We also talked to Kennel Club members about Heelwork and Freestyle, as well as Rally and Agility showing.
We visited the Discover Dogs stands, and met our favourites, the three varieties of miniature dachshunds! As well as the Eurasier's (our second favourite). We also spoke to the owner of the Keeshonds, who was lovely - informative and helped along by some very, very adorable dogs! We also chatted to the owners of three gorgeous Beagles, and met some simply beautiful Staffies.
We also walked around all of the stalls...
- We met the Border Collie Trust (bordercollietrustgb.org.uk) who we know from discussing the joy of Collies on Twitter.
- Chatted about monkey facial expressions with the people from Dog Poo Wormery (earth-essentials.co.uk/prod_details_dogwormeryNEWEE.htm).
- Met the Healthy Paws dog food people (healthypaws.co.uk) who gave us lots of lovely samples!
- Talked fish with the Fish4Dogs crew (fish4dogs.com), as well as letting them hide our pink Eukanuba-branded Crufts show guide bag inside one of theirs!
- Discussed the wonders of the beef industry with Natural PetTreats (naturalpettreatscompany.com) who claim 100% British beef liver, no weight gain, no additives, and definitely no horse!
- Inspected the vans being shown by both Lintran (lintran.co.uk) and Burtons Medical Equipment (burtons.uk.com & k9cages.com), both of which were extremely impressive!
The hotel we stayed in was also great, and I'd recommend it to Crufts-goers in the future. It was cheap, close to the NEC, easy to find (although their car park isn't fantastically sign posted, once out the front, the bar staff were welcoming and happy to direct me), the room was large (for a single), and comfortable with an en suite. I'd go there again!
The link to it is here: www.innkeeperslodge.com/birmingham-nec-coleshill