door Karl DonvilHoogstraten 2007 surprises in many ways at her 40th edition.
Last year we still saw a small drawback in subscriptions but this year there was a spectacular increase of no less then 21% or 335 entries, resulting in a top score of 1911 dogs. I think this must be the best score ever of Hoogstraten.
No less then 24 judges were invited an some of them had a real big job to do with over 100 dogs to judge in one day.
While 10 of them were local judges, the others were composed of 10 different countries, mainly from Scandinavia and the neighboring countries, but also one from Greece.
Mr.Kostopoulos (Greece) had a nice score of 89 dogs to judge on Saturday, 42 of them were Afgans Hounds, his breed. On Sunday he had 71 dogs.
Mr.Vermeire from Belgium had a very nice score on Saturday ending up with 87 entries all from Group 1. Mrs.Hopkinson was invited from the UK to judge 81 dogs on Saturday, 20 Border Collies and 61 Labradors. Mrs.Holm-Hansen from Denmark had no less then 102 dogs of which 94 were Golden Retrievers, the best scoring breed of the show.
Mr.De Giuliani was invited to judge group breeds and Terriers on Saturday. He had 56 American Staffordshires in his ring.
Top scoring judge was Mrs. Nousiainin from Finland with 134 dogs on Sunday alone, all group 2 dogs, on Saturday she had 34 dogs to judge. Also Mrs. Selbach from Norway was very successful with a very nice entry of 123 dogs, especially the Bulldogs were fan of her as no less then 50 turned up to flirt with her in the ring. Mr.Peter Siegfried, know for his famous Basset Hounds, was invited to judge totally different breeds, amongst them all the Poodle varieties. His total score was 87 on Sunday and 39 on Saturday. Mr.Schemel from Austria had also an impressive total of 93 dogs in his ring on Sunday, all from the companion Group.
The success of this show proves my statement that a show is successful in case the show schedule of the country and the neighboring countries is not too busy and that interesting judges from foreign countries are invited together with not too much local judges.
Hoogstraten is only a few kilometers away from Holland, close to Antwerp too and easy accessible. No surprise that this show has a huge number of entries from Holland, but there was even a dog that was owned by someone from New Zealand. The halls are OK and large enough. Main sponsor was Connolly’s Red mills from Ireland who showed an impressive Formula race car close to the main ring that was moved again to the last hall compared to last year.
On Sunday it was the 6 year old Labrador Retriever bitch Early Of Angel’s Head owned by Onkelinx Thierry (BE) who ended best of Day. She was entered in intermediate class and had to compete with 61 others. Her group was judged by Mrs.Holm-Hansen. It was Mrs.Vanherle who made him Best of Day.
On Sunday it was the two year old longhair Standard Dachshund Elliot Of Mister Quincy owned by Vangeel Rita (BE) who won group 4 under Mr.Giuliani from Italy, who is a renowned judge of all hunting dogs. He was entered also in intermediate class.
Mr. Deschuymere and Mrs.Vanherle had to chose between the Labrador and the Dachshund. Usually a Dachshund is not chosen, but surprise or not, they both found that he deserved to win BIS. For Elliot it was obviously no surprise as he remained so cool that is was almost funny to see. His master, on the contrary, was crying tears of happiness. Elliot will probably come again next year on 5 and 6 January, 7 weeks earlier. Feel welcome to challenge him.
