Hello from Budapest and the 2013 World Dog Show

World Show Veteran BIS

by Kathy Caton-Eiler

Hello from Budapest Hungary home of the 2013 World Dog Show. We started this morning with a welcoming opening ceremony featuring traditional Hungarian dancers, opera singers and the presentation of the FCI flag. The kennel club is pleased to welcome international guest and exhibitors.

 Today, Thursday May 16, 2013,

FCI groups III IV and V

all judged among the 68 total rings! 

Different from our United States shows, the breeds with a large number of entries are divided up among multiple rings. The highest entry for this years show is the American Staffordshire Terrier with a total of 420 spread among the 4 rings. This layout makes any handler, owner or spectator running from ring to ring to catch the classes jumping in for handler changes and shuffling dogs in the rings. At any point of judging you can find a handler change without any notification to the judge.

The sides of the rings are lined with people stacked 4 rows deep watching the dogs. The dogs have been amazing in the crowd and pushing through people to enter and exit the rings.

Like our shows the officiants of the rings are the stewards and judges. Stewards are the ringmasters keeping the organization of the mass amount of entries. I am amused at the stewards who present the classes with a large wipe off board stating the class and armband numbers for the class entering the ring, similar to a ring show girl presenting the round card at a boxing match!  The steward also must help organize the ring by following the judges instructions as to his/her picks and excuses the dogs the judges are done with for the class. The basic rule of last man standing holds here as long as the judge doesn’t excuse you then your in! Once they shake your hand and offer you an exit your done, the remaining dogs are going for placements. Each class places First, Second, Third and Fourth including the champion classes.

I find myself running into many USA owners and handlers of various dogs and few have brought dogs to compete, others are watching. Also representing the USA are a few judges with large entries from various breeds.

As large as this venue is I’m running around catching some breeds and missing many others. I can only imagine being an all breed handler doing these shows every week. I’m not sure with 68 rings how anyone can take in all the show has to offer. Good luck to everyone with dogs at this years WDS!

That’s all for now,

 Kathy Caton-Eiler

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Posted by admin on May 16 2013. Filed under Featured, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.