It’s been a long time but we made it to the NEC for crufts 2022.

I swore to myself that I would take loads of pictures so I could document the trip I would be one of those people taking loads of pictures and viewing the entire world through a phone screen.

And how many did I take?

Two

So most of these pictures came from other sources.

Day 1

We went down in two vehicles as we had 3 dogs, myself, Helen and Ann the breeder of Dura

A drive down the M6

Stop at Teabay for some pies and then onwards to our chosen accommodation which was very nice at the Old barn at peel farm

Apart from that utterly tedious, how anyone can think that driving long distances is fun is utterly beyond me.

Seeing we arrived earlier than expected I got Dura and walked along the road to The dog inn for a pint of Proper Job.

As this was Dura’s first time in a pub he was utterly terrified of all the people and the noise. Not helped by him being a giant Great Dane who gets attention wherever he goes.

Only 2 horse and one saddle comment. Great dane owners know what i mean

After retreating to the beer garden with pint it was bedtime.

Day 2

An early start for to get a decent parking spot but as normal round the NEC the motorway also a carpark. A walk into the show and find our benches for the 3 dogs.

While waiting for the girls to have their place in the ring Helen sold some of her jewellery which she had made under the Steel and jewels banner. I grabbed Dura for a wander around the many halls which he didn’t overly enjoy as he isn’t good with crowds. With my number 1 target being the many grooming academy’s who were exhibiting as if i can get the blade push into their hands then they can show it to students. They all seemed impressed i left some freebies with them. I also spoke to >redacted< who had a stand at the show as he has a range of products sold under his name. I’d sent him a blade push and he was very impressed with it. We shall see where this goes.

There was a few other sharpeners there but I never got time to talk to them as they where busy so try again next year.

There was many grooming suppliers there but only one manufacturer of clippers. Artero I had a chat with them but the UK sale manager was exhibiting her dog. I shall take that as a good sign that they are doggy people. I’ll be contacting with them to see if I can work with them.

One stand had some Kanpeki grooming scissors on show. This is the first time I had got hands on with their grooming products and I was impressed with them. Not my first encounter with them as I met Steve last year and got on very with him as he is also an engineer. At the time the grooming range of scissors was still in development so he didn’t have any for me to have an eyeball on. Now I have seen them and I have a wee bit more cash in the bank I’ll be buying some and I’ll be selling them to customers and also building a display case for any shows I take the mobile workshop to. They aren’t on the kanpeki website as Steve paid a professional company to make his website which is why it is far flashier than this place, however to update it Steve has to pay more money while I on the other hand can sit here in my office and add almost infinite amounts of guff.

I had an eyeball at some of the dog cage manufacturers. One stood out for being utterly gash on what they had put up as a demo cage system. I can’t remember the name but i wouldn’t say who they were anyway. Terrible welding, half the wires welded, open ends of box sections and the cage sections held together with bolts just through holes in the box section. At barras cages i aim for higher standards with all box sections being capped and the cage sections are held together with cap screws going into rivnuts

At the other end I had a look at the mimsafe products. I was impressed by these as they look like they are built like a tank and they have a variable size system so you can adjust the cages to fit your car. I’ll be finding out more about them and hopefully a more indepth blogpost them will appear.

By that time it was end of the show and Poly had got 5th in her class and Daphne got short listed but she is already a champion so has nothing to prove.

Then back to the cottage where a bannermans steak pie was enjoyed as a late dinner

Day 3

After a not quite as early start as I was planning I made the drive north with just Dura in the van along with some crates and stuff. Heading northwards to the courtyard dairy.

On a mission to buy some illegal goods which would be smuggled into Scotland. Yep raw butter and raw cheese is banned here in Scotland.

There was also a planned stop here to drop off some sharpeners tools as made by Barras3D as well as dropping off some groomers blade pushes.

A good chat with Stuart of Kingsharp with ideas, tips and contacts shared as well as an appreciation of decent cheese.

Then onwards back to Scotland with the weather getting wetter and darker as I got closer to base. Helen and Ann had not stopped so they had a decent curry waiting for me.

And that is the crufts adventure done for this year, see you in 2023.