Belfalas Podengos

Well, that's it, Crufts done and dusted for another year.  

Set up day on Wednesday, showing on Thursday, Discover Dogs on Friday and Sunday  and a well deserved day off on Saturday.

I thought we were in for a torrid time as we approached the NEC on Thursday morning and I realised that I had left my phone, the dog's liver and a crate at home.  Then we joined the back of a queue of traffic as we left Coventry and started crawling along at 0.5 MPH, all of that spare time we had built into the morning gradually disappearing...  We eventually arrived at our benches still with plenty of time to say hello to everyone and get the dogs prepared, the benefit of always adding that extra half an hour.

Things got slightly worse when I took Kimmie in for Junior Dog, bent over to sort out his lead and split my trousers!  Fortunately it was only a small tear and I didn't scandalise the lady exhibitors sitting behind me at the time, or if it did they were too polite to say.

Our luck then seemed to change and we started getting pulled out for rosettes:

Kimmie was only a week out of Puppy and came a creditable third in a class won by an American Champion.

CC and Cassie took first and second in Junior Bitch.

Belfalas Sea Breezes - Very nice feminine head with excellent eyes and ears. Well balanced front & rear, lovely body proportions and lines. Moves very well.

Belfalas Chance Meeting - Excellent head of nice expression, a bit too wide carried ears, nicely proportioned body that needs to mature, moves well.

Ronnie, in Post Grad at only 15 months as we didn't have Lucy with us to help with the handling, took first

Belfalas Ladytron - Lovely head proportions, eyes, expression and ears. Well balanced front rear, excellent body proportions and substance, moves well.

Lily was in the best Open class we have seen, and came third to the eventual Best of Breed winner, and her friend from ringcraft, Treacle. Lily beat international multi champions, a two time World Winner and European Junior Champions and finally managed to beat the dog that had pushed her into second place in the previous two years - Well done Lily!

Our thanks to our Judge for the day, Mr Gilberto Grandi, who clearly likes to see his hounds moving (always a good thing IMHO) and also our lady Steward who ruled the ring with a rod of iron, but kept her sense of humour throughout.

Congratulations to the 'South Coast Massive', Sue Brundle for taking BoB (again) and Anna and Simon Sampson for winning pretty much everything else.

And...  Nice to see a certain 'Junior Handler' making his debut in the Crufts ring, well done Mark!

We don't normally do shows where there are no Podengo classes. However, this was our club show and we wanted to support the club so we entered three of the show crew in AVNSC Hound in the expectation of getting nothing from the day - how wrong were we?

Our judge, Mrs. P. Ayling, had some large mixed sex classes to sort out, everything from Otterhounds to miniature Dachshunds, with a few Pods thrown in for good measure.

In the Puppy class, Kimmie was pulled out in third place.

In Junior, CC took second.

Belfalas Sea Breezes, 15 mth smooth coated Portuguese Podengo bitch. A small, sturdy primitive breed. Sociable, classic wedge shaped head, muscled neck and shoulders, well sprung ribs with good hind quarters. Moved soundly with drive. 

In Open, Lily got a third.

In our limited experience of AVNSC, this was indeed a triumph! We took the short trip home in high spirits.

And to cap it all...  We won two prizes in the raffle.  Result!

Staffordshire show ground again for the first show of 2025. We were due to be 5th breed in the ring after 150 dogs, so it was never going to be a quick trip. We were benched in one of the smaller, colder halls and then got moved to another one in order that we could get judged before the groups, nice to be considered but the second hall was even colder than the first. Putting dogs in the ring at the end of a very long day when everyone was cold and tired was probably not going to allow everyone to perform at their best.

Even with the cold, everyone acquitted themselves well. Thanks to our Judge, Hector Heathcote for doing his best to push things through expeditiously.

Kimchi took First in Puppy Dog, then went on to win Best Puppy and Best Opposite Sex/Best Dog. We then rushed through to the Main Ring to join the back of the queue for the Puppy Group pre-judging. In the Main Ring, predictably, the Judge's eyeline never dropped as he passed from the Pharaoh Hound to the Rhodesian Ridgeback completely missing the little chap in between - ah well, we are used to it.

As for the girls, CC was at home as she was in season, Cassie took a first in Junior, Ronnie took a first in Post Graduate and Lily had to settle for a third in a quality Open class.

A late departure from site, but the traffic was light so the long journey home was achieved without too much stress.

Another day at Staffordshire County Showground (is there really nowhere else?) We hit some serious traffic on the way, which meant we arrived just in time to say a few quick hellos before we had to get in the ring.

Kimchi took a second in Puppy Dog losing to a more mature, bigger wire.

This was the girls' first time out of Puppy and they acquitted themselves well.

Cassie took first and CC took second in Junior Bitch.

Ronnie took first in Post Graduate Bitch

In Open Bitch, once again the biggest class of the day, Lily took first against some quality opposition, including the Top Dog for 2023 and current leader for 2024.

The bitch challenge was interesting, we had three dogs in it!  Thanks to Anne Boyles for dropping everything and taking Ronnie in for us.

Lily got pulled out for Best Bitch, beating two of her daughters, putting them firmly in their place.

Best of Breed went to Simon and Anna's Morialta Ferreira, who was winning his 20th BoB, so no shame there, Lily proudly took the Best Opposite Sex rosette and her fifth Big Green card (eleven in total).

Another arduous trip home through some fairly nasty weather and even nastier traffic, but an excellent day overall.

Befricas Kimchi At Belfalas (Imp Nor),  9 months old, rough coated, good bread shape, short pasterns, moved steady

Belfalas Chance Meeting,   Litter sisters of 13 months of age, both of good shape, liked head shapes, good toplines, steady movement  

Belfalas Sea Breezes, as above, just preferred movement of winner on the day  

Belfalas Ladytron, another litter sister to both bitches in previous class, very simalar in shape, steady movement

Plushcourt Gloriana At Belfalas,  3 year old bitch, liked her head shape, well muscled shoulder, level topline, moved well BB