Well the weather has taken us by surprise again this week and most of the country seems to have been affected by snow to some extent. Luckily the Wolfhounds seem to really enjoy it and especially the puppies who are experiencing it for the fist time. Unfortunately, the white stuff does cause havoc with other aspects of life, especially with dog showing and the 2 shows planned for Sunday 24th March have been cancelled due to the bad weather. The Houndshow Open was due to be judged by Carol Goodson (Moralach) and Carol was delighted with a high entry for the Wolfhound classes, a judging appointment that comes hot on the heels of Carol's show success at Crufts a few weeks ago. At Crufts 2013 Carol's dog, Cookie (CH Moralach the Gambling Man JW) took the reserve dog CC under breed specialist judge, Jean Malley (Ainsea), having also won the Special Yearling class to make it through to the dog challenge and seeing off some very stiff competition from both home and abroad from kennels including Torteval (Vaudin), Rainster (Redfern) and Driftcot (Goodall). Although the venue has changed this year from the Stafford Showground to the Sports Connexion at Ryton, Coventry, the format of running the 2 dog shows one after the other has stayed the same and the Irish Wolfhound Society Limit Show would have been judged directly after the IW classes had finished, by Christine Miller (Ladestar). Another connection between the 2 shows is the IWS Chairwoman, Elizabeth Murray (Sabata), who is also Assistant Show Secretary of the Hound Association. We are hoping that it may be possible to re-schedule the shows for a later date so we will keep checking for information on the 2 websites: www.irishwolfhoundsociety.co.uk and www.houndassociation.org.uk [and[ fingers crossed that the we][1]ather][2] improves too!