WORLD DOG SHOW AMSTERDAM 2018 AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS | AUGUST 9-12 | PHOTOS BY KARL DONVIL
I was rather curious to find out if this was really the biggest World Dog Show ever. I clearly remem- ber Paris, the biggest so far, and Leipzig, the biggest so far but from another point of view. And now I read that Amsterdam had to close the entries earlier as they had reached the maxi- mum that they could welcome. Yes, it was a big show, but no, it wasn’t the biggest World Dog Show ever. There were only 17,652 entries for the World Dog Show, but...it was the biggest con- centration ever of dogs being shown under one roof in one weekend. Thurs- day there was the Benelux Winner with 7712 entries, and during the 3 following days of the World Dog Show there were the Specialties, call it the Club Shows, good for 8294 entries. But we can say that the number of dogs entered on one or all of these shows was slightly more than the number entered for the WDS, as for sure, the dogs that were entered on the Benelux Winner participated most probably on the WDS and the spe- cialties. So, individually we can estimate around 18,000 individual dogs in total. But of course, that is very good and to have the space and the rings for all the World Show and the Specialties the RAI (event halls of Amsterdam) were an excellent choice. However, parking is a problem and very, very expensive. Cara- vans and Motorhomes had to park about 17km kilometers away and notwith- standing the shuttle that was organized, it was not very convenient if you had to take all your stuff, or big dogs with you. But even with a car it was not easy. The RAI is close to the center and there is hardly any sparking around. All parking is under the halls plus a special parking complexes attached to the halls. You could only enter with a ticket bought in advance and it was far from cheap. The first day I had to queue more than half an hour in the early morning as it was a working day and a several hundred of cars had to find their way to a parking spot. I had to park very far away and from Hall 1 where I was it took me 25 minutes to go find something in my car that I forgot. The last day I was parked in the parking tower on the 5th floor and it took so long before the lift came
up, sometimes still full with people, dogs and crates that I took the stairs finally. Friends, trade stand holders, had to pay 650 EURO for the weekend to have their van parked on the parking outside. Parking came in surplus to the entrance fee for the dogs and catalog that was to be paid an extra 5 EURO/ day/Show. Suppose you entered a dog rather late you had to pay 120 EURO for the WDS, 75 for the Benelux Winner and 55 for the Specialty show, or 265 EURO including catalogs and exclud- ing the parking for three days (3x 12,50 EURO) and traveling costs and hotel or camping. There you go! Visitors had to pay 15 EURO (adults) per day but there were special rates for the whole week- end, for children and seniors. Still Sun- day morning in the Press Conference was announced that already 35,000 visi- tors were counted. The Dutch Kennel Club, founded in 1901, has about 200 breed clubs, 70 regional training clubs and about 10 specialty clubs like for training judges etc. Every year they have +/- 6500 litters registered, good for about 36,000 pup- pies and they estimate that live around 1.5 milion dogs of which 500,000 are purebreds. All this means that cynol- ogy is flourishing well. But dark clouds are casting a dark shadow over all this as there is a strong anti-dog-show and anti-pure-bred-dogs lobby. Holland had the first animal rights party elected in the world and although Animal Rights is good, it must not go into extremes. In Amsterdam they seat in the city council and would have banned the World Dog Show if they could, but all agreements to organize the WDS were made long before they had any power. Anyway, the long-term agreement with the RAI, which belongs to the city, will come to an end and the council does not want to prolong it. Fortunately it did not affect the show, although there were no officials to visit this event. The local media were full of comments , articles and interviews and in the end this was a marvelous opportunity for the Dutch Kennel Club to counter the anti lobby and show what they actually stand for. I was told that there was a small pro- test group announced but I did not see
anything. But the Dutch Kennel Club was very afraid that stupid exhibitors or visitors with dogs would let dogs in the car. One such incident would lit the fire again and that would be disastrous for the Kennel Club. Severe measurements were announced in case some dogs were found left in cars. Zero tolerance was the motto. If dogs were found in cars, even in the shade or in the park- ing, the name of the owner of the car was traced via the license plate that was registered by entering the RAI. If the owner did not show up within max- imum 30 minutes, the car was broken open. The owner had to pay a fine of several hundred EURO’s , was excluded from the show, all titles withdrawn and was banned not only from the show but also prohibited to enter any dog in the Netherlands in the future. By the end of the event about 15 cases were found. GOOD JOB! I hope other countries will follow this example as our hobby is really under fire nowadays. In Lux- embourg the Minister of Agriculture has suspended the shows as a result of cases of dogs left in cars with fatal consequences. I think it is only not fair to punish a whole community for the misbehavior of some individuals. But severe measurements like in Amster- dam will surely help to counter the anti lobby and alarm those who don't really care about the dogs, only about money and prestige. Professional handlers will think twice if they take more dogs than they can manage, because if banned they have no job. The official motto of the show was “Show the world your talent”. With regard to shows to me, it sounds a little weird. What talent is involved in show- ing a dog? Of course, you need to know your dog, be able to handle and present him and pick out the best examples to breed from. But compared to talents of dogs who help disabled people, do search and rescue, scan people for drugs, for cancer, etc. then we speak of a real talent, a skill. A World Dog Show is a beauty contest, no more no less and talent is not the same as being lucky to look nice. A talent is something that is meant to be developed, but the way a dog looks can hardly be changed. Talent
192 • S how S ight M agazine , S eptember 2018
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