BUDAPEST FCI EUROPEAN DOG SHOW2021 ARTICLE AND PHOTOS BY KARL DONVIL
C OVID, COVID, COVID... it causes lots of difficulties, especially for orga- nizing big events. A variant of it, Omicron, discovered only a few weeks before the show, was announced as a very aggressive mutation, mainly in spreading the virus. The Budapest Euro- pean Dog Show, originally planned for May 2021, had already been postponed and
I don’t take this into account, as often it is the very same dogs that are entered for these different sub-shows. The Winner Show was good for 4,151 dogs and offered an extra opportunity to finish the Hungarian Champion title. This show lasted very long and finished only around 9pm. This was not a good start for those who had to show their dog the next day and still had to wash and groom them. Most dogs were entered for the European Dog Show, and they came from no fewer than 58 differ- ent countries as far as Brazil, New Zealand, Canada, Peru, Japan, and Argentina. The majority, however, were from countries in Europe: 3,153 dogs were Hungarian dogs; 927 came from Poland; 986 from Italy; and 785 from Russia. (This was a lot more than for the World Show in Brno where there were only 156 Russian entries!) Czechia and Slovakia had 1,002 entries; Ukraine, 438; Serbia, 417; and Romania, 378. Finland had 260 dogs entered; Spain, 172; and France, 190. There was a lockdown in the Nether- lands and this might be the explanation for why only 65 dogs were entered. This was probably the case for many other countries too. The United Kingdom was good for 33 dogs, Mexico for 6, Austra- lia for 4, and the United States for 11! Entering a dog is one thing, showing a dog is another, especially during the last two years. COVID seems always just around the corner with new attacks and new measures to fight it. It is clear, anyway, after questioning several judges, that there was a signifi- cant increase of absent dogs with 10 to 20 percent. This is a guess as more exact numbers were not to be found because the results were only limited to the dogs that won a title like BOB, BOS, Junior Winner, etc., and not all participating dogs. The pandemic has also caused continuous changes to the judges list, and this can also make exhibitors hesitate to enter their dog until the very last moment—or not at all. Yes, we must admit that organizing a show of this size is quite a perilous and risky business, but in the end, we had another well-organized, big European Dog Show… another good job by the Hungarian Kennel Club. The Hungarian Kennel Club already has a long tradition of organizing events of this size. In 2008, they organized the FCI
was again facing a new threat! Would there be another postpone- ment coming up? Fortunately, new restrictions had not yet been issued, except for a few countries, so Hungary welcomed visitors on the condition that they had a COVID-safe passport and were wearing a mask. This was imperative. I was worried what the impact of the new date would be on the number of entries. The Budapest Grand Prix Winner Show and the FCI European Dog Show were scheduled from December 28 till December 31, 2021! Wasn’t this very risky, right after Christ- mas till New Year’s Eve? It proved not to be, in the end. For the Winner, 4,151 dogs were entered, and for the European, as many as 10,801 dogs were on schedule. Of course, we will never know what the result would have been if there was no COVID to take into account. Sure, a lot of people would hesitate to spend all that money to make the trip and book a hotel with the possibility in mind that the show could be canceled in the end, and others prob- ably would prefer not to travel that far, risking ice and snow on the roads or missing the best winter days with family. But, on the other hand, many would also see it as an opportunity to combine a big dog show with a winter city trip to Budapest in Christmas decora- tion. Anyway, almost 11,000 dogs is far from bad. Of course, the number of entries for the European, the Winner, and all the Spe- cialty shows together will probably outnumber 20,000. However,
206 | SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE, FEBRUARY 2022
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