nieuws - 21/07/2007 LIège Golden Trophy 2007 - België
door Karl DonvilLiège Golden Trophy ranking high in the international Dog Show World.
This years edition was another success and again, after a decrease in entry numbers last year, Liège has reached a record entry number this year. They closed the entries at the number of 2000. I cannot remember when this number was surpassed before and I think it is a new record.
As usual this show is close to perfection and well managed. We remember the new podium from last year, the entertainment in the main ring during the day, the many competitions like the Golden Groomer and the Golden Lead and the yearly exposition of dogs in art.
New this year was the dog toilet on a small grass field and a big screen in the main ring that allowed people to watch the competition in the main ring from the front as well as from the back. I always like the well documented catalogue, complete with extended statistics and a free publicity for all the members/breeders.
When the sun is shining the halls easily warm up, one of the only problems that the show organizers have no control of. This year, on the contrary, the weather was excellent, not hot but not rainy either and this resulted in a good overall climate in the halls.
No less then 19 countries were represented. 1018 Dogs from Belgium were entered, 325 from the Netherlands, 309 from France, 244 from Germany. The United Kingdom was represented by no less then 32 Dogs and Ireland by 3. There were also two dogs from Norway, one from Sweden and even one from Peru.
In order to control this nice entry number and respect the time schedule, 25 judges were invited. They represented 12 nationalities, which is the way it should for an International CACIB title. Seven of them were Belgians, all others were European judges.
Mr. Machetanz from Germany was the best scoring judge of the show. He had 90 dogs on Saturday, judging only the Chihuahuas (51), the Chinese Crested (30) and the Lowchens. On Sunday he had 69, all of them Terriers. Mr.Fernandez-Renau from Spain did another part of the Terriers and had the very same number of entries, 69. And on Saturday he did also a part of the Companion dogs, again with high numbers, 76 dogs of which 40 Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. Mrs.Vieira Lisboa from Portugal had 138 dogs to judge during both days. On Saturday he was presented with 83 dogs, all from the 5th Group (Spitz and Primitive Breeds). On Sunday he had 55 entries out of group 8 (Retrievers and Waterdogs).
Mrs.Steer from Romania was only judging on Sunday, but had the best Day Score judging no less the 98 dogs out of Group 3 (Terriers). She thanked this high score to the number of Staffordshire Bull Terriers (22) and especially to the record entry of 61 American Staffordshires. Mr.Leblond from France also judged only on Sunday and had 89 subjects. He seemed very popular amongst the Bulldog and Leonberg owners with respectively 43 and 34 entries. Mr.Vanaken from Belgium was honored to judge all the poodles and ended up with 78. He is a successful breeder and handler of Toy Poodles and recently qualified as a judge. He is also in charge of the Golden Groomer contest during this show.
Mrs.Aymaretti-Camia from Italy was also judging only one day and although her total entry doesn’t seem very spectacular at first sight (61) she had a very good entry in Afgan Hounds (45)!
The (so called) Dangerous Breeds have recently been in the spotlights again with the Dublin Breed Ban in Ireland and another casualty in Belgium. The media influence on the success of dog breeds is proven again, whether in the positive or in the negative sense. Chihuahua’s have never been more popular since Paris Hilton started this hype. 51 Were shown during this show, while we all know that Chihuahuas have very small litters! We see the very same effect in Rhodesian Ridgebacks (43), Dogo Artentinos (21), American and English Staffordhires (83) and other dangerous breeds. They have never been more popular since they figure on the list of suspicious breeds. It proves that these laws don’t work, on the contrary. It looks much more macho to walk a muzzled dog in public park and to need to register a dog that looks like a suspicious breed. We all know that certain breeds attract a certain kind of people. They are not the people that participate on dogshows. But as certain breeds are less tolerant towards other dogs or people and are less easy to handle, there is of course a need for control. But the more popular a breed becomes, the more difficult this gets. Here lies the responsibility for the breeders and dogshow fanciers. If a certain breed gets popular there is always a big danger that people with less noble intentions get interested. I hope that clubs and judges take their responsibilities and ban dogs with bad temperaments out of their rings and I hope that breeders are paying attention to who they sell their puppies. The representatives of those breeds that one sees at dogshows are usually not the problem dogs and I am convinced that the more we prove that this has nothing to do with the breeds but with the owners in the first place, the sooner we get rid of all the bad publicity in the media and the stupid rules that governments implement.
Back to the show again now. Runner-up BIS was the West Highland White Terriër “Caithness Pomerol” entered in Champions Class under Mr. Fernandez-Renau from Spain. Mr.Dewilde made him Best of the Terrier Group and again Mr.Fernandez-Renau made him Best of Sunday. Caithness is owned and handled by Lia Meerwijk from the Netherlands and will be 2 years in November. BIS went to the black miniature poodle “Unique l’Empreinte d’Une Passion. Unique is bred by Loubet from France and owned by Belle Nathalie also from France. He is a 4 year old male and already a Champion. He was judged during the day by Mr.Vanaken and made Best of Group by Mrs.Liliane Deridder from Belgium. Again Mr.Fernandez-Renau was asked to judge Best of Day and also Best in Show.
It was a long Main Ring Program, including the Golden Groomer and the Golden Lead finals, but , as everything was well timed, the show ended right in time.
Let us hope that we have the same ideal weather next year, as only heath can cause a problem at Liège, all the rest in well taken care of by a smoothly and well managed team of organizers.
