Page 147 - HOTdog Magazine 1-2.2019

welcome consequence of the
heath stroke. However, the
national and regional news-
papers covered the show very
well and usually, that makes
a big difference but seemed
not to have had enough im-
pact, unfortunately. On the
other hand, I had crossed
the streets of the city sev-
eral times but it was only on
Monday when I discovered by
accident a publicity poster
announcing the show. It was
not at all an eye catcher, and
you had to come very close
to read it before you knew
what it was about!. If there
is a small circus coming in
my town, you find posters on
every corner and you must be
blind to not have seen one.
But for a big international
event, much more exception-
al as any circus, you had to
find an announcement by ac-
cident. A missed chance!
The podium was nice with
LED information on the bot-
tom and Live view on a big
video wall on top. The en-
trance to the ring was also
built as a video wall, showing
the national flag of the judge
when he/she was presented.
Contrary to Poland there were
efficient security people and
a ring steward, but the press
was not so happy that all the
dogs were lined up in front of
them, blocking the view of all
the remaining dogs to come,
but that is a common problem
on a lot of shows. In my opin-
ion, the whole scene missed a
bit of color and atmosphere.
Grey is the best color for pho-
tographers. Indeed the color
of the light in the main ring
was good but not always even
when the dogs were entering
the ring, and it was all too
bright with little or no con-
trast, creating an overall dull
impression.With some light
effects one can create a lot
of depth and playful contrast,
as long as for the photo op-
portunities the light is bright, and with the health, people
even and neutral as the pho-
tographers like. That was a
problem on the first day when
a moving spotlight was cast-
ing colors on the winners.
However, there was a very
good understanding between
the Press and the Committee
and that was very much ap-
preciated. On simple request,
it was changed for the follow-
ing days.
There was very little enter-
tainment in the main ring,
only an act of a clown with
5 dogs, Leonid Beljakov with
his Comedy Dog Show. Not
bad at all, but every day the
same act was for most peo-
ple and VIP’s a little too much
of it, especially as it was the
only entertainment of the
evening program. But in fact,
if that is all that could be re- “where do I need to go?”, “am
marked, then it is very little
and that means that most of
it wasvery good. And since
sponsors cut in their budget
there was probably little left
to spend when it comes to
entertainment in the main
ring.
The main ring started rather
late every day, especially on
Friday, and with the finals of
both shows every day, the
European Show and the Aus-
trian Winner show, it was a
very loaded program of about
3 hours! Was it necessary to
have the Puppies in the main
ring? For both Shows? Every
day? And was it necessary for
the Austrian Winner to have
also veterans and juniors in
the main ring instead of just
the Group judging? Al this re-
sulted in an overloaded pro-
gram, moreover, that was the
reason why the whole pro-
gram was delayed every day
because they did not finish in
time. If that was cut from the
program and instead there
was a pause of an hour to let
the dogs and handlers relax
and do a little bit of shopping, Winner were dogs that were
it would have been better, the
main ring would finish earlier
would be glad to return home
sooner. What struck me in
EDS 2019. Wels • Main Topic European Dog Show 2019
the main ring was that for the
Group judging every time 6
dogs were selected but only
5 were placed. So, two dogs
remained in the main ring
before the final winner was
announced, one was the win-
ner and the other the loser.
So for both dogs, the ten-
sion grew high and when it
was finally announced the
winner jumped up while the
other dog was not just num-
ber two but even number 6,
not placed an out of the spot-
lights. I felt so sorry for these
handlers seeing the disap-
pointment on their faces and
looking somewhat disorient-
ed around like: “is this it?”,
I placed somewhere?”, and fi-
nally leaving the ring via the
exit in the dark corner. Why
then not only selecting 5 dogs
instead of 6 or placing 3 dogs
instead of 5 so that 3 dogs
had to leave, which does not
make such a humiliating im-
pression. I had a hard time
with that.
As said, the European Dog
Show promised to be a real
success due to the World
Show in China that was no
option for 98% of the Europe-
an exhibitors. It would never
be an easy job to transport
a dog into China, have the
paperwork and visa’s done
and make sure to, get the
dogs back out of the country
without complications at the
border. That proved to be a
piece of cake for the Europe-
an Show in Austria with the
open borders all over Europe.
13.214 dogs accompanied by
12.000 exhibitors came from
62 different countries from all
over the world to participate.
I suppose 99,5% of the dogs
that entered for the Austrian
entered for the European
Show in the first place. The
best-represented countries
were Italy, leading with
2047 dogs, followed closely
by Russia with 2030 en-
tries. The Czech Republik
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