Fun Days

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BGV Club Fun Day

 

Sunday 18^th September 2011

 

Beachampton, Milton Keynes

 

 

 

On Sunday 18th September Hilary Knowles kindly opened up her home and garden to host the BGV fun day. A lot of hard work and preparation had been put in beforehand by Hilary and a host of helpers who all worked tirelessly to ensure the day was a resounding success. The day started with a walk followed by fun agility competitions organised by Anita Roberts and Ann Dormer. Proceedings turned to lunch prepared by Julie Wilson and Geraldine Dodd and then after lunch Terry Dawes gave a brief talk on dogs identifying medical conditions in humans before he judged the fun classes with the help of Colin and Ann Makey who then run a series of games.

Ray and Barbara Milton with the help of Jess Baston raised £135 on the raffle and all in all the 50 – ish BGVs and their owners had a great time. It was lovely to see 8 out of 8 GBGVs bred by Hilary being reunited for their first birthday. Kim Culyer Dawson manned the Club Shop and her friend Sonia baked some liver cake and dog treats which sold well to raise funds.

Best In Show was Claude the GBGV owned by Martin Briggs and Best Puppy was Luna the GBGV owned by Mary Horner. Class of the day had to be the ‘summer holiday’ themed fancy dress class and the sight of Rufus Trotter the GBGV sporting what can only be described as an advertising board for Sausage Farm holidays for BGVs was something to see but the ‘hunt the sausage’ semi finals were fairly hotly contested and embarrassingly the BGVs were outdone by an Irish Terrier called Jamieson! Around £350 was raised for the Joan Wells Meacham Health Fund in total with a small donation being made to the Bio Detection Dogs Charity and most importantly the weather held without a single drop of rain falling, overall a lovely day which many will remember for a long time and huge thanks to Hilary and helpers for putting on such a great day.

 

 

Results of agility competitions

Anita Roberts and Ann Dormer spent the day giving help and advice on agility followed by some agility competitions.

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Scottish Day of the BGV /

Club Fun Day

Saturday 21^st August 2011

Balgonie Castle, Markinch, Fife

 

 

It was a blustery day for the Scottish day of the BGV at Balgonie Castle. Just over 50 people attended the Funday, held in the grounds of the Laird of Balgonie’s Castle and whilst warm jackets and waterproofs were the order of the day but thankfully the wind kept the rain away and there were even a few moments when the sun peeked through !

Claire MacGregor kindly donated her agility equipment and did some agility demonstrations first thing and then everyone was invited to ‘have a go’ on the agility course; once again the tunnel was abandoned due to the wind agility – maybe next year! With the fastest time of 38 seconds Claire and Coorie the Spaniel won first place, Alan with Mac the Rottie came second and then the fastest BGV was Emma with Sponge coming in at just over a minute.

Michael and Alec kept us all fed, manning the barbecue, The Laird had very thoughtfully installed a traditional forge that doubles up as an excellent barbeque pit for this year! Pamela McGregor kindly brewed up the tea and coffee to keep everyone’s hands warm throughout the day and Claire McGregor sold raffle tickets, taking just of £61.

Games and fun classes included Musical Mats where the BGVs and their very competitive owners had a clean sweep of the prizes; Fancy Dress where the winner was Molly the GBGV dressed as a Fairy, closely followed by Ailsa the Biker PBGV! The highlight of the day must however be the Best Six Legs, or rather the Bravest Six Legs as there were a few owners / handlers who braved the elements and rolled up their trouser legs to take part! Elinor McGregor judged the fun classes with the help of several cups of hot coffee to thaw out her hands! Around 30 dogs were entered and Best in Show was Lorna with Ailsa the PBGV, Reserve Best in Show was Pamela with Molly the GBGV and Best Puppy in Show was Jim with Woody the PBGV. Once again, there were food prizes, toys, treats and goody bags for everyone.

A huge thanks must go to all those who attended and gave so generously and to those who helped on the day; too many to mention individually. Around £250 was raised for BGV Rescue and the Joan Wells Meacham Fund jointly. We look forward to another successful day in 2012!

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Southern Day of the BGV /

Club Fun Day

Sunday 17^th July 2011

Walberton Village Hall, West Sussex

 

 

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Scottish Day of the BGV /

Club Fun Day

Sunday 29^th August 2010

Balgonie Castle, Markinch, Fife

 

 

The sun shone and the wind blew at the Scottish day of the BGV at Balgonie Castle, Scotland on Sunday 29th August 2010. Around 45 people attended the Funday, held in the grounds of the Laird of Balgonie’s Castle, most were well wrapped up against the swirling wind although thankfully the wind kept the rain at bay !

The day started out with ‘have a go’ agility, complete with cross bar jumps and hoop this year – the tunnel was abandoned due to the high winds which kept whipping the material into a frenzy. Lucy the spaniel took first prize in the agility with a fabulous 28.4 second round, Emma the Grand was the fastest BGV who came a respectable 3rd in 37.4 seconds.

