Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria and Belgium were the founding countries of the FCI and 100 years later these countries had something to celebrate. Germany had its Dortmund Bundessieger Show combined with an FCI Centenary Winner Dog Show, France was granted the honour to organise the FCI Centenary World Dog Show, the Netherlands the FCI Centenary European Section Show and Austria will organise the World Show in 2012. In order to find out who would become the ultimate FCI Centenary World Champion of Champions, Belgium was asked to organise this very special show - that had only been organised twice before, once in Basel (Switzerland) and once in Slovakia. The famous “Victor” trophy was to win in gold, silver and bronze. This massive statue is really something to cherish as the design is comparable to the Hollywood Oscars.

© Karl Donvil

Organising the FCI Centenary World Champion of Champions was a real challenge and a prestigious honour. As the FCI is headquartered in Belgium they could of course count on the expertise and help of the people of the Société Royale Saint-Hubert and their partner Royal Canin. The show was to take place at the Heysel halls which were large enough to hold the event. It is close to the airport, lots of parking around and in the heart of Europe with easy access via the European highways.

Dogs which were granted the CACIB at one of the above-mentioned shows or at the last Brussels Dog Show in December 2010, or dogs who became International Beauty/Show Champion could enter this show. The FCI hoped that it would become a big success but I know that the President of the FCI, Mr Müller, was not 100% assured that it would be. The first big challenge for the organisers would be the registration of the entries via internet. Alike at Westminster there was only a limited number of entries allowed, 150 per FCI group. This was for practical reasons with regard to the judging of each group, but it was a little unfair to group I (Shepherd group) and II (Guardian Dogs) as they by far outnumber Group IV (Dachshunds) and Group X (Sighthounds) in number of different breeds. Anyway the registrations were open from 5th September (the day after the FCI Centenary European Section Show in Leeuwarden closed) and it worked perfectly. The registrations came in very smoothly and I heard no complains afterwards. On September 30, the day entries closed, no less than 893 entries were counted. Mr Müller was very pleased and called it a real success . Now it was to hope that all the rest would turn out well. Except for Group II, in all other groups the limit was not reached. But having a look at the catalogue and counting the dogs in Group II, I saw that there were 156 entries and not 150. The reason was that in that group there were some exhibitors who were accepted following technical problems which were beyond their control.

The show was held on Saturday 12th November. But prior to this, the General Committee of the FCI had its regular meeting and a very interesting seminar had been held on Friday in the theatre of the Plaza Hotel in the centre of Brussels. The seminar could be followed in one of the four official languages of the FCI, English, French, German and Spanish. The accent of the seminar was on the relation between dog and man and the part judges can play with regard to the health, physical structure and character of the dogs. I attended some and I can assure you that it should be required reading it for all judges. The emphasis is on the welfare of the dogs and diagonal to any kind of exaggeration. Let us hope that we can soon see the results in certain breeds that are suffering from anomalies. This part of the Cynological Days was sponsored by Eukanuba.

© Karl Donvil

Saturday would be the big day, for being the show day, and that day would start very early. The dogs were allowed in from 6.30 a.m. Also here we found a premiere for Belgium. All entries were computer-scanned and this worked beyond expectations. There were no queues at the entrance like we see in many other shows. For every entered dog there was a bag with a catalogue, a voucher, an FCI souvenir and a nice FCI rosette. The only problem was some greedy exhibitors who took more bags than they were supposed so that the last people to come in did not have a souvenir or rosette. Maybe it would have been better to work with a voucher and to let the gifts be picked up at the FCI stand that was a little empty during the day. It would also give people the opportunity to get to know the FCI a little better. Compared to for example the British Kennel Club and some national Kennel Clubs like the Swedish one, the FCI should present itself much more. There is however a change in recent years in this direction. There is Cobby, the mascot, there are a few books and publications and also the newsletter.

