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We are not extrememly proud of the fact that our boy Cassy (Short for Cassidy a.k.a. Cúboglach True Lover’s Knot D: Cúboglach Dusky Heath X S: Priority Paddy Jack of Duwuna at Blakelyn) is now NZ Champ, since we saw no competition at all in the 10 shows we attended. BUT what we really are proud of is the time in which this was achieved: less than two months. Our boy arrived on the 20th of October in New Zealand, and was allowed to leave his quarantine by the 18th of November. Next thing to do was find an all breed association to join, so that we could subscribe as a member of the New Zealand Kennel Club. After this bureaucracy was dealt with, we could enter him in the show ring. The first two challenges Cassy collected was on the 21st and 22nd of January in the premises of the New Zealand Kennel Club. On top of that Cassy won the Champions Stakes, which happened to be his first appearance in the ring in New Zealand. Three weeks later he collected another 2 CC’s. Once again 3 weeks later he gained another 3 CC’s, which was on the 4th of March. At that stage Cassy needed just 1 more CC to become NZ Champion. That happened yesterday. And to be sure to have a bit in reserve, he was entered in three shows (yes indeed on 1 day) in which he gained just as many CC’s. So now he has 10 CC’s out of the 8 needed. The thing we are a bit worried about is the lack of competition. Becoming NZ Champion is not much of a challenge this way. Of course we are happy with the outcome, but we fear the lack of competition. This is a danger to the existence of the breed.
We will retire our boy from actively showing, because he’s had it completely. He is really bored in the ring. We will give him what he really likes: hunting. Of course we will go to a show every once and a while, but not any longer in the speed we used to do in Europe (Holland, Germany and France) and down here. Our boy will be known as: NZ, NL, Int Ch Cúboglach True Lover’s Knot, trialer, VDH ‘04. Besides these titles Cassy was Best in Show in a show with over 2300 entries in Troyes (France).
We are very proud of being owner of this wonderful boy and we would like to congratulate Cassy’s breeder Martyn Ford and the breeder of Cassy’s sire: Clara Hamers. And finally we owe a very, very big “THANK YOU” to Mary Knoppert, who taught us how to groom an IWS.
