Dates to remember in March 2024
March 1st is St David’s Day. St David is the only patron saint to be born in Britain and he died on this day in 589 AD. Welsh people will display their national pride by wearing daffodils or leeks and dressing in national costume.
Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus!
9th to 12th March at the NEC in Birmingham will see the annual dog show, Cruft’s. It is an opportunity to see well-bred pedigree dogs trotting their stuff and also to witness the extraordinary lengths their breeders and owners go to in presenting their charges at their best.
On grooming tables, hapless pooches will be strung up tightly so that they can be ‘trimmed’. Some will have curlers in their fur, later to be brushed out and completed with a pretty bow. Others will have chalk applied to the white parts of their coats, though Kennel Club rules demand that no chalk is left in the coat when the judge ‘goes over’ the dog. Chalk is also used when people are stripping their dogs’ coats, to give a better grip.
All the exhibits are required to have short, neat claws, so there will be a great degree of nail clipping going on.
Apart from the beauty pageant, there are many other things to see. At ‘Discover Dogs’ 200 breeds of pedigree dogs can be seen and petted. Friendly and knowledgeable owners are very happy to talk about their chosen breed and advise on their suitability for specific circumstances.
The Kennel Club Dog Hero Award competition is an opportunity to honour and applaud the very special relationships that arise. Some dogs show exceptional bravery, others are support dogs, sensitive to the indications of approaching epileptic seizures, or diabetic problems among other things. Some are assistance dogs that help owners with disabilities, like deafness or autism. Then there are the Search and Rescue dogs, the police and military dogs.
Agility and flyball competitions are a great favourite with the crowds. Many of the dogs participating are small breeds, and inclined to be fairly vocal. The ones that win the hearts of the audience are the mischievous dogs that don’t quite do what they should and make everyone laugh.
‘Heelwork to Music’ is a chance to see what dogs are capable of, given the chance.
Police and Gundog displays are always impressive and ‘Scruffts’ is an arena for the beautiful, intelligent, non-pedigree dogs to shine.
The last day of the show is where every human competitor longs to be, in the finals. The dogs don’t care one way or the other. I hope the winner this year represents a healthy breed that hasn’t been adapted to man’s opinion of what is beautiful and ruined in the process.
My Velcro dog, Frodo the Faller, qualified for Crufts in 2002. You can read about him here and velcro here.
