Dog News

The European Dog Show took place in Denmark on May 18 to 21, marking a return to some sort of normality after the ravages of Covid-19 on the dog-show circuit, both nationally and especially internationally.

The World Dog Show eventually took place in Spain last year after numerous cancellations, so many exhibitors in Europe were glad to take “the road trip” once more, this time into Denmark … all the way to Herning, a small town in the north of Denmark but with a huge event showground.

Best in Show on Sunday evening was the Dandie Dinmont Terrier EUJW21 Kiti’s Band Road Runner Superbird, handled by Jakub Kruczek and owned by Adam Ostrowski from Poland. The Best in Show judge was Hanne Laine Jensen, a Danish all-rounder, and the judge from Group 3 was none other than Laurent Pichard from Switzerland, himself about to be one of the main organizers of the World Dog Show 2023 in Geneva, later in August. The Polish contingent in the crowd went crazy as the main-ring commentator announced the winner around 8 p.m. on Sunday night.

Full Program

The president of the Danish Kennel Club and in fact of the European Section of the FCI is Jorgen Hindse. Jorgen said at the start of the show, “The European Dog Show 2023 has begun, and we in the Danish Kennel Club can now finally see our many ideas and many hours of hard work put into action – very exciting! This show is the fifth FCI main event that I am involved in organizing in Denmark and as always, there is something special about these kinds of shows. They have a certain sense of grandeur and prestige about them, bringing exhibitors from all over the world together to spend four amazing days revolving around our very best friends: the dogs.”

Jorgen added: “Last year, in 2022, the Danish Kennel Club celebrated its 125-year jubilee, which we among many things celebrated by doing articles and podcasts on 12-year periods of the DKK’s long history. Through this process of reviving old history by reading through magazines, old books and speaking to members of the DKK, one thing became clear: The Danish Kennel Club has been on an incredible journey and has always tried to stay on course for whatever was best for its members and their dogs. Most notably were the last 50 years and even more the last 25 years. These years have – like society – brought on a whole other way of living, communicating and way of keeping dogs. The dogs are now more than ever a family member. And it is these beloved family members that we are here at the EDS to celebrate, appreciate and care for.”

Well said, sir!

It was a show with a full program of events held in the Messecenter in Herning, Jutland. The show was blessed with good weather and was held in a pleasant atmosphere. The venue was the same site as the venue for the World Show back in 2010, when the winner was a Toy Poodle from Japan handled by Toshi Omura. This center has many spacious halls with lots of room for exhibitors and a capacity for around 80 rings! The outside area has one of the biggest camp sites I have ever seen at a dog show, with well over 1,200 berths and pitches for an array of camper vans, tents, etc. The camping is very well organized and I am sure goes a long way in encouraging entries from many parts of Europe. Day parking for exhibitors is just as good, as they are allowed to park for free and more or less as close as possible to the cavernous halls. I hired a car at the airport and found it very easy to traverse the flat and relatively quiet Danish roads in that part of the world!

The main downside of these halls, however, was the situation for the vendors … If your stand was in the main hall where the BIS ring was sited, it was very quiet each morning until some people circulated. If you were in the outer halls that had rings, then you had people only until the end of judging … so your afternoons were pretty much dead. Very much a no-win situation for the vendors, who pay a lot of money and travel a long way.

Not that the stand situation should detract from the show, which was very well organized and friendly, headed up by the irrepressible Wilfred Olsen, the vice president of the DKK. Typical comments from judges after the show were: “On the way home after great week in Herning on EDS perfectly organized by DKK team. Thanks once more Jørgen Hindse, Wilfred Olsen and all team for superb hospitality and well-organized EDS.” End of story in that respect!

Numbers

Just under 12,000 dogs were entered at the EDS, which also featured agility and the World Dog Dancing Championships in one of the many halls at the event. The organizers had planned for more entries, and in the end had to withdraw the invitations to some judges and reschedule. But 12,000 dogs for the EDS is not a bad total whichever way you look at it.

