Luckily for us, the people at Crufts were equally as excited about us attending, and we were given a place on the Kennel Club’s Pavillion at the the main entrance. Not bad for a 460 year old mongrel!

I wasn’t involved much in the organisation, but I was present for all four days of the event, leaving our Birmingham hotel (which had rooms almost the size of the Carpenter’s cabin on the Mary Rose, although with less windows!) before sunrise, and getting back after dark. The days were long, but very enjoyable!

Crufts itself is an amazing show (even if you are walking around it dressed as a Tudor sailor!), you have no idea how many products there are for dogs, from dog washing machines to special dog popcorn! Of course, there were also the  hundreds of breeds of dog on show with their owners, many of whom were interested in seeing our dog.

Since we were at Crufts we’ve learned more about Hatch; back then we thought he was a she, and had no real idea of what breed s/he was. There were several possibilities, and a few of the breeders groups brought vets over to have a look to confirm their suspicions. They all seemed to agree that there was a terrier-type skull, but nobody wanted to put a specific breed to it. This didn’t stop the terrier groups though, the Manchester Terrier group having the best argument as they came from a breed used as ratters around the 16^th-17^thcentury. Sadly for them, genetic analysis suggests he was closer to a Jack Russell (a breed that hadn’t appeared until after the Mary Rose had sunk).

If only we’d won a prize though. Hatch may not have been the most well-bred dog at the show, but he was certainly the best behaved!