posted 658 weeks ago

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