Page 26 - News Letter

was a bit hard to watch both rings and see who was being chosen. I had a
catalogue which helped but had to follow what was going on, without
any announcements to clarify who won what. I guess if you won a class,
you were doing very well, but especially so in the Open classes, which
had 28 entries for dogs and 27 for bitches. What a thrill to win over that
many! The classes were similar to ours although I think they have slightly
different age cut offs for them.
All the champions are in a separate class as well, and there are Seniors
who seemed to be under 8 years and then the Veterans over 8 years. The
overwhelmingly largest group of Mastiffs came from France – no
surprises there - with 95 entries, followed by Italy, Serbia, Belgium,
Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK.
I have to say I was a little disappointed that there were very few dogs
from the UK – just 5 entries.
Anyway, on to the dogs themselves. On the whole, they were relaxed
and well trained and presented. They were mainly fawns although there
were some brindles and a few apricots. I guess the variety of type was
the same as everywhere, some outstanding ones, a lot of good ones
and a very small number that shouldn’t have been there, with some
faults or lacking training. I am no judge but I did like some of the dogs a
lot and they were generally ones the judges chose for their top 4 or 5.
The owners or handlers obviously loved their dogs too, which is always
good to see. I took lots of photos so I will share some with you. It was
interesting that both judges picked the same two dogs as Best In Show
and Best Opposite Sex each day, so they were obviously the stand outs
for them. Best In Show was a glorious apricot bitch from Norway, Ch
Devine Cornelia From Big Boys Club. She was 5 years old, well muscled
and quite tall for a bitch, but simply loved showing, stood without being
stacked and moved with power. She is owned and bred by Marzenna
Liszewska, who was so proud and delighted by her wins. I later heard
that she had won group awards with this girl, too.
Best Opposite Sex went to Jorgen Made Of Steel Du Ranc Des Bannes
who stood out for his wonderful movement and kind temperament. He
was a fawn from the Open Class. He was bred by Delphine Laubriat and
owned by Charlotte Radondy, both of France.

26