nieuws - 27/03/2004 Luxemburg is coming apart at the seams - Luxemburg
door Karl DonvilLuxemburg Spring 2004: What if….
Again the show of Luxemburg has proven to be amongst the most popular and interesting on the European continent. While the September edition of last year had an entry of almost 3000 dogs, the spring edition is still more known and attended with this year no less then 4238 dogs. This is an extra of 700 dogs more!
It was amazing to have that many dogs and there has been a problem with space and rings. If this evolution keeps on, this show will soon have to spread over 3 days. Of course there is the option of renting more halls. But there is still the problem of parking places for exhibitors and visitors. Some of the breeds have been divided over two judges. A total number of 41 judges from 12 different countries were invited to judge 257 different breeds. Many of them had over 100 dogs to judge. The exhibitors came from 23 different countries as far as Russia and Estonia. Germany had 998 entries; Belgium 796 followed by Holland with 558 and from Luxemburg 204 dogs were shown. Top country was France with no less then 1291 dogs which included also the Best in Show dog. Some breeds were very numerous. The Scottish Terriers counted 64 specimens, the Westies 60. Golden Retrievers (108), Great Danes (119) and Newfoundlanders (103) and Poodles (136) were the best represented breeds after the Teckels with a surprising number of 174 dogs! Other good numbers were the Labradors (86), the Cockers (68), Cavalier King Charles Spaniels (81), Afgan Hounds (66), Dobermanns (78), Boxers (62) and no less then 67 Zwergschnauzers.
Notwithstanding this unexpected success the main ring program ended well in time and the organisation ran smoothly. Exhibitors coming from direction Belgium had bad luck with the highway blocked just before entering Luxemburg city. Many, including myself, got lost and almost ended in France, with lots of delay as a result. Because the high number of entries, the dogs and owners could leave the show as soon as they were judged and on condition of course that they were not placed for the finals. This measure was taken in order to prevent chaos when leaving the halls.
During the day the public could enjoy several demonstrations and competitions and there were lots of commercial stands for shopping. Special guest was Mary Ray and her four legged team. She performed her latest act on the music of Harry Potter and gave a presentation of training for obedience and Doggy Dancing. The public enjoyed it of course, although we had to miss the atmosphere as there were no spotlights as during Crufts.
The winners podium was a lot better then the year before. The same background was used, but instead of a white its was now painted in a matt bleu colour and this resulted in much better photos of the finals without reflections. The podium is still high from the ground especially if you need to handle an Irish Wolfhound and you are not a tall person. And if the fronts would be painted in matte finish it would prevent any annoying reflections for our cameras.
All group winners of Saturday were invited to stay or return for the finals on Sunday. Mr.Tore Fossum from Norway had the honour to pick out the Best in Show winners. Third place went to the Riesenschnauzer Invicta Coast to Coast from Mrs. Bataglini Barbara from Italy.
Second place went to the Samoyed Cabaka's Yacker of Mc Coy owned by Morll and Kim Jensen Gitte from Denmark. Overall winner of this 68 edition went to the Afgan Hound “Parce Que “from the famous kennel “du Manuel Galopin” from Robin Martial. This French Dog added another BOB, BOG and BIS title to this brilliant and very famous kennel.
What if… next show will have again more entries? Come and see in September the next episode of the UCHL success story!
