England has been the first dog country for all times. The first official dog show of the world was arranged in Newcastle England in June 1859. In 1873 was found the English kennel club, which took as its duty to control and look after the dog shows. Westminster in 1877 was the first American Kennel Club's official dog show. First Finnish dog show was arranged in 1887 in Viipuri and this show was entered by over hundred dogs. Finnish Kennel Club's first show was in Helsinki in 1891. In the first shows of Finland most of the dogs were Finnish hounds, bacause the hunters were very active breeders too. The biggest show for now in Finland has been the world winner dog show in Helsinki in 1998. This is the show where they choose the most beautiful dog of the world every year (in different countries and places every year). This Helsinki show was entered over 15000 individuals.
Show types:
- official dog shows
- international shows (cacib shows)
- all breed shows
- group specialities
- breed specialities
- unofficial puppy shows (for dogs aged 5-9 months)
- open shows (certificates not given)
- match shows are good training for young dogs
Shows service the dog breeding in the first place. The dog owner will get the exhaustive and fair evaluation paper for the dog. The breeder gets information how he/she has succeeded in breeding and how he/she should develop the breeding from this. The official breed club gets more information to develop the breeding and to give a directions. The public and interested people get more information about kennel activities and the purpose of this work in interesting form.
Dog, who is registered, has been vaccinated and has a tattoo or micro chip for identification (starting from 2001 all show dogs must be indetificated!), can enter the show. Well, the one very important thing to consider is that is it worth it to enter the show with your dog if it is sure your dog will get zero from the quality class (which is give to dogs having big faults like it has wrong colours, bad teeth etc.). Or if your dog is very aggressive and will not let the judge touch or has for example some injury in its feet that day and is limping, it is not worth it to go to the show and get the "EVA" (cannot be evaluated). The dog may have faults and almost every individual has some faults, so it is not required the dog would be perfect. Perfect dog is very often only in our dreams... (well, some of the individuals are very near to it and they are like "once in a lifetime" dogs).