Crufts - What's it all about?
Crufts is the most famous and largest dog show in the world. It is organised by the Kennel Club and lasts for four days every March at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Birmingham.
For a dog to appear at Crufts, it will have competed at a Kennel Club licensed Championship Show and have won a Challenge Certificate (CC) by being placed in the top 3 of their particular class. The classes include Open, Limit, Mid Limit, Post Graduate, Veteran, Special Puppy, Special Junior and Yearling. Each is awarded once for dogs and once for bitches. The class winners will then compete again for the Dog and Bitch Challenge Certificate. The two remaining CC winners will then compete for the title of Best of Breed.
Once the best of each breed has been selected, they will then go on to compete against all the others in their Group for the title Best in Group. These groups are Toys, Gundogs, Utility, Hounds, Working, Pastoral and Terriers. The seven winners from each Group will then be entered for the highly prestigious titles of Best in Show and Reserve Best in Show.
Contrary to popular belief, the prize money is very modest, currently £100. When you consider the amount of time and money the owner will have invested in traveling to all of the qualifying shows, it seems small, but the title is priceless to the owner.
Of course, it's not all about winning Best in Show and Crufts prides itself on hosting many other competitions such as Agility, Obedience, Flyball and a very popular Heelwork to Music competition where the dog and its owner dance together.
The younger owners are taken care of too and are encouraged to become responsible dog owners by entering the World Champion Junior Handling competition and the Young Kennel Club members have their own ring where young handlers aged between 6 and 25 can compete in Agility, Obedience, Showing, Handling, Heelwork to Music, Flyball and Grooming.
Crufts attracts many visitors each year (160,000 in 2008) and dog lovers can enjoy the many stalls selling a vast array of things from designer dog shampoo to a Swarovski Crystal dog collar! We recommend visiting the Crufts show at least one just to look around the stalls and see the variety of high quality pet items you can purchase – take your family for a fantastic day out!
- Article written by Jane, Market Researcher for Animal Friends Pet Insurance