The catalogue of the show was excellent, displaying the rules in two languages, statistical data and pages to fill out with the numbers of the qualified dogs. The 893 dogs represented no less than 33 different countries. The Netherlands were leading with 175 entries and defeated Germany who had 174. Next came Belgium with 152 entries, France with 75, Italy with 71 and Russia with 62. There were 18 dogs entered from the United Kingdom, the only non-FCI country represented. Also remarkable were the 230 different breeds. In fact, it is more than this as we know that CACIB’s are given to all varieties and sizes of Dachshunds and also colours in Poodles and Cockers. And also the Belgian Shepherds and the Great Danes are all considered as one breed in the total counting. But if we take them apart I think it was around 250 breeds. There even were some really rare ones like the Kishu. The Rhodesian Ridgeback was the most numerous breed with 28 specimens.

The time schedule was strict and well respected. At 8.00 a.m., Mr Müller declared the show open and judging could start. Two by two the dogs were entered in the rings, regardless what breed they were from. There was a ring for nearly every group and two judges officiated, giving points to every dog with a maximum of 50 each. The points were not communicated to the exhibitors; however, the 64 dogs that were selected for the second round were informed about their qualifications (not their points). There were some ex-aequo’s in certain breeds and the qualified dogs for the next round were determined by a computer-assisted draw of lot. The number of dogs to be selected from each group differed from group to group and was in relation to the number of entries in that group. However again, 3 Dachshunds for 33 entries compared to 9 Shepherd dogs for 123 entries… The numbers of the selected dogs for round two was displayed on a big screen in the main ring. Everything went very smoothly and this is certainly also thanks to the well-briefed ring stewards who did a wonderful job. At lunch time 1.30 p.m., the first round was over.

Exactly one hour later the 3 judges (from three different sections of the FCI) for the finals took place in the main ring to judge the 64 selected dogs in a knock-out competition. Mr E. Maniero from Peru was the all-rounder representing the Americas and the Caribbean Section. The Asia and the Pacific Section was represented by Mr H. Kamisato from Japan and Mr H. Kleibenstein from Germany was delegated for the European section. They were separated and could not influence each other. Two dogs were presented each time, one took place on a red spot on the carpet, the other on a blue spot. The judges showed a coloured flag matching with the colour of the spot where their favourite dog was standing. After 4 rounds 4 dogs remained. Two of them would end ex-aequo on the 3rd place, the (male) SHAR PEI born 19/09/2008 “Jade East Catch Me If You Can” owned by Loretta Anders Nijholt Minne from the Netherlands and the (male) SCOTTISH TERRIER born 10/11/2007 “Filisite Brash Celebration” owned by Valentina Popova from Russia. After a profound examination the (male) WELSH CORGI PEMBROKE born 09/06/2007 “Andovan Pinkerton” from Olga Silova from Russia was awarded the Reserve Champion of Champions and the Golden Victor was for the IRISH WOLFHOUND (female, born 21/05/2009) “Absolute Roan Inish Tullamore Good Stuff“. Petra Tomasovicova, the owner from Slovakia was in the seventh heaven. Her Wolfhound enforced the feeling by literally jumping in her arms. Mr Stefan Stefik, member of the FCI Executive Committee, was absolutely thrilled, as if he won the Victor himself! These winners were invited later in the evening to the Gala dinner in one of the most beautiful Ballrooms of Brussels, “le Concert Noble”, situated in the European Quarter. Here it became clear how many cynological VIP’s came over from all over the world to hand over gifts and congratulate Mr Müller as president of the FCI.

© Karl Donvil

But it was not only a Victory for the winning dog and his owner but it was a relief for the whole team of collaborators, the people of the Société Royale Saint-Hubert, the volunteering stewards and the people of Royal Canin who provided the logistics behind the event. It was also a victory for my own team of photographers as we presented the first part of the book with all the qualified dogs for this final event and the photos shot in 3 studios of almost all participating dogs at this event.

I think that the FCI can look back on a thrilling year to celebrate its 100th anniversary. A lot of people and several organisations helped to bring this year into the spotlights. Besides the dog shows, there were lots of other events like Field Trials, Dog Races, Coursings, Agility, etc. It has all been a memorable year in many aspects.

Text and photo’s: Karl DONVIL

Winners

First:

Second:

Third:

© Karl Donvil

330 - FILISITE BRASH CELEBRATION (SCOTTISH TERRIER)

Qualified dogs (second round) by group

Please note that dogs do not appear in any specific order.

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Group 5

Group 6

Group 7

Group 8

Group 9

Group 10