Moscow
The World
Dog Show in
June 23-26, 2016
by Paula Heikkinen-Lehkonen
Photos by Texterri and Karl Donvil, except where otherwise noted
During the
opening
ceremony,
entertainers held
up the trophy
that would
ultimately be
given to the Best
in Show winner
at the conclusion
of the World Dog
Show.
Degtyaryov Andrey/Shutterstock
40
W
asia show in the spring and the Russia show in the autumn.
hile the 2016 FCI World Show in Moscow was a
There is a lot of space, and because the World Dog Show
success, it was certainly dogged by more than
is so big, more halls were used than usual. The rings were
its share of controversy leading up to the event.
large and carpeted, everything was clean and the air conMany people around the world called for a boycott of the
ditioning was excellent. Although the weather outside was
show due to Russia’s anti-gay propaganda laws. [Ed’s note:
in the high 80s (Fahrenheit), it was cool indoors. The finals
We are not aware of any incidents at the show stemming
were streamed online and the results published immediately,
from anti-LGBT sentiment or legislation.] There was also
although some weren’t complete and
turbulence within the Russian Kynologor had mistakes. A great new addiical Federation (RKF) just before the
tion was a video camera in every ring,
show, as some of its officials had been
Despite the many
which allowed people to watch the
imprisoned or at least interviewed by
final competitions,
streaming video online, like at Westthe police because of alleged abuse of
minster.
club funds. The Russian Hunting Dog
[they ran] smoothly
Federation wrote to the FCI and offered
because of the
to host the WDS in the RKF’s place, but
The People and the Dogs
pre-judging.
new officers were elected, including a
The biggest problem for foreign visitors
new President after Alexandr Inshakov
in Russia is the language and the Cyrillic
resigned, and the show could go on as
alphabet. There aren’t that many Rusplanned. When the show started, an outsider could not see
sians who speak other languages, and not many of the visitors
any traces of these problems, and everything seemed to be
understand Russian. Even the main ring commentator spoke
just fine.
mostly Russian; she said only a few sentences in English.
The venue was the huge Crocus Expo Center, where the
There were 19,295 dogs entered at the World show,
RKF has for many years held its annual main shows, the Eurbut at the same time there were also many specialty
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