BRUSSELS 2018
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM | DECEMBER 8-9, 2018 | PHOTOS BY KARL DONVIL
by KARL DONVIL
I t seems like my call in the desert has been heard. The Royal Society St. Hubert (Belgian Kennel Club) decided to stop double shows from next year on. That means that this year was the last one. Again it proves I’m right as the number of entries has drastically gone down. While last year there were still 1994 entries on Satur- day and 2203 on Sunday, this year there were only 1685 entries on Saturday and 1617 on Sunday. That is hardly more than the CACIB show of Leuven and Genk. And let us not forget that the show of Saturday was a Crufts Qualifier show. I refuse to believe that the drop- ping down of the number of entries has to do with the crisis, as compared to 5 or even 10 years ago the impact of the crisis on daily life has drastically gone down. What has changed is the entry fee that went up every year. The orga- nizing clubs work now with companies like onlinedogshows and doglle to auto- mate the payment and subscriptions, very practical and efficient, but that has a price of course. In earlier days it was a work of volunteers and extra profit for the club and/or a lower entry fee. Of course it is comfortable and more secure and allows to enter a dog until only a few days before the show. But on the other hand, it has an impact on the number of judges to invite as it becomes more difficult to predict how many dogs they will attract. And let us not forget that judges receive a fee/dog and expect a higher standard of accom- modation. Some have a fulltime job and make a living out of it. All this together has an impact on the entry fee. But the second reason, and in my opinion the most important reason, is the fact that double shows have a negative impact on the number of entries and the competi- tion in general. I will not again repeat all my arguments for that, you can read
it in most of my previous articles. I hope that the Belgian Kennel club will set minimum requirements for double shows in the future, at least if they still want to allow double shows at all. And double show organizers should realize that it affects not only the small shows, but their own shows too. Unfortunately 2019 announces 4 more double shows in Belgium, Brabo, Gent, Liège and Mech- elen. Brabo and Gent are only 3 weeks apart and Liège and Mechelen too. That means that there will be twice 4 CACIB show only 3 weeks apart!!! Crazy! 900 Entries less, but the same expenses as last year, is very painful to accept. One counts on having the same results, hires the same halls, mini- mum the same amount of judges, etc. It seems that the Amsterdam Winner show had also a serious drop down in entries. I hope they will hear my cry in the desert too. Anyway it did not affect the show itself. The main ring was very nice with a super nice podi- um and background, professionally lit, and professional sound, better than in some World and European Dog Shows. The way of bringing in the dogs, show- ing them on the run etc. was absolutely great. Everything happened in the very same well organized pattern, an exam- ple to the last European Dog Show in Warsaw. The dogs came from 26 dif- ferent countries, the regular ones. 103 Entries were welcomed from the UK and one from the USA. I have no expla- nation why there were significantly less Belgian entries on Sunday, maybe it was because Saturday was a Crufts Qualifier show? If there were a lot of visitors is very difficult to say but a serious effort to attract them was made, inviting two stars to entertain them twice each day in the main ring. First there was the popular Andy Peelman, an actor play- ing a policeman in a popular TV-Soap,
demonstrating police work with dogs and there was also Jules O’Dwyer, famous 2015 winner of Britain’s Got Talent, performing Heelwork to Music with her dogs. The audience could take place on comfortable stairs and in gen- eral they were always well occupied. The dogs/judging day rate was very low, a little over 32. From the 39 judges only 11 were Belgian judges, while the rest came from 15 different countries. This low rate has is of course a result of the loss in entries and it is clear that the organization had counted on much more interest. Most of the Belgian judg- es served only one day. On Saturday there were only 3 judges with over 70 entries. Mr. Theo Leenen, president of the Royal Society St. Hubert, had exact- ly 70 entries. On Sunday he had 49, but 40 of them were Chihuahuas, the best scoring breed. Mrs. Roxana Liliana Opris from Romania had 82 entries, 21 of them were Newfoundlanders, a good result. Her husband, Mr. Carsten Birk from Denmark was the best scoring judge of Saturday with 103 entries. He judged most spitz breeds including the Pomeranians that are amongst the most popular breeds nowadays. On Sun- day he had also a good result with 79 entries and that brings him to the best scoring judge of the weekend, far ahead of all the others. However, Mr. Augustin Ionescu had also a good score on Sun- day when he judged all the dachshunds, 87 all together. Mr. J. Ritchie from the UK was the best scoring judge on Sun- day with 89 entries. He had a good score in the Rough Collies, 28 in total. Anna Albrigo from Italy had 70 entries and her compatriot Marco Marabotto had 71, with a good entry of 27 in Tibet- an Terriers. Axel Komorowski from Germany judged the 34 Cocker Span- iels and some more breeds and ended also with 70 in total. From Finland we
228 • S how S ight M agazine , J anuary 2019
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