Sweden 2019 Review

With seminars for breed clubs, judges and a special seminar for those that are examiners in the breed which was mandatory to attend if the examiner status was to be kept!

The SKK work very closely with the Veterinary surgeons especially those that work with the SKK in breeding, showing and judging for healthy dogs but keeping breed type although there are veterinarians that would be happy to see these breeds disappear! It was planned that from 2020 that only Nordic judges would be able to judge these breeds but thankfully this has been scrapped after opposition from the Companion Breeds club at last year’s bi-annual General Meeting.

The idea was that it would be easier to control the judges and making sure they judge to the BIS health program and fill in the forms correctly when judging these or any BSI breeds which unfortunately some foreign judges have had no interest in!

The SKK started the original idea of BSI in 2006 when a number of all breed judges met and went through all the breeds registered in Sweden to see how many we could think had some kind of health problem and we made a list of 46 breeds, a letter was sent to all breed clubs and a positive reply was received that 72 breed clubs wished to be included.

In 2009 a booklet was published on the breeds and the points to watch for and in 2014 all the Nordic KC.s went together with this scheme and now the FCI use this system as well! The SKK has decided from 2020 that dogs that are disqualified for breathing problems will be directly banned from competitions and breeding and to get this annulled a Vet approved of by the SKK can check if the dog has clinical symptoms and if not it can be reinstated for both competition and breeding, this I think will cause many problems but hopefully not!

The SKK along with the other 4 Nordic KC.s decided to start a new championship title called Nordic Championship and drop many FCI Int. shows in favour of these Nordic shows but it was only Sweden that drastically drew done the number of Int. shows so from 2020 the SKK have decide that 33% of the shows will be national (CAC) , 33% Nordic cac and 33% Int (cacib).

Four new breeds were accepted in 2019, the Romanian Ciobanes Mioitic, the Polish Ogar, the Russian Vostotjnoeropejs Shepherd and the German Biewer, a particolours cross with the Yorkshire Terrier. The SKK usually accepts new breeds when the country of origin accepts a new breed so hopefully the very charming Chongqing Dog from China will soon be recognized? Registrations are quite stable at 500.000 just 500 done on 2017. Labrador Retrievers are still the most popular breed since 2010 when the GSD have been in second place closely followed by Golden Retrievers.

The breeds that increased most were the Danish Swedish Farm Dogs, Jack Russel Terriers and Siberian Huskies. The breed that increased most in percentage is the American Miniature Shepherds with 95%. The Bichon Havanese has steadily increased and is now at the number 10 spot!

As usual I have to report on last years (2018) winners first as the last and biggest show of the year is Stockholm in December (with 6000 dogs entered this year) and most points are up for offer so placements can change a lot in both Dog of the Year and Top Breeder. Last years Top Dog was the Cairn Terrier multi Ch. Hjohoos Love Looking at Hjo owned and bred by Elisabeth Teodorsson and Magnus Hoff: “he has had a great career winning BIS2 at Montgomery, twice BOB at Westminster and BOB at Crufts.

In second place was the American bred Scottish Deerhound Multi Ch. Lerigh Impression for Champhurst owned by Ray Lindholm also used to top spots with his beloved Deerhounds. In third place was the charming Griffon Bruxellois, Multi Ch. Manticorns Enrico, a Crufts group winner and owned by Joakim Ohlsson and Jan Törnblom and bred by Deerhound breeder Bodil Andersson Top Breeder is always a tough and tight competition and it seems very hard for new breeds/breeders to get in to the top five probably because we have two incredible breeders of Flat Coated Retrievers, kennel Almanza and Kennel Caci´s which is why I believe we have the best Flat Coated Retrievers in the world! Last year it was kennel Caci`s that won with their Flats but they also compete with their American Cocker Spaniels and have won top breeder in 2006, 2007, 2015 and 2017.

For 2019 with two results missing it is the Almanza Flats that are in a good lead and in second place the Borzois from kennel Borscana bred by Lize Eldland and Rickard Sellin, this kennel constantly produces top quality Borzois so it is nice to see them doing so well their breeders group. In third place is the American Staffordshire Terrier group from kennel Zicans bred by Cecilia Benjaminsson closely followed by Caci`s American Cockers.

As the SKK are late with publishing up to date lists for Top Dog I will have to give the standings with Växjö (3.600 dogs) and Stockholm (6000 dogs) missing but in the lead then was the black Standard from Canada Multi Ch. Dawin All That Buzz owned by Linda Campbell, Canada and handled always in perfect condition by Lotta Lundell. In second place or maybe first now is the American cocker Spaniel from Denmark multi Ch.Galaxi All Rights Reserved a beautiful particoloured female owned by Michael Krestensen.

The Standard Poodle was not placed in Växjö while the American Cocker was BIS. In third place is yet another Cairn from the world famous kennel Hjohoos Ch Hjo hoos Hjo´re My Lovey Dovey. It is going to be nerve racking for those chasing top spots but it will be the end of a good dog year in Sweden.

Paul Stanton

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