Even without recovering from my long trip, I managed to show up at the press office to get my badge in good time, 35 minutes before the judging began. Like when you play any sport for the first time, the first thing is to recognize the field, so I took on the task of visiting the 8 pavilions where the 52 rings were distributed where the little more than 15 thousand dogs from all over the world would meet. It took me a bit to go through all of them, since I have to say, they were quite distant from each other, I started at number five which is where the ring of honor was, that is, the one for the groups and to my surprise this building had a second floor, which housed six rings. At 8 AM sharp the ball was rolling, the ultimate dog competition was taking place. The website that contained schedules and catalog was made by the same company that made it in Geneva so it was easy for me to understand. A 100% digital show, with the website in twelve languages. I also found out that the championship titles were not physically delivered, the mechanics consisted of you going to the office to pay it and it was sent to you by email so that you could print it yourself in the comfort of your home, great idea.

The richness of diversity.

I have to confess that given the geographical proximity to the Czech Republic and having already been to a World Dog Show there, I expected something similar and it was only partly like that. The diversity of languages caught my attention, which was to be expected since many of the surrounding countries have their own, English fortunately prevailed and functioned as a convenient bridge between cultures. I would highlight the large Russian presence who stood out for the quality of their dogs, their conditions and their level of handling. The Italian delegation was notorious as was the Spanish, both achieved triumphs that will be well remembered. Asians were present in some breeds and dominated the Pomeranian ring in number and quality. No one on the judging panel, but there were many American judges present, who like me were there with the positive attitude of learning and enriching themselves by observing local customs and practices and of course observing the breeds that we do not commonly see.

One of the strongest visual shocks I had was seeing a judge from Servia examine the bite of an entire class of female Dobermans while they were perfectly seated and it was himself who opened each mouth, with a lot of confidence and with a fairly heavy hand he checked every last molar. I posted that video that same day and it became one of the most viral. We better not even talk about the double handling, the Doberman, Boxer and Rottweiler ring was just crazy.

A person from Spain scolded me on social media and told me why I was wasting my time watching that unfortunate spectacle, to which I replied that I didn’t come from so far away to see the same things I have at home and that the various uses and customs They enrich canyoneering, whether we like them or not.

I had never had the opportunity to see an entire class of Dachshunds judged in which the judge measured every dog’s chest circumference with a tape measure. I thought it was great and motivated me to learn more about it.

The event venue

You could see the good will and diligent time management of the organizers so that everything turned out perfect, but I have to say, the fairgrounds forced them to have some rings attached to the wall, which by not allowing the public distribution around caused some crowding, especially the pavilion where the Poodles and Afghans were, as I mentioned before the distance between the buildings gave us a lot to walk.

The ring of prejudgment.

As is customary in the World Dog Shows, all groups are prejudged, which happens in a ring near the entrance to the ring of honor. Well, I have to say that on this occasion it worked in an extremely orderly manner, the mechanics were as follows: there were practically three rings, in the first the dogs in question were called and they were ordered accordingly, from there they went to the second where the judge  touched them and moved them in an regular way, then they went to a third party where they awaited the moment to make their stellar appearance in the ring of honor.

The extravagant

As usual there are some new, unrecognized breeds that take advantage of these occasions to be promoted. On this occasion, Mongolian Bankhar was the one who stole all eyes with a magnificent production. To begin with, I had two stands in the commercial area with decoration and characters in native clothing and a musician who played typical music with the cello, in addition to of course exhibiting a dog of the breed that, by the way, I found quite attractive to look at. As if this were not enough, he was lucky enough to be chosen as the best in group XI.

The dog that I showed.

On this occasion I had a dog to show, it was an 11 month old Beagle in the Junior class that resides in the neighboring country of Austria. I found it very gratifying that the Uruguayan judge Adrián Landarte liked my dog and allowed me to win the Junior class making him junior world champion, a day to remember.

Zaida.

Shortly after Croatia handed over the FCI flag to Finland comes the exciting moment of Best in Show. As a representative of group 10  didn’t take her long to fill the surroundings with the glamor of her beauty and outgoing personality. Everything was said, she seduced the audience and the judge too and took home the biggest, most precious monkey.

Freedom

I want to finish by saying that what I liked most about this World Dog Show was the feeling of freedom, there were no signs of restrictions, even breeds of those that in Europe are considered “untouchables” in terms of grooming were presented in such a way that their qualities were highlighted. Slip collars allowed us handlers to communicate efficiently with our dogs and make them look their best. The Poodles’ top knots were on full high display, as they should be.

It has been a pleasure to share this enriching experience with you now to sit patiently and edit video, I see you on my channel http://www.youtube.com/@PlaticasCaninas don’t miss any of my videos. See you in Helsinki.

The best is yet to come!

 

PS: I was already sitting on the first flight of my way back home and to my surprise I saw Willy Santiago, handler of Zaida, winner of the best in show appear, with whom I had the opportunity to have an interesting conversation. What a better way to end my trip.