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At
the World Show It
was an interesting experience, and an enjoyable holiday for us, and I
hope the dogs too! My friend and I didn’t actually go into Amsterdam
at all! We were 25km from the show, in a hotel near the seaside resort
of Noordvijk. The last bus taking exhibitors & spectators to the
show left a 9am, and the first one didn’t return until 5.30! We were
not prepared to leave dogs in a crate for that length of time in the
hotel room, and we were not brave enough to go off on our own by bus or
train either, so visiting as spectators was out of the question. The
day after arrival, Thursday my friend and I took a 5 hour trek to the
seaside town and back. We left the hotel at 10am returning at 3pm; on
asking directions we were told “not much further” in fact it was an
hour and a half at a leisurely pace! When returning to the hotel the
girls (elkhound bitches) crashed out and only woke for food! We took the
dogs with us mostly, only leaving them when we went for meals. At night
they slept where they wanted, we brought sheets to put on the beds in
case they climbed up and most nights at least one did. Impressions
of Holland, we found it relaxed, loved the cycle paths that benefited
pedestrians, dog walkers and horse riders alike. We saw a lot of dogs
being walked and fair few riders; the paths ran along the roads
separated by attractive hedging or grass verges. Loads of bicycles with
carts and child seats sometimes containing shopping or small dogs,
people were smiling and nearly everyone we met said good morning, most
spoke some English, many extremely well. Friday
was our showing day and we met our fellow Elkhound exhibitors from the
rest of Europe including one lady from the US who was living in Belgium.
I nervously watched the Elkhound dog classes to ascertain how things
were being done, it seemed the longer the judge didn’t shake you hand
the better you were doing. Each exhibit was gone over, moved and stood
while the judge dictated the critique, those not graded excellent were
dismissed from the ring with a handshake. The remaining Excellent graded
dogs in the class were sent round the ring and the judge made his
selections and indicated the placing. My
impressions at the show, dirty. Exhibitors allowed their dogs to foul
everywhere, including the stairs, there were people paid to clean up but
we thought that at an international event like this where the
possibility of cross contamination of parasitic disease could happen,
there should be a rule that exhibitors should clear up after their dogs,
as is the rule in the UK. On this theme at the hotel we had found a nice
grass area with trees running along the underground car park, there were
bins close by and a wood leading to tennis courts, the UK party, about
50 plus dogs were using this as an exercise area. From the day the UK
people arrived, Wednesday to the Friday the area was kept nice and
clean, but as other exhibitors from the rest of Europe arrived the area
became so bad we, the British were doing their best to clear up not only
after their own dogs but other as well. The hotel management were aware
that only the British cleaned up and at other hotels there was a levy
charged so people could be employed to do the clearing up, not a
surprise that at some hotels dogs are not welcome. At
our hotel the dogs in the UK party behaved beautifully, and were to be
seen with their owners in the Lounges, and only needed to be crated in
the rooms when the owners were not there so staff could do their work.
One morning, returning after breakfast to find cleaners already in our
room, we were informed that the dogs had not even barked from their
crates. One night when we were asleep, returning revelers were rather
loud outside the room, the girls leapt into action to defend their
sleeping owners, we leapt up just as quickly to shush them! Not something I would want to do as the norm, but for an occasional holiday I can certainly recommend an international show in Holland. It is sad that visitors to UK shows do not get the benefit of multi language catalogues, and people readily available to talk to in their own language. If I had had to struggle with a strange system and language, it would not have been so enjoyable, in fact, I might well have still been there! Taken
from a piece by Barbara Barganska
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