news - 20/07/2008 Liège 2008 and Masters Trophy - Belgium
by Karl DonvilLiège, Golden Dog Trophy 2008
Every year Liège organizes it Golden Dog Festival with the Golden Dog Trophy, Golden Lead for the best junior/senior handler and Golden Groomer for the best dog groomer. But two years ago it also started with the Masters Trophy in conjunction with Tienen, a competition held every other year in Liège and in Tienen. Liège, Golden Dog Trophy 2008
This year Liège was on term again. The competition is open for all dogs that won or Best of Group, or 3 times Best of Breed or 3 times CACIB. The Masters Trophy is a gala-evening event with gala –dinner and in evening dress. The jury was composed of Mrs Renée Sporre-Willes (S), Mrs. Elaine Drennan (IRL), M. Norman Deschuymere (B), M. Giovanni Battista Tabo (I), M. Horst Kliebenstein (D)and M. Levente Miklós (H). It is an elimination judging. All dogs are judged two by two by every judge and one is going to the next round until only two are left.for the finals. The Masters Trophy went to the Papillon CH. QUEEN BLESS JP ROYAL CONNECTION owned by ROOSENS-ABELOOS-DEVOS Jan-Elisa. The dog is 5 years old and was not entered for the regular show. Runner-up was the Alaskan Malamute CH. AL CANTARA EL LADO OSCURO DE LA LUNA, owned by SENAY-PICOLLO Usta. The dog is 7 1/2 years old and this dog was also not entered for the regular show. But this is exactly the purpose of this Trophy. Many dogs are champions and continuing to gather more titles makes less sense after a while. But competing for a very special, extra title, amongst other champions is added value for many exhibitors. This evening-show took place in the very same halls as the regular show.
The entry price for the dog was free, but reservation for the diner was paying and obligatory. The evening was animated by acts of heelwork to music and a performance of a young pop group “Wonderland”. Unfortunately this was a mistake as this group was not at all meant for the kind of public present on this show. There was no entertainment. Two years ago, on the contrary, there was another group, playing covers from the Bee Gees, and this was a real hit.
The regular show on Saturday and Sunday held no surprises; although the number of entries was less then last year, 1774 to be exact. No surprise? Liège is always a surprise and has a lot to offer to the audience, there are acts and performances during the day to entertain the visitors, there is the competition for Golden Groomer and Golden Lead (best Handler) and a small exhibition of dog art as usual. As Liège is always a Holiday show, it attracts not so many visitors and even if the weather was more or less ideal like now, it was hardly of any influence. On the other hand, it is a good period for the foreign exhibitors who travel to Belgium and spend a few days extra. Germany, for example, had 215 dogs, which is proportionally more then on other shows. The same applies for France who had 316 entries. There were all together 14 different countries present, even 30 from the UK.
21 Judges from 11 different countries were invited; only 4 of them were from Belgium. In my opinion this is what should be expected from a CACIB show, a very international jury! A CAC show should have a minimum of 1/3rd of foreign judges, but for a CACIB this should be minimum 2/3rd. Saturday was relatively quiet with 810 dogs to judge. Only 3 judges had more then 60 dogs that day. On Sunday Mr.M.Z.Brankovic from Serbia had 104 dogs to judge, all from group 1 and 6. Together with those of Saturday he had a total score of 164 entries. Mrs.E.Drennan from Ireland had 75 dogs, all Companion dogs, and with those of Saturday included, she ended with 123 dogs to judge. Mr.G.B.Tabo from Italy had 71 out of the Primitive and Spitz Group (group 6) on Sunday. Mrs.S.Juutilainen from Finland had a total entry on both days of 125, Mrs.L.Mach from Switzerland had 108 and Mrs.R.Sporre-Willes from Sweden had 104.
The President of the organizing club, Mr.Yves Boclinville, was a little bit disappointed with the fall back of the number of entries compared to the 2000 of last year. But let’s keep in mind that only 14 days earlier there was the World Dog Show in Stockholm and the crisis strikes all of us too! Not only is there the subscription fee to pay but with the increasing prices of oil, travelling get more expensive too. Participating in dog shows is a hobby for most of the exhibitors and skipping a show with fewer chances to win a title is only but normal. I think we can expect an overall backdrop of entries for all shows if the crisis will go on in this tempo.
The challenge is to try to keep up with good average and show organizations will need to think and calculate much better then ever before. Liège has nothing to blame itself and will still be one of the leading shows in Belgium and certainly the very best of Wallony.
The main ring program is always very loaded here with all the several disciplines, but it ended correctly in time. Mr.M.Z.Brankovic was asked to judge Best In Show. His Runner-up was the short-haired Weimaraner “Nobiskrug Playing Alegro”. This 3 year old dog was bred by Nobriskrug and is owned by Edwin and Kristina Lenaerts from Belgium. He was judged by Mr.H.Kliebenstein from Germany and made Best of Group by Mrs.L.Mach from Switzerland.
Best In Show was the Siberian Husky “Tokima’s Northwest Passage” owned by Golob Maja from Slovenia. He has an AKC pedigree and is 3 ½ years old. He was judged by Mr.G.B.Tabo from Italy and it was Mrs.S.Juutilainen from Finland who made him groupwinner.
It was a kind of funny situation as Mr. Brankovic is a Serb, Kristina, handler of the Weimaraner is from Croatia and the handler of the Husky is from Slovenia. Is this again a proof that the dog world is an example of piece, tolerance and friendship, far from any political conflict in the recent history?
