A new beginning...

THIS IS the first of what I hope will be a regular series of blogs. Like many people, I started off with the greatest intentions of blogging regularly last summer and I fell by the wayside. Maybe it’s because I sub so much copy from other DOG WORLD contributors…

Anyway, for those who don’t know me personally – you probably joined the Facebook group to get DW’s managing director to buy me an iPhone if that’s the case – I am one of DW’s assistant editors and the company has relocated me to the Midlands to have more of a presence on the show scene.

Having been based in Ashford, Kent for almost four years now I feel it is time to move to somewhere more accessible. There is only so many times you can stomach getting stuck on the M25 for hours on end.

My new base is Coleshill, just seven miles from the NEC, where the M6, M42 and M6 Toll meet. Convenient for Crufts and LKA!

My new role is, in some ways, a little blurred. Plenty of opportunity for a blank working at most of the major championship shows held within commuting distance of Birmingham – so all general champ shows at Stafford, Malvern, Stoneleigh – plus some further flung ones. I will be returning to the south east for Windsor and Richmond and heading up to Blackpool – one of my favourite shows on the circuit.

With DW successfully piloting our ‘new media’ I am excited about developing this content from the showground. If you’ve seen our videos from LKA, Pup of the Year, Eukanuba masterclasses and other video interviews – visit www.dogworld.co.uk/interactive – there’s a lot more where that came from. We are working with PetPlan in covering its junior stakes heats and of course the group judging at selected general championship shows. Watch this space…

If you’ve got some news come and find me at any of the shows I’m working at, or if you’re interested in advertising in DW then seek me out, even if it’s just to admire the iPhone!

Adrian

Jaunt to Brum (well, Stafford actually)

A long awaited update to my blog.

Merlin’s summer championship show season began with Birmingham National at Stafford on Thursday. To say he has been a handful in the ring would be something of an understatement but at Birmingham I could not have asked more of him. He managed to stand still and keep all four paws on the ground!

He had been worn out on the Tuesday and Wednesday before the show with two long walks after work and a run around the playing fields to make sure he would settle in the ring and this seemed to work.

The 4.30am get up was a shock to his system too – another quick walk round Singleton Lake in Ashford. While we weren’t first in the ring, living in the far south east corner requires circumnavigating the M25 well before the commuter traffic and at 5.30am Merlin and myself set off with DOG WORLD’s Ed Dyckhoff for Stafford. Armed with this trip’s choice of music – the legendary Queen – and a quick comfort break (or more importantly another walk to tire out the woofer) at Oxford the Singleton lads psyched themselves up for ‘Brum Nat 09’.

Petit Bassets finally got into the ring gone 2pm and the Puppy Dog class of four entries saw Merlin placed second under Phil Freer behind another Soletrader dog a month older than him.

Merlin’s fan club and official photographer (Ed and Bonnie Scougall, DW’s reporter at the show) turned up to cheer him on.

After show after show of battling with Merlin to get him to grasp the concept of standing still he seems to finally be on track. Let’s hope it lasts…

Staying over the night in Stafford at a cottage ten minutes from the County Showground meant we had a chance to watch the groups before making a quick trip to Asda for some food and wine.

For Merlin the highlight of the day was to meet his new best pal – Bonnie’s Gordon Setter ‘Trader’. The two put the cottage’s garden to good use and Merlin got Trader into shape for the following day as he won his class – a good show for the DW dogs!

Merlin was obviously knackered as he slept for the three-and-a-half hour journey back to Ashford. We managed to get back to the DW office at 4pm where Merlin’s ‘team’ had even produced a homemade rosette for his efforts!

Merlin and I will be on the road again for Scottish Kennel Club championship show where I am reporting for DW….

Lieu day!

I am fortunate to live in a very dog-friendly part of Ashford with numerous walks and green spaces to exercise my now nine-month-old Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen Merlin.

Every morning Merlin gets a circuit of Singleton Lake before he comes into the DOG WORLD office. Each morning he has his 'constitutional' - a few circuits of the office, usually with a toy firmly gripped in his jaws, or anything else he can get hold of - door wedges are a notable favourite. He also has a penchant for tuna sandwiches as DW employees have found to their cost!

After greeting the office staff Merlin will settle until lunchtime when he enjoys another walk. With the beautiful weather we have been having he has enjoyed some free running with our news editor's lurcher Star in some fields near to the office. With Star being at least twice the height of Merlin it is amusing to see Merlin attempt to keep up with him!

With a day off in lieu for working at Crufts Merlin and I had a couple of lengthy walks around Singleton today. The playing fields at Great Chart are a favourite for free running although, being a hound, Merlin does possess a devilish streak. Whether it's sneaking into neighbouring fields through the smallest gap, rendering me unable to get to him, or diving into nearby streams, walking Merlin is never boring!

Dee wun (day one in Geordie) through to Dee seven (or thereabouts)

My first blog....

Not too sure what format these blogs will take or whether the novelty of committing my thoughts to the web will die out - or indeed if they should be posted! But here goes...

I'm sitting with a can of Fosters by my side recovering from the the busiest two weeks of my professional life - Crufts. Well, the event has actually taken a fair bit of my time since the beginning of the year.

As a child I always looked forward to Crufts, flying or ferrying across from Jersey when I lived there or training/driving up from Brighton when I was at uni. However for the last few years I have seen the show from a different angle working for DOG WORLD newspaper. Seeing the show being set up on the Wednesday before the public and exhibitors descend on the NEC in Birmingham and being there for 12 hours a day for four days is exhausting, but with a plentiful supply of extra strong mints and of course Alpen bars I did it.

The four days fly by with work beginning at 8am each day until the groups end at around 8pm before returning to the hotel for the obligatory drinks. For me personally Crufts is also an opportunity to see my family dogs and Minstrel, Rolo, Taj and Ces spent the show in their usual haunt, The Manor Hotel in Meriden with the DW team.

In terms of the coverage the DW team provided of the show we managed to provide unrivalled coverage of the world's greatest dog show with photographic coverage, Twitter updates, video interviews and blog updates - all at www.dogworld.co.uk/crufts.

Crufts is always a good laugh with the DW team 'on tour' and I count myself lucky to be one of them, even if I am the subject of some of the ribbing (my Lambretta T-shirt mainly)!

For me this was the most tiring Crufts I can remember as the team stayed at the NEC until best in show had been declared at 9pm on the Sunday. Driving (or maybe flying) back to Kent in James' Honda Civic made a change from pounding the tarmac of the M6 in my more modest Fiesta!

Arriving back in Ashford at 1am on Monday Crufts 2009 wasn't over yet with the hard work of putting together the DOG WORLD results paper. With three of my team of sub-editors in the office over the weekend they had kept the results updated leaving me to concentrate on laying the pages with the editorial and photos from the show.

Our hard working team pulled out all the stops and the final page was signed off at 7.29pm on Tuesday evening - a record! And when the finished product landed on our desks on Thursday morning all that work was worth it.

A huge thanks to my editorial team and the other DW team members for their hard work.

Now what to do.....?