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Why I Love...Crufts

A group of retrievers
  • Posted at 4:33pm
  • 25 February 2008
  • by TomGray-RT
  • 4 comments

They call it "the Olympics of the dog world" but Crufts is far more important than that. At 117 years old (that's 819 in dog years), it's a whole five years older than Baron de Coubertin's glorified sports day, and while it's called a sporting event, it's really more of a hybrid (never a mongrel, mind) of high-level sports event, beauty pageant and Fame Academy.

For a start, the sheer scale of it is dazzling. Try to imagine over 20,000 pooches from 182 different breeds, all in one place. That's a lot of jumping over little plastic fences, chasing chew toys and running at heel while their owners try to stop them from licking their privates in public. And who in their right mind could say that they wouldn't want to watch a collie herding geese, or an overly bouffant cocker spaniel being molested by serious-looking men in grey suits?

But it's the way that it's presented that makes Crufts so addictive. As with the best sporting events, you can expect super slow-mos, a crack commentary team and analysis from a bank of headphone-wearing experts, some of whom have been doing this for 30 years!

And on the live commentary side, there's the rather schoolboy thrill of hearing serious-sounding commentators say things like "that's an extremely stylish bitch", while the expert analysts can offer the kind of details that you'd never hope to get in, say, Fame Academy: "not many people know that this little chap was conceived by artificial insemination."

The post-match interview gets conducted on the studio couch, of course, but where else might you see Ben Fogle's studio guest thrust their nose into his crotch? Or a recent winner leave mid-interview to attend to a soft toy that urgently needs its head ripped off?

It's riveting stuff, and I for one can't wait for the annual televised highlights, offering the pick of the pooches in categories as diverse as obedience, agility and heelwork to music.

There's also the added entertainment of watching the handlers running their prize canines around the ring, looking as ungainly as someone's mum competing in the egg-and-spoon race in her high heels at a school sports day.

Ultimately, though, the joy of Crufts is that it remains one of the last bastions of purity in sport. Show me any other international event in which top stars perform simply for the love of it and the possibility of a post-match slap-up meal of chicken giblets. I defy anyone to resist cheering a relay race that pits one set of collies against another - listen closely and above the immense crowd noise you'll hear the barking of several thousand dogs.

Appreciate for a moment, too, the uniqueness of a competition in which top athletes are judged both on their athletic prowess and their looks. Wouldn't that make other sports a little more interesting? "A wonderful performance by England, what a pity they were docked five points because their hooker forgot to shave around his ankles."

And afterwards, no fisticuffs in the tunnel or post-match p***-up, these competitors are happy to simply run around the green baize trying to sniff each others' bottoms.

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Comments

  • Posted on 22 August 2008
  • at 7:27pm
  • by ste53

I lived near some of these so called breeders, who breed from mother,son father and daughter and so on. some "vermin" people are only in it for the money and don't care how the dogs suffer from interbreeding.

  • Posted on 22 August 2008
  • at 10:21am
  • by mart

yes, some people do use and abuse our fellow creatures for our own ends. those of us who are not so interested in their shape as in their nature, should protect them.

another example is the recent drugging of 4 of the olympic horses! the kennel club may have connections with breeders an d they appear not to care. I hope the bbc does ban crufts as it is breeders (those without integrity) 'shop window'. KC's book of how they think breeds ought to look is clearly crazy and needs binning NOW. Breeders who do not care need to find worthwhile work and stop living from dogs suffering.

  • Posted on 07 March 2008
  • at 3:37pm
  • by peasplease

Surprising stuff on the news last night about a suspiciously high amount of bets having been placed for the "Utility Dog" to win Best in Show?? Not quite as pure an event as it likes to make out, apparently...

  • Posted on 06 March 2008
  • at 9:07pm
  • by celiapritchard

Why wasn't more of the Southern Golden Retriever Clubs routine shown on tonights programme? Half a minute right at the end of the programme doesn't do justice to the hard work and dedication of the team or fulfill most peoples desire to see more of these very clever dogs. They are SO entertaining if only given the chance.

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