If the end of 2019 felt like a marathon to you, you weren’t alone. The year 2019 had the fewest possible shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas because the fourth Thursday of November – the day on when Thanksgiving is held – can run anywhere from November 22 to November 28, and in 2019, it was on November 28. This meant that we had six fewer days than we had the year before, the shortest season since 2013. A lot of us really needed those six days, especially if we were at the AKC National Championship in Orlando earlier in December. With the holidays over, a lot of us could use a get-away right about now, and that leads us to the Booking.com commercial below which includes an unexpected breed. Check it out:
Yes, those are a pair of Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers, a breed that Gun Dog Magazine once described as being as close to the perfect canine companion as one can get. Wonderful companions, hunters also love Tollers for their ability to navigate marshes and meadows with tireless endurance, but flush and retrieve upland birds, as well. They can also sit quietly beside a duck or goose blind. Oh, and there’s the tolling. We can’t forget the tolling.
Such versatility is rewarded at the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever Club of Canada‘s National Specialty where an annual Perpetual trophy, the “Fair Dinkum” Award, is awarded to the Genuine/True most versatile Toller in the Specialty, a dog who must compete over the days of the Specialty earning points in Obedience, Conformation and Working Tests. To our knowledge, the Fair Dinkum is awarded after the last qualifying event, and then the Owner of the “Winning Toller” will keep the Trophy until the next Specialty (they also receive a smaller “Keepers Trophy”).
Why the unusual trophy name?
In Australia, the term, “Fair Dinkum”is a common slang which means “genuine, honest or true. Since the trophy is donated by the Kirchoff, Lidlriva and Fionavar Kennels from Australia, it is, we think, an appropriate name, and quintessentially “Aussie.”
Image: Nine week old “Junior,” a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, playing with a feather on the Chesapeake by Julie Brooks Rudisill