June 22nd - Dreamcatcher Siberian Huskies had a successful day with all 10 Dreamcatcher (or Dreamcatcher-related) dogs entered getting placed. Pride of place went to Ute who won Open Dog and went home with the dog CC (his 2nd - just one more for his UK Championship!) and Chrystelle - Dreamcatcher The Prosecutor owned by Toni Gillman, who took the Reserve Bitch CC at only 15 months. The day was marred by the weather and the fact that the show was abandoned due to the dangerous condition of some of the marquees due to the high winds. Luckily for us, Sibe judging was completed before the show was abandoned and we got away safely.

June 15th - Ute went Best In Show again!!! This was his 3rd Open Show BIS this year! 

May 30th - Happy Birthday Terry - Love you now and forever!

February 5th - London Fashion Week filming - Had a great day today working with people producing Fashion Film Show - a film they are making for London Fashion Week. 
Fashion Film Show is an event which brings together the work of three young fashion designers in a film presentation event.   The designers have collaborated with London based Performance and Film Artists to produce three distinct films to showcase their collections for 2008. 
The films will be screened on 11th February to an anticipated audience of 750 people.  Organisers are looking forward to hosting some of the fashion industry's strongest critics for an evening of fashion films marking the unique collaboration between some of fashion and art's finest young talent.  All artists involved in the project are this year's graduates from various art schools around the country.
As contributors, Dreamcatcher Siberians will be featured on:

The event will be featured in:

You can access the video HERE - it is the last of the three videos featured. Don't blink or you'll miss the dogs!

Here are some atmospheric stills from the video

February 4th - Black Day for London - Low Emission Zone comes into force

Just a note of warning for anyone with a van in the London area (or who travels occasionally to the London area). On Monday, the new Low Emission Zone (LEZ) comes into force - another one of Ken Livingstone's insane ideas. Any vehicle which doesn't comply with Transport For London's emission regulations will have to pay a huge daily charge (congestion charge on steroids). It is being "phased in" so we won't have to pay on our van until October 2010. From that point on we have a choice - either pay £100 per day for driving in the LEZ (can't really avoid it as we live in it!") - or pay up to £4000 to have the van modified (by 2010 it won't be worth £4000).
It's not just about those of us with dog vans, this measure will destroy thousands of small businesses throughout Greater London who rely on their old "white vans" for transport. Watch and wait while every single thing we buy in London, whether a service or a product, becomes significantly more expensive as companies have to add on the extraordinary cost of this new charge (or completely renew their transport fleet). It also includes fire engines????? and other public service vehicles. This is the most appalling example of stupid "green" gesture politics we have yet seen. Good job the Mayoral election is coming up - Ken even makes Boris Johnson look sensible!

PS - don't think, "Oh, that just affects London"- if Ken gets away with it, other councils are sure to follow!

19th January - Message Boards, Fora & Bulletin Boards

Two senior luminaries of the UK Siberian Husky World have both chosen recently to attack Discussion Fora, Bulletin Boards and Message Boards which are not controlled by either of the two UK Siberian Husky Clubs. Their criticisms are particularly ironic when you consider the numbers of people banned from the SHCGB Board for utterances which do not "toe the party line." Indeed, the whole reason why such boards as ours  exist is because the SHCGB chose to stifle discussion about the breed by making their public forum a private one.
The two individuals in question are Simon Luxmoore and Krystan Greenland (recently resigned as Secretary of the SHCGB). Simon's recent diatribe against internet message boards is particularly ironic as he is in the priveliged position of pontificating from on high in the pages of Dog World every week where no-one has the right of reply. At least if I say something outrageous on our or any other message board, anyone who disagrees can publish their argument immediately and (as long as no personal insults are involved) uncensored. Simon referred in his January 11th Dog World Breed Notes to his opinion that "not too much good comes from participation" and that such message boards risk "spreading total ignorance."
He also refers to "the truly sad, sniping, pathetic individual who has been thus for years and years - does nothing significant for the breed, is negative and critical in every respect" - I think this is longhand for people who disagree with him and his old fashioned (but somehow not charming) patrician manner.
Interestingly however, whether he intended it or not, there is a sting in the tail of Simon's "sad, sniping" little article, where he laments the early days of the breed when "the then club was the centre of all breed activity and worked very hard to represent the interests of all, through consensus decision making."
So is he now saying that the SHCGB no longer represents the interests of all, and no longer functions through consensus decision making? If so, welcome to the rebel's club Simon - I've been saying that for years!

Krystan's criticisms are somewhat similar but much less arrogantly stated - indeed, he admits that some of the non-club message boards are "very good and offer up useful information," there are "others, often run by people who have achieved nothing in the breed, have not been in the breed very long, are not members of either UK breed club and therefore do not have to abide by a code of ethics in the way they deal with members of the public or when breeding, which are less than useful in the 'advice' they give"   (For full text, click HERE)
Of course some message boards are better than others and, being a fairly democratic medium, the advice given is only as good as the membership of any particular forum - which makes the two fora I am a regular contributor to (Dreamcatcher & Sibespace), pretty high quality given the wide variety and depth of experience of many of the contributors.
The sad (and maybe "sniping") fact is that message boards like these and others, would neither exist nor need to exist if the SHCGB was more open, more welcoming and less elitist.

Saturday 29th March 2008 - AGM of The Siberian Husky Welfare Association (UK) -  at the Parks Leisure Centre, Howden Road, North Shields, NE29 6TL.
Exact times/further details etc will be posted later. For now, please put the date in your diaries.

Friday 4th January 2008 - the BIG ONE - Mick's 60th Birthday - At last I can officially be a grumpy old man!!! Maybe I'll start growing up now??

14th/15th/16th December 2007 -  Southwark Frost Fair at Bankside by the Tate Modern. Three days of rides, photos, husky-hugging and fundraising for SHWA(UK). It was an exhausting but fun weekend and we raised over £500 for SHWA(UK).

8th December 2007 - That Santa gets around - another town another grotto - this time Gainsborough in Lincolnshire. Not a bad day, but torrential rain cut the day a bit short.

1st December - Delivering Santa again - this time to his grotto in Windsor after a street parade. Then we'll be doing hug-a-husky, kiddies rides and photos with the dogs.

24th November 2007 - This is where the Christmas work starts - Delivering Santa to his grotto at Squires Garden Centre in Surrey and giving husky rides to some of the children who turned up to greet him:

The Siberian Husky Welfare Association has just published the first issue of its new Magazine - "Siberian Eye". To download a copy, Click HERE for a full-colour version, or HERE for a B/W printable edition.