A Little Bit Of Italy Goes A Long Way At Crufts 2025

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102 – June, 2025

By Amy Fernandez

Photos By Lisa Croft-Elliott

As often as we hear that dog shows are completely predictable, political, prearranged, etc., we encounter enough shocking surprises to dispel that notion. An equally frequent assertion is the belief that dog shows are an antiquated, irrelevant formality but more on that later.

Let’s talk about Crufts. In case you have not heard, this year’s BIS went to Ch. Int. Multiple Ch. Lina Donne Che Conta, a four-year-old fawn brindle Whippet. Whippets have gone Best at Crufts before, most recently Collooney Tartan Tease in 2018 and prior to that, Cobyco Call the Tune in 2004. The Whippet is one of those traditional British breeds, so no big surprise there.

However, this win was new business because this is the first time that an Italian competitor won Crufts showing an Italian dog. The whole world watched that decision go down. Crufts receives incredible TV coverage–8.7 million viewers this year. If only we had that over here. Westminster certainly dresses up the proceeding, but BIS at Crufts is truly comparable to the finale of a Broadway show–but that can be said for the entire show. It’s like being immersed in a non-stop, four-day game show. There’s never a moment when multiple amazing stuff is not vying for attention. The BIS judging is the culmination of that energy and the winner added another shot of adrenaline to the event. But RBIS was no less surprising. It came from the Working Group and it was a Romanian dog, the two-year-old Tibetan Mastiff, Dzhozias Viking with Gabriele Stafuzza, also from Romania, in the supporting role. Crufts 2025 was a thoroughly foreign affair.

From the perspective of breed improvement, that can only be viewed as positive. Britain’s quarantine regulations restricted breed development for over a century. It’s hard to overestimate the impact of the Pet Passport Scheme in 2000. Yes, the process was bound up in red tape and it cost a fortune, but it was possible to bring dogs into the country within a manageable timeframe. This didn’t exactly open the floodgates; restrictions were gradually eased over several years. But even that bit of deregulation had a tremendous impact on the gene pools of so many UK dog and cat breeds. Over time, the green light was gradually streamlined for countries outside of the EU and that’s when things really changed.

Click here to read the complete article
102 – June, 2025

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Posted by AnthonyA on Jun 8 2025. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.