Page 157 - K9 News - Issue 15 - March2021
P. 157

events, which added to the future health and        Jacqui Ward would slave over a little cooker
           positive elements of the breed. We have             making large amounts of tasty stew; everyone
           tirelessly produced shows and it was decided        would gather to devour this after hours in the
           from the start that serving committee members       cold. Previous committee member Val Grant,
           would neither enter dogs nor judge at any           organised shooting days often at Harewood
           N.E.W.S. show therefore the club was impartial      House courtesy of Lord Harewood then in recent
           to the owners entering exhibits at our shows. As    years, Jean Byrne took on this task arranging
           many of the committee members actively show         training days around Yorkshire, Lancashire &
           their dogs, this immediately lowers the entry at    Derbyshire.
           all our shows.
                                                               N.E.W.S. have consistently run breed seminars,
           In 2004, the 4 breed clubs contacted the Kennel     with great success of pass rates and a goodly
           Club regarding the importation of 2 bitches from    number of non-breed specialists taking an
           America. Nothing wrong with imports I hear you      interest in the breed. In recent years, the Kennel
           say, however, these were registered as ‘blue’       Club have been in the process of overhauling
           and not the correct colour of silver grey! Since    the judging system and have introduced Breed
           then, it seems to have been an uphill struggle      Appreciation Days and mentoring sessions. We
           with lots of time, effort and correspondence        have embraced these changes, again running
           between the breed clubs and the Kennel Club.        successful informative days.
           Sadly, the blue dogs have been marketed as
           ‘rare’ therefore breeders selling puppies for
                                                               When N.E.W.S. was formed, we held fun days
           inflated prices. We continue to pursue the
                                                               in conjunction with the Northern English Setter
           Kennel Club on this matter.
                                                               Society, both clubs benefitting and giving back
                                                               to the enthusiasts and their dogs. We also had
           With foresight, N.E.W.S. orchestrated the           dinner dances with N.E.S.S. but these seem to
           compilation of a Results Book so all the            have fallen out of favour in today’s climate.
           championship show results were collated in
           one place. Christine Rayner along with her late
                                                               Companion shows have also been organised
           husband Charles were the first editors in 1993
                                                               with profits going to the Independent
           gathering all the championship show results into
                                                               Weimaraner Rescue & Rehoming Service
           a ring bound booklet. In 1998 it was decided to
                                                               charity.
           include all the critiques from the championship
           show too. Claire Rodgers, our current Secretary
           & Jacqui Ward has edited the publication for a      Secretary of N.E.W.S. is Claire Rodgers who
           number of years, which has grown in content         is supported by the Chairman Sandra Marshall
           and popularity. Photographs of the top awards       and a small hard working committee.
           are included plus new Show Champions &
           Champions in the year of publication. Adverts           www.northern-weimaraner.org.uk
           from breeders/exhibitors also adorn the pages.
           Consequently the N.E.W.S. Results Book is a
           brilliant source of reference.

           We have actively organised gundog training
           days. These initially were run with Brian Finan,
           Ian Grant and sometimes Di Arrowsmith
           putting owners and dogs through their paces.



                                                                                                                157
                                             K9 NEWS DIGITAL / MARCH 2021
   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162