A kind invitation came from the Shar Pei Club of Greece to judge at their 1st Mega Shar Pei Speciality show. The club has been in existence since 2002. Under the guidance of their new committee and the particular brain child of Lila Leventaki they decided to hold the Mega Speciality.

Based on a combination of judging types, Mr Matgo Law from Hong Kong being the guest of honour and priority judge very rightly so his being the person who in the 1970’s attracted the attention of the world to the plight of the Shar Pei and to whom we all owe a great deal of gratitude, for without him this breed would be extinct. Viera Staviarksa bringing the European style of judging, with me representing the UK.

BRINGING an eventful week to a close, the top winning OES ‘Jimmy’ was a fitting winner in his home country under BIS judge Tamas Jakkel. This yearsWORLD DOG SHOW had taken place in Budapest against a backdrop of a lively FCI meeting, a new president in the form of Rafael Santiago from Puerto Rico, and a packed programme of breed and club shows, a CACIB show on Wednesday followed by four days of a WORLD DOG SHOW with 18,000 dogs from all over the world.

PHOTO BY HOTDOG

BIS at the Eurasia Show in Moscow, Russia, Scottish Terrier, Mcvan's To Russia With Love, owned by M Khenkina. The judge was Mr Horst Kliebenstein (Germany) 

The DuoCacib Brno, organised by the Czech Moravian Kennel Club, took place on the first weekend in February. The Best in Show on Saturday, judged by Vaclavik Miroslav, went to the Schnauzer (Pepper-Salt), Ave Concord Magnifique and Sundays BIS, judged by Ridarcikova Gabriele (SK), went to the Landseer, Arun Z Laderova both from the Czech Republic.

With a few more than 8,000 dogs over the two days the entry was quite comparable with the year before.

The weekend of the 12-13 January saw more evidence of the growing numbers and success of British exhibitors abroad, when a small group of British exhibitors travelled to Slovenia to take part in three FCI championship shows including the two CACIB international shows in Ljubljana. As featured in the Our Dogs Annual 2013 (p.309).

British exhibitors have come to relish the different challenges and fun accompanying showing in Europe, and that weekend saw a whole lot of fresh challenges as they braved the winter snowy weather across Europe! 

THE first International Show of 2013 in Slovakia was held on the 26th & 27th January in the small city of Trencin, which is 130 kilometres to the north of Bratislava in the Valley of the Vag River. Trencin has a small exhibition centre with 4 or 5 small halls.

Entry numbers were good with nearly 2,000 dogs. Groups 1, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 were judged on Saturday; and Groups 2, 3, 4 and 10 on Sunday.