Crufts 2012

As with every year, I really wasn’t going to go, but then I knew somebody competing … actually, I knew a lot of people competing this year! But whilst I’m sure they will all be qualifying again next year, Tori and Rev came the furthest, so I went to support them.

It just happened to be Working & Pastoral on Saturday as well, my favourite day. I met up with some friends, wandered around, did some shopping, sat and watched some of the breed showing. It’s such a different world to what I do with my dogs, but I generally saw lots of happy dogs who clearly had a strong relationship with their owner/handlers.

The European Aussies were a bit too overdone for my liking, clipped on every angle and still too heavy coated (have you spotted what’s missing on the red tri girl above?). The judge seemed to like them though, and they got most of the placings. The British Aussies were all more slim, trim, and ready to roll.

I also watched 15 mins or so of the Border Collie Veteran Bitch class. These were the loveliest old ladies, handing out kisses like sweeties every time they arrived at my chair, and bouncing around for their owners. I know we generally see a different style of BC in agility and flyball, but I could see a real resemblence between these cool old girls and (for example) the Nedlos running in the agility. Regardless of what people think of breed showing, anyone breeding a dog and calling it a Border Collie should still have the standards of the BC in mind, because they’re there for a reason. The dogs I saw were sound, happy, and almost all of them looked like they could have been spruced up from a day on the farm. Can’t say that for the Aussies, sadly.

The International Agility was really great, it was a nice opportunity to see all the dogs who had been at the World Champs over here. Also very interesting to see all the different handling styles; the Europeans are reknowned for using loads of blind crosses and they did, but the British are doing it too now as well so that was weird to see!

It was weird to see the Arena back at capacity crowds too; attendance has definitely been down the last couple of years, probably due to the BBC Pedigree Dogs Exposed program. Made getting arena seats easy! Not so on Saturday, I couldn’t get in to see the flyball as the arena was at capacity, and I was lucky to see Tori’s second run in the International Agility.

Onwards to next year! And maybe for 2014 after I’ll be there with Rio … (I can dream!)