nieuws - 10/07/2010 Paris 2010 Championnat de France - Frankrijk
door Karl DonvilChampionnat de France des Chiens de Race 2010.
General repetition for the upcoming World Show next year.
It is the first time that this show is held in these expo halls close to the airport of Charles de Gaules outside Paris. Arriving in Paris Nord with the Thalys train from Brussels took me more than 3 hours to get there. As my train was cancelled I had to take the next one, but without reservation for this one I had to stand upright all the time in the middle compartment where the temperature raised up to 50°C as it was very hot weather.
. Once arrived in Paris Nord I had to take the RER train to the Parc des Exposition de Paris Nord Villepinte. This is a huge complex of relatively new and modern halls, some still under construction. The terrain around can hold easily over 10.000 cars and many more dogs and exhibitors. It offers plenty of opportunities for the upcoming World Show. It only depends on how these opportunities are utilized. That is the reason why the French Kennel Club wanted to have a rehearsal expo this year and find out the strong points and of course and even more important the weaknesses of this venue. Next year they expect around 30.000 dogs ( dogs for the clubshows and sport competitions included I presume) and things must go smoothly y then.
The morning of the first day of the show was chaotic in some ways as there were difficulties with the security people on the parking area which caused long queues to enter the Parc (on Sunday there was no problem anymore).And your bad luck could double up at the veterinarian checkpoint. In France the Kennel Club is under direct control of the Ministry of Agriculture and in Paris the vets of the Ministry took their jobs a little too serious and wanted to examine every dog and check the papers. In Herning they reasoned that dogs with the European Community were safe or checked already at the border and therefore there was no need to do this all over again. If this will happen next year there are only two options to prevent similar problems, or there need to be a lot more vets or the Ministry must liberalize the regulations.
Only one hall was occupied and wasn’t even completely filled during the two days and all this with an entry of little over 7.000 dogs. At least this looks very promising. I liked the concept of having a large central corridor with all the trade stands and the judging rings on both sides. This creates traffic and visitors tend to walk there as it allows access to the rings they want to see. The main ring was in the front, close to the central entrance and some merchants complained about the fact that once the main ring started there was no public going around any longer and for them the show was over. For this reason it could be better to have the main ring at the other end of the hall. And maybe this could offer a better opportunity for some more atmosphere. Now there were stairs on 3 sides for the public and one long side reserved for the VIP. That means that the background of the main ring is stairs and public and this offers space for a nice decor like there was in Helsinki, Herning or Stokholm. The carpet in the main ring could be a little more flashy except for the placed were the dogs are supposed to be photographed as this can reflect heavily on the coats and bellies.
The concept of the catalog is OK and in some ways very useful. The Société Centrale Canine gives addresses of the national breed clubs and sports clubs and also a diagram of the breed sections according to the FCI. On the other hand there is no information of all the nationalities present here nor was there an overview per judge of the numbers of dogs he had and which breeds he judged. There was however a list of all the breeds , the ring numbers of the dogs and the total number of dogs in the breed. But they were classified in their group and not alphabetically in this group. As a visitor of the show, novice in the field, you need to start learning about the FCI classification, knowing to which group your favorite breed belongs before you can start looking in the catalog under the according FCI Group. And if you finally found out you have no plan or overview of where the ring is to be found where the breed is judged.
As it was an extremely hot weekend there was little public interest, especially on Saturday, the warmest day and for most families the weekly shopping day. And who will spend a hot summer day in an event hall unless you plan to have a dog or are a big fan of dogs and dogshows. Of course, in such huge halls like this one it is not easy to have a good impression of the number of visitors but the stairs around the main ring during the finals give us a pretty good indication. The comments in the main ring were OK and they also started in time. First on term are the Pairs followed by the Couples. The only difference between both categories is that Paires are dogs from the same sexes while in Couples they must be a dog and a bitch. After this came the Breed and Progeny class and the Puppies. The groups have each time the Juniors and then the Adults. All this was judged very smoothly so that the main ring program ended as planned. On Sunday, as group 6 was on term, there was an extra class, the “Meutes” or gangs of hounds. Impressive and most interesting how they are shown, attached to a long central rope held on each end by a handler, a most fascinating view. Certain “meutes” had brands printed on the ribs of the dogs. Another interesting part of the main ring program was the presentation of the Russian Breeds as part of a celebration between France and Russia. Except for the regular breeds we know but not always are able to see, like the Central Asians, there were now also a few new breeds, not yet recognized by the FCI. There was a couple of big dogs, very much alike Tibetan Mastiffs but with another coat, more like the coat of a Bernese Mountaindog and there was also a couple of Russian Bichon in dark colors with little of Maltese, Havanese and Shi Tzu. On the internet they are impossible to trace and even on the website of the Russian Kennel Club there is no presentation of the Russian Breeds, let stand of the non-recognized breeds. We will see if both breeds will ever be recognized and conquer the show scene.
Exciting days will come for the French Kennel Club as now they have an idea of what is OK, what to avoid and what to improve. I can assure you that there will be a lot of brainstorming and that the intention is to give a splendid performance. Probably this show will be bigger than the one in Herning, that was the best organized so far, followed closely by the ones of Finland and Sweden. It will not be easy and it’s a big challenge to equal it or do even better. But more important is that next year’s World Dog Show will be remembered as a good one, one of the better World Dog Shows. There is a difference between Scandinavians people and people who belong to the Roman people like the French, Italian and Spanish. Scandinavians are more perfectionist but have a more tempered attitude while Roman people are less perfectionists but have more “joy de vivre” and look more in a Burgundic way at the bright side of life. But maybe the French Kennel Club will be able to show us the best of both Worlds and that will mean that we can expect a perfect and entertaining 2011 Centennial and World Dog Show in Paris on 7,8,9 and 10 July. Be in time to enter for the show and make your payment. Help this way to prevent logistic problems . If you wait for the very last moment, you’ll be the first one to be blamed if chaos arises.
