Huge, tiny, bald, or fluffy, but all groomed to the extreme: more than 11,000 dogs from all over Europe were in Geneva over the weekend for the continent’s biggest canine beauty pageant.
“Grooming is really important,” Steinar Balken said as he repeatedly whipped a brush through the long silky white fur of his small five-year-old Japanese Spitz called AL-x.
“The brushing is also good for calming the nerves — both his and mine,” said the 58-year-old Norwegian, bending down to rub noses with AL-x, who is balancing on a small folding table, apparently oblivious to the pumping music, barking and scattered applause filling the exhibition hall on the outskirts of Geneva.
Photo: AFP
The small, white fluffy ball of fur with his pointy face and ears will soon enter the ring in a bid to add a European title to the global one he already has under his collar this year.
Teeth, fur, posture: the jury studies every detail, first classing the dogs within each of the 230 races represented at the three-day event, then within 10 groups, and finally, by last night, they would name one dog the loveliest of the lot.
Despite a long list of scientific standards, show organizer Laurent Pichard said that “a human interpretation of beauty” also plays into the decision.
For the dogs themselves, the road to glory can be uncomfortable: Many wait for hours in cages before they are taken out for further hours of grooming, sometimes including the use of curlers, styling products and even perfume.
The long wait is interrupted only by short trips to one of three large outdoor “dog toilets,” or walks through a multitude of stands offering everything from dog food to bead-studded leashes and dog magnets — sidestepping pools of urine on the floor as they go.
Then in the ring, the pressure is on: The dog first stands still as its impeccably dressed handler adjusts the position of its feet, head and pulls the tail to make it point upwards.
Then they walk together and run round after round to show off the elegance of the canine’s strides.
There are no cash prizes, but the winning “couple” will receive tickets to Orlando, Florida to take part in the world championships there.
“The breeders do this for their own personal satisfaction,” Pichard said.
That is certainly the case for Balken.
“It is great using resources and time on what you are interested in. As long as the dog is happy to do what it is doing, it is really a ball,” he said, pointing out that he and AL-x go to as many as 30 shows a year. “I don’t have time to do much else.”
Sitting in a lawn chair with three large Bergamasco Shepherds at his feet, Italian breeder Camillo Capitanio said he mainly likes attending shows to raise awareness about the “very old race,” with their long matted, almost dreadlocked fur.
Beauty is not the only focus at the show, which also features competitions focused on abilities like “dog-dancing,” where dogs and their handlers do small choreographed dances to music.
“There are some parallels to figure skating,” said dog-dancing instructor Christiane Buhler, after showing off her skills with a small, black Schipperke.
One of her students, in his 80s, also dances around the ring with his golden retriever, which rolls over, runs in circles and walks between his legs on cue.
“Both the owners and the dogs have so much fun,” Buhler said.
Not everyone is as enthusiastic about dog shows.
“Dogs are intelligent and complex animals, and not toys,” animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said, describing shows like the one in Geneva as “degrading” and cautioning that the beauty products used could harm the animals’ health.
Sylvie Menetrey, a dog trainer and a dog show commentator, disagrees, insisting that the training needed to attend a show is good for the dog’s development.
“It’s great to love, feed, care for and walk your dog, but dogs have brains and they need to use their brains to learn things,” she said, insisting: “It makes them happy.”
Two medieval fortresses face each other across the Narva River separating Estonia from Russia on Europe’s eastern edge. Once a symbol of cooperation, the “Friendship Bridge” connecting the two snow-covered banks has been reinforced with rows of razor wire and “dragon’s teeth” anti-tank obstacles on the Estonian side. “The name is kind of ironic,” regional border chief Eerik Purgel said. Some fear the border town of more than 50,0000 people — a mixture of Estonians, Russians and people left stateless after the fall of the Soviet Union — could be Russian President Vladimir Putin’s next target. On the Estonian side of the bridge,
Jeremiah Kithinji had never touched a computer before he finished high school. A decade later, he is teaching robotics, and even took a team of rural Kenyans to the World Robotics Olympiad in Singapore. In a classroom in Laikipia County — a sparsely populated grasslands region of northern Kenya known for its rhinos and cheetahs — pupils are busy snapping together wheels, motors and sensors to assemble a robot. Guiding them is Kithinji, 27, who runs a string of robotics clubs in the area that have taken some of his pupils far beyond the rural landscapes outside. In November, he took a team
Civil society leaders and members of a left-wing coalition yesterday filed impeachment complaints against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, restarting a process sidelined by the Supreme Court last year. Both cases accuse Duterte of misusing public funds during her term as education secretary, while one revives allegations that she threatened to assassinate former ally Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The filings come on the same day that a committee in the House of Representatives was to begin hearings into impeachment complaints against Marcos, accused of corruption tied to a spiraling scandal over bogus flood control projects. Under the constitution, an impeachment by the
SHOW OF SUPPORT: The move showed that aggression toward Greenland is a question for Europe and Canada, and the consequences are global, not just Danish, experts said Canada and France, which adamantly oppose US President Donald Trump’s wish to control Greenland, were to open consulates in the Danish autonomous territory’s capital yesterday, in a strong show of support for the local government. Since returning to the White House last year, Trump has repeatedly insisted that Washington needs to control the strategic, mineral-rich Arctic island for security reasons. Trump last month backed off his threats to seize Greenland after saying he had struck a “framework” deal with NATO chief Mark Rutte to ensure greater US influence. A US-Denmark-Greenland working group has been established to discuss ways to meet Washington’s security concerns
RSS