I went to this show two years ago and was then met by Swedish winter at its worst, but this year the weather gods had decided to be a little kinder and the temprature was never lower than -11C, thank godness.

In the morning we, Jan-Roger Sauge, Kari Haave, Tina Illuka and myself, joined up for breakfast before we set off for the show.

I was doing Labradors and again there was a good entry and some nice dogs.

Best  minor puppy was a well constructed nice black puppy dog called Macitas Bellman Cheers, he won this award quite comfortably.

Best Puppy to Destinys All Whitin My Hands, a lovely yellow puppy, who again won this award easily. Dog CAC came from intermediate and turned out to be an old acquaintance of mine, Mainlines Publisher - he won the same award under me at Örnsköldsvik a few months ago. BD to Ch Tjottes Broken Arrow from veteran, again on good form.

In bitches the quality was a little higher than in dogs and my CAC, BB and eventually BOB winner looked lovely and was beautifully presented, Ch Tawastways Sunshine. Again she is an old aquaintance as she won CACIB and BOS under me at Seinäjoki last year.

Bellman Cheers was 4th in the minor puppy bis final under Tina Illuka and Destinys All Within My Hands was put into 5th place under Kari Haave for best puppy.

In best exhibit in show with field trial awards, Sunshine got the top spot under me and Broken Arrow went bos-bis as well as best veteran in show under Tiina Illuka. At the end of the day, Jan-Roger Sauge judged BIS and placed Sunshine 5th in very hot company where a springer from the top winning High Score kennel was awarded the red rosette.

On June 7th, I set off to Arlanda airport to go to Umeå where we, Åke Sjöström, Liz-Beth Liljeqvist, Lena Stålhandske and myself, were picked up by the showcommittee to go to Örnsköldsvik where the show was being held the following day. We spent a very pleasant evening in a restuarant often visited by one of our national heros, 'Foppa', and his spirit was all over the place even though he wasn't  present.

The following day we woke up to a very sunny weather and the place was beautifully located by the sea.

I judged Labradors and English Springers and had some good dogs to go over. DCAC to a young nice black dog by the name of Mainlines Publisher. BD and BOB went to Ch Tjottes Broken Arrow, as you  can tell from the photo this was his 49th BOB - a breedrecord in Sweden?? A very sweet yellow from junior, Posters Sweet Juliet, took BCAC and BOS.

In Springers, there were some very nice indeed exhibits.  Best Puppy to the lovely Cloette's Playin' With Your Heart. DCAC to a very nice intermediate dog called Barecho Most Wanted but BD to Ch High-Score On The Move who looked and showed beautifully. In bitches I fell for a junior, the most lovely High Score Top Model, she was awarded the BCC, BB and BOB! I am sure her sire, H S On The Move, is very proud of his daughter. They certainly looked a lovely pair as they moved around the ring.

Later in the day, I was doing best puppy in show and my choice for the top award was Cloette Playin' With You Heart. Åke Sjöström did best veteran and his choice for the top spot went to Tjottes Broken Arrow.

Finally, Lena Stålhandske, was doing best in show. Lena is Swedish by birth, is living in Australia since 10 years back but comes back to her native Sweden every summer to spend a couple of months here. Broken Arrow went runner up BIS and the young sweetie Top Model was put into 3rd place.

Last week-end in August I went to Uddevalla to judge Golden retrievers at the Sw Spaniel and Retriever Club Ch show. It brought back special memories as it was at this particular show my first labrador Minnows Leonora was being shown for the first time by her novice owner 35 years ago - me.

As Uddevalla is just north of Gothenburg I decided to drive around a bit in my old home town on my way to the show and realised just how much it had changed. Walking up and down Linnégatan I could hardly believe I had actually lived there, the whole neighbourhood had become so continental in a very pleasant sort of way and the weather was the best possible which of course meant that even more people were out walking than what had been the case had it been raining.

The following day I had a good entry of Golden Retrievers. The winner of best puppy was a very nice puppy called Cheers Silver Spoon and she made it all the way to first place in the final under breeder-judge Kjell Svensson.

Another nice puppy called Poetry's Anabelle from the older puppy class too had a good day and finished as runner up BPIS under British gentleman Reg Bunting.

I didn't find anything to award the Dog CAC to but a fine veteran called S U(u) Ch Festivals Rough'N Tough won best dog.

In bitches the quality was better but I did feel my CAC, best bitch and eventually BOB winner stood out right from the start and her name is Officer's Lady Poetry. She came from intermediate and I shall follow her career with interest. In the best in show final she finished 4th under Danish breeder-judge Erling Kjaer-Pedersen.

I judged two finals myself, best progeny group which was won by the flatcoated retriever group from kennel Miss Mallory's and best field trial which was headed by an English springer by the name Nord Ch Astrospring's  Ikonos.

Overall it was a very pleasant show and Börje and Therese Johansson are the perfect host and hostess! They have run this show for 10 years and have made it a very popular event. Long may it continue.

This is a photo of dear old Knockie, the senior citizen in the family, he turned 12 two months ago. This photo was however taken four years ago, I wish I would be more active taking photos than I am. Maybe having this blog will force me to.

Knockie is short for Thornbreaker's Postman's Knock. He is by S U Ch Poolstead Political Agent out of S U(u) Ch Thornbreaker's Alice Spring.

He won his first CAC under  labrador breeder-judge Mrs Margie Cairns of Blaircourt fame and his second (with CACIB and BOB) under Ing-Marie Hagelin. He was second a couple of times and finally I gave up and stoped showing him. With a bit more determination on my part I am sure he would have been made up

This headline was supposed to be on the top of the last two entries, but here it is. Not easy to get everything right at once:)

This is Thornbreaker's Bit of Class, Blondie for short, last year at the Labrador Club ch show at Rottneros. She's now five and has 2 CAC's under Eva Mjelde and Nina Karlsdotter (with BOB), as well as standing second to it no less than 4 times - very annoying! Blondie is by S U (u) Ch Carpenny Hurricane out of Thornbreaker's Wee Bit of Style (S U(u) Ch Cambremer Wellington x S U (u) Ch Thornbreaker's Alice Springs). Hips and elbows 0-0, clear eyes

Hej!

Det är nu första gången som jag skriver på bloggen. Det kommer inte ske dagligen men lite då och då när det finns något att berätta. Det här första blir som lite test, så vi ser att allt fungerar. Så småningom ska det läggas in lite bilder för att göra bloggen lite mera 'levande'.

Jan-Erik