Sue Hood and Pam McKenzie-Hewitt officiated over the judging of the classes and had a super entry of around 35 dogs all in all. Best in Show was Teasel the PBGV, owned by Marion and Colin Gerrie and Reserve Best in Show was Kimmy the Whippet owned by Alan and Wendy Clark; Best Puppy in Show was Willow the Cocker Spaniel. There were goodies galore for everyone; there was food for all class winners, whistles and Frisbees and a lovely cuddly bed for the ‘Golden Oldie’.

Other games and fun classes took place throughout the day; a very hotly contested ‘muscial mats’ took place with Molly and Lola being declared joint 1st; competition was also fierce in ‘hunt the sausage’ where Cali came first and Roly the Petit was 2nd. The highlight of the day, as always was the ‘sausage catching’; sadly Bobby the Lab who returned to defend his title came third this year, beaten by the Cocker Spaniel Dena in 1st place and Lucy the Spaniel in 2nd. It would appear that although scent hounds PBGV and GBGV prefer their sausages from the floor.

Michael and Alec kept the barbecue going throughout lunch and Margaret Makin kept topping up the tea and coffee; the best way of keeping your hands warm in the blustery weather ! Young Claire McGregor manned the BGV Club Shop and sold raffle tickets although she did manage to enter the fancy dress class as a cowgirl for Molly the GBGV horse.

A huge thanks must go to all those who attended and gave so generously and to those who helped on the day; too many to mention individually. Just over £300 was raised for BGV Rescue and the Joan Wells Meacham Fund jointly and we look forward to another successful day in 2011 when we move back to May / June for the fun day.

 

 

Best in Show - Teasel

Reserve Best in Show - Kimmy

Best Puppy in Show - Willow

 

 

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Southern Day of the BGV /

Club Fun Day

Sunday 18^th July 2010

Walberton Village Hall, West Sussex

 

 

The weather couldn't have been better we were blessed with sunshine and a lovely cool breeze. Jackie Drakeford gave an informative talk on how to choose a training class and could still be there answering questions now as they were so forthcoming. Just a little message from Jackie she would love to organise some scent following for next year with perhaps a demo and then lets all have a go. Hope it won't be too noisy being a Sunday!

Linda Skerritt said the grooming wasn't so busy this year and thought that the hounds present all looked pretty good with some just needing a bit of guidance, thank you Linda.

I cannot praise or thank enough Debs and Pete who worked in the kitchen all day with a lot of help from Sue. Without their help the Fun Day would not have been possible they're my heroes. The food was excellent.

Prof Peter Bedford was happy with the eye testing he carried out and Viv proved to be a dab hand at putting the eye drops in. Dianne has writers cramp after filling all the forms in but is recovering slowly!

The BGV raffle took over £100 which was wonderful thank you for being so generous. The JJ raffle was drawn with first prize, a lovely limited edition print by Stella Stevens going to Phil Harper the second prize, a Billet Doux BGV Cushion won by Maggie Spencer and the third an All Breeds Dog Book WON BY Beryl Beugalaar…

Agility was a new addition to the Fun Day with some fun awards which you can read below. Steph Jefford had this and all the fun classes running like clockwork with our new Club President Mrs S E Hunt doing the judging.

We ran two quizzes one was a Doggy Questionnaire and the other fill in the Points of the Dog. There were a few winners, including Peter Marks with Yvonne Dean as quiz master.

We had many contributions to the raffle and class prizes; including some from Arden Grange, Burgess Feeds, Bognor Pet Shop, Pampurred Pets, Bartholomews and SPR so a big thank you to them and all of you for coming.

 

 

Best in Show - Lilly

Reserve Best in Show - Oscar

Best Puppy in Show - Ty

 

 

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The West and Wales Fun Day

Sunday 15^th May 2010

 

On May 15th 2010, members of the BGV Club met at Weobley, Herefordshire for our second Fun Day at this venue. We moved to a Saturday at the request of members, so that they could make a weekend of their visit, with people coming from Suffolk, Surrey and London to join us. The sun shone, and it was wonderful to see everyone and their dogs, all enjoying meeting up again.

The day started with a talk and slide demonstration by the Hereford Hydrotherapy Centre. They have wonderful equipment and we were shown how it was used to best advantage. They treat a range of problems from very serious cases to those dogs who love to have fun. People seemed genuinely interested in this, and the girls were happy to answer any questions put to them.

Following that, people were keen to get some grooming advice, and Linda Skerritt was happy to help out. This led us to a lunch break, and I must thank Robin for providing a great spread.

After lunch, we watched the new Grooming Video by James Hall. This was very informative. During the day, there were items offered in a Silent Auction, a Raffle Table, heaving under the weight of donated gifts, an auction of a cake for the JJ Fund, and tickets on sale for the fund, which is going on to the Fun Day in Sussex in July.

Items from the Club Shop were also available, which many appreciated. This was manned by Kim Culyer-Dawson.

I would like to thank everyone for attending, and being generous with gifts for the Raffle, purchasing tickets and making bids on the Silent Auction. As the day was intended to raise funds for Rescue & Welfare, and as the Co-ordinator at present, thank you very much…….Diana Sadler.

 

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