Contest of Champions
By Wendy Phillips ; Kai ’ s owner and devoted slave
On Saturday the 7TH April we travelled down to Heathrow for the Contest of Champions . This is a charity event held at the Thistle Hotel and is by invitation only for 64 of the top winning dogs in all breeds which gain points from Championship shows throughout the year . We did not attend last year but as friends had also been invited with their Pomeranian and had been the year before and had said what a good time they had I thought it might be nice to take Int / Ir Ch Kaidou go Shirai at Wendbarry to represent the Japanese Akita Inu
We arrived at 2pm having collected Chris Van de Burgt who was to be Kai ’ s handler for the evening and set about making ourselves as glamorous as possible ( a hard task I know ) for the night ahead There was a reception at 4pm and this was followed by a 3 course meal at 5 pm
To raise money for the charity there were raffles and sweepstakes and an auction ; items included a day at Tottenham Hotspurs . I did not see what that went for but I know at one point the bidding was for £ 350.00
The contest for the dogs began about 7.30pm in the middle of the dining hall on a very dark blue carpet which seemed to suit some dogs better than others The four International judges for the evening were : Dr Annukka Paloheimo from Finland ( Anncourt Cavaliers ), a well-known FCI allbreeds judge specialising in toy breeds , Dick Rutten from Holland , Ricky Lochs-Romans from Holland and Tomio Fujihata from Japan who took turns to judge a certain number of pairs at a time in rotation throughout all of the rounds .
The contest is a knockout competition and all the dogs had been given numbers and a draw had taken place to determine which numbers were against each other . Kai was number 45 and was at the bottom of the list in the draw . The judges take it in turns to judge and they changed every 8 dogs in the 1st round . Kai was drawn against 25 , the Norweigan Elkhound Ch / Ir Ch Ketosispy at Graythor and our judge for this round was Mr Fujiama . Chris and Kai pulled out all the stops and went through to the next round , Here our judge was Dr Annukka Paloheimo and the Border Collie Aust Ch / UK Show Ch Danari de Beers , once again Kai ’ s beautiful dark red coat stood out against the blue and we went through to round three . By this time he had picked up quite a following and people were clapping and cheering him on . Never one to miss an opportunity Kai had been giving licks and kisses to everyone who came near him including the judges and I think he made an impression on quite a few people . In round three we were against the Doberman Ch / Lux ch Supeta ‘ s Ozzy Osbourne , the breed record holder I believe , this round was judged by Mr Dick Rutten . I was overwhelmed by the support Kai was getting and when he went through to the 4th round and I realised we had made it to the last 8 I couldn ’ t believe it . Round four our judge was Ricky Lochs-Romans and we were against the Bulldog Ch Mellonmood One in a Million our luck ran out in this round ; the Bulldog went on to win the whole contest so I felt very proud of how far we had gone and a big thank you to Chris for his expert handling
Once the competition was over the evening continued with a cabaret and dancing which finished at 2am it had been a very long day but I hope a worthwhile one for the breed and also for the organisers of the contest and I hope they raised lots of money towards research and other doggy related charities
I had a wonderful time and would like to go again next year either as a competitor or as support for whoever takes the Top Japanese Akita Inu award in 2012 , perhaps we could make up a table and give the winning dog as much support as we can . As it is in aid of charity we are doing good for others as well as ourselves .