Newsletter February 29th, 2012

Baltic Triumph 2012

The international dog show “Baltic Triumph” took place in St. Petersburg, Russia on February 10-11, 2012 and collected around 1,500 exhibitors from nearby countries on its rings.

We have talked to the club president Natalia Il’ina who organises this show.

Natalia, when was the first dog show with the status “international” organised by your club and how did it develop?

The first international show took place in 2007 and was provided together with another club. It had the format of so called “double CACIB” so popular these days when on Saturday you have one international show and on Sunday another international show in the same place but organised by a different club. That helps to cut expenses and to attract more exhibitors who can challenge chances on both shows. In 2008 we organised a double CACIB again but since 2009 we started to act independent and organise our shows on both days. The show gained its new name “Baltic Triumph” and also provides rings to breeding clubs for their own specialty club shows. This way all together we hold around twenty specialty shows, which some of them have the high status of “national” like the National Fox-terrier show.

Our specificity is that working together with the Russian Hunting Dog Federation, we are trying to popularise hunting breeds in our country. Due to financial reasons breeding clubs find it very difficult to organise their own shows on high level and we help them. There are always difficulties with finding exhibition halls and invitation of foreign judges, it’s all very expensive and we have to work together.

What is your strategy to attract more exhibitors, public and media attention?

The show is definitely growing. This year we had around 1,500 exhibitors on the international show and 500 dogs in specialty rings. These are good numbers bearing on mind that we focus mostly on hunting breeds.

Our policy is to keep symbolic fees for babies, puppies and breeder’s or kennel competitions. Veterans over 10 years old are welcome to participate for free. For some Russian hunting breeds the fee is just 15-20 euros.

Of course it depends on sponsors but next year we will try to make money-free participation for puppies.

Visitors are very welcome on our shows and can enter with no charge. Photographers and other media representatives can set their corners or stands and we also do not request any money from them.

How international this show is considered by judge’s panel and exhibitors?

Traditionally we have exhibitors from nearby countries – Finland, Ukraine, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This year we have only two local judges, others come from Finland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Denmark and Serbia.

What is the difference between earlier shows and now? What are the most popular breeds in Russia today?

There is a significant difference from shows we held few years ago. We have to understand that people are always affected by “fashion”. If few years ago Dobermanns and Rottweilers were almost the most popular breeds in Russia, now it’s nearly exotic. There has been a clear tendency for the last three years for increasing number of small and companion dogs, aggressive dogs and breeds with “complicated” psyche are going away. So popular in all world Labradors and Goldens displace Fila Brasileiro and Boerboels in Russia too. If we speak of our show participants, we have Dachshunds and Yorkshire Terriers probably the most. The total number of different types of Terriers definitely increases in our country.

What are the difficulties you faced while organising the show?

As I said earlier we are trying to attract more hunting breeds on our shows and these are not only show class dogs. It’s a big difference with true working dogs; the public is a bit specific and they are not very active in visiting exterior shows. Some owners hardly understand what they need to do in the ring and we ask judges in advance to be more patient with them and their handling. We assign more time for judging because even showing teeth takes more time if a dog is not trained. But we are very glad that they come to participate here because we believe that people who breed working dogs should pay attention not only on working qualities and instincts but also on dog exterior in their breeding.

Another problem is so called “Russian mentality” when participants register for the show on the last call. Now imagine the headache of organiser when you have to find and arrange exhibition halls much in advance, invite all judges, make arrangements with sponsors etc. and you still don’t know the exact exhibitors number till the last moment.

What would you like to do in the future to improve your show?

I would like to make the event more spectacular for public. But you have to organise it this way that it wouldn’t distract judges from their work in rings. I mean when it’s too noisy in the hall, you can’t make people shout their descriptions to assistants, can you?

I think it would be nice to hold grooming master classes and breeding seminars within our show in the future. We will think about it.

BIS winners:

#1 1. Borzoi Russian Hunting Sighthound BOGINYA SNEZHNAYA, owner I. Viktorova

#2 2. Dachshund MAGIK RAINBOW PRIMADONA, owner V & V Ivanovi

#3 3. Poodle Miniature LITVIKS GRAAL GALAHADA, owner U. Danilova

Other group winners:

© Tatyana Nikitina Old English Sheepdog CHUDNI MEDVEZHONOK KARTINKA KATERINKA, owner G. Burkina	© Tatyana Nikitina Scottish Terrier MARISS UDAR GROMA, owner S. Marchuk
© Tatyana Nikitina Rhodesian Ridgeback GRAND CORTEGE JULY SUN, owner L. Nemchaninova	© Tatyana Nikitina Irish Red Setter APPLEGROVE BECHAMEL, I. Trusov
© Tatyana Nikitina English Cocker Spaniel GALLINAGOS YOU GOTTA BE, owner M. Grigore’va	© Tatyana Nikitina Miniature Schnauzer ASTRA FORTUNATA SHANTEKLER REYNA ARGENTA, owner Prokofev
© Tatyana Nikitina German Spitz Pomeranian UPSTART FOR A MY SIGHS FOR MARLON, owner Mullina

Tatyana Nikitina