16th March 2018

 
Sorry to hear that Paul and Ann Shimmin were unable to attend Crufts this year because Paul has the flu.  Having missed Christmas dinner this year for the exactly same reason I can certainly sympathise with him.  Ann and Paul living on the Isle of Man, have to plan their journeys carefully as ferrys are involved between the island they live on and the mainland .  They will definitely make it next year as Paul shall be the man in the middle of the ring.
 
Dr John Hudson has kindly written the following  “The Breed Record Supplement for the end of 2017 has just arrived from the Kennel Club and it gives registration numbers for the year for all the Hound breeds. Saluki registrations came to 146, which compares with 139 for each of 2016 and 2015. So numbers are staying pretty steady – no significant rise or fall. However, 146 looks rather low compared with Whippets who registered a massive 3,352. In fact Salukis come 13th out of the 37 Hound breeds for registration numbers. There is of course a huge difference between the top of the list (5,735 Miniature Smooth-Haired Dachshunds) and the bottom (five breeds on zero); 22 breeds registered fewer than 100 dogs. Looking at just the 11 sighthound breeds, these are of course led by the Whippets, followed at some distance by Wolfhounds on 372 and, close behind them are Deerhounds on 266. And Salukis come 4th. The bottom three sighthounds are Azawakhs (12), Ibizans (9) and Sloughis (0).
 
These 146 registrations come from 20 litters (so the average litter size is 7.3). There seems to be a broader spread of kennel names (affixes) than before. Six of these are recognisable from the show ring – Knightellington (from Chris Lewis and Jessica Brassington), 2 Fernlark litters (Michelle and Kelvin Goulden having taken over from Sheryl Steer), Safaniyah (from Sylvia Pass), Tigsisle (from Mrs KH Williams), Micattura (this seems to be Vicky-Ann McNab’s new kennel name) and Jazalle (from Andrea Ireson and Ruth Dann). Then there are 4 kennel names that (as far as I know) have not appeared in a Saluki ring – Ehlaradawn (Mrs SE Barter), Mysoora (2 litters from Mr TJ Harris), Meremptah (Mr D Porter) and Kensteen, which is presumably a kennel name handed out by the Kennel Club on request; it is attached to three litters bred by three different people, namely Mr M Giles, Miss KE Metcalfe & Mr JJ Walker and Mr D Gradon. Finally there 6 litters with no kennel names – 2 from John Lennon, who has been breeding Salukis for many years, one from Miss E Price, one from Miss N McCallum and 2 from Sue Edge who seems to have abandoned her kennel name Sotazsu.”
 
An interesting, fun day for us at Crufts.  So many friends to meet and a quick catch-up on what is happening. It was nice to see Clair Chryssolor, who was back from Texas just for stewarding at our ring along with Caroline Mccormick Smith.  Clair is looking forward to returning again in June to judge us at Windsor.  Going through the catalogue there were only 12 Salukis entered from outside the UK.  One of the most interesting entries was two Turkish champions; though looking at their information in the catalogue one has a French sire and the other a Swedish sire.  Sorry I did not get to chat with them. Michael and I were pleased to see Jimmy Cowie at the show.  We hope all is going well with his treatment and recovery.  Lastly we had to wish farewell to Martina Skadrova and Edwardo Scosta with their two Salukis and their whippet.  They are off to start a new life in Finland, at least for 6 months.  We hope they have a safe journey and hope to report back on how they are getting on.
 
Our judge at Crufts was Mrs Denise Rogers and she chose for her
Dog CC, Best Of Breed  Ch Mumtaz Hercules Sh CM owned by Joan and Jimmy Cowie with the RDCC to Canapus Impala at Iskandraya (IMP NDL).  BCC went to Nicola Warner and Berni Heatherton’s Ch Canapus Victoria (IMP NDL) with RBCC to Tony and Liz Quick’s Noushzad Caliana at Jorjenjo (IMP Ger)  Best Puppy was Al Nafiseh Flowering Sage (IMP RUS) owned by Dr O Woolmer.  Well done all!
 
Schedules are now available for the Ruby Weekend for the Northern Saluki Club.  Please look on Higham Press Web site or contact John Owen, Hon Sec on telephone no. 0115 9305473.  I will post more about the planned activities in next weeks Breed Notes