News from Around the U.K.
All photos by Alan Seymour
The hot subject right now in the U.K. is the announcement by The Kennel Club that in 2023 it had losses of £1.2 million, following a loss of £1 million in 2022.
The Kennel Club says it has worked hard to mitigate against the increasing costs of running a business by freezing staff salaries for 2024, successfully renegotiating key partnership and sponsorship deals, making adjustments at Clarges Street to make some of the offices there suitable for tenants, and leasing one of the floors of the Aylesbury office (which is in a separate county and where most registrations are dealt with).
The Kennel Club registration total for the first quarter of 2024 amounts to 44,592, a rather worrying 20.34 percent decrease from 55,976, the figure for the same quarter in 2023.
The top breed for the quarter is the Labrador Retriever, with 7,451. Second are Cockers with 4,651. The French Bulldog boom appears to be very much on the wane, which delights me, as that is one of my breeds, too: They now are in third place with 4,195, just about half the number that were registered in the same quarter of 2023.
There was another controversial issue with the Kennel Club when it announced a change to its policies regarding the weighing of Miniature Dachshunds at Kennel Club-licensed events. They say that it comes as part of the Kennel Club’s commitment to health and welfare, prompted by concerns regarding perceptions of the weighing process and its potential impact on the health and well-being of the breed.
Since 2007, regulations had been in place allowing societies and judges to weigh Miniature Dachshunds as long as the intention was announced in the show schedule. The Kennel Club chose at that time to stop weighing Dachshunds at its own show, Crufts, but allowed other shows to continue the practice. However, ongoing public scrutiny of dog showing and concerns over the health and welfare implications of weighing the breed have led to the decision to remove the practice entirely.
As you can imagine, the Dachshund fraternity is up in arms over this, and I doubt we have heard the last of it.
And now to some good news.
The Kennel Club is privileged to announce that His Majesty the King will be its new patron, continuing in the footsteps of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth ll, who was patron from 1952 until 2022.
The Kennel Club has been honored with royal patronage since its inception in 1873, when the then-Prince of Wales, Prince Edward, became its patron. When Edward became King Edward Vll in 1901, he began the tradition of the head of the monarchy taking on the role of Patron for the Kennel Club, which has continued ever since.
As I’ve said many times, group shows are really popular, and until recently only Toys and Terriers had just one show each. But now Toys have had another show granted championship status. Sadly, the poor Terriers now are the only group to have just one.
The UK Toydog Championship Show is the first group show of the year, and, yes, another show at the popular Midlands show venue. Secretary and President is Mr. Tom Mather, better known to others as chairman of the Crufts committee. Every Toy breed scheduled has Challenge Certificates on offer here and so the show always draws a large entry; this year, 1,425 dogs were entered on March 30. One nice touch that goes with this show is that it has its own Junior committee within its regular committee. Encouraging youngsters is the way forward, and it works really well with this show.
Best in Show judge this year was Nick Gourley. Nick is well known for his very successful English Toy Terriers and Toy Manchesters in the U.S.
Best in Show at the UK Toydog Society show was the Pomeranian Ch Gleniren All Eyes on Me with judge Nick Gourley and show chairman David Guy.
His choice was the orange Pom Ch Gleniren All Eyes on Me, with Reserve going to the fawn Pug Ch Taftazini Nepalensis. Group Third was the Yorkshire Terrier Ch Queenslake Lord of the Rings. Group Fourth was the Maltese Ch Delcost Centrefold.
Reserve Best in Show was the Pug Ch Taftazini Nepalensis.
Keep safe, everyone.