find a temporary solution. That was found in La Louvière. Since a few years the town is proud to have a completely new modern Expo centre with a big “whaw” factor. However, space was a major concern of the RCCH or the Royal Club Canin of Hainaut, organizers of the Charleroi show. La Louvière is not that far from Charleroi and offered a good solution. There was plenty of parking space around and had easy access to the highway. This main ring was not used during the day while It was large enough to make 2 or 3, even up to 4 extra rings and offering space around for trade stands while now it took 1/5 to 1/6 of the total space of the halls. Of course, a new hall means re-scheduling everything and the first time shows all the shortcomings. Compared to last year when they had an entry of 1444 dogs, this year they welcomed 1503, 818 on Saturday and 685 on Sunday, a very good result. Best In Show judge was Mr. Jean-Francois Vanaken. The title of Best In Show was spend on the Tibetan Ter- rier “Ti La Shu Broadway Babe” owned by Sabine Katja Rauhut from Germany. Seven were in competition for Best of Breed, judged by Mr. Aleksoski who again judged also the Group. Broadway Babe is a bitch, entered in Champion class, 3 years old, and again bred by the owner. LOVANIUM TROFEE 2018 Is it as a consequence of the (too) many double CACIB shows or just coin- cidence? Fact is that from 1772 entries in 2016 the number dropped to 1639 in 2017 and 1533 this year. The Lovanium trofee is a splendid show, a to-the-point shows without glitter and glamour. There is plenty of parking and the halls are at 1km down the exit Haasrode on the highway E40 between Brussels and Liège, so easy accessible! The organiza- tion adheres to its habit to offer prizes in kind to the winners, something that is much appreciated. There are not many shows that still have a handling compe- tition, but over here it is. The weekend of the show one of the main ground handling companies at Brussels Air- port decided to have a strike, for them a very strategic date, for Lovanium, as well as for many travelers, a real night- mare. Fortunately, most judges were not affected and all arrived in time. Top judge of the weekend was without any doubt Mrs. Janelle W. Robins from the United Kingdom. Not only had she a very good score as best scoring judge of the weekend, but she was also the Best of Breed judge. The winning dog was the Standard Dachshund shorthair “Kurt Kentwood Excellmagic”. This male was entered in Champion Class too and won it from 8 concurrents. His
breed and group was judged by Mrs. Roxana Opris. Kurt was imported from Russia and is living with Heidi Droog- mans from Belgium. He is two years now and has still a long career in front of him, next year is a jubilee year, the 30th editions! That will happen on 26th and 27th October. Next year the Bel- gian Kennel Club has promised to bring down the number of double shows, so there is good hope that this 30th edition will have a significant raise in entries. LUXEMBOURG SPRING 2018 There was a serious drop down in numbers of entries. Last year the spring edition had 4551 entries, this year it dropped to 4038. Luxembourg will always remain popular as it is relatively easy to become Champion of Luxem- bourg, notwithstanding the fact that there is strong competition. Winning here is always worth the title because there are lots of good dogs to beat, lots of good entries from many different countries and that means something! Last year this show faced bad public- ity due to a few dogs that were trapped in close cars on the parking. But I know that this show is doing many efforts to prevent this. This year they had even more people checking cars and again some dogs were found in cars. Urgent messaged were send via the intercom and windows had to be smashed. In every hall, on every exit, on every eye- catching spot posters were hung, warn- ing against the danger of leaving dogs unattended in cars, even in the shade with windows open, but still, there are always people who are convinced that it is enough. In Luxembourg they will no longer be welcome. The FCI should make up a list of such handlers and exhibitors if proven that they neglected their dogs. The show of this year is a very spe- cial one. Mrs. and Mr. Schwab, presi- dents of the show and of the Luxem- bourg Kennel Club, decided to retire and this show would be their last show. How long exactly that they were at the helm of this show and this organiza- tion is not know, but it must certainly be more than 30 years. It is amaz- ing how they turned their semestrial show to a level that many other clubs can only dream of. Belgium never had a show with more than 5000 entries. Luxembourg had 5529 in 2009! For all the FCI judges it is one of the greatest honors to be invited to judge and enjoy the splendid hospitality and stay in the Hotel Royal, the most prestigious hotel in town. The prestige and glamour that this show enjoys is without any doubt due to this couple. I am almost sure that they will still come and help and advice the new board where they can.
Everything on this show runs so smoothly that one can call it “little Crufts”. There is a big screen where one can follow the show via 4 different cameras, it is also video streamed over the internet, the carpet in the main ring is perfect, the podium and trophy table impressive, the music and com- mentary of a professional level, only... it lasts much too long. The program is overloaded and nothing changes. Minor puppies, puppies, veterans and juniors are judged in the main ring by sexe and from the winner of both the best one is chosen. The show ends largely over 7PM and that is too long for the audience. Maybe the new board will reconsider this for the future so that this show will end at a reason- able time, before 6 PM, like most shows do. Barbara Müller from Switzerland was the lucky lady responsible for choosing Best In Show The Scottish Terrier was the ultimate winner of this edition of the Luxembourg show. Mrs.Valentina Popova from Russia was allowed to take the beautiful BIS trophies home. It was “Filisite Brash Beauty Never Lies”, a female, not 3 years old yet and bred by Valentina herself. A nice entry of 36 showed up for Mr.Paul Stanton from Sweden who was also the Group judge. It is also one of the favorite breeds of Mrs.Schwab who is a Terrier special- ist judge. A nice tribute to her and her husband. Next edition was planned for 1 and 2 September of this year. It will be the first time that the show would be organized under the authority of Mr.Raymond Jung who follows in the footsteps of the Schwabs and that is not a comfortable start knowing that the Schwabs brought this show to one of the highest standards in Europe. Unfortunately for him the govern- ment of Luxembourg interfered after the previous incidents and forbade the Kennel Club to organize its Sep- tember edition notwithstanding the efforts of the Kennel Club who did all they could to prevent future problems and checked and rechecked the park- ing areas, but due to the works around the halls that seem to take many years, there is a constant problem to find park- ing. And as always and everywhere, there will be people with no scruples, who are more involved with money than with the dogs, travel around with vans full of dogs and don’t prop- erly take care of them. But while they don’t stand for the big majority of the exhibitors they are on the basis that all dog-show-lovers and the clubs are affected. We will see what the future will bring for Luxembourg and cross our fingers.
178 • S how S ight M agazine , D ecember 2018
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