Well, we may be a big country but dog shows are rather small affairs. An all breeds show is about 300 dogs, a specialist GSD show is about 40 dogs. However, what we lose in numbers we make up in enthusiasm. The majority of dogs are owned by the expatriate population. The next group are the white Kenyans and fortunately we now have an increasing number of enthusiastic Kenyans.
The main problem is that there are a lot of Kenyans who would like to have dogs but they cannot afford them on their salaries. As I said, it is a growing group and those that are able to afford to keep dogs are showing a great deal of enthusiasm and are very keen to ensure that they do care for their dogs properly.
We have a far larger number of diseases which commonly occur here than you find in the UK. The majority are tick transmitted, although all are curable it is essential to monitor your dog daily for any 'non-normal' signs. The easiest and probably the most effective is to monitor the membrane colour around the eyes, any sign of paling colour, get to the vets for screening and treatment. It is not a complicated matter, just a couple of jabs normally, and these do not have any major side effects.
All dogs that are taken to a dog show have to pass through a vetennary inspection before they are allowed into the show ground or to be benched. We require that all dogs are vaccinated against rabies and DHLP. The decision that all vaccinations are redone annually was taken by the EAKC on the advice of the Kenya Veterinary Association. There is a mandatory annual rabies vaccination order from the government. This we have no objection to as the consequences of any failure are too severe to risk. There are those of us who feel it is really just a way for the vets to gain money for the other vaccinations as the manufacturers still give a 2 or 3 years duration.
We do not allow bitches in season to be shown yet, but I am hoping we may soon. All of our shows are benched and they are all held at our permanent Kennel Club Showground. The showground is about 5 acres of what I can best describe as park-like grounds, trees and open grass areas. On the showground there are various buildings including the Kennel Club Office, a bar and a canteen, Vet Office and 3 rows of permanent benches. The actual showground area is flat grass with two large shade shelters and a commentary box on one side of the 'ring'. The ring is about 15 metres wide and 50 metres long. We have some good straights for the shepherds to show how they can move but those of us who have dogs that do move need really good suspension to hold and get round the corners at the ends.
For GSDs there are only 2 specialist shows a year, one where we try to import a judge, or find a judge here on holiday, the other a local judge. There are 3 other shows in which GSDs have classes, all are all-breed shows with all-round judges. A point of interest is that in our small community the standard of the all-round judges appears to be improving -
certainly they are placing dogs of the middle of the road type and those which are doing well under specialist judges. The variances appear to come in the also rans, and this is often as one finds with the specialists as well.
The obtaining of funding/tickets for judges is increasingly difficult, when one thinks that a cheap airfare from the UK to here is about £500, and we recoup about £200 in entry fees from which we have expenses to be paid as well. You don't have to be a mathernatician to see that ends don't meet! We do try hard to get sponsorship but with the increasingly hard economic climate that is increasingly difficult to obtain. It is also very frustrating as there are many small societies after a very few tickets, you may do all the groundwork, write all the letters, then get a No! A few days later only to find that someone else went in to the same office, the sponsors had found a few extra shillings in the kitty and decided to give the ticket to them. Certainly makes planning a show a nightmare.
OK, so we do have a judge, dogs and a show on the road, what are the differences between here and you. Classes are the same as an all breed show in the UK, a typical GSD show is Puppy or Novice, one other then Limit, Open. We normally reduce to just 8 breed classes, 4:4 plus veteran in the specialist shows. We start with Puppy or Junior depending on the numbers of puppies that we know are around. (one of the advantages of a small community). We have to have Limit and Open by KC rules. In the specialist shows the classes are dog, bitch, dog, bitch. In the all breed shows it is all dogs and then all bitches. If we have veterans in a class this must be judged before the awarding of the CCs. One difference is that in the specialist shows, all dogs in Open plus challengers and those from Veteran are brought into the ring to undergo the gun test. The ways in which we are judged like in all places, vary enormously according to individual opinion.
I will mention one extreme of several years ago. Someone who will never be invited to judge again!! Open dog, 46 times round the ring, 5 or 6 times moving the dog's places as they moved, then stopping and putting them back to as they were before they started to move, then off again. 46, yes, 46 times- only to have the result eventually pronounced as we had been before the moving. Open Dog followed by Open Bitch, twice round the ring and it was all judged! As I said, one name off our list of judges. (No-one in the UK need worry it wasn't from here). The actual organisation is slightly different, we have a collecting ring and steward. The steward calls the dogs and has them all assembled ready to go into the ring once the previous class has finished. The collecting steward ensures that the challengers are not allowed to leave the collecting ring until the CC has been awarded. In the main ring we have the judge and the ring steward. With our specialist shows and with EAKC permission we do ask all specialist judges to do a verbal critique on every class plus give us a written critique before they leave the country. We feel that the verbal critique is a very valuable part of the show, and it does encourage people to try to improve as they can actually see why the judge has placed the dogs as he/she has. We do not allow or do we have any external attraction, double handling. Our dogs don't need it!
I suppose we do have one big consolation, even if we were to be caught with a judge and not many good dogs I don't think it will ever happen! We do have a reputation for giving our judges a good time, we have a great country which we are proud of and very different--from the UK
So we can always satisfy the judges with a safari and animals, although not always with our dogs.
We do make our judges do a breed survey for us. We being a small community, we know nearly all the faults of each other's dogs, so we can rarely have a local judge to do a breed survey unless we have a lot of young dogs (4 or 5). Thus any imported judge has the opportunity to do a breed survey. We normally have about 10 to 15 dogs to be surveyed. One point we have maintained since scoring began, a maximum hip score of 15 for both dogs and bitches to get a grade 1. This we feel is the only way to go forward, maintain a standard which is below the breed average. We have discussed on several occasions if we should come down to 10, however in our opinion the marking by the BVA appears to be slightly more stringent. We no longer seem to see the 0:0 as used to happen (that is in the UK). We do not believe this is indicative of a poorer standard of dogs hips but simply an increase in competence of the BVA with their increased experience.
To try to illustrate what we have here in dogs at our last show with a local judge the CCs and RCCs were won by the following dogs. I have listed their breeders, sires and dams for interest.
DOG CC. Patrick of See Sharp av Konighaus, by Leahcim's Indigo av Konighaus out of Asta vom Konighaus, bred by Mrs Carles
DOG RCC. Oscar from Konighaus, by Gayvilles Wagner of Terleen (GB) out of Ch Kassie from Konighaus bred by Bob and Sue King
BITCH CC. Mirrwood Eloise av Konighaus (GB) by Ch Kelnik Fergus out of Chanask Enya bred by Steve Foran and Lesley Sweet.
BITCH RCC. Ch Kassie fom Konighaus, by Rymarks Canto av Konighaus (GB) out of Ch Leahcims Winni av Konighaus. Bred by Bob and Sue King.
All the sires of the above are imported dogs, Leahcims Indigo born here, but the bitch was imported in whelp from South Africa. She is Mistholm Alexia of Ruthewald in whelp to RSA Ch Yoll von Ecclasia Nova.
The previous shows results when Malcolm Griffiths judged were published in the League's Mag. Worthy of mention is the BOB winner in Malcolm's show, Ch Vikkas Artemis of Terleen, bred by Percy Elliot out of Vikkas Naomi by Vikkas Pandorus. We also have her litter sister. V Angelica. Artemis has produced some very promising puppies to G Wagner. Both bitches are very typy bitches but both have colour paling. The dog RCC listed above has a missing teeth P3. Unfortunately missing teeth and colour paling are two of the major problems we have in this country.
