Page 36 - WUT Magazine

Not many. I don’t want to say the per- centage, but I’d like to say that the quality is really rare. Most of them are good in this breed or in that one, but very few can feel sure in all the ten groups.
The situation in general is that the highest titles, which the dogs can get at the World Dog Show or at the European Dog Show, are losing their meaning. Too often the quality of the winners is not that high as it should be for such titles. The breeders must have plenty of brains and knowledges, otherwise they will surely make a mistake using these winners. And then, sometimes it’s di cult to under- stand what the shows are for? If the winners are not the best, it kills the original sense of these events. They are becoming just a kind of entertainment, something like fireworks, not more...
The biggest problem is that when the wrong dog wins, it exerts the influence on the breed, and in the end, it can destroy some important points in this breed, con- cerning its functionality first of all. Fur- ther, we cannot think that all the breed- ers or handlers, who bring the dogs to our ring, know nothing about the breed.
They see: “Aha, this judge likes this type”, and when he is following this type in all the classes, it’s ok, they can understand his logic. But when this type wins in this class, another type in that class, and so on, everybody will ask: “What does he like then?” Maybe I shouldn’t say this, but it’s against our sport. Unfortunately, many times people came to me with the same question: “Why will I go to the show, if not the best dogs win?” And I can say nothing in reply, because I don’t like to criticize my colleagues. Well, nobody has the absolute knowledge, and we all make mistakes. But the question is why you made a mistake, – because you haven’t seen the problem in the dog at that cer- tain moment, or because you simply don’t know the problem? If you don’t know the problem, you cannot find it. But if you know and overlooked it, it’s another point, and in this case you have to ask yourself
Cesare Calcinati (Italy), FCI judge
I’ve been knowing Horst Kliebenstein for twenty five years at least.
Long before we’ve got acquainted personally, I liked his style of judging a lot, and even decided for myself, that I should follow this style when I begin to judge.
Later, when I’ve started to talk with Horst about Dachshunds and dogs in general, I understood how enthusiastic he was, and how much he loved to judge; and if you do something loving it, the result is always fantastic and full of enlightening sense for everybody.
As the breeder, I showed my dogs under Horst several times, at different levels – CACIB, European and World Dog Shows. The impressions were always of a very high professionalism with the maximal attention to all the dog and to all the particulars, in order to be sure to say “this one is the best!”
During the last ten years, I had quite a lot of chances to work together with Horst as the colleague judge, and we were always in perfect feeling. When we were giving points at “Golden Ratio” special show in Russia, our result was always the same, and we really enjoyed checking the work we did. It was a pleasure to discuss with him about some particulars in the ring, even while judging both, and to consult him about some points to be better understood (problems in the tails or teeth, for example).
In May 2016, at the meeting of the DTK & WUT Standard Commissions in Frankfurt, I fully appreciated his clever and professional approach to the problems of our breed. He understands more than well, that we have to look very carefully, how the breed is evolving, and to adapt the Standard to this evolution. We were so much in feeling during our discussions on the future of the FCI group IV, and on what we could do not to lose it, but to improve the situation and to let the group become stronger, and on what we could do to help the breed to develop.
A very clever man with a lot of humility at the service of the breed!
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