Judges were based in a hotel in the center of the pleasant but relatively quiet town of Herning. Saturday evening saw the gala dinner take place at the nearby convention center, where special awards were made to Sean Delmar (Ireland) and Gerard Jipping (Netherlands) for their work with the DKK over the years. Excellent entertainment ensued with a bagpipe player in full kilted regalia! Wilfred Olsen, the show organizer, was of course encouraged to become the target for the lesson on the bagpipes!

The international junior-handling finals were a big feature on Sunday evening judged by Hans Rosenberg, and the delighted winner was Aoife Garry from Ireland, cheered on by a number of Irish judges at the show (above).

Best in Show

Running in conjunction with the European Dog Show was the Agria Winner CACIB show, with the groups rotating on a daily basis over the four days of the show.

Best in Show at the Agria Winner Show in Denmark was the Miniature American Shepherd EECH Legacy´s Boom Boom Boom, owned by Kersti Paju of Estonia, handled by Karen Dunaway and bred by Suzanne Ritter of the U.S. The Best in Show judge was Svend Løvenkjær from Sweden, who made an emotional speech at the gala dinner on Saturday night and was clearly happy to be with friends again after all the traumas of Covid-19.

Moving on to the actual EDS, our Danish judge Hanne Jensen described herself as a “humble and proud BIS judge,” adding, "When I saw my name as Best in Show judge at the European Dog Show 2023, many thoughts went through my head. The first emotions were joy, pride and expectations. Joy to see my name on such a significant post. Pride that I was found worthy of making such an important decision. Expectations for meeting so many amazing dogs and feeling them in my hands.

“When I had collected my thoughts, other feelings surfaced. One of them was humility. To me that is the most important word when you are judging. It is a word that is knocked into the heads of young, upcoming judges. The exhibitors bring their dogs — good as well as less good — to us, and they must all get a fair treatment. The judge is not the key figure; that is the dog. As a judge, you must always be — or try to be — objective. You must forget your own preferences, as long as the dog in front of you lives up to the requirements of the breed standard. Another thought occurred to me: Can I do this well enough? This is of course a very open question because what does ‘Doing it well enough’ entail? It depends completely on the eyes watching. Do you want to please yourself or the exhibitors, the audience or your fellow judges?”
Hanne certainly seemed to enjoy her exciting judging appointment in the large and colorful main ring with a small but vociferous crowd sticking with the final day’s judging to the very end. One of the Polish supporter’s team wrote of Teddy the Dandie Dinmont, “Teddy has the power to melt your heart with one look into your eyes. Moving effortlessly, happy, sound, groomed to perfection and appearing as fresh as ever for the finale of the European Show. Huge congratulations to Jakub Kruczek (who handled), Adam Ostrowski and Teddy’s breeder. History in the making in so many ways: great win for Polish cynology, for this wonderful breed, especially for the dedication and hard work put it in. Congratulations and, yes, we are extremely proud!”

Adam Ostrowski, the owner of the winning Dandie, was overwhelmed, saying, “Nothing foreshadowed what had happened. Every day brought us much joy and happiness. We entered three dogs, and we came back with four European Winners and three Best of Breed winners … But the hearts of many people were stolen by our Teddy! Kitti’s Band Road Runner Superbird, European Winner, Best of Breed, Best of Group and then BEST IN SHOW! Thank you everyone who kept fingers crossed and supported us. Especially those who stayed to the end and enjoyed this success with us. The biggest value of all of it is that this passion connects people. Without this we wouldn’t have so many great friends around the world.”

That is a sentiment often stated by people in the world of dogs, and there will be many more moments on the international stage coming soon with the World Dog Show in Switzerland and five days of shows. The WDS in 2024 goes to Zagreb in Croatia, and 2025 sees Helsinki as the host.

Moving on in Europe

The 2024 European Dog Show will take place in Celje, Slovenia, and on Sunday evening before best in show we had the traditional FCI flag handover ceremony as Denmark passed the flag to Slovenia, the next host country represented by their president, Hari Arcon.

The show in 2025 will be in Brno in the Czech Republic.

A meeting of the FCI European Section took place on Monday after the show and the vote for the EDS 2027 went to Spain, which will host the show in Alicante.