A bit more on Crufts 2009

This is just a footnote to Crufts 2009 (the view from home) or rather a link to a view from Sweden.

Crufts 2009 (the view from home)

Ironically it was Cocoa, our basset, that caused our decision not to attend Crufts this year. She is on a wait and see bed rest regime following unspecified yelps of pain a few weeks ago.

Such is the power of television, Crufts began this year under a cloud. The BBC having withdrawn its coverage following a controversial Panorama broadcast in 2008. Crufts launched its own television coverage, Crufts TV, broadcast via the Internet with live coverage throughout the whole of the show, far more than in prior years, and, another irony, a potential worldwide audience far greater than that cut off by the BBC. From what I saw on the first day the coverage was excellent, although you may not be surprised that I would have preferred to see a move away from the arena to coverage of the breed judging, obviously that is because I wanted to see how our Bassets progressed and, well, obedience and agility competitions are simply not part of my hound life. There is even a Video on Demand service where for a small sum, £1.99 for a day or £9.99 for a month, a recording of the coverage may be watched at a later time.

KCLovesDogs The Kennel Club Mar 08, 09:29 AM The Crufts channel isnow THE MOST VIEWED CHANNEL ON YOUTUBE!!! WE ARE NUMBER ONE!!!

If you follow The Kennel Club on Twitter you will have seen the Tweet reproduced above. So maybe it's, thank you Panorama, you have launched Crufts from its previous national TV slot into its rightful place, as the worlds greatest celebration of all things canine, as a worldwide Internet TV phenomenon!

Not being able to attend and no coverage of the judging meant that I could not follow the progress of Nico, Barnaby and Cassius instead having to wait until the results appeared on Crufts' website. So fingers crossed, was delighted when eventually the success of two was posted to the net, although naturally disappointed not to find Barnaby amongst them. Have posted the results of all our members, congratulations to them all, to the SHOW RESULTS page on our website.

In case you don't know: Nico is Culdaws Bayleaf, Barnaby is Malrich Voodoo and Cassius is Durins Dain Ironfoot of Eastmill. Our other successes, no less important I should stress my bias is only linked to my personal acquaintance, were Balmacara Orange Blossom forKithalined and Durins Flame of the West

A triumph for the Internet and freedom!

What's that I hear?

What's that I hear? Baby patter? Baby elephant patter more like it.

No Ginsberg but a snippet of fellow Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti's poem "Dog" currently accompanies the Webmaster's page*, but that's not the point. Users of Microsoft Internet Explorer will, assuming they have working speakers and have not clicked the mute button, have noticed sound accompanying some of our pages, whereas users of Apple's Safari will not - some may well say lucky Safari users.


Some like my correspondent, whose main query related to "problem on the fist newwsletter on WBarrow. Just comes. goes comes goes. What can it be?" although I had no idea quite what he meant the problem was probably solved by the same method noted in "Is the page up to date" (I say probably because he came back with "Hi. Just tried that. There is improvement, now it bleeps four or five times then the page stays there. Well at least an improvment. Cheer & thanks,..." I was foolish enough to wonder momentarily from what malaise his computer suffered but suspect now that it was a comment on the musical accompaniment).

If you hear sound and don't like it I have provided a toggle switch at the top right on some pages to turn it off, or just click on mute, it will probably be at the bottom right of your screen.


If you are using an Apple and would like to hear the sound files, I can only apologize as I know of no way of overcoming the problem. I believe it is just one of many incompatibility issues between Microsoft and Apple. If anyone has any ideas I would be glad to hear them.

*(The Webmaster's page is no more and all of the web site as it was in March 2009 has been rewritten, however the poem may still be heard on the Dog page.)